Gary Adkins has merged his personal commitment to social justice, individual autonomy, and critical thinking with his professional experience from social and political activism to corporate leadership positions. He has extensive experience diagnosing, designing, and implementing both diversity management and organizational effectiveness initiatives and processes within large-scale organizations such as AT&T, Kaiser Permanente Healthcare, and Lucent Technologies. He has served as Executive Coach to CEOs, Executives, and Union Officials.

Born in Honolulu, raised and schooled in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North America, Gary draws upon a wealth of personal experience and professional work at the craft level and in executive circles to assist others in understanding the challenges and benefits of inclusion. He has received numerous professional awards for his speaking and teaching abilities, and his work has been instrumental in national recognition for his clients, including AT&T's receipt of the Baldridge Award (communications process development, TQM process management, and executive coaching). He helped write the Kaiser Permanente Southern California strategic plan for Diversity. That year, KPSC received a Department of Labor EVE Award for Diversity.

He has developed and delivered workshops, presentations and educationals over the past ten years that have been incorporated into the curriculum of many corporate training and development institutions, including The AT&T School of Business, Lucent Technlogies Business Development School, McDonald's Corporate Leadership Institute, the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Professional Development Center, The Perkins Coie LLP Leadership Institute, PATH Medical Technologies Leadership Cabinet, and Bell Laboratories. He has served as Executive Coach to CEOs, Executives and Union Officials.

In 20 years at AT&T, Gary worked in professional capacities ranging from administrative and skilled craftsman/technician positions through CWA Union executive and steward, network educator and trainer, Network Operations Manager, Executive Consultant, and finally Operations Manager. He had national responsibilities with the reengineering of AT&T from a regulated monopoly to a competitive telecommunications corporation.

in 1995, Gary founded The Diversity Solutions Consulting Group (TSG) to provide a suite of consulting services aimed at merging the practices of Organizational Development, Diversity Management, and Knowledge Management into one coherent and efficient praxis. His recent book, Diversity Beyond The Numbers: Business Vitality, Ethics, and Identity in the 21st Century, springs from the work done over that period.

GAry has been the keynote spearker at the speaker at the Society of Women Engineers national conference, the Hawaii Telecommunications Conference Asia and the Bell Labs International Teleconferencing Optical Networking Forum. He has spoken at various universities including California State University Long Beach, University of Pittsburg, USC, Orange County Community College, California Polytechnic University, and Cal State Pomona. He recently spoke to the SIETAR USA (Society of Intercultural Trainers and Researchers) conference on Interculturalism and the New Sciences. He is the principal educator and curriculum developer for the California State University Ukleja Center for Ethical LeadershipÕs Certification as an Ethical Diversity Practitioner. He is on the Faculty for the MCE Europa in Bruxelles, Belgium as a developer and instructor in their Leadership Strategy Execution Curriculum. He has received numerous professional awards for his speaking and teaching abilities.


EDUCATION

Completed Doctoral course work and PhD candidate in Critical Theory and Political Science ABD,
University of California, Irvine
Dissertation: M. Foucault, Discipline and Powerin the Digital Workplace (unsubmitted)

MA Political Science, Social and Political Thought
York University, Toronto, Ontario Canada
Thesis: National Socialism, Italian and Spanish Fascism: A Comparative Study of Political Economics and Prejudice

MA Program International Relations
Boston University, Heidelberg, Germany

BA Political Science / Psychology
University of Texas, El Paso


CERTIFICATIONS

AASECT - Gender and Human Sexuality
AT&T Bell Laboratories - Total Quality Management
Network Technologies Maintenance and Development
Passmore Associates: FCFP Organizational Design and Development Certificate Diversity Management and Quality PArticipation, MDG & AQP

PUBLICATIONS

Diversity Beyond The Numbers: Business Vitality, Ethics, and Identity in the 21st Century
Long Beach: GDI Press, 2003

Diversity In A Time of Uncertainty
ASTD - LA News, 2004

A Tool to Assess Organizational Vitality In an Era of Complexity, (with Richard A. Vicenzi)
Technological Forecasting and Social Change Spring 2000

The Diversity Advantage, (Corporate Workshop Workbook)
TSG Press / Corporate Presses


Editor, Diversity Praxis, Online E Journal for GDI. 2003.