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About

Leslie has two decades of experience in strategic leadership & management, organizational consulting, and mixed-method research across business, nonprofit, government, and educational contexts. She focuses on alleviating pain points for service and product users, employees, and organizations to promote success and wellness. Leslie leverages her values of empathy and curiosity, along with her deep understanding of human and organizational behavior, to help organizations solve problems and create solutions. These solutions facilitate innovation, achieve organizational visions, and foster greater inclusion.

Leslie has served as a strategy and organizational development leader with significant experience building and managing initiatives and services. Her career experience has involved leading, organizing, planning, coordinating, and ensuring the successful completion of projects and provision of services. This includes influencing and managing cohesive teams and stakeholders to achieve organizational goals and creating impactful programs, as well as serving as thought partner on organizational and program strategy. Leslie's research expertise spans qualitative and quantitative methods, research design, data analysis, accessible communication of findings, and research team leadership. Her strengths as a researcher lie in building stakeholder relationships, strategic research planning, and managing research operations.

Her academic research examines the cultivation and sustainment of climates for inclusion and health-safety within organizations and communities. Investigating how historically marginalized identity groups feel valued, experience a sense of belonging, and gain access to critical work and life opportunities is foundational to her scholarship goals. She has been awarded diverse honors and fellowships to support her academic research. Leslie has also carried out coaching, consulting, and teaching related to organizational management, leadership development, wellness, and inclusion for organizational clients and academic institutions.

Leslie received her PhD in Social Work and Master of Social Work degree from the University of Southern California. She also earned her BA in Ethnomusicology with a Minor in African American Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. Leslie enjoys gathering with family and friends for game nights, listening to a wellness audiobooks, exploring coffee shops, bragging about her Long Beach Poly High School alma mater, and hopping on an indoor bike ride.