work experience timeline
January 2018
After a short sabbatical, I began working as a consultant specializing in change management within Accenture’s Talent and Organization practice. Here, it began to dawn on me that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) work is largely change management. Change management guides how we prepare, equip and support individuals to successfully adopt change. Part of this is the ability to collect and interpret data to create impactful trainings, communications, and stakeholder engagement strategies.
Outside of client work, I co-founded Diversity Dialogues with the intention of creating an open dialogue about current events, their impact on inclusion and diversity around the globe, and their influence on day-to-day client work. The goal of these lunchtime sessions was to build confidence in how we each discuss the personal meaning of diversity, inclusion, and equity in a casual, conversational, solution-based setting.
April 2022
Wanting to broaden my DEI strategy experience to focus on the larger umbrella of employee experience and engagement, I joined the Organization and Culture Design team at co:collective.
At co:, I utilized organizational development principles and methodologies to advise clients on how to align their business strategy with their organizational purpose, make business decisions with their purpose in mind, and invest in their customer experiences and employee value proposition.
December 2020
Joined the wonderful team at Paradigm Strategy Inc.
At this point in my career, I wanted to focus exclusively on DEI strategy - including helping clients to better understand their employee data and utilize that data to effectively action plan on DEI goals.
At Paradigm, I also served as a strategic and tactical advisor to clients to guide ongoing DEI efforts and implementation by sharing best practices, and relevant research, and coaching leaders on modeling inclusive behavior.
August 2020
The Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology advertises that one should become an industrial-organizational psychologist to ‘build better organizations.’ My work at Accenture inspired my passion to build better organizations by fostering foster environments that focus on empowering and supporting the individual.
I/O psychologists work to answer a range of questions including understanding the leading drivers of employee engagement and working to increase the effectiveness of teams. Enrolling in the Industrial and Organizational Psychology program at the University of Maryland equipped me with the theories behind the practices I implement in the future to engage employees in meaningful diversity, inclusion, and equity initiatives, and drive organizational development and effectiveness.
As an inclusion and diversity initiative, I hosted a Gallery Walk with my client team to engage in conversation about current topics and how they impact our ability to thrive in the workplace.
Undergraduate career
Attended Boston University as a Posse Scholar and immediately became involved with the Admissions Student Diversity Board (ASDB). As a member of ASDB, I simply thought I was paying it forward to ensure students who looked like me had college tours and programming catered to their unique needs.
However, as the mission of the group was to actively recruit from multicultural communities, increase enrollment and enrich the multicultural experience- this extracurricular activity was actually my first experience in inclusion centered consulting.
Jonea also served as a resident assistant - another experience grown from the desire to foster an environment where others felt they belonged.
Each spring ASDB hosted Multicultural Communities Weekend, the university’s highest-yielding admitted student event. The above video was created to give prospective students a window into why some members of ASDB chose to join the Boston University community.
