Our program today engages the 2024 winner of the Larrainr Matusak Award for Courageous Leadership, Dr. Niru Kumar. The Matusak Award is given every other year to recognize bold and courageous leadership in the face of social difficulty and injustice. Dr. Niru is a pioneer in the field of Diversity & Inclusion. As the founder of Ask Insights, a global DEI consulting firm, her impact spans the US, UK, Middle East, and Asia. For her tireless dedication, she was honored with the Padma Shri Award in 2021. This is the highest civilian Award in India given by the President. She has also been a National Icon and Advisory Board Member for the Election Commission of India. Learn more at https://askinsights.com Our host today is Dr. Betty Overton, who served on the selection panel for this year’s Matusak Award and also serves as a board member of the Alliance of Leadership Fellows. Betty has earned a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership and Higher Education from Vanderbilt University, an MA and BS in English from Tennessee State University. She is a frequent consultant on the issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. She has served as faculty in the Ethical and Creative Leadership Concentration in the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program at Union Institute & University. She has also taught at the University of Michigan in the Center for the Study of Higher and Post-secondary Education, Spring Arbor University, the Salzburg Seminars, Western Michigan University, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and Fisk University. From 2013 to 2017 Betty served as Director of the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good at the University of Michigan. Prior to joining the University of Michigan, she was the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Spring Arbor University. She spent ten years as Director of Higher Education Programming at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and a program officer in leadership. Betty will be your guide for the rest of this dialogue. Our program, which is called Talk that Walks, convenes frontline leaders at the critical place where thought becomes change. The leaders in today’s dialogue inhabit the transition point where experience and insight take flight as impactful action. To learn more about the vision and mission of the Alliance, visit us on the web at https:://allianceofleadershipfellows.org