Trudy Bayer is an educator, researcher and political advocate who writes about cultural diversity and inclusion, a topic she has explored for decades. She holds graduate degrees in philosophy from the University of Louvain, Belgium and a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Pittsburgh. Her research has been published in various academic journals and her personal essays in a range of publications, including Newsweek, Ms. Magazine, The Fulcrum and the Friends Journal. She has held several academic appointments and in 2001 became the founding director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Oral Communication Lab. Trudy is a native of Southwestern Pennsylvania and currently resides in Pittsburgh — “The Paris of Appalachia.”