Michael Brown

Inclusive Leadership Advisor

“The workplace is one of the few places that require us to interact with people across differences. It’s essential to have leaders who are skilled at interacting and leading inclusively across differences.”

Why I Do What I Do

I am biracial. As a child, I was the ugly duckling and learned what it felt like to be excluded. It felt lonely, humiliating, and devastating. But during high school, I became a star athlete. Suddenly, people embraced me. I learned what it felt like to be included. Inclusion is a feeling of happiness, fulfillment, and belonging. The differences between inclusion and exclusion are profound and intense. 

During college and my professional career, I experienced inclusion and exclusion when the stakes were much higher. In college, I was one of only a few players of color in NCAA Division One baseball. After college, I ascended to the executive ranks at a Fortune 500 company, where I was often the only man of color in the room.

But the time I felt most excluded was when I was selectively prosecuted and pled guilty to a felony I’d never heard of, “misprison of felony” (which I later learned has been abolished in many common law countries and is otherwise usually classified as a misdemeanor). Having a legal education and knowledge of how the justice system relates to defendants of color, I had to consider whether to go to trial and assert my valid legal defenses, risking five years of incarceration and financial ruin. So, I decided to plea to misprison of felony and serve six months in a federal prison camp.

Experiencing the extremes of inclusion and exclusion in my personal and professional lives sparked an interest and passion in me to want to help others, especially leaders, make people feel included.

“I feel that Michael really stood out with his messaging on DEI, the emphasis of inclusivity. Personally, I felt like his delivery landed well and he had everyone’s attention.”

Program Participant
Mid-sized Law Firm, Program on Inclusivity at Work.

Experience

I spent 32 years in human resources and labor relations. I worked with union and management leadership from workplaces around the country to negotiate and administer collective bargaining agreements, enforce the standards of conduct, and manage the employee disciplinary process. The very nature of my work caused me to interact with thousands of people across different backgrounds and ideologies.

As a senior executive in Human Resources, I also led the development and implementation of diversity awareness and sensitivity training for 60,000 employees across several thousand workplace teams in over 20 US manufacturing facilities.

Throughout my career, I have found there are many leaders who want to improve their ability to interact and lead across differences. As workplaces become more diverse, many more leaders will find that they will need to build those skills. Today, my singular focus is on equipping leaders with knowledge, skills, and tools for improving their ability to interact and lead inclusively across all types of differences in a consistent and impactful way. 

Education

My education includes a JD from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, a BA from the University of New Mexico, as well as other leadership certificates.