Although Compass Consulting Services, LLC was officially born in August 2008, we have over 25 years of experience in designing and delivering programs to organizations.  We are experts in engaging participants in difficult but honest conversations around respect and inclusion in the workplace in a non-threatening manner where participants gain awareness and skills.  Ruth and Tameka believe that assisting organizations in becoming more inclusive will have a rippling effect on creating better communities across the world.

**Tameka and Ruth were awarded the 2010 Northeast Ohio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce "Entrepreneurs of the Year" Award, as well as the 2010 "President's Award" by the Northern Ohio Minority Supplier Development Council

Tameka L. Taylor, Ph.D. is a partner and consultant of Compass Consulting Services, LLC located in Cleveland, Ohio.  Prior to this venture, she worked at The Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio (formerly NCCJ) where she served the organization for 14 years and for the last several years as Vice President & Director of Leadership Development.  

She earned her undergraduate degree from Baldwin-Wallace College, her Masters Degrees from Bowling Green State University, and her Ph.D. from Kent State University.  Prior to joining the staff at The Diversity Center, Dr. Taylor worked at a number of colleges and universities in various capacities.  These schools include Baldwin-Wallace College, Bowling Green State University and Mount Union College.  

 
During her time at The Diversity Center, she facilitated discussions on diversity issues (race, religion, socioeconomics and physical ability) for both youth and adults.  Other areas of her expertise are communication, team building, anti-bullying, facilitation skills and conflict management.  She built the In-school programming and Professional Development for the organization.  Dr. Taylor ran the LeadDIVERSITY program.  She oversaw all of the Program initiatives for The Diversity Center.  She helped to start the Middle School program and launched the LeadDIVERSITY Alumni Association. Dr. Taylor also counsels students and families at a local high school through the Shaker Youth Center.  In addition, she has also taught graduate level courses at Kent State University and Walsh University. 

Currently, Tameka is involved in several community related diversity committees, organizations, and initiatives.  Tameka is involved with and has served on an ad-hoc committee for the Diversity Professionals Group for the Commission on Economic Inclusion.  Tameka is active on the Health Equity Consortium.   Additionally, she is a Young Scholars Program Mentor.  Since becoming an entrepreneur she has gotten involved in COSE as a MindSpring expert in diversity, conflict management, and leadership and Northern Ohio Minority Supplier Development Council.  Tameka is a graduate of the 2010 Emerging Entrepreneur Program through The President’s Council. She serves on the following boards:  Friendly Inn Settlement and WomenSafe, Inc.

Dr. Taylor has received many awards including: Kaleidoscope Magazine Forty/Forty Club Inductee; Legacy Plaza Dedication Honoree, Girl Scouts of Northeast Ohio; President’s Distinguished Service Award, Bowling Green State University.  Recently she was inducted as a lifetime member into the 2010-2011 Edition of the Cambridge Who’s Who Registry of Executives, Professionals and Entrepreneurs. 

Tameka has received from Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management an Executive Coaching Certification with an emphasis in Emotional Intelligence. Tameka is certified to utilize the Hogan Personality Inventory as a leadership development tool.

Ruth Ramos Clifford is a partner and consultant of Compass Consulting Services, LLC.  Ruth has several years working in the diversity field, both in the for-profit and non-profit sectors.  In her most recent role, she worked at AmTrust Bank as the Diversity Consultant.  Ruth was responsible for developing their diversity strategy.   She coached managers on the business case for hiring non-immigrant employees and assisted those in need of H1-B Visas and Green Cards. She advocated on behalf of employees around diversity issues.  In addition, she created exciting and resourceful internal diversity web pages that increased employee awareness and provided diversity educational opportunities.  Lastly, she managed education and awareness workshops around diversity issues in the workplace. 

Ruth also worked as a Program Specialist for The Northeast Conference for Community and Justice where she was accountable for program design and delivery in the areas of diversity, respect, anti-bullying and self-esteem.  She was also responsible for marketing and sourcing clients in order to drive business results.
 
Ruth started her career in the banking field at KeyBank as a Diversity Recruiting Coordinator, where she developed the diversity strategic recruiting plan including benchmarking, identification of candidate sources, advertising and branding strategies, and corporate recruiter training and development needs.  She also delivered internal resources to spearhead strategic recruiting such as creating intranet informational web pages to facilitate candidate recruitment, recommendations for national conferences participation and/or sponsorship opportunities and presented a diversity workshop for 70 participants at Key’s National Recruiters Conference.

Ruth has also worked for Elsie Y. Cross Associates as a contract consultant and is certified through the Gestalt Institute.  She is a member of National Society of Hispanic MBAs, a member of the Young Latino Network, and sits on the board of Near West Intergenerational School.  She earned two undergraduate degrees from Cleveland State University in Psychology and Spanish, and her Masters Degree from Cleveland State University in Psychology with a concentration in Diversity Management.

Ruth has received many awards including: Kaleidoscope Magazine Cuarenta/Cuarenta Inductee; Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges; Women Who Make a Difference, Cleveland State University. Ruth also received the 20/30 "20 Under 30 Movers and Shakers" Award in 2010.  She is a graduate of the 2010 Cleveland Bridge Builders Program.
 

Ruth is certified to utilize the 360-Degree Clark Wilson Feedback as a development tool.