Ayanna Cummings
Director of Diversity + Inclusion at Compass Group at Microsoft
Dr. Ayanna Cummings is passionate about eradicating the malignant diseases of racism, sexism, heterosexism, ageism, ableism, and other ills which plague our social and organizational environs. She has over 21 years of experience as a diversity consultant, specialist, researcher, and trainer. In her current role as Director of Diversity + Inclusion with Compass Group at Microsoft, Ayanna serves as a change agent for cultural transformation.
She has also served as an undergraduate Lecturer for twenty years at various institutions in the Northeastern and Southeastern United States, including a current role on the Faculty at Georgia Institute of Technology in the School of Psychology. Her scientific research seeks to examine the plight of, issues affecting, and identification of solutions relevant to African-Americans and other diverse and marginalized groups. Her research findings give her unique expertise in diversity, equity, & inclusion training and consulting strategies and cultural change methods. As a volunteer leader, she serves as Chair of the HR for Change committee with SHRM-Atlanta and as Director of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion with the NBMBAA Seattle Chapter.
Prior to being offered the role of Director of Diversity + Inclusion for Compass Group at Microsoft, Dr. Cummings worked with R. Thomas Consulting of Atlanta and Blackbird Leadership of New York City as well as her own company Tapestry Consulting, LLC and served as Diversity Specialist with Terry University Systems. In these capacities she has served as lead and point of contact diversity specialist on a City of Atlanta proposal which would address diversity, equity, and inclusion cultural strategies in a municipality of more than 8,000 employees. She wrote, produced, directed, and narrated her own Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training video and accompanying workbook, “Lifting the Veil of Hatred”.
Dr. Cummings holds a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the City University of New York Graduate Center in Manhattan as well as the MBA in Marketing from Clark Atlanta University. She also holds the SPHR Certification. Dr. Cummings is a Presidential Scholar and alumnus of her beloved alma mater, Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, where she was inducted into the Forty Under 40 Honor Society in 2018.
She is a proud active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and is currently collecting data on racial bias in the performance appraisal process and racial bias in artificial intelligence recruiting systems through her current appointment as a Research Psychologist with the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology in Vista, California. She is the author of the book, “Power, Culture and Race” published in 2018 and 2020 by Xlibris.
Dr. Ayanna Cummings is an avid reader, a skilled and talented cellist and vocalist, and a mommy of two beloved Cocker Spaniels Zuri and Omari.
Her favorite motto is, The Secret to Growing Wings is Believing You Can Fly!
Ayanna Cummings