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Kaleel Jamison was a true pioneer, not just in the field of differences, but in management consulting, organization development, human relations, and personal growth.
She was raised in an era in which women in positions of power and influence were a rarity in business and people's roles and expectations were defined by gender and race. Through her marriage to Bill Jamison, a well-regarded corporate leader who attended professional development workshops, Kaleel had the opportunity to participate in the "spouses' programs" that accompanied Bill's executive training sessions.
In the late 1960s she began running workshops on the differences in communication styles between women and men in her local church in Cincinnati. She was especially vocal in challenging the notion that women should make themselves appear smaller and less significant so men could feel larger and more significant.
Kaleel was a staunch believer in self-empowerment and the empowerment of others. "By being more of myself, I am able to share more of me with you."
In the early 1970s she became one of the first to address differences of color and race in the workplace when she consulted to Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, and Digital Equipment Company.
In 1983, Kaleel wrote "Managing Sexual Attraction in the Workplace," which was published in the August issue of Personnel Administrator. She was one of the first management consultants to address sexual attraction as a workplace issue. Kaleel was also a pioneer in applying Organization Development technology to Affirmative Action and issues of differences.
She was one of the first to expand the scope of this work beyond the classroom and training site and position it as a system-wide issue that is rooted not just in individual skills and attitudes, but in organizational policies, practices, and managerial methods. Kaleel believed that engaging workforce differences as a springboard to higher organizational performance was not only a training issue, but also an organizational opportunity that required total systems change.
Kaleel spent the last fifteen years of her working life as "one of the first" and "one of the few" in many areas. In addition to being a pioneer on issues of gender, race, Affirmative Action, and differences, she was also one of the first and few women to work as a management consultant. Shortly before dying of cancer in 1985, Kaleel published a book that summarized many of her views on human relations and personal development, The Nibble Theory and the Kernel of Power (Paulist Press), which has sold more than 160,000 copies.
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