The Diversity Calling: Building Community One Story at a Time

What do a Jewish woman from the Bronx, a Canadian-born multiculturalist, and a minister's son from Minnesota all have in common? They, along with six other colleagues, all met on a November day in Southern California to begin forming what would eventually become the Diversity Community Exchange - DiCE. The DiCE group is a group of Diversity professionals from various sectors of the industry (independent consultants, corporate Diversity officers, and academia) who came together for the purposes of strengthening each other's skills and commitment to Diversity principles, and explore ways to make the Diversity message more understandable, visible, and accepted. Along the way, they discovered the tremendous unifying power of stories to help effect these goals. The Diversity Calling - Building Community One Story at a Time shares the stories of each of the nine DiCE members: Sonny, Juan, Santalynda, Simma, Sidalia, Nadia, Tommy, Joe-Joe, and Marvin as they made their individual journeys and choices to perform Diversity work. Reading their stories may cause you to laugh, cry, and hope as you get to know them better, and in all likelihood will inspire you to share a few stories of your own!

Tommy E. Smith Jr. Tommy Smith was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and grew up in Oakland, California. His professional life reflects his varied interests. He is an engineer, diversity manager, and an ordained minister and has served in positions where each of these roles has been predominant. He earned a bachelor of science degree in engineering from San Francisco State University and received a U.S. patent on an electron energy spectrometer while working at a national security research and development laboratory. Tommy resides in Fremont, California, with his wife, Sandra, and three of his four children.