DR. TANA M. SESSION

Q. COULD YOU GIVE US A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF YOUR BACKGROUND?

» My background's in human resources; I've been in HR for over 30 years, spending 10 of those as the Head of HR for different organisations across multiple different industries, including for-profit and not-for-profit companies. Back in 2014, I started my own consulting firm with a focus on not only HR consulting and organisational development, but also diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. This is a space I've been in since 2007.

Q. WHAT IN YOUR CAREER LED YOU TO THE ISSUE OF DIVERSITY AND BELONGING IN THE WORKPLACE?

» I would have to definitely say it's been my own personal experience in corporate America. Oftentimes I, especially as a leader, was the only one –or one of few – who looked like me sitting around the table making decisions about employees. So my goal was to ensure that anyone who was in that same or a similar situation didn't have a lot of the same experiences that I had. Some of those were based on discrimination and equity, unfairness and fairness, as well as a sense of not belonging.