Jessica Bantom is a 1998 graduate of the University of Virginia of Charlottesville, VA.
She is a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEIB) practitioner and workplace strategist whose goals are to help organizations develop customized strategies for transformational change and to enable individuals to take immediate action to become more inclusive. Author of the ‘Start Where You Are’ blog, she is a skilled management consultant with over 20 years of experience, a dynamic speaker, and a certified facilitator and coach with a passion for helping people and organizations activate the values of DEIB to become more culturally competent and thrive in our increasingly global economy.
Jessica is a proud alum of the University of Virginia where she earned her undergraduate degree and Marymount University where she earned her Masters. She is certified as an Associate Diversity Coach through the CoachDiversity Institute’s Executive Certification in Diversity Coaching program in collaboration with the Howard University School of Business and holds a certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University. In addition, she is a Certified Change Management Professional (CCMP), Prosci Certified Change Practitioner, and Change Management Advanced Practitioner (CMAP) with a specialization in Design Thinking and Innovation from Darden Executive Education at the University of Virginia.
Jessica is also active in the interior design industry as an interior design and color consultant and as an engaged advocate committed to promoting DEIB in the industry and in practice. She describes herself as a multidisciplinary designer of human-centered solutions and uses her specialization in design thinking to develop and apply innovative approaches that transcend industries. And although she’s a long-time resident of the Washington DC area, she will always call Philadelphia home.