our awesome Team

Bernadette Smith (she/her)

FOUNDER, CEO

Bernadette Smith is founder and CEO of Equality Institute and award-winning author of four books, including the latest, the bestseller Inclusive 360: Proven Solutions for an Equitable Organization.

Bernadette has presented to enthusiastic audiences of CEOs, associations, leadership teams, sales professionals, HR leaders, and more. Her expertise has been sought after by the New York Times, Forbes, the Washington Post, and Fast Company, among many others, and she’s appeared on the Today Show, the BBC, National Public Radio, and CNN.

Bernadette has been named one of Chicago’s Notable LGBTQ Executives by Crain’s Chicago Business. She loves sharing on LinkedIn and each week writes about what’s going right in the world in her newsletter and podcast, 5 Things: Good Vibes in DEI. When she’s not speaking and writing, you can likely find her on a local pickleball court! She’s a passionate pickler and loves the way it brings diverse people together.

Rita Mays (she/her)

BUSINESS MANAGER

Rita Mays may be the first person you encounter when you reach out to us. She’s responsible for managing our accounts and the logistics of all of our programs. She’s been with the firm for 4+ years and is indispensable! Our clients rave about Rita’s warmth, responsiveness, and organizational skills. She brings her exceptional customer service, administrative, and on-/off-site event management expertise to us and keeps our ships running smoothly. Rita’s experience as an administrative professional in education, healthcare, management, technology and other industries helps us better understand our clients.

Daniel Downer (he/him)

SENIOR FACILITATOR

Daniel J. Downer is a Black Queer activist and community leader who advances equity through lived experience and transformative leadership. With over a decade of impact, he brings a bold, unapologetic vision to dismantle systems of exclusion and build inclusive frameworks that center the most marginalized.

As Senior Facilitator at Equality Institute, Daniel leads dynamic learning experiences and facilitates transformative conversations with organizations to deepen understanding, shift mindsets, and foster cultures of belonging and inclusion. He believes inclusion is not a passive state—it’s an intentional, ongoing practice rooted in accountability and action.

Daniel’s work has been recognized by GLAAD with the Rising Star Award (2018), by Watermark as Most Remarkable Person in Central Florida (2020), and with an Honorable Mention in OUT Magazine’s OUT100 (2023).

Patti Flynn (she/her)

SENIOR CONSULTANT AND FACILITATOR

Patti Flynn leads with her heart and mindfulness and brings 25+ years of process improvement and change management experience in manufacturing, distribution, and sales/service operations to Equality Institute. She leads with equality and diversity both professionally and in her personal life. Making a difference in an ever-changing world, she helps others that are also trying to grow and improve themselves. As a trans woman who wasn’t able to be herself until recently, she understands how important it is for LGBTQ people to be able to see themselves out in the world. For fun, she likes to run across mountains and ride her bike all over the Midwest.

Kelvin Goss (he/him)

ASSOCIATE CONSULTANT AND FACILITATOR

Kelvin Goss is a former Chief Diversity Officer with expertise in advising and guiding senior leaders on enhancing employee engagement, evaluating performance trends, and implementing enterprise-wide talent solutions to achieve the organization’s vision and objectives. Kelvin was awarded the honor of 2023 SHRM DEI Leader of the Year and selected as the Top 100 Chief Diversity Officers in the Nation by the National Diversity Council.

Kelvin designed, orchestrated, and implemented a DEI roadmap that led his former employer to being recognized as best in class, based on ISO standards from the Human Resource Standard Institute for DEI Culture.

Erma Ishara (they/he)

ASSOCIATE CONSULTANT AND FACILITATOR

Erma Ishara (they/he) is a trans non-binary artist, writer, facilitator, and community organizer. They are the creator of a trans non-binary multimedia company creating affirming, entertaining, and educational content centering the lives of BIPOC creators. Ishara’s work focuses on creating content and community spaces centering diverse queer experiences.

Ishara has facilitated gender education workshops for nationwide brands as well as consulted with clients in every sector. They have worked in operations with Affinity Community Services, a Chicago-based Black LGBTQ+ organization, a a Black youth political education organization, and the State of Illinois.

Seema Jain (she/her)

FACILITATOR

Seema Jain brings years of experience helping companies become more culturally competent when engaging with people from different backgrounds. In her past role as Senior Director, Multicultural Affairs at Marriott International, Seema developed tools and resources for Marriott associates and properties to enhance cultural competencies to better serve the company’s broad diversity of guests and customers.

She is also a co-founder of two non-profit organizations – Supporting Excellence in Education Foundation (SEED), which awards scholarships to high school students and the Young Jains of America (YJA) a national youth organization created to share Jain heritage and culture where she is currently a Board of Trustee member.

Erika Latines (she/her/ella)

FACILITATOR

Erika Latines, also known as Erika with a “K”, is a queer Latine poet, humanitarian, and activist. Her background spans from corporate finance and international business to more recently, a non-profit focused on violence prevention. She has 10 years of experience as a facilitator and trainer in areas such as equity, diversity and inclusion, queer rights, civil rights, and team building. She is the daughter of immigrants.

Erika was born and raised on the southside of Chicago, IL and lived in Mexico as an adult for 10 years. She has traveled all over the country sharing her poetry and story in English and Spanish to educate, empower and encourage youth and adults to be leaders of change.

Dr. Laura Quiros (she/her)

COACH AND FACILITATOR

Dr. Laura Quiros is a Latina and Jewish woman of color, a former associate dean, and an associate professor of social work at Adelphi University. Her passion is in advancing inclusion within executive leadership, and connecting leadership to missions and agendas of diversity, equity and inclusion. She uses relationship building skills as a way to foster inclusion by helping to increase awareness and move towards action.

Laura deepens the conversation around diversity and inclusion by supporting and nurturing leaders to develop a reflective consciousness that is strength-based, critically nurturing and ultimately transformational.

Dagyi Rivera (she/her/ella)

SENIOR FACILITATOR

Dagyi Rivera is Mexico City-based and conducts Equality Institute consulting and trainings throughout Latin America. She has a Bachelors Degree in Management and a Masters Degree in marketing for small business with expertise in advertising, marketing, PR, event and event planning. 

As a business coach and facilitator, Dagyi helps companies more effectively serve their diverse employees and clients.

Camelú Millan Vargas (she/her/ella)

SENIOR FACILITATOR

Camelú Millan Vargas is Mexico City-based specializing in consulting and creating special events and trainings throughout Latin America and the United States. With a focus of business entrepreneurship, Camelu has taught classes at several institutions of high learning including CESSA Universidad,  TEC de Monterrey, Universidad Latina  and Universidad Iberoamericana. 

As a business consultant, she helps companies effectively create outstanding events designed for their employees and clients.