3rd Annual Diversity & Inclusion Conference

Rebby Kern is a nonbinary person of color working to create more inclusive climates for LGBTQ youth and young adults. Rebby has worked for LGBTQ youth-focused organizations serving youth nationwide and locally in the Charlotte region. Rebby oversees the Rural Youth Empowerment Fellowship creating platforms for youth organizing in rural areas to create change and progress for their communities. Rebby is a statewide and nationally certified trainer for K-12 school staff and youth-serving professionals offering best practices and policy guidance to garner inclusive climates in schools for youth.

Kami Chavis is a Professor of Law and Director of the Criminal Justice Program at Wake Forest University School of Law. In 2015, she was appointed as a Senior Academic Fellow at the Joint Center for Political And Economic Studies. She has substantial practice experience and writes and teaches in areas related to criminal law, criminal procedure and criminal justice reform. After receiving her J.D. from Harvard Law School, she worked as an associate at private law firms in Washington, D.C., where she participated in various aspects of civil litigation, white-collar criminal defense, and internal investigations.

Jessica L. Whitney, Ph.D. is a consulting psychologist to public and private sector organizations on issues of leadership development, diversity and inclusion, and mental health in the workplace.  Since 2016, she is on faculty in the psychology department at UNC Wilmington, where she also serves as a lead consultant at the Swain Center, at UNCW’s Cameron School of Business.  Clinically, she has worked with diverse populations across varied mental health settings, including college counseling centers, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, public safety agencies, and hospitals.  Prior to becoming a counseling psychologist, Dr. Whitney worked in the corporate sector in Washington DC and New York City for eight years, in revenue generating and internal consulting roles.  At Ernst & Young LLP, she provided real estate and management consulting services, before transitioning to a role in the Office of the Chairman, where she focused on advancing firm-wide leadership development and gender equity strategies.  At Time Warner (now Warner Media), then the largest media and entertainment conglomerate globally, she worked in Corporate, designing company-wide diversity and inclusion strategies and advising business unit senior executives on workforce and revenue-generation matters.  Dr. Whitney was born and raised in Washington, DC and completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania.  She earned an M.Ed. and M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Fordham University in New York, NY.