Hope in Action: Leading Through Chaos

Inclusive Change in Uncertain Times: Exploring how Leaders Guide Organizations Through Strain, Conflict and Change

We are living through a moment marked by constant change, institutional strain, and growing polarization. Leaders are being asked to guide organizations through complex transitions while responding to fatigue, resistance, and competing demands for fairness and accountability. This conversation steps back from quick fixes to ask a deeper question: how can we lead meaningful change when the conditions for stability, trust, and consensus feel increasingly fragile?

In conversation with Dr. Shilpa Tiwari, Program Director for the Diploma in Social Responsibility & Sustainability at USMC CE, leadership and gender-equity practitioner, researcher, and founder of Accelerate Her Future, Dr. Golnaz Golnaraghi will explore what inclusive change management looks like when systems are under strain and certainty is in short supply, reflecting on how leaders can respond to disruption without losing sight of equity, accountability, and long-term vision.

This discussion will consider the human side of change, focusing on how compassion, communication, and attention to lived experience can help organizations move beyond reactive responses toward more thoughtful, system-level transformation.

Speakers:

Dr. Golnaz Golnaraghi

Dr. Golnaz Golnaraghi is leadership scholar, educator, and social impact entrepreneur whose work focuses EDI and intersectional gender equity in organizations and the human and social dimensions of responsible leadership . With more than three decades of experience spanning corporate, higher education, and social innovation, she examines how organizations can design systems of work that advance equity, dignity, and opportunity.

She is the Founder and President of Accelerate Her Future, an organization advancing the career development and leadership of Indigenous, Black and racialized women across Canada. Through research, leadership development, and partnerships across sectors, Golnaz works to translate evidence and lived experience into practical strategies that help organizations build more equitable, inclusive, and high-performing workplaces, an increasingly important pillar of social responsibility and ESG leadership. She has led multiple national, evidence-based research initiatives on career development and male allyship in partnership with funders and organizations, including the Future Skills Centre and UN Global Compact Network Canada.

Her scholarship examines diversity discourse, gender equity, and intersectionality in organizations, with particular attention to how power, privilege, and dominant narratives shape inclusion and opportunity at work. She has published in peer‑reviewed journals and edited volumes including the International Journal of Cross‑Cultural Management, and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, and has presented her research at international conferences including the Academy of Management. Her work also includes a longitudinal study examining how Canada’s Best Diversity Employers construct public diversity narratives and the business and moral case for diversity, equity, and inclusion on their corporate websites across two periods, 2013 and 2023. The first phase of this research was published in the Oxford Handbook of Diversity in Organizations (2017), and the second phase was presented at the British Academy of Management conference (2025). Golnaz has been recognized as a Globe and Mail Report on Business Changemaker.

Dr. Shilpa Tiwari

Dr. Tiwari is a sustainability and social impact executive with over fifteen years of progressive leadership experience spanning financial services, extractives, development, food systems, and communications.

Her work focuses on integrating sustainability strategy, impact measurement, and inclusive practices across complex organizations and multi-stakeholder environments.

Most recently, she has combined advisory work with social entrepreneurship as the founder of No Women No Spice, a fair-trade enterprise partnering with women farmers in Tanzania to build climate-resilient value chains. She also designs and delivers practitioner-focused training for mid-career professionals, boards, and mission-driven organizations.

Dr. Tiwari holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics and Political Science, an MES in Environmental Policy from York University, and a BSc in Environmental Science from Queen’s University.