In Person Annual CDOC Summit: New York City, NY

Over the past twenty years, David Attis has worked with hundreds of higher education institutions in the United States, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, and elsewhere. He supports university leaders at all levels to help their teams make better decisions through research, education, facilitation, and coaching. He regularly presents to a wide range of audiences on the major trends impacting higher education. 

His studies have explored data-informed decision-making in higher education, innovative academic program design, university budget models, academic organizational structures, the impact of generative AI on education, and the future of the liberal arts. 

Prior to joining EAB, David was a senior director of policy studies at the Council on Competitiveness. While there he worked on the National Innovation Initiative, contributed to the National Academies’ Rising Above the Gathering Storm report, and collaborated with Professor Michael Porter of Harvard Business School on the Council’s Competitiveness Index. 

David holds a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Chicago, an MPhil in the History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD in History from Princeton University. His book Mathematics and the Making of Modern Ireland: Trinity College Dublin from Cromwell to the Celtic Tiger was published in 2014. 

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.

Nancy Nazarian believes design can change how we build technology by staying hyper-focused on who it’s built for. As Head of UX Design in Microsoft’s AI Strategy and Transformation team,  she leads by envisioning AI experiences that are human-centered, responsible, and inclusive by design. Over her 15 years in UX, she’s helped organizations from Deloitte to Google to Nike rethink what’s possible when strategy, craft, and humanity come together. She’s here to challenge leaders to see themselves as architects of a more equitable and accessible future in the era of AI. 

Ripa Rashid (she/her) is the Managing Director of Seramount’s Chief Diversity Officer Collaborative and a member of Seramount’s leadership team.  In this role, she oversees the CDOC research agenda, driving innovation, and collaborates with Seramount’s partners to foster inclusive cultures and systems where all talent can thrive and business outcomes are maximized. Ripa is a senior executive with over 20 years of experience in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and has held C-suite roles across talent, DEI, and culture, with deep expertise in the media and financial services sectors. Most recently, she served as Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer (CDIO) at Consumer Reports and previously held leadership roles at Cowen (a Wall Street investment bank acquired by TD Bank), Time Warner, and MetLife.

In 2018, Ripa co-founded and co-led Seramount’s consulting division, advising Fortune 500 companies and professional services firms on innovative DEI practices to shape inclusive, high-performing cultures. Earlier, she served as Co-President of the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI, now CoQual), a renowned think tank in the DEI space, and founded Hewlett Consulting Partners, CTI’s advisory arm. Her early career includes global consulting roles at Booz & Company (now Strategy&), PwC, and Mitchell Madison Group, where she advised financial services and media clients on strategic growth, risk management, and operational excellence.

Ripa is an adjunct professor of management at NYU Stern School of Business, where she teaches an MBA course on inclusive leadership. She is the author of three books on DEI: Winning the War for Talent in Emerging Markets: Why Women are the Solution (Harvard Business Review, 2011), Growing Global Executives (Rarebird, 2015), and Disrupt Bias, Drive Value (Rarebird, 2017). Her thought leadership also extends to over two dozen articles and insights papers featured in publications like Harvard Business Review and Strategy & Business.

A sought-after speaker and panelist, Ripa has addressed audiences at the UN, OECD, International Women’s Forum, Diversity Woman, ADCOLOR, ASCEND, and the National Diversity Council, among others. She has been invited by companies such as Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Aetna, Infosys, and Standard Chartered Bank to share her expertise on DEI.

Ripa holds an AB cum laude in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Harvard University, an MA in Cultural Anthropology from NYU, and an MBA in Finance and Management from INSEAD. She has been named one of the “Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business” by the Asian American Business Development Council Ripa is an active member of the Harvard and INSEAD alumni communities, the INSEAD Global Women in Business Club, and the South Asian Executive Women’s Network. She serves on the Board of One To World, a nonprofit dedicated to global education, and advises Monumental Me, a professional development platform. Ripa has lived and worked in over a dozen countries and currently resides in New York City with her husband and their two sons.

Laura Sherbin is Managing Director of Research, Assessment and Strategy 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.

Paul Sullivan is the founder of The Company of Dads, the first platform dedicated to creating a community for Lead Dads – men who are the go-to parents at home, who support their spouse’s careers and who are allies to Working Moms and caregivers in general at work – and partnering with companies to make small policy changes that have a big impact.

A long-time New York Times columnist, Paul became a Lead Dad in 2013 when his wife started her own asset management firm. He spent the next seven years as an Undercover Lead Dad. This all changed in 2020 when without school or camp being a Lead Dad and working full time became untenable.

Paul is the author of the books Clutch: Why Some People Excel Under Pressure and Others Don’t and The Thin Green Line: The Money Secrets of The Super Wealthy. He has been interviewed on podcasts, radio and television programs across America, and given key-note talks to corporate and conference audiences from 50 to 500 people in the United States, Mexico and Chile. He holds degrees in history from Trinity College and the University of Chicago.  

Jon Veasey-Deters is a Senior Research Analyst on the Insights team at Seramount. In his role, Jon supports Chief Diversity Officer Collaborative members with custom research on current topics such as keeping DEI strong in volatile times, Gen Z talent in the workplace, and Generative AI’s role in the talent lifecycle. He also supports Diversity Best Practice members with on-demand research on topics of interest. Prior to this role, Jon worked on the short-term K-12 research team at EAB.

Jon graduated from Wesley Theological Seminary with a Masters of Theological Studies and the University of Virginia with a BA in Political Science. He currently lives in Arlington, Virginia and in his free time enjoys cooking, pursuing his sommelier certification, and traveling.

David Vuletich is a Managing Director in EAB’s Research Advisory Services and is an expert in both Academic and Administrative Strategy. He provides expert insight into cross-cabinet issues that help institutions set strategy and execute on short and long-term goals. He is responsible for driving value for our partner institutions through decision support, guidance on best practices implementation, and consensus building at the board, cabinet, and senior leadership levels. In particular, his strong focus on financial sustainability helps him support strategic initiatives around university budget models, cost efficiency in administrative and academic operations, and revenue growth through optimization of the academic program portfolio and university advancement. 

David’s expertise in education comes from a background that has included numerous touchpoints with the industry. David worked for the American Institutes for Research as a content leader in standardized testing and was a summer Associate at Huron Consulting. Prior to this he was an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at SUNY Brockport, where he helped design and launch a new biochemistry major and started an externally funded research program. From these experiences, David has gained an insightful perspective on the challenges facing a variety of stakeholders at education institutions.