Listen, not just hear.
Understand the organization in context before recommending anything.
About James & Palagn
Systems thinking. Human understanding.
James E. Page, Jr. founded Palagn Enhancement Strategies to help leaders connect how their organizations work with what the people inside them experience.
An unlikely path
From engineering to the executive table.
James began his career as an engineer at Dell. That training still shapes how he works: understand how the system works, find the friction and use evidence to improve it.
His work grew into global ethics, privacy, compliance and workforce strategy, and then into health care, academic medicine, higher education and global conservation. Along the way the questions became more human. How do people build trust? What helps leaders make better decisions? What has to change in an organization for people to do their best work?
He has served on the executive leadership teams of The Nature Conservancy, Johns Hopkins and Vanderbilt University. At The Nature Conservancy, he led a global function of about 40 people supporting roughly 6,000 employees in more than 80 countries, redesigned its operating model and decision rights, built employee-listening and dashboard systems, served on the executive team overseeing AI deployment and advised executives and board members on organizational health.
Through Palagn, he brings that experience directly to client engagements. Clients get the analytical discipline of an engineer and the judgment of someone who has been accountable for the result.
James’s leadership experience
- Executive leadership team
- Executive leadership team
- Executive leadership team
- Engineering & global workforce strategy
Experience
Selected leadership experience.
- The Nature ConservancyGlobal Head, Global Culture & Engagement (previously Chief Global DEI Officer) · Executive Leadership Team
- Vanderbilt UniversityVice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer · Executive leadership team
- Johns HopkinsVice President & Chief Diversity Officer, Johns Hopkins Medicine; Interim Vice Provost & Chief Diversity Officer, Johns Hopkins University · Executive leadership team
- Cincinnati Children’sAssistant Vice President, HR & Chief Diversity Officer
- DaVitaDirector, Human Resources, Talent Management, Diversity & Inclusion
- Lancaster General Health · now Penn MedicineVice President, HR, Inclusion and Linguistic Services
- DellEngineering Manager to Senior Manager, Diversity, Ethics, Privacy & Compliance
- Palagn Enhancement StrategiesFounder & Principal
Education: BS, Computer Technology, Purdue University (business minor); MBA, The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business; Senior Executive Leadership, Harvard University.
Recognition
- Becker’s Hospital Review: 15 Chief Diversity Officers to Know (2016)
- Becker’s Hospital Review: 50 Great African American Leaders in Health Care (2018) and 68 African American Leaders in Health Care (2019)
- Senior Executive Award (2017)
- Diversity Leader Award, Profiles in Diversity Journal (2018); Innovation in Diversity Award, multiple years
- Diversity Championship Awards: Ohio Diversity Council (2014) and National Diversity Council (2017)
- Diversity Achievement Award, Institute for Diversity in Health Management
Public service & boards
- Co-Chair, White House Forum on Excellence and Inclusion Through Diversity in the STEM Workforce
- Gubernatorial appointee, Pennsylvania Workforce Investment Board Leadership Council
- Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Corporate Advisory Committee and Health Disparities subcommittee
- Boards and advisory roles including United Way of Central Indiana, Baltimore Education Scholar Trust, ProKids, Brighton Center, YWCA Lancaster, Lancaster Chamber of Commerce and Milagro House
- Life member, National Black MBA Association
Voice & publications
- TEDx speaker
- Peer-reviewed co-author, including JAMA Surgery
- Featured by NPR, Becker’s Hospital Review, Insights into Diversity and The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education
- Contributor to TechRepublic and a Prentice Hall casebook
How Palagn works
What you can count on.
The principles behind every Palagn engagement, from a single workshop to a year of advisory work.
Start with the decision.
Data matters when it helps someone decide what to do next.
Tell the truth kindly.
Leaders hire Palagn for an honest outside view. They get one.
Leave capability behind.
Every engagement should leave your people more able to carry the work forward.
Let’s put experience to work.
Start with the challenge your organization is facing.