Yvonne Alston

Yvonne Alston has long been an impassioned advocate for exploring cultural influences in organizations and workplaces. But the change in social justice awareness in recent years lit a brighter spark in her to do more to affect how people and organizations view their employees and diversity, equity, and inclusion, known as DEI.

In 2020, Yvonne left her corporate career and launched Indelible Impressions Consulting, a DEI firm that supports organizations as they seek to better understand the role culture and cultural differences play in their systems and everyday engagements. In her corporate life, she was a resounding voice on workplace culture, but the convergence of the pandemic, social injustices, and the deaths of loved ones, made her change course.

“I had spent so many years in corporate, wondering why I didn’t feel completely fulfilled. I was doing really well. But there was a part of me that felt ‘I want to do more, I need to do more.’ "

Her business, she says, isn’t work, it’s a way of living and seeing the world through the lens of equity and inclusion. She makes “indelible impressions” by embracing difference and helping to heal polarization and barriers with information, compassion and empathy.

Yvonne and her team work with a broad spectrum of organizations, both public and private, to help them advance important conversations, education and training so they can better understand the importance of culture and its impact on the human experience. Doing so can lead to finding the “hidden figures” within workplace systems, those people who might be overlooked by leadership, even marginalized by the culture of the workplace, but who have untapped potential and experience to share. It can also help put an end to emotional harm committed by toxic leaders, and eliminate marginalizing behaviors; some that fly under the radar and others that are simply not addressed.

“Indelible Impressions is very much focused on having conversations that expand peoples’ heads and hearts—even if uncomfortable, to get to a better place of understanding and wider acceptance. The relationship between employees and leaders has historically been a transactional engagement. But everyone has inherent value as a human being, well beyond what they do within their workplace role, and organizations have a responsibility to acknowledge that they should do their best to do no harm.”

While there’s a culture in every organization, there’s also a subculture, she adds.

“These are the things people don’t talk about out loud, likely because they’re fearful of retaliation of some sort. That’s why we really get under the hood of all that and get to what’s really going on so we can tell organizations where their greatest gaps and opportunities are, and help them get to work closing them.

"This includes championing what they’re doing really and highlighting what needs work. It’s never to blame or shame. Our goal is to elicit productive emotions and encourage folks to learn more about themselves and their fellow humans.”

The company harnesses the personal and professional experiences of its nine consultants. They who work across the country, in California, Colorado, and states along the Eastern seaboard.

Named a Top 25 Women in Business in 2022 by the Hartford Business Journal, Yvonne is a member of the West Hartford Chamber of Commerce’s Minority Business Network, where she champions the successes and needs of minority and women-owned businesses. She was also named the chamber’s Entrepreneur of the Year for 2022.

To learn more about Indelible Impressions Consulting, visit Indelible-consulting.com.