Big Ideas with Vernā Myers
Learning how to move diversity forward
April 8, 2016
Vernā Myers, an African American woman who grew up in a Baltimore working class family, graduated from Harvard Law School, and became an entrepreneur, author, and cultural innovator. For the last 20 years, she’s been working to help eradicate barriers of race, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation at elite international law firms, Wall Street businesses, and even the New York Fire Department to help create a more productive and just status quo. She was the featured Big Ideas speaker for the Public Library Association 2016 conference.
She told the story of her first visit to China, and found herself the object of stares. Everyone was looking at her, and it didn’t feel good.
“Why are these people staring at me?” she thought.