Ryan jones
Ryan Jones is the Director of History, Interpretation & Curatorial Services at the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. His responsibility requires providing the validity of museum interpretation and reviewing scholarly historical content shared by the Museum.
A native Memphian, Jones attended the University of Tennessee at Martin. Ryan serves as a subject matter historian and expert on the assassination of Martin Luther King and its subsequent investigations. He has also participated in the research of reopening of civil rights era cold cases that eventually secured convictions of civil rights era hate crimes. He has presented at numerous conferences regarding topics including the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr, and African American History in Popular Culture.
Dr. Janet taylor
Dr. Janet (she/hers) is the new Senior Director of OMEI (Organizational Management, Equity, and Inclusion for ASNI- American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). She is a Community Psychiatrist and Executive Coach in Sarasota, Florida. She has been on the frontline battling the emotional and economic impact of mental illness. She holds a M.D. from the University of Louisville, completed her psychiatric residency at New York Medical College and obtained an MPH from Columbia University “s Mailman School of Public Health in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. She completed her coaches training at The Coaches Training Institute. She had a column in Family Circle Magazine, “Ask Dr. Janet”. Dr. Janet is also frequently featured on ABC “Good Morning America” and NBC “The Today Show” and CNN. She was a former host of the Discovery Health/OWN series, “Facing Trauma” and was the Guest Care Director for “The Jeremy Kyle Show”. She is an expert in the neuroscience of Implicit Bias, Conscious Allyship and Leadership. Dr. Janet is the author of the Amazon bestseller, The Courageous Classroom Creating A Culture of Safety for Students to Learn and Thrive (Wiley,2021).
She is the proud mother of four daughters and three happy, healthy grandchildren.
valerie irick rainford
Valerie Irick Rainford founded the Consulting firm Elloree Talent Strategies to advise c-suite executives on Advancing Diverse Talent after driving historic diversity results at two iconic organizations on Wall Street.
An international acclaimed author and dynamic keynote speaker, Valerie shares her story of struggle to success in her memoir, "Until the Brighter Tomorrow, One Woman’s Courageous Climb from the Projects to the Podium”.
Valerie’s professional career started at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York where she spent 21 years building a reputation as a strong business leader with expertise in business change and transformation rising to become the most senior black woman and the first to achieve the level of Senior Vice President. She went on to spend 12 years at JPMorgan Chase leading complex change programs many stemming out of the financial crisis including related to the integration of Washington Mutual, the acquisition of Bear Stearns, and the mortgage crisis.
Throughout her illustrious career, Valerie supplemented business leadership roles by serving as executive sponsor and advocate for diversity and inclusion initiatives. She is credited with launching the Fed’s first employee resource group and hiring the organization’s first Chief Diversity Officer, while running Corporate Real Estate. She led a 30% increase in diversity hiring while running Chase mortgage production quality operations.
In 2016, Valerie was appointed head of JPMorgan Chase’s Advancing Black Leaders strategy with responsibility for delivering increased focus on attracting, hiring, retaining and advancing top black talent at all levels of the organization. Under Valerie’s leadership, representation of black professionals rose to historic levels, including an increase in black senior executives by nearly 50% in three years.
Elloree Talent Strategies brings Valerie’s unique blend of business strategy and a metrics-driven focus on results to the business of diversity to impact diverse leaders across corporate America. Valerie is on the Board of Trustees at her alma mater, Fordham University; is a board member of the Executive Leadership Council - the preeminent organization for the development of global black leaders; and is co-founder and board chair of Black Women of Influence. Valerie is the recipient of numerous awards for her leadership and commitment to the community including: Diversity BOLD Move award, Most Powerful Women in Business, Black Enterprise and 25 Most Influential Black Women in Business, The Network Journal.
