Dr. La Vonne I. Neal
Co-Founder
President of Cohesion
Consultants
Dr. La Vonne I. Neal is a co-founder and President of Cohesion.
Dr. Neal is also the former Associate Vice President for Process Improvement & Operational Effectiveness at Northern Illinois University (NIU). Additionally, Neal led rapidly changing operations in three diverse professions: (1) higher education operations; (2) production operations in the corporate sector; and (3) military intelligence operations in the U.S. Army. She describes herself as a person who enjoys challenges that require her to move quickly and traverse difficult obstacles. Indeed, her record of accomplishments as an athlete, businesswoman, educator and leader proves her to be a woman of her word.
Neal—Professor Emerita at NIU is recipient of a (1) National Book Award; (2) National Leadership Awards; and; (3) University Teaching Awards. Over the course of her academic career as Dean of the College of Education at NIU and Dean of the College of Education at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS), Neal implemented a new culture of assessment and led transformation throughout the colleges’ programs. She has demonstrated experience in fostering process improvement and innovation while serving in both academic and administrative roles. Neal is a teacher-educator whose work in the design and implementation of culturally responsive teaching methods has earned wide recognition both among educators and in the popular press. For example, her research on the correlation between African American male students’ walking styles and their placement in special education courses has been featured globally, in diverse media formats (e.g. print, radio, television, social media, etc.).
A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Neal was 16 years old when she set an American record for the 80-meter hurdles. This accomplishment, along with many others, would lead to her induction into the Pennsylvania High School Track and Field Hall of Fame and the La Salle University Hall of Athletes. Track and field afforded her the opportunity to travel extensively throughout the United States, Europe and the former Soviet Union, igniting her intellectual curiosity and giving her visceral appreciation for the beauty and diversity of the world and its people. That curiosity, coupled with success in both the academic and athletic arenas reinforced her understanding of the value of multiple intelligences.
After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from La Salle University in Political Science, Neal entered the United States Army as a 2nd lieutenant and later earned the rank of captain, specializing in military intelligence. There she gained experience in leadership and strategic planning and that she successfully applied as a manager for such leading corporations as Johnson and Johnson Inc., Kraft Foods Inc., and Miller Brewing Company Inc. Neal’s professional experiences and personal commitment to the development of human potential converged when she decided to become an educator. She enrolled at The University of Texas at Austin and received a Master of Education degree, followed by a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Special Education with an emphasis in multicultural education.
Neal served five years as a secondary level public school social studies teacher for Round Rock Independent School District in Texas and was grade-level academic team leader for four years.
Neal became a teacher-educator when she joined the faculty at Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX and was the director of the university’s secondary education teacher certification program. She has also served as a consultant to schools and school districts nationally and internationally seeking to institute culturally responsive curricula and teaching methods.
Dr. Karsonya (Kaye) Wise Whitehead
Consultant
Karsonya (Kaye) Wise Whitehead is an associate professor of Communication and African and African American Studies at Loyola University Maryland and the award-winning author of Notes from a Colored Girl: The Civil War Pocket Diaries of Emilie Frances Davis; a featured Public Commentator for WYPR and Op-Ed columnist for the Baltimore Sun; a K-12 master teacher in African American History; an award-winning curriculum writer and lesson plan developer; an award-winning former Baltimore City middle school teacher; and, a three-time New York Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker.
From 2013-2015, Dr. Whitehead was selected as one of only four experts to participate in the White House’s Black History Month Panel co-sponsored by President Obama and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) on topics ranging from the Emancipation Proclamation to the president’s policies on women and girls. In 2014, she was one of the featured speakers at the Youth Mentoring Summit at the U.S. Capital in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington. She has received various fellowships and grants to support her work including a 2012 Gilder Lehrman Fellowship in American History, a 2011 Lord Baltimore Fellowship from the Maryland Historical Society, a 2010 NEH Summer Stipend, and a 2007 SREB Pre-Doctoral Fellowship for Maryland (only one doctoral fellowship is awarded per state).
In February 2016, Dr. Whitehead received the Joan B. Kroc’s Institute for International Peace Studies “Distinguished Alumni” Award for her work as a peace activist, scholar, filmmaker, writer, and poet. In 2016, her book, RaceBrave: new and selected works, was selected by the Baltimore Sun as one of the Top Ten Summer Reads. In 2015 her book, Notes from a Colored Girl, was awarded the Darlene Clark Hine Book Award for Best Book in African American women’s and gender history from the Organization of American Historians (OAH) and in 2014, it received the Letitia Woods Brown Book Award for Best Edited Book in African American History from the Association of Black Women Historians. In addition, Dr. Whitehead was awarded the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC); was selected as one of the top 25 women professors in Maryland by Online Schools Maryland; and in 2013, she was the recipient of Loyola University Maryland’s Faculty Award for Excellence in Engaged Scholarship for her work documenting the stories of women who are temporarily experiencing homelessness. Whitehead has also received the 2006 Gilder Lehrman Preserve America Maryland History Teacher of the Year Award (sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the Maryland State Department of Education); was one of fifty alumni to receive the Distinguished Black Alumni Award from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana (2005); and, was a winner of both the Langston Hughes, David Diop, Etheridge Knight Poetry Award (1999, 2000) and the Zora Neale Hurston Creative Writing Award (1998) from the Gwendolyn Brooks Creative Writing Center at the University of Chicago.
Dr. Whitehead has trained over 3000 K-12 teachers throughout the country in how to become culturally responsive teachers in diverse environments. She is the author of several book chapters, articles, opinion editorials, and four books, RaceBrave: new and selected works (2016); Letters to My Black Sons: Raising Boys in a Post-Racial America (2015); the award-winning Notes from a Colored Girl: The Civil War Pocket Diaries of Emilie Frances Davis (2014); Sparking the Genius: The Carter G. Woodson Lecture (2014); and, the co-editor of Rethinking Emilie Frances Davis: Lesson Plans for Teaching her 1863-1865 Pocket Diaries (2014).. She is also the guest editor for the fall 2016 special “#BlackGirlActivism” edition of Meridians journal.
Prior to her work in academia, Dr. Whitehead was a documentary filmmaker with MetroTV, a PBS-affiliate and a senior producer for Music Television Networks (MTV). In 2001, she directed and produced Twin Towers: A History, a documentary film that describes the technical problems that were overcome, including the challenge to the iron workers and it recounts the daredevil stunts that the buildings attracted. The film was nominated for a New York-Emmy in 2002 (Dr. Whitehead’s third nomination). It has since become the second-largest selling film about 9/11 and airs regularly on PBS stations around the country.
She received her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in the Language, Literacy, and Culture program, her M.A. from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana in International Peace Studies, her graduate degree in Advanced Documentary and Narrative Filmmaking from the New York Film Academy, and her B.A. from Lincoln University, PA.
Dr. Regina Lewis
Consultant
Dr. Regina Lewis leads and has alliances with worldwide organizations, specializing in leadership development and organizational communication. With clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies through not-for-profit agencies to educational institutions, Dr. Lewis’ proven specialty is leadership, professional excellence, cultural inclusion, coaching, strategic development, and executive public speaking coaching.
Regina is a consulting partner, national speaker, and director of Regina Speaking, LLC. Through this company, she has worked with clientele executives, groups, and organizations in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Korea, Japan, Germany, Ethiopia, and the United States.
Dr. Lewis has presented and facilitated widely on topics of diversity and inclusion, cross-cultural leveraging, strategic planning, executive speaking, interpersonal communication, personal professional development, media & public relations, social media communication, understanding and climbing out of poverty, and retention.
Dr. Lewis is the department chair and instructor of Communication and the director of the Women’s Forum at Pikes Peak Community College; at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, she is an adjunct professor of Freshmen Seminar, and an executive coach for the Center for Creative Leadership.
With focus areas of diversity, leadership, preparedness of future leaders, and instructional delivery platforms online, Regina is published in edited books, journals, and higher educational textbooks. Additionally, Regina has presented her research and conducted workshops internationally and nationally.
Dr. Conra D. Gist
Consultant
Dr. Conra D. Gist is an associate professor of Teaching and Teacher Education in the College of Education at the University of Houston. Her research investigates programs, policies, and practices that advance the academic and professional development of Teachers of Color. She is the author of Preparing Teachers of Color to Teach: Culturally Responsive Teacher Education in Theory and Practice (Palgrave, 2014); editor of Portraits of Anti-Racist Alternative Routes to Teaching in the U.S.: Framing Teacher Development for Community, Justice, and Visionaries (Peter Lang, 2017); and co-author of Crafting and Critiquing Culturally Efficacious Preparation and Pedagogies for Social Justice (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018).
Her scholarship has been honored with awards and fellowships such as the AERA Division K Early Career Award, National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship, and Ford Dissertation Fellowship. She received her Ph.D. in Urban Education at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center.