Cindy-Ann L. Thomas

With a keen awareness of intercultural dynamics in the workplace, Cindy-Ann Thomas adeptly navigates clients through multiple diversity and inclusion challenges and opportunities. She brings more than 20 years of experience and high-level credentials to her role as both a strategic process diversity consultant and an employment attorney. Company executives in a broad spectrum of industries, including government, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, higher education and professional services, look to her for diversity and inclusion services and counsel that emphasize talent development, engagement, productivity and retention.
Cindy-Ann’s unique qualifications as a knowledgeable employment attorney and skillful facilitator are applied in training that extends from the executive ranks to the shop floor. She engages with clients in order to understand what they need. Specifically, and before any initiative is implemented, she gains deep insights into the client’s workplace by conducting culture assessments. These assessments may be as informal as in-depth conversations with organizational leaders or they may extend to the development and deployment of a comprehensive “culture scan” that captures the views of diversity and inclusion expressed by the client’s employees.
Licensed in Canada and the United States, Cindy-Ann possesses a multifaceted perspective on the design and implementation of meaningful diversity and inclusion initiatives that are not only legally compliant but harness the potential of both stakeholders and individual contributors. She delivers her customized training programs to organizations that range in size from Fortune 500 companies to small, local businesses.
Among her specialized services are these:
- Facilitate executive orientation briefings geared toward assisting an organization’s key leaders in identifying current capabilities and next steps
- Prepare and guide dynamic group workshops that raise awareness of and increase capabilities in working through diversity dynamics, unconscious bias and cultural competence
- Develop client-specific, turn-key educational materials that allow companies to self-drive their internal equal employment opportunity (EEO) and diversity training programs
- Deliver comprehensive EEO “train-the-trainer” programs for in-house facilitators
- Lead one-on-one executive workshops that increase leaders’ diversity aptitude and skill development
For her vibrant and engaging training sessions, Cindy-Ann taps the resources of Littler Learning Group and its vast video library of contemporary diversity and inclusion scenarios. The videos’ targeted vignettes depict real-life workday issues in a captivating and engaging way.
Cindy-Ann completed the requirements for designation as a Roosevelt Thomas Consulting & Training Subject Matter Expert, and she is also a Qualified Administrator for the prestigious Intercultural Development Inventory. She is co-chair of Littler’s EEO & Diversity Practice Group and regularly speaks before professional associations, human resource groups, universities and industry trade groups throughout the country. Prior to her legal career, she was a human resources executive at an international business development corporation, where she addressed many of the organizational issues facing the companies she now advises and trains.
*Not licensed to practice law in North Carolina
Speaking Engagements
Live Event
Inclusion & Diversity
Advocating for Inclusion: Insights & Strategies for the 2023 Legislative Session
Webinar
Fortifying a Commitment to Inclusive Leadership During – and Beyond – Crisis
Virtual Conference
Webinar
Diversity at Work: Fortifying Your Inclusion Efforts in the Current Climate
Panelist
Live Event
Live Event
The #MeToo and Times Up Cultural Shift: How to Reduce Disparities in the Workplace
Live Event
Speak Up or Shut Up? The Persisting Challenges of Politics and Discord in the Workplace
Diversity and Inclusion Summit 2018 - Part 2: The Training Trap: How Efforts to “Fix” Unconscious Bias Are Failing Employers
Diversity and Inclusion Summit 2018 - Part 1: Should Affinity Groups Come with an Expiry Date?
Live Event
Live Event
Webinar
Protests, Political Speech, and Public Relations
Women at Work: Attracting, Engaging, and Retaining a Gender-Diverse Workforce a Perspective from the Trenches
Women at Work: Attracting, Engaging and Retaining a Gender-Diverse Workforce
The Why and How of Diversity in the Legal Profession - Panel Discussion
Live Event
Diversity and Inclusion 2016: Spearheading a Meaningful Initiative That Won’t Drive Your General - and Outside - Counsel Crazy!
Where Diversity & Inclusion Meet the Law in 2016: The 6 Essential Strategies That Successful HR Professionals Need NOW!
Live Event