Shalaura Soliai is a Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Leader with more than 15 years’ experience implementing employee relations-based business solutions in multi-state, start-up, legacy healthcare, and hospitality organization. She uses a conducive and collaborative approach to sustaining engagement to provide optimal employee encounters. Her philosophy is to support and mitigate risk for companies while ensuring the voice of the employee is highly regarded. She believes that diversity in a company’s leadership is tantamount to a diverse workforce and customer-base. Prior to joining Discovery Behavioral Health, Shalaura spearheaded diversity efforts for a privately held behavioral health company, contributing to the increased hiring of BIPOC Women by 15%. Most notably, Shalaura successfully developed seven inclusive Employee Resource Groups at Care1st Health Plan to include LGBTQIA+, Veterans, Women, Asian & Pacific Islander, African American, and LatinX, resulting in a 35% increase in diverse hiring, promotion, and mentorship. At St. Francis Medical Center, she established a pipeline of BIPOC Physicians through partnership enhancements with the only dually designated Historically Black Graduate Institution and Hispanic Serving Health School, Charles Drew University, to address health inequities and to develop a Medical Staff that looks like the communities served. She also Co-founded the Patient and Employee Diversity Committee which achieved St Joseph Heritage HealthCare’s value imperative to transform organizational culture and provide patient-focused cultural sensitivity training to more than 6,000 employees. Other areas of expertise include executing diversity and equity strategies through meaningful engagement with historically marginalized communities, leading complex initiatives and managing difficult conversations. Shalaura holds both a Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Organizational Development from the University of La Verne. In her spare time, Shalaura enjoys attending live music and comedy shows, spinning classes, and spending time with her family. Shalaura is a member of ForbesBLK, championing a global community of Black entrepreneurs, professionals, leaders and creators that are driving systematic change in business, culture and society.