Employment Panel 5: Activating Neurodivergent Strengths for Leadership Breakthroughs
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Activating Neurodivergent Strengths for Leadership Breakthroughs
Moderator: Kyle McKinley, MFA, MPH
Objectives:
- Explain the strategic imperative for embracing neurodiversity in leadership development and identify key cognitive advantages neurodivergent individuals bring to the workplace.
- Apply principles of neuro-informed coaching and strengths-based development frameworks to support the growth and effectiveness of neurodistinct leaders.
- Explore actionable frameworks for creating inclusive leadership pipelines and fostering work environments that empower neurodistinct professionals and enhance collaboration.
Ken Parekh, Neuro-Informed Coach, Stanford Neurodiversity Project Advisory Task Force and Stanford Autism Center Parent Advisory board member
Ken is an Engineer, Innovation Consultant and Executive Advisor to many tech and bio-pharma leaders & Scientists, who’s spent over 25 years working to develop neuro-distinct leaders and build high-performing teams and has developed several Neuro-informed Leadership Development Programs. He’s also a parent of two boys on the Autism spectrum and is on the Parent Advisory Board for the Stanford Autism Center, GGRC Self-Determination Local Advisory Committee, and on the Advisory Task Force of the Stanford Neurodiversity Project. Through these advocacy efforts, Ken is helping to create pathways and develop neuro-distinct leaders.
Ennis Olson, MBA, AuDHD Tech Leader, Entrepreneur, and Neuroconvergent Leadership Consultant
Ennis is an Autistic leader with ADHD, brings a unique and powerful perspective to leadership, innovation, and team development. His late-in-life diagnosis reframed a successful career spanning multiple industries, building and leading innovation, product, and strategy teams, alongside entrepreneurial and design ventures. Now understanding his AuDHD as a common thread through his achievements – and failures – Ennis shares his insights globally, having spoken to teams at Google, students at UC Berkeley Haas, and hosted discussions with leaders like Dr. Temple Grandin during SXSW 2024. Through his consultancy Neuroconvergent Leadership, Ennis dedicates his expertise to empowering organizations and leaders to unlock significant hidden potential by effectively developing and leading teams that embrace all neurotypes.
Danielle Vidal, PsyD, ACC, Neuro-Informed Coach, Vidal Leadership Coaching
Danielle is a Leadership and Executive Coach with a doctorate in Clinical Psychology, who has long been interested in how who people are intersects with the ways in which they lead. Danielle has spent 25 years working with leaders in multiple industries, including independent schools and universities, who identify as neuro-distinct to help them to leverage their many strengths and find pragmatic and effective tools to manage gaps and thrive in a business and organizational setting that isn’t always immediately welcoming of difference. Danielle has a deep personal and professional connection to working with neuro-distinct leaders, including those on the autism spectrum. She sees her expertise in emotional intelligence and change management not as ways to "fix" difference, but as tools and approaches to amplify each leader’s unique strengths and help them thrive authentically within their organizations. Her work is grounded in the belief that neurodiversity enriches leadership, and she is passionate about supporting growth that feels both true to the individual and meaningful to the communities they serve. Danielle also has two late-teenage sons, one of whom identifies with pride as “neuro-spicy” and has helped to inform the work she does with and the passion with which she does it.
Winifred Ernst, PhD, PCC, Neuro-Informed coach, Blue Waters Resource Partners
Winifred Ernst leverages 25 years of leadership development–often across public policy and cross-cultural environments–which she applies when coaching technology leaders to navigate their matrixed interpersonal workspaces. She has led: NC policy workgroups, totaling 140 policy leaders from diverse fields, political opinions and backgrounds; multi-party steering committees developing Latino initiatives; award-winning cross-cultural seminars for 350 DMV examiners; 20+ workshops for 300+ high potentials focused on team collaboration across distinct work habits and temperaments. She leverages this experience when developing audience-focused approaches to team effectiveness across all neurotypes. Winifred embraces neurodiversity projects with the same energy and attention as her previous endeavors.
Joanie Connell, PhD, Neuro-Informed Leadership Coach, Flexible Work Solutions
Joanie Connell is an organizational consultant and leadership coach with a doctorate in industrial-organizational psychology, has been coaching and developing technical leaders for over 20 years. In her first career as an electrical engineer, she worked with many likely undiagnosed neurodivergent teammates and noticed how uniquely they approached work. To learn more, she went to graduate school to study psychology. She combined her two knowledge sets to establish a practice consulting to technical leaders and even wrote a book about it called Consulting to Technical Leaders, Teams, and Organizations: Building Leadership in STEM Environments. As the neurodiversity movement emerged, she began incorporating this work into her consulting and coaching and now includes neuro-informed leadership development and coaching in her consulting services.