In-Person CDOC Retreat: Washington, D.C.

Javier is thrilled to be making a difference in the healthcare space, where his career in diversity, equity, and inclusion began. His expertise and insight in DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility) are informed by a long personal and professional history of turning adversity, inequity, and exclusion into forces of change and opportunity, especially for the underserved and underrepresented.
His corporate career encompasses the technology, telecom, finance, health care, and health sciences sectors. He has worked for companies such as Takeda, T-Mobile, Amazon, Biogen, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Bank of America, the TJX Companies, and Business for Social Responsibility.
His work includes several firsts and leading-edge practices in diversity, equity, and inclusion. Most recently, Javier introduced My Inner Compass inclusive leadership program, became a founding member of the Latino DEI Collective, and has joined the advisory boards of Pride in the Workplace, Northeast Human Resources Association (NEHRA), and Novo Nordisk’s Fit for the Future Research and Early Development.
He is the proponent of the “inclusionist mindset,” an appeal to individuals, teams, and organizations to proactively identify and act to close diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility gaps wherever they appear. Other notable achievements include the Multiple Sclerosis program for underserved patient populations (MS-UP), tax benefit equality for same-sex couples, women’s leadership programs, transgender healthcare benefits, the Biodiversity Leadership Fellowship, and Raising the Bar Women on Corporate Boards.
Among his recognitions are Color Magazine’s Top 50 Chief Diversity Officers, the Boston Business Journal’s Leaders in Innovation Award, Harvard Medical School Biomedical Career Sciences Program’s Honor Roll, the National Center for Race Amity, and GK100’s Top 100 Most Influential Leaders in Greater Boston, and Boston’s Whittier Street Health Center Men’s Health Champion. Javier earned his MBA from Boston University, a graduate certificate in Diversity Management from Cornell University, and a bachelor’s degree in law from Universidad de Costa Rica. In addition, he is a coaching graduate of the Augere Foundation and Coaches Training Institute in Barcelona, Spain.
In his spare time, Javier loves traveling, watching independent films and theater, hiking, nature walks, and visiting his country of birth, Costa Rica.

Subha V. Barry is a C-suite leader and an advisor who brings a unique perspective on the alignment of corporate culture to talent strategy and business results. As a transformational change agent, she has a proven record of identifying and accelerating new business creation, driving sales, and increasing profitability.

Subha is president of Seramount where she drives the firm’s vision, strategy, and business development. Subha joined Working Mother Media (WMM) in 2015 and during her tenure she dramatically improved margins, expanded its portfolio through growth in high-value consulting and learning and development, exponentially grew their client roster, and recruited talented executive leaders to amplify subject matter and functional expertise. In 2021, Subha oversaw the brand’s transformation from WMM to Seramount, a leading strategic professional services and research firm dedicated to building high-performing, inclusive workplaces. Today, Seramount works with 450+ organizations globally, including half of the Fortune 500, to help our partners navigate today’s talent and DEI landscape.

Previously, Subha was senior vice president and chief diversity officer at Freddie Mac, where she served on the firm’s management committee and led their foundation. Prior to her time at Freddie Mac, Subha spent 20+ years at Merrill Lynch as managing director and their first global head of diversity & inclusion where she built their D&I strategy, infrastructure and execution plans from the ground up. She also created a highly successful Multicultural Business Development Group to focus their wealth management business on diverse and multicultural communities bringing in over $8 billion in new assets and $50+ million in annual revenues in just three years. She began her career at the firm as a financial advisor where she was a top 100 advisor among 16,000 in the firm.

Subha is a former adjunct professor at Columbia University’s SIPA, and currently serves on the Boards of SHRM Foundation, Rice 360, Rutgers Cancer Center and the Rutgers Institute of Women’s Leadership. She is also a Board Advisor at PE-owned Snowden Lane Partners. In the past, Subha has served on a variety of Boards as Board Chair, Head of Nominating & Governance, Finance, and HR and DEI Committees.
A native of India, Subha holds a BA from Bombay University and an MBA and MS in Accounting from Rice University. She enjoys golfing, reading poetry and rallying for social change. She has two grown children and lives in Naples, Florida and New Hope, PA with her husband.

Chevy Cleaves is the inaugural Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory. Chevy is an experienced and transformational executive leader skilled in building and influencing coalitions to help further connect the application of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) to an organization’s core strategy and goals.

As the inaugural CDIO for the United States Air Force, Chevy was also a member of the Federal Senior Executive Service. In this role, he was responsible for leading D&I transformation for the Air Force’s 500,000 uniformed and 140,000 civilian workforces.

Chevy was previously the first Global CDIO for Boston Scientific where his team’s efforts immediately improved benchmarking results while
identifying markets where lines of business could be further penetrated to increase topline earnings.

Prior to this, Chevy was nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate to lead the Air Force Academy Admissions Directorate, where he was also selected as the first CDO. He presented their tremendous results to the Congressional Tri-Caucus and the Military Leadership Diversity Commission, leading to widespread acclaim from senior Air Force and Congressional leaders.

Chevy retired from active duty after a career as an instructor pilot, commander, and strategist. He commanded a deployed total force KC-135 squadron, was the lead T-38 Evaluator Pilot for the B-2 Bomber Initial Cadre selection process and also played a critical role in the response to 9-11 as the lead Checkmate (USAF Strategy Division) team chief. Chevy has an MS in strategy and planning from the National Defense University (Joint Advanced Warfighting School), an MA in human resource development from Webster University, and a BS in basic sciences from the Air Force Academy,
and is a Cornell University Certified Diversity Professional / Advanced Practitioner. He is the recipient of multiple awards and decorations, including the 2023 CIO Views Most Prominent Leader in Diversity and Inclusion, the 2021 Mass Technology Leadership Council Mosaic Award and the Defense Superior Service Medal. His team was also recently recognized with the 2021 Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion Award from the North American HR Executive Summit.

Diana Forster is a Director of Qualitative Research at Seramount. She is a survey researcher, statistician, and writer with experience delivering actionable research to government, corporate, and academic clients.

In this role, she has helped lead several of Seramount’s recent projects: “Keeping DEI Strong in Volatile Times,” “Gen Z Decoded: New Data on How Your Youngest Employees Want to Experience Work,” “Understanding Global DEI Success: Corporate and Local Implications,” and “DEI Backlash: What Employees Really Think.” She joined Seramount in 2022 as an Associate Director on the Consulting team.

Previously, Diana was a researcher with the American Institutes for Research (AIR). There, she worked with the Department of Education on projects related to K-12 education. Diana was also a founder and vice-chair of Women in Support of Equity (WISE), AIR’s first employee resource group for women.

 Prior to her time at AIR, Diana worked for eight years with the Center for Talent Innovation (now Coqual). 

Diana holds a BA in political science and history from the College of Charleston, an MA in political science from the University of Arizona, and a PhD in political science from the University of Florida, where she used cutting-edge survey research techniques to study the intersections of religion and political behavior in the United States. A lifelong learner, she is currently pursuing her MBA at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business as a Forté fellow. Diana lives in Bethesda, Maryland, and in her spare time, she enjoys reading and writing fiction, riding her Peloton, and going to the movies. She also volunteers as a dramaturg with local theatres.

Barbara Frankel is the Managing Director of the Insights division at Seramount, working on global and US diversity surveys, national thought-leader projects, and groundbreaking research on inclusion and DEI topics and how to create family-friendly workplaces. She was the leader of the recent Pledge to Progress research project, which details corporate America’s progress in combating racism in the year since the murder of George Floyd.

Barbara is a thought leader, editor, writer, manager, and consultant in global and US diversity management, business development and marketing, business journalism, and human- and civil-rights advocacy.

She previously was executive editor and senior vice president at DiversityInc. Barbara has served on the national Board of Directors of GLSEN (Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network) and the global advisory board of WeConnect International, a nonprofit that helps women entrepreneurs be corporate suppliers, as well as Garden State Equality.

Irshad Manji is the founder of Moral Courage College, which equips people worldwide to unify their workplaces through healthy communication skills. 

The recipient of Oprah’s “Chutzpah Award” for boldness, Prof. Manji is also an internationally bestselling author. Her latest book is Don’t Label Me: How to Do Diversity Without Inflaming the Culture Wars. Fun fact: Chris Rock calls the book “genius.”[Text Wrapping Break] 

A scholar of leadership at New York University for many years, Prof. Manji now teaches with Oxford University’s Initiative for Global Ethics and Human Rights. 

Meredith McNeill is the Senior Director of Insights at Seramount. In this role, she develops stakeholder education and provides decision and implementation support to Chief Diversity Officers on their most pressing issues.

Prior to joining Seramount, Meredith led the K-12 research design and discovery team at EAB. She has extensive experience in education policy and execution at the federal, state, and local levels. Meredith has served as a policy advisor in the U.S. Senate, an advisor to large urban public school districts, and a management consultant. She began her career as a middle school teacher in Philadelphia.

Meredith holds degrees from Syracuse University and the University of Pennsylvania. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her family.

Laura Sherbin is Managing Director of Consulting at Seramount. She is an economist who specializes in the creation of advantage through inclusion and diversity. Most recently, Laura was co-president at the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI) in New York City, a premier think tank and content provider that studies global workplace diversity.

Laura has co-authored several Harvard Business Review articles, including “How Diversity Can Drive Innovation,” “How Gen Y and Boomers Will Reshape Your Agenda,” and “Off-Ramps and On-Ramps Revisited,” as well as the Harvard Business Review research report titled “The Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain Drain in Science, Engineering, and Technology.” She has also taught a Women and Globalization course at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

Laura built the rigorous data analytics machine and team that have been core to innovative approaches to measuring and tracking employee experiences. She is known as a leading expert in applying diversity and inclusion data to human behavior in organizations and using such data to quantify how workforce sentiments and satisfaction affect company bottom lines.

Laura holds a BS in math and economics from the University of Delaware and earned her PhD in economics from American University. She currently resides in Irvington, New York, with her husband, their four children, and their dog, Gus. Laura has always loved math and numbers, but when not working, she also enjoys baking, traveling, and meditating.