Dr. Diana Kardia, PhD (STAR Co-Founder)
Dr. Diana Kardia is an expert in organizational change, leadership development, and the benefits and challenges related our vast array of social identities. She is the founder of Kardia Group, a development resource for colleges and universities. She is frequently consulted on effective discussion and decision-making techniques, inclusive pedagogies, intergroup dialogue, conflict resolution, and strategies for making meaningful use of climate survey data.
Diana co-founded STAR as a space to foster the intelligence and skills needed to engage diversity effectively – be it diversity in identity, opinion, experience, role, or intent. She is dedicated to engaging across differences in ways that promote cognitive complexity, empathy, leadership, change, and creative problem-solving capabilities.
Diana is committed to understanding how current challenges, events, and possibilities are rooted in context and history. “Diana provided exceptionally insightful contexts for conflicts that felt unique and new to me, filling in histories of the past in broad strokes to make clear that this particular kind of conflict — e.g., over gender or race or governance — had surfaced in the past and had a history or a context well beyond my own unit or even our university that informed the present moment.”
Dr. Kardia holds a Ph.D. in Education (specialty in Higher Education), a B.S. and M.A. in Statistics, and a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies, all from the University of Michigan.
Dr. Pearlette J Ramos, JDD PhD (STAR Co-Founder)
Dr. Pearlette J. Ramos is a motivational leader, lawyer, writer, and travel influencer. She guides transformational journeys around the world, facilitates women’s empowerment workshops, and coaches others towards living life with passion and purpose from a place of authenticity.
Originally from Youngstown, Ohio, Dr. Ramos overcame significant obstacles including poverty, abuse, teenage motherhood, and dropping out of high school, to become a respected lawyer and world traveler. Pearlette has visited more than 60 countries and each of the seven continents. Her adventurous spirit inspired her to scuba dive at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, parasail in Hawaii, travel down zip lines in the Alaskan wilderness, and snowshoe in the Antarctic region.
When she’s not working, Dr. Ramos spends time with her two adult daughters, Dionna and Nailah. She also serves as a member of her local school board, mentors women, and volunteers with various nonprofit groups and philanthropic organizations. Recently, she published her first book, The Travel Coach and Journal, which explores the transformative power of travel and encourages readers to stretch, learn and grow through engaging the world.
Dr. Ramos, who worked for several years as a commercial litigator and in-house counsel, received her law degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law and her doctorate in Psychology from Saybrook University.
Meet the Rest of the STAR Board
Terry Ahwal Morris, BA
Terry Ahwal Morris was born in Ramallah and immigrated to Detroit, Michigan in 1972. She has been active in the Arab and non-Arab American community in many capacities, including serving as the Executive Director of the American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee for five years; the Executive Board of the Ramallah Federation; Arab American Advisory Board to the Detroit News and Free Press; and Coordinator of Project Hope. She advocates for peace and justice for the Palestinian people.
In addition, Ms. Ahwal Morris is active in civic and political organizations in the State of Michigan; she served as Clinton and Gore Delegate to the Democratic National Convention; she served as Vice President to the 11th District Democratic Committee. In the Civic arena Ms. Ahwal Morris is the President of Habitat for Humanity Detroit, was a Vice President of Livonia YMCA, Vice President for Mission Health, member of the Archdiocese of Detroit Program Review Committee, and member of the United Way Allocation Committee.
She is currently employed as Vice President of Development at The Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan Prior to this position, Ms. Ahwal Morris served as an Assistant County Executive at Wayne County, Michigan.
Ms. Ahwal Morris earned a BA in Liberal Arts at the University of Michigan and is certified in leading teams and organizations (the University of Notre Dame, Mendoza College of Business) and in non-violent communication (Marshall Rosenberg Method). She has also served as a Reserve Police Officer and as a Fellow in the Leadership Michigan Program, the Michigan Political Leadership Program, the Detroit Leadership Program, and the Community Education Leaders Program.
Cindy Sabel, MS
Bio and pic coming soon
Rev. Dr. Micheal A. Smith, JD, D.Min., BCC is the Bishop Anderson House Chaplain serving the trauma, burn and critical care units of John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County in Chicago, Illinois.
Micheal is an ordained Itinerate Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and has served in parish ministry in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois. He is the father of two sons and is currently studying Spanish to better provide spiritual care and support to the significant Spanish speaking community that utilizes the community hospital he serves.
He is guided by 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.”
Micheal earned a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C.; a Juris Doctorate from Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland, Ohio; and a Master of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry from the Ecumenical Theological Seminary in Detroit, Michigan.