Diversity Consultant

Tanya Odom, Ed.M, is a part-time Senior Consultant with The FutureWork Institute, a strategic alliance of Towers Perrin. Ms. Odom is a highly regarded consultant, facilitator, trainer, and speaker. who works with corporations in the United States and Europe in their efforts to address diversity issues and create sustainable change in organizations.

She has worked with such clients as JPMorgan Chase, the New York Stock Exchange, American Express, Capital One, Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Random House Publishing and UBS PaineWebber. Her areas of specialty include Racism, Gender Communication, Disabilities, Recruitment and Retention, Work/Life Balance, Mentoring, Cross-Cultural Interviewing, and Global Diversity .

Tanya has worked to assist many companies to understand the importance of being the “employer of choice” for all groups.  A recent area of focus has been in the area of diversity and the future of the workplace, workforce and marketplace.  She has presented this research to The National Black MBA conference, The New York Academy of Sciences, The National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC), Starbucks and Pfizer among others.

Ms. Odom has traveled extensively, and has both lived and worked abroad. She has lived and/or worked in 20 countries, and is fluent in Spanish. She has served as the project manager, or lead consultant on many global projects, most recently the global organizational assessment for Goldman Sachs. In this capacity she managed the coordination of consultants, scheduling, and the overall collection and analysis of data for the Europe.

Tanya is the co-author of  the publication "Evaluation in the Field of Education for Democracy, Human Rights and Tolerance.” She is also the Diversity Dimensions columnist for Diversity Woman magazine.

She recently taught a course in at Princeton University in the Junior Summer Institute. She  has worked as an adjunct professor at Manhattanville College, where she taught graduate courses in the areas of Diversity, Leadership, and Team Development. She has also taught a course at the Center for Conflict Resolution at the University of Capetown in South Africa.

Ms. Odom has been involved in the European Union’s projects focusing on bias, discrimination bigotry and tolerance. In this capacity she has facilitated diversity workshops for adults and youth in nine European countries. She is currently a consultant for the European Peer Training Organization , where she works on creating diversity programming, training, and information sharing in Europe, with a particular focus on youth and youth empowerment and leadership.  This program has been cited as a Best Practice program in by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia.  She is a member of the Bertelsmann Foundation’s International Tolerance Network, where she works with theorists, academics, and practitioners from around the world on issues of tolerance and anti- bias research, programming, and training. She served as a delegate to the World Conference Against Racism in South Africa.

Ms. Odom has spoken on issues of race and multiculturalism on Newstalk Television cable show and HOT-97 radio program. She has served as a national advisor to the Public Television’s Many Faces/Many Voices campaign. Her work, research and commentary have been mentioned in Fortune Magazine, The Daily News, The Village Voice, COURT TV's special programming for youth, and most recently “Diversity Matters,” internet radio show.

She has worked with many not for profit/NGO organizations including Planned Parenthood, the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence, The Tommy Hilfiger Corporate Foundation, US Fund for UNICEF, the ADL, Community Healthcare Network,  among others.

Tanya has worked with students, staff, and administrators at colleges and universities such as Fordham University, University of Kentucky, University of Maine, SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Oneonta, SUNY Binghamton, M.I.T., Hunter College, and Wesleyan University.

In addition to her work with corporations, schools, and community groups, Ms. Odom has also worked with a variety of law enforcement entities including the United States Central Intelligence Agency, Drug Enforcement Administration, Maryland Police Corps, The United States Army, and the Illinois Association of Police Chiefs.

Ms. Odom has presented at several national conferences and symposiums, including the U.S. Department of Education’s Regional Conference, where she discussed role of students in the educational reform movement; the National Child Welfare League of America conference, where she presented a session entitled “In the Absence of Childhood,” where she discussed the impact of homelessness on preschool development; the National Conference of African-American Scholarship at Towson State University, where she presented a paper on “Birth bestowed battles and the virtue of formalized traditions.”

Tanya is the first female President of the Board of Directors of Townsend Harris High School at Queens College. She is also a Director-at-Large on the Board of Directors of Vassar College. In addition, she is currently working on a Harlem Oral History Project with We Care Media.

Tanya has beentrained as a coach by the Center for Creative Leadership , and has completed training in the Difficult Conversations methodology.