2008 Diversity & Family Friendly Speakers
Gloria J. Woods
Gloria J. Woods serves as Vice President of Client Solutions with the Kaleidoscope Group. She is accountable for client strategy development & support, new product development and strategic management of key KG practice areas and advisory groups.
Gloria has over 15 years of experience in business as a leader, strategist, consultant, and trainer focusing on diversity strategy development and implementation, training development and delivery, and Human Resources management to support business success. Prior to joining KG in March of 2004, Gloria was the Vice President of Diversity for CNA. At CNA, Gloria developed and implemented a comprehensive diversity strategy supporting the organization’s business goals. Gloria led a team of internal and external trainers to develop and deliver diversity skills and other training. She led and developed the organization’s efforts to explore and grow in diverse customer markets, collaborated with corporate Human Resources and Staffing to develop a diversity recruiting strategy, mentoring programs, and implemented a diversity supplier program.
Prior to joining CNA, Gloria served as an internal diversity consultant as a member of the Corporate Diversity Team at BP Amoco. In this role, Gloria collaborated with leadership teams, diversity councils, and employee networks to develop strategy and actions to operationalize diversity across business units, departments and teams
In addition to diversity expertise, Gloria brings a wealth of experience in training and development as well as Human Resources generalist experience from previous roles as a training supervisor at Avon Products, and Human Resources Manager Rust-Oleum. With these organizations, she designed and delivered interpersonal skills, diversity awareness and technical training to operations staff, and managed affirmative action planning and employee relations.
Prior to her career in business, Gloria served for 6 years as an officer in the U.S. Army, stationed in Germany and in the U.S. She served with distinction and was honorably discharged after achieving the rank of Captain. During her military career, she held positions as a survey platoon commander, a fire direction officer, and her last role was as an instructor/technical writer at the Field Artillery School at Ft. Sill, OK.
Currently, Gloria serves on the Board of the Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement (HACE), The Field Museum Cultural Connections Advisory Board, and the National African American Insurance Association (NAAIA). Gloria is a proud Alumnus of the University of Michigan, graduating with a B.A. in Political Science.
