Carmen Van Kerckhove [pronounced Van Kurr-Cove], president of the diversity education firm New Demographic, specializes in working with corporations to facilitate relaxed, authentic, and productive conversations about race. She has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, and has visited as a guest lecturer at Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia, among many other colleges and universities across the country. She reaches over a quarter million people each month through her award-winning blogs, podcast, and newsletters.

New Demographic is a diversity education firm dedicated to promoting relaxed, authentic, and productive conversations about race. They offer speaking, training, and executive coaching services to those organizations ready to go beyond Diversity 101 and jump-start a real conversation about race.

Carmen is of mixed Chinese and Belgian heritage. She was born and mostly raised in Hong Kong, but also spent much of her childhood living in Shanghai and Belgium. Carmen graduated from Columbia University with a BA in Political Science. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband.

Some of Carmen Van Kerckhove’s many audiences include Humana, Korn/Ferry, Dallas Human Resource Management Association, Poynter Institute Diversity in the Digital Age Conference, BlogHer Business Conference, National Association of Independent Schools, Harvard University, Princeton University, Columbia University, and many more.

Speaking Topics

Carmen Van Kerckhove is available to speak on the topics below:

• Beyond Diversity Buzzwords: It’s Time for a Real Conversation About Race
• All Mixed Up? Myths and Realities About Biracial and Multiracial People
• Love and Sex: What’s Race Got to Do With It?
• Racialicious! When Race and Pop Culture Collide

Formats

Carmen Van Kerckhove works with in a variety of formats:

• Keynotes
• Breakout sessions
• Discussion panels
• Lunch ‘n learn seminars
• Half- and full-day workshops
• Teleseminars and webinars

Rave Reviews

Here are testimonials from just a few of Carmen Van Kerckhove’s past clients:

“A fresh, new perspective on an old topic”
Carmen brings a fresh, new perspective to a topic we’ve been talking about for 25 to 30 years. She has a very good way of convincing audiences that there’s a different and better way of looking at diversity. Most of the people on our diversity committee are of an older generation. They’re not really in tune with how younger people see things. But Carmen was able to bring a very wide perspective that spanned across demographic groups, across diversity classifications, younger people, older people, different racial backgrounds. She also has a unique ability to present ideas in a way that makes you think about them yourself, instead of being told what you’re supposed to think. I would definitely recommend Carmen as a speaker. I was just thrilled to have her there.
Robin M. Babcock
Diversity Conference Chair, Dallas Human Resource Management Organization

“A fabulous asset for any organization”
The one thing that sets Carmen apart from other diverse leaders I’ve heard in the past is her ability to relate to our Gen Y audience. They identify with Carmen because she represents that younger generation in every way, from her voice, to her communication style, to the media and technology she uses (blogs, podcasts). Carmen is so versatile: she can represent the Asian-American community, she can represent biracial people, but she also has the ability to speak to many different generations. I think that makes her a fabulous asset for any organization trying to educate and inform their people on best practices in diversity.
Sheila Robinson
Publisher, Diversity Woman Magazine

“A proactive, affirming and transforming experience”
She was able to engage the audience no matter what their age or racial, ethnic background and make us see that having conversations about race need not put us in a defensive mood. It can be a proactive, affirming and transforming experience. I was so taken with her presentation and her approach in talking about race, that I’ve asked the leadership of our association for future staff development with Carmen on race in the workplace. It’s rare to find someone with her caliber of understanding, her depth of understanding, her experience, and her fresh approach.
Gene Batiste
Vice President of Leadership Education and Diversity, National Association of Independent Schools