Conference Organisers:

Past Conferences - EDI 2019 Rotterdam

EDI2019 Rotterdam Keynotes Speakers

Kecia M. Thomas is a Professor of Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology and African-American Studies at the University of Georgia (UGA-US) and the founding director of the Center for Research and Engagement in Diversity (RED). Dr. Thomas currently serves as the Senior Associate Dean in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at UGA.  

Kecia is an expert in the psychology of workplace diversity. Her scholarship and institutional engagements focus on the issues of strategic diversity recruitment, diversity resistance, supporting diversity in STEM workplaces, and understanding the career experiences of high potential women of color.   

She is the author of over 50 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters as well as the textbook, Diversity Dynamics in the Workplace(Wadsworth).  She also served as editor of Diversity Resistancein the Workplace(LEA) and Diversity Ideologies in Organizations (Routledge).  She has also served as the guest editor for special ‘workplace diversity’ issues of the Journal of Career Development,Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, and the popular “Black Lives Matter” issue of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion:  An International Journal.She is currently editing a second volume of Diversity Resistance.   Her work has been funded by government agencies, for-profit and non-profit institutions, as well as corporate foundations.  She is an elected-Fellow of both the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the American Psychological Association and a recipient of the Janet Chusmir Award for Distinguished Service from the Gender & Diversity in Organizations (GDO) division of the Academy of Management.   

Lena Knappert is an Assistant Professor at the department of Human Resource Studies at Tilburg University (The Netherlands). She holds a PhD in international human resource management from ESCP Europe (Berlin, Germany). Before joining Tilburg University she first worked in management consultancy in Germany and Singapore and later as Assistant Professor at Ozyegin University in Istanbul (Turkey). Lena’s main research interests are international HRM and inclusion in organizations as well their intersections such as comparative perspectives on equality and diversity, refugees’ inclusion at work, and high inclusion work systems. Her work appears in high-impact journals such as Human Resource Management and Journal of Vocational Behavior. Lena is also a mother and a yoga teacher. She always wanted to become a comedian. However, she is German.