Dennis Kennedy has an unwavering passion to ensure that all individuals receive equal opportunities in the workplace regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation.  He is truly an advocate.  He founded the National Diversity Council to champion diversity as a business imperative, with a primary goal to turn all communities into inclusive environments where individuals are valued for their talents and unique characteristics and have opportunities to reach their full potential.  In addition, he is a consultant in the following fields:  Workforce Diversity (www.diversityfirstconsulting.com), Mentoring (www.mentoringsummit.com), Glass Ceiling Topics, Networking (www.multiculturalnetwork.com), Empowerment (www.kennedyempowerment.com)  and Personal Branding (www.creatingyoursignificance.com).

In 2004, Mr. Kennedy walked away from his job to start the Texas Diversity Council (www.texasdiversitycouncil.org). He saw a very strong need to create an organization that would Champion Diversity & Inclusion across the state.  Four years later, Mr. Kennedy found himself launching the National Diversity Council (NDC) for the exact same reasons he started the state council.  Currently, the NDC is made up of five state and regional Councils:  Texas California, Florida, Midwest and Ohio.  His vision is to have state and regional diversity councils across the United States (www.nationaldiversitycouncil.org). 

Along with the state councils, Mr. Kennedy has launched several state wide conferences focused on both diversity and leadership.  Currently there are conferences taking place in the following states: Ohio, Texas, California, Florida, Kansas, Virginia and Washington, (www.nationaldiversityconference.com). 

Also, Mr. Kennedy is the Founder & Publisher of DiversityFIRST Publishing (www.diversityfirstmagazine.com).  Under the auspices of DiversityFIRST Publishing, there is a newsletter and several state diversity magazines.  DiversityFIRST Newsletter is a quarterly publication that is web based (www.diversityfirstnewsletter.com).  Currently, there are five state diversity magazines:  OH, CA, TX, FL and NY. 

Furthermore, Mr. Kennedy spent several years as a college professor at the following universities:  University of Houston Downtown, Texas Southern University and University of Texas at San Antonio.  Some of the courses he taught include:  Business Statistics, Economics, HR Management, Compensation Management and Diversity Management.  All courses were taught in the business school. He also spent 5 years working in a corporate environment in the field of Human Resources. 

Mr. Kennedy graduated from the University of Houston Main Campus (UofH) with undergraduate degrees in economics, business management and political science; he also earned a MBA from University of Houston Main Campus.  In addition, as an undergraduate student at UofH, he was a scholarship athlete for football.