Karla ScottKarla D. Scott is a proud native of East St. Louis, Illinois where she enjoyed her first career as a journalist before pursuing graduate study and completing her doctorate in communication and culture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Se joined the faculty of the Department of Communication at Saint Louis University in 1994 and is the first Black woman faculty member to be hired at Saint Louis University at the academic rank of Assistant Professor, tenured and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor, and subsequently promoted to Full Professor. During her time at SLU, she served as Director of African American Studies, growing the program from an interdisciplinary certificate program to an academic major, and served as the first Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion in the College of Arts & Sciences. She is an award-winning teacher and researcher and developed the university's first Intergroup Dialogue initiative with a curriculum to build capacity to communicate about and across identity differences. She is also the author of The Language of Strong Black Womanhood: Myths, Models, Messages, and a New Mandate for Self Care published by Rowman & Littlefield. Beyond the university she shares her passion for communication as a path for transformation through her consulting practice, Dialogue, Diversity & Dharma, LLC and is also a 200-hour Certified Yoga Teacher. She remains close to her hometown on the bluffs of southern Illinois sharing a home with her husband wonderful Wil and pandemic puppy Frida.Learn more about her work at www.drkarladscott.com. Read More Read Less