We are friends and business partners who believe that asking deceptively simple questions can transform how organizations and workplaces approach diversity, equity, and inclusion. We are equal parts nerds and practitioners with deep commitments to identifying and disrupting oppression and injustice related to gender, race, sexuality, class, and ability. Between the two of us we bring experience from professional backgrounds that include qualitative research, human resource management, recruiting, higher education administration, media production, nonprofit organizing, international NGOs, youth development, and healthcare.
Sean C. Kenney
Consultant & Co-FOUNDER
He/Him
In over 10 years of experience working in a variety of organizational contexts inside and outside of the United States, Sean consistently returns to a few persistent curiosities related to identity, belonging, narrative, and organizational design. Sean has always been drawn to organizations as peculiar human creations that shape and are shaped by culture, informed in part by his undergraduate background in anthropology and Spanish and Portuguese language and culture. Engaging in diversity and inclusion work in nonprofit and public institutions, in part through his own consulting business, Sean found himself repeatedly butting up against structures, relationships, and dynamics that limited how people showed up in the workplace and what they could bring to their work. His desire to gain new frameworks to make sense of issues of power and oppression led him back to graduate school, where he is currently completing a master’s degree in organizational communication. Sean grew up in Colorado, and currently resides in Denver with his partner. Since 2014, he has been a producer for OutSources, Colorado’s only weekly on-air radio program dedicated to queer issues.
Kathryn Joan Leslie
Consultant & Co-FOUNDER
They/Them
As a queer nonbinary kid growing up in Salt Lake City, Utah, Kathryn experienced first-hand how dominant cultural forces--even when best intentioned--can silence and oppress. They became passionate about the connection between organizations, work, and identity during their undergraduate degree in communication at the University of Utah, later earning a master’s degree in instructional communication. Kathryn brings 15 years’ experience in teaching and training in both higher education and corporate contexts. Kathryn has taught several diversity, equity, and inclusion related courses and workshops on topics related to intercultural communication, gender identity and expression, LGBTQ+, sexuality, anti-racism, sexual harassment, identifying and disrupting microaggressions, disability and ableism, and strategic organizational planning. In addition to their work with Project Deviate, Kathryn works as a DEI-consultant and trainer for a large health system based in the intermountain west.