Our Philosophy

We understand that change is not easy. Habits can be difficult to break.

We recognize that everyone is human, meaning that everyone is prone to making mistakes and errors in judgment.

We believe that practice is the best way to make change happen.

We are passionate about changing the way organizations develop and maintain inclusive environments for their employees, members, clients, and customers.

Our Associates

Dr. Mardia Bishop

Mardia Bishop holds a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University, and is a teaching associate professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. In addition, she is a communication and management consultant to organizations, specializing in developing, facilitating, and assessing interactive behavior-changing education that focuses on listening, conflict management, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. In 2021, Bishop and her research team won a Carle Illinois College of Medicine’s HealthMake-A-Thon Award. Their innovation is a virtual reality cultural competency training that will reduce healthcare disparities among BIPOC patients. Her team was awarded additional grants to develop prototypes and assess the training. Currently, the team is pursuing funding through the National Science Foundation to further develop the training. Bishop has presented at multiple conferences on addressing microaggressions, mediational communication, listening, and using mindfulness practices.

Dr. Kristopher Weeks

Kristopher Weeks earned a Ph. D. in Communication in 2020 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has taught communication courses since 2007. He specializes in the emotional and cognitive processes that lead to implicit biases and stereotypical judgments. His work involves the disruption of these processes. His work initially focused on the effects of minority misrepresentations in media, but has since combined his previous training experience from Bank of America and leadership experience from Target to expand his reach to the consulting field. He has reviewed research that investigates minority issues for Cyberpsychology and the Pennsylvania Communication Annual. He is published in New Media & Society, Sex Roles, and the Oxford Communication Research Encyclopedia. His work can also be found in the following textbooks: Media Stereotypes: From Ageism to Xenophobia and Communication, Policing, and Society.

Frances Barney Knutsen, CFA

Frances Barney Knutsen, CFA, is a senior executive with more than 30 years of experience in the financial industry, leading functions including client service, sales, product management and operations. As a Managing Director within a large corporation, Frances developed effective communication strategies to navigate dynamic interactions among colleagues, clients and service providers. During her tenure, she was actively involved in leading the integration of her teams through 3 different mergers as the financial industry consolidated. Frances is a frequent speaker at industry conferences on topics including managing and recruiting diverse teams of investment professionals, alternative investment risk management, sustainable investment analysis, and storytelling with data and analytics. Knutsen earned an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Yale University, and the Chartered Financial Analyst designation from the CFA Institute. Knutsen was awarded an “Outstanding Women in Performance Measurement” honor in 2018 from The Journal of Performance Measurement. She retired from The Bank of New York Mellon in 2024 as a Managing Director. Earlier in her career, she co-founded another professional services firm ImprovEdge, using the techniques of improvisational theater to teach leadership, creativity and effective teamwork.