Dionna Smith-Keels

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Dionna Smith-Keels, GPHR

Head of Global Diversity Talent Strategies & Recruitment Programming- Delta Air Lines

Dionna Smith-Keels, GPHR is head of Global Diversity Talent Strategies & Recruitment Programming at Delta Air Lines. In this role she is responsible for developing diversity talent attraction strategies that ensure that diversity is on the forefront of Delta’s overall talent attraction initiatives and that that talent strategies align with Delta’s overall Diversity & Inclusion goals. She is responsible for ensuring that all of Delta’s general talent attraction and hiring process are designed with diversity in mind. Dionna is also responsible for diversity metrics, recruitment programing and compliance. In addition to her work at Delta, Dionna is a sought after diversity recruitment subject matter expert and speaker who has contributed to several media outlets, in print and on-air, including Forbes, INC, Entrepreneur, CNN Money, NPR and the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Prior to joining Delta Air Lines, Dionna spent two years in a tech business accelerator at Georgia Tech where she and her company stemmed conducted extensive research on how technology & metrics can greatly increase the success of corporate Diversity & Inclusion. Prior to her time at Georgia Tech, she led Global Talent Management & Acquisition at AGCO, a fortune 300 manufacturing company headquartered in metro Atlanta. In this role she led the global integration of talent strategies, processes, metrics and technologies in North America, South America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. This encompassed AGCO’s 22,000 employees across 120 countries. Dionna has also held roles at LexisNexis & Georgia Pacific and spent much of her career consulting with fortune 500 companies, included but not limited to Cisco Systems, FISERV and Home Depot.

Dionna attended Howard University where she studied legal communications and graduated from Tulane University with a Bachelor’s in Media. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D in Media Psychology. In addition, to her professional pursuits, Dionna volunteers in the Atlanta area where she conducts workforce readiness based competency & interview training, as well as resume and job search coaching.

Dionna earned her Global Human Resources Professional (GPHR) from HRCI, an affiliate of Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM). She is a member of both the National and local chapters of SHRM, where she completed a 3 year term on SHRM’s 12 person national Staffing Management Expert Panel where she provided subject-matter-expert services and generated content for SHRM’s 285,000 member population. In 2016, Dionna was also selected by Atlanta Business Chronicle as one of Atlanta’s 40 under 40, a prestigious designation awarded annually to 40 of Atlanta’s top Business & Community leaders under the age of 40.