Congratulations, Class of 2024!

2024 Commencement Speaker

Vernā Myers is an inclusion strategist, cultural innovator, thought leader, and social commentator. She’s well-known for her high-energy keynotes, her captivating insights, and her ability to help people bridge differences and connect more meaningfully. Vernā rose out of Baltimore’s working class to become a Harvard-trained lawyer and founder of The Vernā Myers Company. In 2018, Vernā took on the inaugural role of VP, Inclusion Strategy at Netflix where she leads a diverse team of talent in curating and implementing strategies to integrate cultural diversity, inclusion, and equity into all aspects of the organization’s global operations. 

Vernā is the author of two best-selling books published by the American Bar Association: Moving Diversity Forward: Going from Well-Meaning to Well-Doing and What If I Say The Wrong Thing? 25 Habits for Culturally Effective People. Her inspiring TED talk, How to Overcome Our Biases? Walk Boldly Towards Them has been viewed over 5 million times and translated into 27 languages. Her course, Confronting Biases, was recognized as one of the top ten LinkedIn Learning courses in 2021 and has been taken by over half a million learners. Vernā is also the host and producer of her podcast, Sundays with Verna, which is available on both Apple iTunes and Spotify. 

In 2021, Vernā was named by Diversity Woman as one of the top 100 Black Women Executives. Some of her other awards and activities include being elected as a Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management, Board Member of UC Hastings College of Law’s Work Life Law program, awarded the Diversity Champion award by Pepper Hamilton LLP, named by The Network Journal as 

“25 Influential Black Women in Business”, and recognized by The Massachusetts Lawyer’s Weekly as a “Diversity Hero.” In the early part of her career, Vernā was the first Executive Director of The Boston Law Firm Group, served as Deputy Chief of Staff for the Attorney General of Massachusetts (1997-1999), and practiced corporate and real estate law for six years at Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault LLP and Fitch, Wiley, Richlin & Tourse LLP. Vernā graduated from Harvard Law School and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, from Barnard College, Columbia University. 

For the last two decades, Vernā and The Vernā Myers Company have helped hundreds of organizations eradicate barriers based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and other differences to establish a new, more productive, and just status quo. Her curated annual invitation-only Opus Conference on Race and Ethnicity successfully convened industry leaders. She continues to convene conversations with guest speakers on her online talk show, Sundays with Verna. Vernā and The Vernā Myers Company offer their own brand of e-learning courses on various DEI topics on their online learning platform www.tvmcu.com. Vernā and The Vernā Myers Company own the trademark to her popularly used saying, “Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance.”®