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JUDY RAVIN, PRESIDENT AND CO-FOUNDER

Judy Ravin is the president and co-founder of Accents International, LLC. She is also the author of bestselling software-based learning systems that teach non-native English speakers how to master English pronunciation. Ravin is dedicated to creating a world where everyone is heard®. She’s earned national recognition for helping Fortune 100 corporations, NATO, leading healthcare systems and medical schools, and US accredited universities create high performance teams.

Ravin is best known for her two learning and development programs: Powerful Pronunciation® and Inclusive Listening: Tuning Your Ear to Accents®; collectively known as the Ravin Method®.

  • Powerful Pronunciation®  gives non-native English speakers articulation techniques for the sounds in English that do not occur in other languages. It enables non-native English speakers to take their pronunciation to the next level and communicate with clarity, confidence, and ease.
  • Inclusive Listening: Tuning Your Ear to Accents®  teaches people, regardless of language background, how to systematically ‘tune their ear’ to global accents.

Ravin has taught at the University of Michigan-Ross School of Business, Cornell University-Johnson School of Business, and NATO (both U.S. and international command centers). Her work has been featured in The New York Times, DiversityInc.com, the Los Angeles Times, AOL-Daily Finance, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal, as well as on CNN.com, NPR, Voice of America, CBS Radio-National News, and NBC Nightly News.

Brief sampling of recent speaking engagements:

  • 2023 Customer Contact Week National Conference (Nashville, TN)
  • 2022 Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (Online)
  • 2019 Gold Humanism Summit at the 2019 Planetree International Conference on Person-Centered Care (Orlando, FL)
  • 2019 Beryl Institute Patient Experience National Conference (Dallas, TX)
  • 2019 Crédit Agricole Diversity Week (NYC)
  • 2018 Exelon National Diversity Day (Baltimore, MD)
  • 2017 ASCEND Pan-Asian Leaders National Conference (Houston, TX)
  • 2016 ASCEND Pan-Asian Leaders National Conference (Anaheim, CA)
  • 2016 U.S. Department of Treasury Diversity & Inclusion Seminar Series (Washington, DC)
  • 2014 NATO Global Learning Conference (U.S. Command Center, Suffolk, VA)
  • 2014 Association for Training and Development (ATD) International Conference & EXPO (Washington, DC)
  • 2014 Multicultural Forum on Workplace Diversity National Conference (Minneapolis, MN)
  • 2014 PepsiCo Global Diversity Summit (NYC)
  • 2010 -2013 U.S. Department of Defense - Leadership Development and Education for Sustained Peace (Washington, DC; Warsaw, Poland; Nuremberg, Germany)

BARBARA NIEMANN, CLO AND CO-FOUNDER

Barb Niemann is the chief learning officer and co-founder of Accents International, LLC. She is a learning and development executive with a proven ability to provide high-value client solutions that demonstrate business impact. Her specialties include:

  • Establishing enterprise-wide learning and talent development solutions that fill a skills gap for non-native English speakers
  • Coaching executives and emerging top talent to support a global workforce
  • Executing large scale, live and web-based training programs that are customized per industry and business service line
  • Developing accent reduction (aka English pronunciation) training programs for corporate-wide talent development initiatives.

Barb has a track record at Fortune 100 corporations of helping them onboard and execute learning programs that align talent development initiatives with their organizational objectives.

As CLO at Accents International and, prior to this position, at the Accent Reduction Institute, Inc., Barb has been responsible for the overall design and delivery of live (synchronous), web-based accent reduction training programs. Satisfaction with services rendered has been over 99%; many participants acknowledged the training as being the most transformative professional development opportunity they received.

Barb has excelled as a learning development leader and has:

  • Certified, mentored, and managed 18 faculty who’ve trained over 2500 corporate professionals. Her leadership style promotes excellence by providing faculty with the tools and structure needed to enhance their professional expertise and efficiency
  • Created comprehensive assessments to establish metrics-based outcomes that demonstrated program ROI; average rate of improvement was 72% in 12 hours of training
  • Attained approval by The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) to provide CPE credits for the financial services sector
  • Implemented a best-in-class virtual learning platform; reduced the cost of delivering programs by more than 60%
  • Conducted English pronunciation training programs at the University of Michigan, Ross School of Business; Michigan State University, Broad College of Business; and Cornell University, Johnson Graduate School of Management
  • Established and oversaw student internships for the University of Michigan, Department of Linguistics
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