Join us at DoubleTree
Thursday, June 17th at 11:30 am
Diversity Speaker- Dr. Meraz from Missouri State University

Brief Synopsis of Program: Diversity Dialogue – we will be sharing current terminology used by professionals in multiple fields including HR, Public Education, Higher Education, and Corporate Development as well as a brief video and discussion on Implicit Bias.
About Our Speaker: Dr. Juan Meraz, MBA, Ph.D., CDP is the Assistant Vice President for the Division of Diversity and Inclusion at Missouri State University.
Juan graduated from Missouri State University with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Management, a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and a Master of Business Administration and a Ph.D. from the United States Christian University. He has served as the Provost Fellow for Diversity at Missouri State, and a faculty advisor for MoState Movement, and Director of the Latino Leadership Institute.
Juan is an Executive Board member for the MBAA International – President 2019-2020, Executive Board Member, and Treasurer for Minorities in Business (MIB), and Executive Advisory Director and Senior Editor with Franklin Publishing. Juan is a Certified Diversity Professional providing training for various organizations and companies nationally and internationally and on the Diversity Executives Leadership Academy (DELA) International Advisory Board.
As Assistant Vice President, Juan works to bring a better understanding of different cultures to the Missouri State University campus faculty, staff and students and the greater Springfield area. Juan is also a graduate of Leadership Springfield Class 31, member of the Springfield Public Entities Diversity Committee and Co-chairs the Public Entities Diversity Performance Measures Sub-Committee. Juan is a fall 2017 graduate of the Harvard Kennedy Executive School Program: Strategies for Building and Leading Diverse Organizations and a March 2018 graduate of the Harvard Kennedy Executive School Program: Crisis Leadership in Higher Education, and a September 2019 graduate of Harvard’s: “Leadership for the 21st Century” program which completed the Harvard Executive Public Leadership Program.
Learning Objectives:
- Rules of Engagement – used to establish a learning environment
- Current Terminology – used in multiple sectors working with Inclusion and Belonging.
- Implicit Bias – Video and Discussion on impact on decision-making.