About SunShower Learning

SunShower Learning is known for creativity, collaboration and expertise. SunShower is committed to crafting learning experiences that inspire and challenge people to be more curious about their own habits and behaviors. We do this with impactful, award-winning DEI eLearning created by the world’s leading experts.

We teach skills and tools people can use to intentionally disrupt implicit biases before they influence decisions and interactions with others. As a global leader in high-impact Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) training, many hundreds of thousands of learners have taken our award-winning courses. Clients include Liberty Mutual, AT&T, McDonaldā€™s and Amazon.

SunShower Learning logo - vertical - yellow and blue
a photo of a green field with blue sky, rays of sunshine illuminating rain

Whatā€™s a sunshower, anyway?

In the realm of nature’s wonders, there is a captivating phenomenon known as a “sunshower.” It occurs when the sun shines while raindrops fall from the sky, creating a mesmerizingĀ contrast. Scientists explain that a sunshower can happen when winds carry raindrops from a faraway rainstorm into an area where there are no clouds.

This fascinating meteorologicalĀ display has captured imagination and inspired many songs and poems throughout history. And,Ā in folklore, sunshowers have been attributed to various meanings and superstitions. Tales are centered around such things as the marriage of foxes or other animals, a wedding of a spirit to a human or the conversion of sunshine into liquid gold.

In contemplating the ethereal and unexpected beauty of a sunshower and the profound impact of diversity, equity and inclusion work, we discover a powerful analogy. Just as the sun radiates through a downpour,Ā DEI work illuminates implicit bias and offers a ray of hope. It brings clarity, inspires perseveranceĀ and nourishes the growth of more healthy people and environments.Ā Amidst a storm of inequity, SunShower Learningā€™s DEI work lights the way toward a brighter future whereĀ all individuals, organizations and communities can thrive.

Do you have a photo of a sunshower you’d like to share? Please email it to us!

About Joel Lesko

Deepak Chopra, Al Gore and …Ā fish?Ā 
Joel Lesko began his filmmaking career producing documentary films. He worked with thought leaders like Deepak Chopra and Vice President Al Gore to shine a light on social impact issues. When a company hired Joel to produce a customer service training video, he researched the field and foundĀ FISH!Ā This was a short video about the employees in the Seattle Public Market who throw fish, delight customers and enjoy their jobs.Ā FISH!Ā was the inspiration for Joelā€™s subsequent project titledĀ SMILE!, the story of a Seattle bus driver who greeted and sang to his riders.Ā SMILE!Ā was a blockbuster hit and propelled SunShower Learning into the corporate training business. In essence, Joel founded SunShower Learning based on his passion for using film to tell stories that educate, inspire and ultimately make a positive difference.

A lifelong commitment to racial and social justice leads to transformative DEI training
Joelā€™s next project brought together his passion for filmmaking and his lifelong commitment to racial and social justice. Having grown up with parents who were active in the civil rights movement, Joel wanted to find a story to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace.Ā Ouch! That Stereotype HurtsĀ was filmed in New York City with an HBO documentary cinematographer, and it rocked the training world. It won multiple awards and was a groundbreaking training video – before DEI was even a focus at most organizations. The training combined emotional storytelling, thought-provoking ideas and practical tools – like 6 simple techniques to speak up. Hundreds of thousands of employees have learned how to speak up withĀ Ouch!

Organizations come calling
SunShower Learning grew, and Joelā€™s work was adopted by large and small organizations across the country and beyond. The training helped create a more inclusive culture and improve performance for businesses like AT&T, UCLA, McDonalds, Microsoft and the US Justice Department. SunShower evolved to create custom corporate training based on client demand. Soon came a phone call from Liberty Mutual Insurance: ā€œWe love your work and want you to make a program for us.ā€ This surprise call led to a multi-year project to create a series of video courses (Inclusion in Action: 9 Skills). They have since been used by more than 40,000 Liberty employees and tens of thousands more in organizations around the world.

A lasting impression
Joelā€™s work has been at the forefront of DEI training, setting a standard in both content and production. All along, Joelā€™s commitment has remained the same: to explore what gets in the way of diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces and to provide actionable skills to drive meaningful change.Ā 

Award Winning Video Production for Diversity and Inclusion Corporate Training Programs

Joel Lesko directing a scene in Defeating Unconscious Bias

Diversity and inclusion training program video production

Filming a scene for Inclusion in Action with world-class cinematographer, Daniel B. Gold.

Diversity and inclusion training program video production

Creating a powerful corporate communication with client.

About Gina Miller

Gina Miller is a native New Yorker who married into a Gullah family in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. (The Gullah people are descendants of Africans who were enslaved on the rice, indigo and cotton plantations on the Sea Islands and coastal plain of the lower Atlantic. Due to their geographical isolation and strong community life, the Gullah have been unique in their ability to preserve their African cultural heritage.) As a result of Ginaā€™s family dynamic – and especially when she became a parent – her natural interest in culture, community and social justice evolved into a deep commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace and beyond. As an avid reader, prolific writer and community volunteer, she channels her thoughts and emotions into various forms of storytelling. This includes writing articles and developing content.

With a deep-rooted belief in the power of DEI training as a catalyst for progress, Gina has embarked on a remarkable journey to promote lasting change by capitalizing on her decades of marketing expertise. As SunShowerā€™s Director of Marketing and Customer Experience, Gina helps steer the companyā€™s branding, communication and outreach efforts to amplify our mission and connect with a wide-ranging audience.

 

Gina Miller, SunShower Learning

A distinguished team of world-class DEI experts

Joel is pleased to share more about the team of authors, speakers and facilitators who have collaborated with us to create these important programs. The collective intelligence and experience are only outweighed by the passion these talented leaders bring to the work.

Leslie Aguilar - Founder, International Training and Development

Leslie Aguilar

Founder, International Training and Development

Leslie wrote the book Ouch! That Stereotype Hurts and collaborated with Joel Lesko from SunShower Learning to produce the wildly popular and multi-award winning video, online course and eLearning. She also collaborated with Joel to create the follow-up program, Ouch! Your Silence Hurts. The Ouch! series has been enthusiastically used by tens of thousands of organizations around the world with significant personal and organizational results.

Leslie is an author, consultant and curriculum developer in the areas of DEIB, multicultural and multilingual competence and multicultural customer service. Watch the interview with Leslie here in which she offersĀ valuable insights into the practical applications ofĀ Ouch!Ā techniques.

Courses in the SunShower library

Ouch! That Stereotype Hurts
Ouch! Your Silence Hurts

Hideko Akashi - Founder, Liberation Consulting

Hideko Akashi

Founder, Liberation Consulting

Hideko has over 20 years of experience in the educational sector, challenging individuals and institutions to think critically about issues of diversity, privilege, social justice, inclusion, and equity and to create healthy, meaningful work cultures.

Hideko has worked with SunShower to create learning experiences around the myths of the model minority and AAPI experience.

Courses in the SunShower library

Hideko is collaborating with SunShower on three new courses launching in early 2024:

Myths and Models: AAPI Inclusion
Expanding the Gender Binary
PronounsĀ 

New products coming soon!

Mary Chlopecki

Mary Chlopecki, Esq.

Workplace Investigations, Training & Consulting, Senior Investigator and Counsel, Georgetown University

With 20+ years of diverse experience, and a Juris Doctor from George Mason University School of Law, Mary is a trusted legal advisor and EEO specialist, serving clients in the public, private and nonprofit sectors.

Mary has deep competency in conducting professional, end-to-end, confidential workplace investigations.

Mary is a seasoned trainer with a record of success developing and delivering an array of live and virtual programs, and sheā€™s experienced in designing and performing work environment studies and climate assessments.

Courses in the SunShower library

Within Our Power: Preventing and Addressing Sexual Harassment Together

Tina Dyer - Founder, Grafted Together Consulting

Tina Dyer

Founder, Grafted Together Consulting

Tina is a leader in the areas of global diversity and inclusion, a public speaker and an organization development professional with proven success in designing and implementing DEI strategies and initiatives, coaching senior leaders and enhancing employee engagement, retention and productivity.

Tina is a Somatic Abolitionist Practitioner with years of experience in coaching around Racial, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. She has collaborated with SunShower to conduct online live trainings across many industries.Ā 

Tina is developing a new course with SunShower that will help people build a capacity mentally, emotionally, and physically for staying present and engaging in conversations across dimensions of diversity, especially race.Ā 

Courses in the SunShower library

Self-Care and prepping for conversations of Racial, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.
New product coming soon!

Greg Gale - Founder, Insight Out Consulting

Greg Gale

Founder, Insight Out Consulting

For over 25 years, Greg has held DEI leadership positions in both Fortune 100 companies and non- profit organizations and has implemented DEI solutions throughout the US and globally.

Greg has high-level experience developing DEI strategy, coaching leaders to develop inclusion skills and creating insightful and actionable group learning experiences.

Greg has led workshops with SunShower in Inclusive Leadership and has worked with our clients to aid them in the Enterprise roll-out of our eLearning courses.

Courses in the SunShower Library

Greg is developing a new course with SunShower to help white male allies gain skills to be champions for inclusion and equity.Ā 
New product coming soon!

Robin Denise Johnson, Ph.D. - Founder, RDJ Training

Robin Denise Johnson, Ph.D.

Founder, RDJ Training

Dr. Robin is a Harvard Business School trained Ph.D. and wrote an award-winning dissertation on diversity, work-life balance and empowerment.

Dr. Robinā€™s BA is in International Relations / World History from Brown University, and her Masters in Social Psychology is from Harvard. She was also faculty at Darden University of Virginia, Cal Poly Pomona and UCLA as well as a visiting professor at Ozyegin Business School in Istanbul, Turkey.

Dr. Robin has collaborated with SunShower on the series, Being a Kind Leader, which includes 3 modules - 6Ā Soft S.K.I.L.L.S.,Ā Developing Trust and Living Your Values (coming soon). The SKILLS and Trust courses have both won multiple awards.

Courses in the SunShower library

Be a Kind Leader: Six Soft S.K.I.L.L.S.
Being a Kind Leader: Developing Trust
Being a Kind Leader: Living Your Values

Debra L. Lacy, Ed.D.

Debra L. Lacy, Ed.D.

Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion TeamHealth

Dr. Debra Lacy is the Director of DEI at TeamHealth. Previously, she was Director of DEI at Texas Childrenā€™s Hospital and Assistant Director of the DEI Office at Liberty Mutual Insurance.

Debra received her Doctor of Education in Learning and Organizational Change from Baylor University. Her thesis, published, was on the impact of inclusive leadership on organizational culture.

Courses in the SunShower library

Debra and Joel collaborated to create the Inclusion in Action eLearning course that was used internally at Liberty Mutual to train more than 35,000 employees. Then they created the commercial version of Inclusion in Action that is available for any organization to use.

Debra and Joel are collaborating to create a new eLearning course, De-Mythifying DEI.
New product coming soon!

Yolanda Lewis

Yolanda Lewis-Ragland, M.D.

Attending Physician , Children's National Health Center

Dr. Yolanda Lewis-Ragland is a double-board-certified physician in pediatrics and obesity medicine, owner and CEO of Family Fitness and Wellness for Community Health, and founder of Dr. Yolanda Cares Foundation, her nonprofit organization focusing on reducing health disparities in at-risk communities at home and abroad.

For 20 years, Dr. Lewis-Ragland has lived and practiced in one of the poorest and most traumatized communities in the nationā€™s capital, gaining the trust and respect of residents and, more recently, actively addressing heart disease in African Americans through her annual Heart-to-Heart Red Carpet Affair.Ā  She has published, Navigating a Triple Pandemic: Healthcare Workers of Color Confront Racism in America, Health Disparities in Medicine, and the Trauma of COVID-19.
Dr. Lewis-Ragland is collaborating with SunShower to work on a new program,Ā Letā€™s Talk: Health Equity
New product coming soon!

Lisette Martinez, MBA - Executive Vice President for Inclusion, Diversity & Community Engagement, Thomas Jefferson University & Jefferson Health

Lisette Martinez, MBA

Chief Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Officer, National Audubon Society

As a fervent advocate for the transformative power of inclusion within enterprises, Lisette has launched and scaled award-winning DEI organizations and programs that align with the company's mission, vision and values. Throughout her career, she has successfully established, designed and led scalable, company-wide diversity models at renowned institutions such as Jefferson Health, Yale New Haven Health System and TriHealth, integrating DEI into their core infrastructures. Lisette has further demonstrated her commitment by creating supplier diversity, community partnership and leadership development initiatives aimed at increasing diverse spending and broadening organizational impact. Previously, she held the position of Executive Vice President and Chief DEI Officer at Jefferson Health, a 198-year-old legacy organization with 18 hospitals and 10 colleges with over 50,000 employees and students. Lisette was appointed by the National Audubon Society to spearhead efforts across the organization, integrating equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging (EDIB) practices seamlessly into the fabric of Audubonā€™s operations. Her role involves refining policies and procedures and championing data-driven change initiatives. Lisette collaborates closely with the Conservation and People and Culture teams to embed EDIB principles in Audubonā€™s conservation initiatives across the Western Hemisphere.

Courses in the SunShower library

DEI LEAP

Danita Oliver - VP, Global Diversity, Culture & Belonging

Danita Oliver

VP, Global Diversity, Culture & Belonging

As a seasoned builder of holistic strategies, Danita looks to drive change while expanding opportunities. She has extensive experience building and developing teams, strategic planning, goal setting and implementing effective grassroots employee programs.

As a strategic thought leader and culture architect, Danita focuses on cultivating diverse workforce engagement and environments where employees can experience belonging.

Danita is partnering with SunShower to develop a course on growing culture by planting one seed at a time - Culturvate for success.
New product coming soon!

Steve L. Robbins, Ph.D.

Steve L. Robbins, Ph.D.

Speaker, Author, Inclusion & Belonging Consultant, Founder SL Robbins & Assoc.

Dr. Steve Robbins is a master storyteller. He blends art and science to motivate people to be better humans. His style has been described as a mix of Bill Nye the Science Guy, The Big Bang Theory and Saturday Night Live.

Steve is well-known for his concept on Unintentional Intolerance which is featured in the SunShower course, Inclusion Insights. Our micro-learning course consists of 11 insight nuggets in which Steve tells stories and challenges our automatic assumptions.

Courses in the SunShower library

Inclusion Insights

Marsha Ross-Jackson, Esq., MPA - Founder, BoldWorks

Marsha Ross-Jackson, Esq., MPA

Senior Lecturer, Associate Dean of DEI and University Ombudsperson at Chicago-Kent College of Law. Founder, BoldWorks

Marsha is the Senior Lecturer, Associate Dean of DEI and University Ombudsperson at Chicago-Kent College of Law.

Marsha is also an experienced attorney, arbitrator, facilitator and consultant who provides training and advice on a variety of employee relations and leadership topics, including, diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

Marsha has delivered many live online trainings with SunShower in the areas of unconscious bias, microaggressions and inclusive hiring, consistently receiving rave reviews.

Derald Wing Sue, Ph.D. - Researcher, Author and Faculty, Teachers College Columbia University

Derald Wing Sue, Ph.D.

Researcher, Author and Faculty,
Teachers College, Columbia University

Dr. Sue is a pioneer in the field of multicultural education and the psychology of racism and antiracism.

Dr. Sue is one of the leading researchers and authors on microaggressions. Dr. Sueā€™s books include Microaggressions in Everyday Life, and Microintervention Strategies.

Dr. Sue collaborated with SunShower to produce Disarming Microaggressions and the 21-Day Plan for Disarming Microaggressions.

Courses in the SunShower library

Disarming Microaggressions
21-Day Plan for Disarming Microaggressions

Sondra Thiederman, Ph.D. - Speaker, Author, Founder of Cross Cultural Consultants

Sondra Thiederman, Ph.D.

Speaker, Author, Founder of Cross Cultural Consultants

Dr. Sondra Thiederman is one of the nationā€™s leading experts on unconscious bias and workplace inclusion issues.

Sondra is a researcher and speaker known for providing practical skills for defeating unconscious bias/implicit bias in the workplace.

Sondra collaborated with SunShower to create three powerful and award-winning courses that continue to be favorites today: Defeating Unconscious Bias, Diversity Dialogue Blunders, and Unconscious Bias in FOCUS.

Courses in the SunShower library

Unconscious Bias in FOCUS
Diversity Dialogue Blunders

Connie Watson, Ph.D. ā€” webinar co-leader and collaborator

Connie Watson, Ed.D.

Lead Consultant Watson & Assoc.

Dr. Connie Watson excels at getting the people side of your business right from building leadership capacity to increasing team performance.

Dr. Watson is a researcher and author of assessments focusing on the area of well-being and mental health.

Connie has been a frequent collaborator with SunShower for workshops and webinars on inclusive leadership, psychological safety, Ouch! and other topics.

Topics

SunShower addresses these topics (and more) in our eLearning courses, Trainerā€™s Toolbox materials and Live Webinars with experts:

  • Microaggressions and Psychological Safety
  • Unconscious Bias
  • Culture of Belonging: What gets in the way?
  • How to lead a multicultural team
  • Are your Hiring Practices Inclusive?
  • Inclusive leadership: Whatā€™s needed now
  • Stereotypes: How to speak up
  • Disability and accessibility
  • Preparing for DEI resistance

What sets us apart

Best-in-class eLearning

  • Self-paced, asynchronousĀ 
  • Interactive
    • Activities
    • Knowledge checks
    • ā€œWhat would you do?ā€ scenarios
  • Consistent training experience for each employeeĀ 
  • Scalable from 100 to 100,000Ā 
  • Plug & play SCORM on your LMS or SunShowerā€™s
  • Adherence to highest standards of accessibility
  • Personalized implementation support
  • HRCI CE-certified programs

Ā Learn more >Ā 

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