How to Evaluate Your DEI Initiatives – What’s Working, What’s Not?
1-Hour Breakout Session
Wednesday, Sept. 21 from 11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. ET
ECQ 1: Leading People
Attendees Can Earn 1 CPE Credit
The White House put DEI initiatives front and center as part of its Presidential Management Agenda and its Executive Order regarding racial equity and underserved communities. However, creating the mandates and legislation is only one part of DEI initiatives. The next step is implementation and tracking success.
Key Takeaway: In this session, you will hear from a panel of DEI leaders in government about what is working and what elements need improvement as these DEI plans are rolled out.
Relevant Competencies: Continual Learning, Resilience, Interpersonal Skills
Speakers:
Ty Smith, Director of Partnership, Common Mission Project
Tyrome ‘Ty’ Smith, has over 25 years of consulting and leading executives and their teams by helping them understand human and organizational dynamics. Currently, he is the Director of Partnership for the Common Mission Project, whose mission is to create an international network of entrepreneurs driven to solve the critical challenges of our time. Prior to that, he was a senior consultant to the Department of Defense (DoD). As a trusted advisor and coach to senior leaders and teams, he has conducted many senior-level engagements with the expressed intention of eliciting a strategic focus on revolutionizing how value is both conceptualized and executed. As part of his work, Ty developed an innovative education program for the DoD; including coaching and mentoring product development teams engaged in an internal incubator. He is a much sought-after workshop presenter for topics ranging from unconscious bias to business model innovation. Much of his early insight into the dynamics of the human system came from serving as a police officer very early in his professional career, as well as working with adolescents in therapeutic settings.
Dr. Serelda Herbin, CDE DBF MBA DSL, Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR)
Dr. Serelda Herbin assumed the duties as the Naval Air System Command’s (NAVAIR) Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Director in November 2021. In this role, she is responsible for the integration and implementation of strategic DE&I initiatives into NAVAIR culture, policies, programs and core functions. Prior to her appointment as DDEIA, Dr. Herbin was the primary developer and architect of the Defense Health Agency’s (DHA) first-ever Force Resilience Office that led to the agency’s alignment and compliance of diversity, anti–harassment, equal opportunity, anti–extremism, and sexual assault prevention and response. She was the first ever and only Director of DHA’s Diversity Task Force, which was converted into the first diversity and inclusion branch in the agency. Dr. Herbin is a leader in diversity and inclusion within the Department of Defense (DoD) and is a subject matter expert in her field.
Dr. Herbin is also a professional life coach, and published author, Dr. Herbin has been a pioneer in the Army creating policies, strategies and plans that enhance readiness and maximize human potential that ensures fair treatment and equal opportunity and access for all military and civilian team members. With more than 20 years in Human Resources, Inclusion and Diversity, Equal Opportunity, Cultural Competence, Program Development, and Organizational Change, Dr. Herbin has been a solid advocate for human capital and the building of people and organizational culture. She spearheaded and directed several transformational equal opportunity policies and changes to the Army’s way of doing business. She is a tenacious advocate for institutional change and fair treatment of persons. While working for the Secretary of the Army, Diversity and Leadership Directorate, she led the effort to change outdated policies and regulatory guidance to better reflect the current diversity structure of the Army. Dr. Herbin is a serial networker. She created an Army–wide tasker to get buy–in from all equal opportunity professionals and senior leadership on observances and commemorations that led to the revamping of the Army’s position on the education and execution of observances and commemorations. She is instrumental in building and rebuilding programs and policies from the idea to inception.
Dr. Herbin is a U.S. Army combat veteran with deployments to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq in support of contingency operations during peacetime and war. Dr. Herbin received a bachelor’s degree in computer information systems from Grambling State University, a master’s in business administration from Webster University, and a doctorate of strategic leadership and leadership coaching from Regent University. Dr. Herbin holds a certificate of diversity, equity, and inclusion from the University of South Florida, and other advanced certifications in diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging from the Institute of Diversity Certification and Veritus Culture. She is a Department of Defense certified mediator and sought-after keynote speaker. She is a current master facilitator at the Institute of Diversity Certification. She is a certified diversity executive.
Scott McMillion, Chief Diversity Officer, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, FBI
Scott McMillion was named the FBI’s chief diversity officer in April 2021. In this role, Mr. McMillion directs the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, which the FBI established in 2012.
Mr. McMillion has served for several years as the chair of the Black Affairs Diversity Committee, which helps the Office of Diversity and Inclusion to advance objectives that affect African American employees and enhance minority recruitment, employment, and retention at the FBI.
Mr. McMillion began his FBI career as a special agent in 1998 in the Omaha Field Office in Nebraska. He worked on several criminal investigative squads and was the senior team leader of the Evidence Response Team. In 2006, Mr. McMillion transferred to the Gallup Resident Agency of the Phoenix Field Office, where he investigated crimes in Indian Country.
He was promoted to supervisory special agent in 2008 and was assigned to the Cyber Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington. He was promoted to unit chief in 2010 and oversaw the Innocent Images National Initiative and Digital Analysis Research Center.
In 2013, Mr. McMillion transferred to the Criminal Investigative Division as a unit chief in the Strategic Initiatives Unit, Violent Crimes Against Children Section. He later moved to the Jacksonville Field Office in Florida, overseeing the Pensacola, Fort Walton Beach, and Panama City Resident Agencies. Mr. McMillion transferred to the Inspection Division at Headquarters in 2018. He was promoted to assistant special agent in charge of the Columbia Field Office in South Carolina, in charge of the National Security Branch, in 2019.
Prior to joining the FBI, Mr. McMillion was a special agent for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Criminology from Florida State University and a Master of Forensic Science from Nebraska Wesleyan University.
