Lynda Byrd-Poller earned her doctorate in Human and Organizational Learning from The George Washington University. She currently serves as the director of Human Resources, Strategic Planning & Professional Learning for Charles City County Public Schools and serves as an adjunct professor in GWU Organizational Leadership & Learning graduate studies. She has experience in education, leadership, organization sciences, and human resources development. Her research interests include organizational and adult learning, leadership, diversity and cultural studies as well as other areas of social science.
Jennifer Farmer is Vice President, Global Diversity and Inclusion for Thermo Fisher Scientific. Jennifer leads Thermo Fisher’s global diversity and inclusion strategy, working closely with company leaders and key stakeholders to advance the company’s strategy and help embed diversity and inclusion into the business and organizational culture. She is focused on driving sustainable change, helping remove barriers to inclusion throughout the colleague lifecycle. Prior to joining Thermo Fisher, Jennifer was with Northrop Grumman Corporation, where she led global diversity and inclusion strategy for the Defense Systems and Space Systems businesses. Prior to that, Jennifer held roles in diversity and inclusion, talent strategy and finance at Pfizer; and finance and customer support roles at Bristol-Meyers Squibb. As an academic practitioner, Dr. Farmer’s key research interests include: Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging, Leadership, Change Management, Organizational Culture and Organizational Trauma. Jennifer, a Florida native, has a Doctorate in Human and Organizational Learning from The George Washington University and a joint B.S.-M.B.A. degree from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU).
Valerie Ford earned her doctorate in human and organizational learning from The George Washington University in Washington, DC. Her research interests comprise a broad range of topics, including how data and information technology change behaviors and processes in organizations, understanding the changing nature of organizations, teams, crowds and markets in the 21st century, effectively using decision analytics and ‘big data’ to build collective intelligence, and fostering organizational creativity and innovation to generate new processes and products. Her experience in MIS has given her a keen awareness of the technology issues in corporate environments and she feels fortunate to experience and investigate technology in organizations as both a scholar and a practitioner.