Freada Kapor Klein

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Freada Kapor Klein, Ph.D. (born 1952) is a pioneer in the field of organizational development and human resources and diversity consulting, as co-founder of the first organization in the U.S. to offer comprehensive services, training, and consultation on the topic of sexual harassment to both the private and public sectors in 1976 . Afterward, she became the first director of Employee Relations for Lotus Development Corporation, before founding her own research, training, and consulting firm, Klein Associates, Inc., in 1987. Klein also frequently served as an expert witness on gender discrimination and sexual harassment.

[edit] Career

Klein now devotes the majority of her time to work in the non-profit world. In 2001 she founded the Level Playing Field Institute, a non-profit which promotes innovative approaches to fairness in higher education and workplaces by removing barriers to full participation. While serving on the Executive Board of the College of Letters and Science at the University of California, Berkeley, Klein co-founded the IDEAL Scholars Fund with three other board members in 2000. IDEAL invests in high-caliber, underrepresented students at Berkeley by providing resources and support to maximize their educational experiences and leadership opportunities during college and beyond. The fund was established in response to California Proposition 209.

Klein’s for-profit and non-profit endeavors include the design and execution of several landmark studies, including: an annual survey of quality of worklife issues in Internet start-ups, a survey of Fortune 500 manufacturing and service firms to determine the effectiveness of corporate efforts to address sexual harassment, a survey of gender bias and sexual harassment experienced by Massachusetts physicians and medical students, survey projects for the United Nations and World Bank on various forms of harassment, and a national representative survey of U.S. employers and employees on their perceptions of fairness in the workplace.

Klein is quoted extensively by the media. She has been interviewed for numerous publications, including: Business Week, the Chicago Tribune, Forbes, Fortune, the Harvard Business Review, the Los Angeles Times, the The National Law Journal, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Television appearances include: "The Today Show," "NBC Nightly News," "Prime Time Live," "Nightline," "The MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour," "20/20," "CBS This Morning," and "Good Morning America."

Klein received her undergraduate degree in criminology from UC Berkeley in 1974, and her Ph.D. in social policy and research from the Heller School at Brandeis University in 1984, with a Social Science Research Council fellowship for the study of sexual harassment in federal government employment.

Klein and her husband, Mitchell Kapor, live in San Francisco, California.

[edit] References

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