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Dirk Velten grew up traveling and living in various countries around the world, developing a life-long passion for cultural reconciliation. With 20 years experience in conflict resolution, including 12 years as a professional diversity facilitator, he specializes in helping clients address dilemmas around race, gender, and sexual orientation. He especially enjoys helping white men to address workplace diversity issues in ways that they find personally compelling and meaningful.
Workplace Diversity
Dirk serves on the faculty of several national training firms, including White Men as Full Diversity Partners®, J. O. Rodgers & Associates, and Diversity Trends, LLC., with clients including Shell Oil, Alabama Power, Southern Company, Sabre, Inc., and Harvard University. He has also led diversity trainings for the City of Coppell, the Southwestern Law Enforcement Institute, Deloitte & Touche, and Strasburger and Price, a Dallas law firm.
International Work
Dirk’s work often takes him into the international realm, as well. In the fall of 2004, Dirk traveled to Kosovo on behalf of the U.S. State Department. For two weeks, he and an African-American colleague traveled around the country, bringing their experiences with racial reconciliation to community leaders, youth groups, and women’s organizations who are working to foster cooperative co-existence among Albanians, Serbians, and other ethnic minorities in the war-torn region.
Dirk and his wife, Jane, have trained with international conflict resolution expert Danaan Parry and are certified to lead Essential Peacemaking/Women & Men, a gender-oriented approach to conflict resolution. Dirk and Jane now train and certify facilitators for this work throughout the U.S., Europe, and Russia. In 2005, they will be delivering a one-day version of this workshop for Marsha Clark & Associates.
Their work in with associates in Europe led to an invitation to join the faculty of the International School for Personal Leadership, an annual business conference at the De Baak Management Center in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.
Community Work
Dirk is active in community work, as well, serving as the Dallas organizer for the National Days of Dialogue on Race Relations in 1998, and both facilitating and hosting Dallas Dinner Table gatherings every year since 1999. While living in New York City, he co-facilitated Alternatives to Violence trainings for inmates of Riker's Island maximum-security prison.
Dirk now lives in Dallas, Texas, with his wife and business partner, Jane. Their company, Mandorla Resources International, is dedicated to raising the level of discourse around cultural differences and conflict.
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