Risha Grant is diversity personified: CEO. Entrepreneur. Black. Female. Small-town born and raised. Bisexual. Spiritual. Ex-preacher’s wife. Cusser. Left-handed. Former Division 1 athlete. But these traits alone aren’t what make her one of the most powerful and effective diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) experts in the US. Hailed as a “cultural competency genius” and renowned for her storytelling chops, humor, and frank delivery, she has made a career of leading her audiences as well as executives and their teams, politicians, civic leaders, and academic directors around the world to Radical Acceptance through a unique bias-busting process of self-examination and concrete advice on how to be authentic at work while leading and managingRisha Grant is diversity personified: CEO. Entrepreneur. Black. Female. Small-town born and raised. Bisexual. Spiritual. Ex-preacher’s wife. Cusser. Left-handed. Former Division 1 athlete. But these traits alone aren’t what make her one of the most powerful and effective diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) experts in the US. Hailed as a “cultural competency genius” and renowned for her storytelling chops, humor, and frank delivery, she has made a career of leading her audiences as well as executives and their teams, politicians, civic leaders, and academic directors around the world to Radical Acceptance through a unique bias-busting process of self-examination and concrete advice on how to be authentic at work while leading and managing businesses more inclusively.
In her role as a speaker and CEO of a multi-million dollar business, Risha has shifted the hearts and minds of her audiences and clients from around the world, including Google, Levi Strauss, Nestle Purina, Xerox, YouTube, Procter & Gamble, Discover Card Financial Services, Samsung Electronics America, Cox Communications, U.S. Airforce, U.S. Navy, Intuit, NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder, and Harvard University.
She’s been featured in various national and international media including Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, Harvard Business Review, HR News, The Financial Times, Glamour Magazine UK, Bloomberg Media, and Black Enterprise, among others.
She is the author of two books: That’s BS! How Bias Synapse Disrupts Inclusive Cultures and the Power to Attract Diverse Markets - https://rishagrant.com/products/thats... and Be Better Than Your BS: How Radical Acceptance Empowers Authenticity and Creates a Culture of Inclusion - https://rishagrant.com/be-better-than....
Risha has received numerous honors such as being named one of the Top 10 Most Powerful Women Leaders in HR, one of the 40 Top Women Keynote Speakers, and made the list of Top 100 HR Experts. She was named as 1 in 9 Speakers Turning Crisis into Opportunity by Entrepreneur magazine, and for three consecutive years been an Engagedly Top 100 HR Influencer and Entrepreneur of the Year.
Risha will freely admit that she is a work in progress. She occasionally misuses pronouns. She prejudges others. Sometimes she walks in fear. Yet she has consistently striven to focus on love, and made it her mission to use her passion, persistence, knowledge, and experience to dismantle racism, sexism, classism, and plain old stupidism—including her own. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma with her partner, where when not teaching people how to challenge bias she is busy being the world’s best auntie....more
Most of us don’t want to have to do the mental gymnastics of pretending to be someone else. We want to be authentic to who we truly are. But many of us have been led to believe that showing up as our authentic selves compromises our professionalism. Well, I am here to call BS on that workplace myth! The truth is, you can be authentic and professional! This article will explore the difference betwe