Biographies
Speaker Introduction Bio
A born advocate, Amber Cabral fights for fair. She’s dedicated her life to making room for people’s differences, encouraging radical authenticity, and offering tools to help people speak up and push back against inequity.
And she’s been doing it her entire life.
Growing up in the highly resilient and soulful city of Detroit, Amber learned how to speak up, seize the moment, and see opportunity everywhere: especially in people. Early on she earned a reputation for always being willing to speak-up and challenge – to lovingly say the thing that needs to be said, even if it’s uncomfortable to hear.
After starting her DEI journey as a Fortune 1 corporate diversity and inclusion strategist, Amber leaned into full-time entrepreneurship with Cabral Co in 2017 to help organizations ignite behavioral shifts to create inclusive cultures. In 2020, she published her first book – Allies and Advocates (Wiley) followed by Say More About That (Wiley) in 2022 adding a needed and nuanced layer to the international conversation on leadership, equity, and inclusion.
Today, Amber combines big-corporate experience, Motor City grit, and her powerful gift of authenticity to show clients how to challenge the bias in their narratives. Whether sharing “speak-up scripts” to help individuals become better allies, training managers on impactful communication, coaching C-suite leaders to more inclusively guide their teams, or affirming your potential as a human being, she’s here to inspire you to make practical changes that will shift how you connect and experience life as a whole.
As a speaker, Amber is always seeking the “challenged epiphany.” When she can successfully encourage someone to open up and consider a new perspective, she knows she’s done her job. She also has a gift for simplifying things that most find hard to talk about, and she demonstrates this in her TED Talk, 3 Steps to better connect with your fellow humans. She serves as the Chair of Brown Girls Do Ballet, helping to lift and shift the lives of brown ballerinas through storytelling, mentorship and resources. On her weekly podcast, Guilty Privilege, she asks guests and listeners to reflect on their own privilege and how they can and have make an impact by activating the richness in their experiences.
Amber spends most of her time helping some of the worlds most recognized brands and their employees create more equitable cultures at work and in life. She believes in the power of living her dimensions so when she’s at home in Atlanta, GA, she loves listening to audiobooks, sifting through old records and listening to live music.
She brings her womanhood, her identity as a Black person, her Detroit upbringing, and her brave outspokenness to every room, every stage, and to every conversation. She fully believes the world is a better place when we all feel invited to bring our unique selves to the spaces we inhabit. As such, she not only role models the behavior herself but strives to make room for people to share, connect, and show up as who they truly are.
Full Formal Bio
Amber Cabral is a TED and keynote speaker, author and Inclusion and Equity Strategist focused on helping organizations of various sizes and industries to create and execute strategies to achieve sustainable leadership and inclusion objectives. She is the founder and principal consultant at Cabral Co., where her work has touched thousands of people, including Fortune 500 executives and senior leaders at multi-billion dollar global organizations worldwide. Amber is best known for delivering respectful, authentic, and no-nonsense training, strategies, and content rich with simple but impactful steps and eye-opening insights that inspire change.
Formerly a Senior Strategist on the Global Culture, Diversity, and Inclusion team at Walmart Stores, Inc., Amber has experience developing and executing strategies to achieve transformational culture change, embed diversity objectives, and inclusive behaviors into the employee lifecycle to ensure business relevance and representation. During her tenure with Walmart, Amber also served as a Global Talent Management leader, designing and launching several organizational development programs, revamping the Mentor Me program, and expanding the Corporate Intern experience through achieving attraction and retention objectives.
Prior to her time at Walmart, Amber spent eight years in health insurance serving in customer support and advocacy roles of progressive responsibility. During her career at Blue Care Network of Michigan, Cabral was appointed as a lead for corporate diversity and inclusion initiatives and was recognized for supporting the creation and launch of company-wide diversity training.
Amber completed her thesis research project on andragogy (adult learning theory) to achieve a Masters in Organizational Leadership and Management from Siena Heights University in Adrian, Michigan. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a minor in Sociology from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.
Amber’s passion for culture and people development extends beyond her professional role. She serves as the Board Chair of Brown Girls Do, Inc™, best known for its ballet arm, Brown Girls Do Ballet™, an organization committed to promoting diversity in the arts by providing annual scholarships, a mentor network, dancer resources, and community programs to empower young women and girls.
Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Amber currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia. She is visibly passionate about improving representation, education, access, and opportunity for underrepresented and marginalized people. She completed her first book, Allies and Advocates, published by Wiley Publishing in 2020. Her second book, Say More About That released in July 2022. In her free time, she writes articles on race, culture, and working-class life, hosts a podcast called Guilty Privilege, consumes copious hours of audiobooks, and loves a good concert.
Micro Bio (~50 words)
TED and keynote speaker, author, inclusion consultant, and podcast host Amber Cabral is the founder and CEO of Cabral Co, an equity and inclusion strategy firm. She chairs Brown Girls Do Ballet and has authored two books, Allies and Advocates, (Wiley, 2020) and Say More About That, (Wiley, July 2022)
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Headshots: Danielle Finney D Finney Photography
TEDTalk photos: Gilberto Tadday/TED
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