Amy S. Tolbert, Ph.D., CSP

Amy S. Tolbert, Ph.D., CSP develops multicultural organizations and individuals by bringing you cutting-edge topics, such as, multicultural and diversity initiatives, leadership competency development, managing to style, and creating breakthrough teams.

She is principal of ECCO (Energizing Cultural Change in Organizations), which specializes in increasing individuals’ productivity and organizations’ profitability through e-learning, technology and facilitated learning.

Addressing diversity and multicultural issues, cross-cultural training, and managing a diverse workforce, Dr. Tolbert has researched multicultural competencies needed for today’s global organization. In 2019, she released the second edition of Reversing the Ostrich Approach to Diversity: Pulling your head out of the sand, a timely answer to the renewed urgency for actionable inclusion skills. The tool presents five simple actions to increase inclusive behaviors in the workplace. The Ostrich book also has been translated and distributed in Saudi Arabia and China. She has also co-authored and presented the Discovering Diversity Profile, a popular self-assessment tool, at many national conferences. She has served several terms as National Vice Chair for the Professional Expertise Group on Diversity with the National Speakers Association (NSA). She has served several terms as National Vice Chair for the Professional Expertise Group on Diversity with the National Speakers Association (NSA). She served as President for NSA-MN, as Commodore for Bayport Marina and serves on the hrconnection Advisory Board as well as the ILSEP board to reinforce trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve. She earned her Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation with NSA as well. The CSP is the speaking profession’s international measure of experience and skill. Fewer than 10 percent of the speakers who belong to the International Federation for Professional Speakers hold this professional designation. She was awarded Member of the Year, Next Level Award, the Mark LeBlanc Award for excellence in the speaking industry, and in 2019 was inducted into the MN Speakers Hall of Fame.

Published by Pfeiffer, she has contributed a chapter in the book, Developing Talent for Organizational Results: Training Tools from the Best in the Field. She is a contributing author to The Princess Principle: Women helping women discover their royal spirit. She authored a video training program, Open Mind, Open World: Improving Intercultural Interactions, which includes leader guides and video clips so you can customize your own series of global education workshops, as well as a diversity and inclusion version for the US marketplace. As a best-selling contributing author with HRD Press (50 Activities for Achieving Excellent Customer Service) and published by the American Management Association (AMACOM), Dr. Tolbert consults and trains internationally in the areas of creating a global mindset, multicultural competency development, increasing influence in organizations, managing within a diverse workforce, motivation and leadership skills. Her diverse client list includes USBank, Gucci, AT&T, 3M, Best Buy, Comcast, Mayo Clinic, Dakota County, CHS, Polaris, Medtronic, United Way, Ford Motor Company, Becton-Dickinson and King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

As a Fellow, Carlson Executive Education Center, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, Dr. Tolbert earned her doctorate in Human Resource Development, focusing on international/cross-cultural and diversity education/training, from the University of Minnesota. She continues to support her alma mater by serving as adjunct faculty for several annual programs at Carlson Executive Education.