The Village That Made Me

About Dr.BGC

I'm Dr. Byron Anthony Green-Calisch; most people call me Dr. BGC.

Long before I led anything, somebody village'd me first. I grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina, raised by a mother who sacrificed more times than I can count to make sure I had the best education available. I got where I am on the strength of a village that chose to show up for me. That's not a sentimental detail — it's the whole thesis of my work: to have a village, you must be a good villager.

The Turn

A question that became a dissertation.

I found my way into research and teaching almost by accident. Early in my doctoral program, videos of Black people dying at the hands of police began flooding the news. My faculty didn't address it in class. I was left to figure out how to support my students while processing it myself, and I started to wonder whether other educators were navigating the same silence. That question became my dissertation, When They See YOU a study of how faculty at predominantly white institutions and HBCUs choose to become multiculturally competent, or don't. It's where my life's work came into focus: how do people actually lead well, and what does it cost when the system was never built for them?

THE ROOMS I'VE BEEN IN

Executive, educator, organizer.

I'm an Executive Systems Coach, Equity Strategist, and Civic Educator. I'm an ICF Professional Certified Coach with a Doctor of Education (EdD) in Adult Education from North Carolina State University.

As Executive Vice President of People & Culture at PRX, a national public media organization, I lead the full people and culture function and partner with the CEO, senior leadership, and board. That work included a culture and governance redesign that lifted employee engagement 20% and internal promotions 15%.

I'm Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Justice Over Everything, a civic education and capacity-building organization built on four commitments: Joy, Education, Advocacy, and Support. I'm faculty and an executive coach with the Center for Creative Leadership in St. Petersburg and adjunct faculty in Inclusion, Diversity & Equity at Southern New Hampshire University.

I served as Board President of St. Pete Pride, Florida's largest LGBTQ+ organization, from 2021 to 2026, including a stint as Interim Executive Director. Pride draws 300K+ participants a year.

Certified instruments

Assessments I'm certified to administer and debrief

  • Conflict Dynamics Profile

  • Influence Style Indicator

  • Entrepreneur Mindset Profile

  • Leading Managers 360

  • Maximizing Leadership Potential 360

Publications

Green, B., et al. (2022). Faculty decision making on diversity and inclusion. NACTA Journal, 66(1).

Green, B. (2019). When They See YOU. Doctoral dissertation comparing the experiences of faculty at PWIs and HBCUs related to multicultural competence. North Carolina State University.

WHY I BUILT THIS PRACTICE

I watched too many brilliant, over-performing leaders, especially Black women and queer leaders, internalize systemic exposure as personal failure. That's not a problem you fix with confidence tips. So I built work that treats it as structural: naming the glass cliff, mapping the exposure, and building durability that survives contact with a real, biased, volatile market.

WHAT I BELIEVE

  • Equity isn't a program. It's infrastructure.

  • Rest isn't a reward for surviving. It's a condition for leading well.

  • Burnout isn't a personal failing. It's a shared crisis.

    No one is truly free until all of us are.

To have a village, you must be a good villager.

Helping mission-driven leaders and organizations build, grow, and win in hostile spaces.

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