Experiential and cognitive diversity help a team thrive. Specifically, an organizational culture that welcomes neurodivergent people limits groupthink risks and helps to foster innovation, translating into a competitive edge. To reap these benefits, companies are realizing they need to do more to both support their existing neurodivergent employees and recruit more.

In this episode, author, cognitive scientist and neurodivergent business leader Maureen Dunne joins Wesley and Kim to discuss the benefits neurodiverse employees bring to the workplace and how leaders can build a culture that allows them to succeed. 

DR. MAUREEN DUNNE is a bestselling author, cognitive scientist, global keynote speaker, faculty member, board director, and neurodivergent business leader driving systems change in business, technology, education, and public policy.

As CEO of Autism Community Ventures, a neurodiversity consultancy firm, Dr. Dunne has been retained by some of the world's top brands, Fortune 500 companies, leading start-ups, and global non-profit organizations as a neurodiversity expert and organizational change leader with over two decades of experience.

Her work has been featured widely in major media, including Forbes, Bloomberg, MIT Sloan Management Review, Fast Company, Big Think, Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, SHRM, TechCrunch, People Management Magazine, Chicago Tribune, DiversityQ, UNLEASH, Guy Kawasaki's Remarkable People, and Inside Higher Ed. Dr. Dunne has been a Keynote Speaker at the United Nations, Stanford University, London Tech Week, the National Science Foundation, and other prominent venues. She has also served as a featured speaker at The Atlantic Festival, the Global Education Summit, TechCrunch Disrupt, The Next Web Conference, Cornell University, Young Presidents' Organization (YPO), and LEGO Foundation.

Maureen is also the author of the 2024 bestselling book, The Neurodiversity Edge. The Neurodiversity Edge made the USA Today National Bestseller List (Top 150 books across all genres), Barnes & Noble Top 100 Books, Porchlight Book Company's Business Book Bestseller List, as well as #1 New Bestseller in several categories on Amazon, including Human Resources and Personell Management, Business Diversity & Inclusion and Autism Spectrum Disorders. SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) selected Dr. Dunne's book as one of twelve to feature on its recommended 2024 summer reading list. It was also selected as an Editor Pick at Audible to be featured during Neurodiversity Acceptance Month.

She is the first community college graduate to be awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship for study at New College, Oxford and is a former National Science Foundation Fellow. She currently serves as a faculty affiliate at the Discovery Partners Institute, a billion-dollar public/private partnership to drive economic development through business innovation and entrepreneurship and as an advisory board member at Cornell University. She is the former President of the Illinois Community College Trustees Association where she drove the legislative and policy agenda for the state of Illinois, the third largest community college system in the United States with 48 member colleges, serving over 700,000 students. At the national level, she represents the interests of more than 12 million students in the USA and beyond. In these leadership roles, she has driven real-world change in workforce development, education, and policy, paving new economic opportunity pathways for neurodivergent people around the world.

She received joint BA/MA degrees from the University of Chicago, her MSc from the London School of Economics, and her doctorate from the University of Oxford, where she attended as a Rhodes Scholar.

About Maureen Dunne