Meet Diana

I help women leaders overcome challenges to gain the confidence to advocate for themselves

and gain the courage to use their voice in their organizations, their communities and in their homes through the Rise Advocates® Academy. I also help organizations to create strategies that provide space for employees to speak up about challenging and difficult topics which creates inclusive, diverse and equitable work cultures.

My Story

I was born in 1968 into a complicated world, and a complicated family. I had a White abusive dad, a Black mom, and was the sixth child of seven in my family (five older sisters) – which taught me a lot about diversity, overcoming adversities, and how women can be uniquely themselves, and that’s okay.

I learned early how to advocate for myself, and to gain confidence at the age of 14, when I stopped my father from trying to molest me.

Instead of running away, I started running track in High School. Eventually, my mom started slipping encouraging notes into my track shoes – which gave me the confidence to become a Division 1 College Track Athlete and go on to law school.

I became an Ohio Licensed Attorney and experienced great success in the corporate world, rising to executive level positions, sitting on corporate boards, and then to Civil Rights Attorney, becoming the General Counsel,Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of a fair housing non-profit organization. Yet, I still longed to encourage women to stand up for themselves. After years of personal and professional development training, I started my own company in 2016.

Now, I use my Rise Advocates^® movement, to help professional women gain the confidence to overcome their personal challenges, to love their story and use their voice and advocate for themselves, and for diversity, equity and inclusion in their workplaces through my Rise Advocates^® Academy.

I also use my Rise with Diana services to coach, consult and speak to organizations on how to create inclusion strategies for employees to speak up about challenging and difficult situations, without fear of retaliation. This makes employees feel seen, heard, and know that they matter in their organizations, which increases employee retention, improves innovation at work, and increases employee well-being. Diana also created the Head Full of Dreams mentoring program for young girls and is a Voiceover artist.

Diana has been married to her husband, David for over 25 years and they have two adult children, CJ and CC.

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