Having nearly 20 years of experience as a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) leader, strategist, international consultant, and educational practitioner, Mikal has witnessed firsthand the complex issues that perpetuate educational inequity and economic disparities within urban communities. As the head of DEI at ECG, Mikal calls upon this expertise to lead learning, culture, and inclusion initiatives, DEI operations and strategy, and community engagement efforts for the firm. His research and practice have taken him around the world to explore—across various political and cultural landscapes—system-wide solutions for addressing education and workforce development inequities. He has worked with numerous organizations in the K-12 and higher education, nonprofit, philanthropic, and government sectors, as well as corporations and financial technology companies, to build, operationalize, execute, and measure DEI agendas, yielding notable impacts for minoritized populations.
Mikal holds the knowledge of decades of national reform aimed at improving the quality of teaching, increasing accountability for districts and schools, and expanding choices for families through the creation of new schools and investments in human capital. Understanding that economic justice sits at the intersection of education and workforce development, Mikal has managed relationships between universities and K-12 institutions to enhance teacher preparation and community-based programs; guided partnerships between local educational agencies and the private sector in the areas of career and technical education and workforce development; and supported organizations with their DEI initiatives, strategic planning, talent acquisition and management, talent development, program evaluation, and instructional processes. He also serves as an adjunct faculty member for Tulane University’s John Lewis Master of Public Administration program, where he trains aspiring leaders on matters pertaining to DEI in the public and private sectors.