Ramona Strategies
Download or print a one-pager about Ramona Strategies and our Founders here!
Leadership
Elizabeth Brown Riordan
Elizabeth co-founded Ramona Strategies to better utilize her extensive experience working with both non-profit and for-profit organizations to harness training, coaching and sound management techniques to shape stronger workplaces.
Over nearly a decade, she grew The Management Center’s (TMC) multi-million dollar training program into one of the most successful and influential management training programs in the United States. While at TMC, Elizabeth also oversaw development of equity and inclusion trainings and managed teams of trainers across the country. While at Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) National, Elizabeth first served as a field organizer and then as the Director of Policy and Programs. At PFLAG, she co-wrote The Guide to Being a Straight Ally and helped design and execute corporate diversity trainings that engaged straight allies in the workplace for LGBT rights, working with high-profile clients such as the CIA, Johnson & Johnson, and Mastercard. In addition to designing and delivering tailored trainings, she has coached numerous leaders of organizations in transition.
Prior to her work at PFLAG, Elizabeth was a Henry Luce Scholar working for an indigenous rights organization in Thailand, where she developed women’s capacity-building trainings, and worked as an investigator in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. Elizabeth holds a B.A. in Political Science from Vassar College.
Our emphasis on practical, real-world solutions sets us apart. Why waste money and time on tools and techniques that your employees aren't going to use and your managers aren't going to enforce? Growth depends on easily implemented strategies.
Helping employers find ways to better position their employees for success. Helping employees communicate and collaborate more effectively with one another and with management. That's how we're building stronger workplaces where all talent, regardless of identity, is valued and supported.
Katherine Kimpel
Kate co-founded Ramona Strategies to maximize the skills gained over her years as an employment and anti-discrimination litigator, owner and Managing Partner of a multi-million dollar boutique law firm, and an educator.
Kate rose to national prominence as one of the country’s top civil rights attorneys after leading the 2010 trial team to win the largest gender discrimination class action ever tried in the U.S. The National Law Journal named Kate one of the 75 most-accomplished female attorneys working today because of her contributions to shaping more equitable and efficient workplaces. She has worked with leading industrial-organizational psychologists and statisticians and has been tasked with monitoring, evaluating, and improving complex HR, EEO, Board governance, training, compensation, and promotion systems, policies and practices. She also has worked with both for-profit and non-profit organizations on culture assessments and has facilitated trainings and workshops.
Kate teaches a course on the enforcement of anti-discrimination law at the Yale Law School and is often asked to write on HR, management and other employment issues for national news outlets, legal publications, and for women’s organizations. She previously served as Special Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee and as a public school teacher. Kate holds a B.A. from Vassar College and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
Harlan Diven
harlan@ramonastrategies.com
Harlan joined Ramona Strategies as a partner after a career of championing the vision and mission of non-profits and changemakers ranging from foundational work with start-ups to critical investigations at legacy organizations.
Harlan has managed teams in non-profit and for-profit settings, in organizations at all stages of development, and in both unionized and non-unionized environments. In both their professional life and their community volunteering and activism, Harlan seeks to ensure that stated commitments to equity and inclusion are realized through tangible action. Their work and leadership has benefited law firms and a range of public interest organizations including CA Rural Legal Assistance, the HIV Law and Policy Project, and the Sierra Club. In addition to being an experienced litigator, Harlan has designed and delivered trainings, spearheaded a statewide worker-focused LGBTQ+ rights program, supported mission-driven staff as an HR business partner, developed direct services programs, led hiring processes, provided victim support and education around violence prevention, and served as the principal internal workplace investigator.
Harlan holds a J.D. from Loyal Law with a concentration n public interest law and a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA.
Kathryn Pogin
Kathryn is finishing her JD/PhD with a special focus on how identity and unconscious bias affect how we hear and interpret witness testimony. This work builds on her background and passion for making investigative systems more attuned to the needs of marginalized voices.
The Management Center
The Management Center provides management training to organizations fighting for progressive social change. Their trainings, based on Managing to Change the World, are compatible with and inform the trainings that Ramona Strategies provides, and we frequently serve the same clients.
Ken is the founder of Ebie Strategies, a boutique social impact and public affairs firm that connects public policy with culture change. He is passionate about creating space for underrepresented voices and currently serves as the Executive Director of Black Entrepreneurs NYC.
Some Of Our Partners
Where We Work
Based in Washington D.C., we have beautiful space to host your trainings, workshops, or otherwise address your needs in a private and professional setting.
However, if you can't come to us, we come to you! Many of our clients are national -- and international -- so travel need not be a hurdle.
Why the name
Ramona Strategies
With women's leadership and women's ownership such a rarity in the business world, it was important to us that our brand identity recognize that we are women-owned and women-run. So many employers are guided toward generic, pre-fabricated products and buzz-word heavy solutions that don't generate the necessary shifts in habits or norms; and when discord or disfunction is left in place, employers not only suffer lessened productivity but may also face legal exposure.
We take seriously our obligation to protect employers and employees by making sure everyone is on the right path with careful advice and counsel. And we draw heavily on our own experiences with building, running, and managing teams and businesses to ensure that everything we offer is grounded in practical, real-world solutions. That's what sets our brand and services apart.