Dr. Denise O’Neil Green is an Award winning, visionary and internationally recognized expert in equity, diversity, inclusion (EDI), anti-racism, organizational change and transformational leadership with 30 years of experience. As a global thought leader, she has worked across
various sectors, including postsecondary education, government, business, and healthcare, as a keynote speaker, innovative strategist, educator and changemaker.
In March 2022, she launched Denise O’Neil Green Consulting, using her professional and lived experiences to empower EDI leaders and organizations to go beyond the performative and be truly authentic in their development and implementation of EDI strategies.
As Vice-President, she founded the Division of Equity and Community Inclusion at Toronto Metropolitan University (2017-2022) and was the inaugural Assistant Vice President/Vice Provost, EDI at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) (formerly Ryerson) in 2012, the year she immigrated to Canada from the USA. Prior to TMU, Dr. Green served as the Associate Vice President, Institutional Diversity at Central Michigan University (CMU) for five years.
Dr. Green has co-authored The Case for Affirmative Action on Campus: Concepts of Equity, Considerations for Practice and has authored/co-authored over 90 journal articles, book chapters, reports, conference papers and lectures. She is also the Creator and Executive Editor of InstitutionalDiversityBlog.com, a comprehensive website that covers EDI topics to drive culture change. Since its inception in 2012, the blog has reached over 100 countries and has been listed as a leading reference source.
She has received numerous awards and honors, including: the inaugural 2022 Women Executive Network MLSE Equity Diversity and Inclusion Leaders Award; the 2022 Honorary Viola Desmond Award from TMU; and in 2021 named among the Top International 100 Inspirational Diversity and Inclusion Leaders by d&i leaders in the UK.
Dr. Green serves on the Board of Directors for Unity Health Toronto and is an Associate Professor, Graduate Faculty, Dept. Social Justice Education, OISE (Status-Only Professor) at the University of Toronto. Her scholarship focuses on race conscious policies in higher education, access, qualitative research methodologies and diverse populations.
She earned her PhD in higher education and public policy from the University of Michigan Masters from Princeton University; and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Chicago. She’s been married 34 years to her husband, Matthew and has two adult children whom she is very proud of.