ABOUT US
Founded in 2016, Avant Consulting Group is a Black queer woman-owned consulting company specializing in influencing organizations to achieve equity within their institutions and in collaboration with the broader community.
Our collective of academics, experiential experts, health professionals, sociologists, adventure therapists, healers, burnout recovery coaches, anthropologists, historians, social workers, and communication scholars assist organizations with building a just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive workplace, workforce, and society.
WHO WE SERVE
Avant Consulting Group contracts with institutions such as universities, pharmacy educators, health centers and systems, public school districts, banks, nonprofits, tech companies, home fitness companies, healthcare advocacy centers, public health departments, pediatric hospitals, state agencies, physicians and more.
We operationalize our own equity research and other evidence-based methods to facilitate challenging conversations and minimize defensiveness
CONSULTANTS
CURRICULUM VITAE
VIEW HERE
DR. NICOLE AVANT
PROFESSOR
PHARMACIST
SOCIAL JUSTICE EDUCATOR
NATIONAL SPEAKER
RESEARCHER
FIERCE ADVOCATE
HEALTH-EQUITY MINDED
Dr. Avant is a licensed and board-certified ambulatory care pharmacist. Previously, she served as the clinical assistant professor and chief diversity officer for the University of Cincinnati College of Pharmacy where she was hired as the first Black woman faculty member and the only Black faculty member at the 4th oldest college of pharmacy in the nation.
Dr. Avant is a scholar who pushes for health equity through structural competence, pleasure activism, joy, and relaxation. Dr. Avant wants to be known as a scholarly and pleasure activist advocating for the rights of minoritized groups especially in the context of health.
Through professional and personal experiences, Dr. Avant realizes that for true equity to be achieved, we must first become aware of our own positionality in systems of power and work to deconstruct ideologies, values, and norms assumed in US culture. Simultaneously, we must utilize radical self-love, rest, relaxation, pleasure, and communities of care as tools to resist oppression.
EDUCATION
SKILLS
Active-learner facilitator
Create brave spaces for individuals to engage in inter-group dialogue
Facilitate "eye-opening" activities promoting self-awareness
Critical Thinker
High-energy
University of Illinois at Chicago - College of Pharmacy
2008 - 2012
Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.), Magna Cum Laude, Pharmacy
Societies: Rho Chi Honor Society, Phi Lambda Sigma Leadership Society
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - College of Business
1998 - 2001
Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Finance with Honors
THE TEAM
SERVICES
01
Education and Training
02
1:1 and Group Coaching
03
Listening Sessions
04
Consultations to Shape Engagement
05
Assessments of problems and Customizable interventions
06
Building and maintaining communities of care
07
Leadership Development
08
Presentations and Keynotes
WE BELIEVE
Avant Group believes that all communities deserve access to good health through accessible transportation, affordable housing, accurate and comprehensive education, nourishing foods, high income, safety, dignity, belonging, healing, liberation, pleasure, community building, and many other factors.
Communities most impacted by inequities hold the answers for healthier communities.
Consequently to achieve this vision, institutions must work to build coalitions and BIPOC-led alliances to end inequities. Avant Group utilizes data, collaborations, education, listening sessions, focus groups, and innovative community interventions to implement strategies for healthy workplaces and communities.
ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION
Transformation is hard. While many organizations possess the desire to change, anxiety, fear, guilt, denial, burying harm, abusive dynamics, and lack of trust are barriers to transformation.
Avant Group supports organizations with anti-oppressive, health equity, and racial equity work via enhancing accountability, trust, safety, and emotional regulation in the workplace.
By partnering with Avant Group, organizations can expect to:
Interrupt cycles of inequities
Identify and disrupt abusive dynamics at work
Challenge racism in every policy, process, and action
Incorporate transformative justice
Build trust via accountability and transparency
Enhance capacity for supervisors to change
INDIVIDUAL TRANSFORMATION
Radical acceptance of self is necessary and vital for liberation.
What we envision for the world, our organizations, our communities, our families must start with us.
Accepting and honoring our personalities, bodies, imperfections, and truths cultivates a loving-self relationship which in turn cultivates loving relationships with others. Systems of power require disconnection and hierarchies. Healing relationships is a key strategy to disrupting systems of power.
By partnering with Avant Group, individuals can expect to:
Resist systems of power pleasurably and restfully
Enhance self-trust and interpersonal trust
Move towards acceptance of their bodies
Practice radical honesty and prioritize their truth
Create healing and
self-love
De-shame pleasure
FEATURED CLIENTS
QUOTES FROM CLIENTS
Very impressive on how much ease you have guiding difficult conversation. Very interesting group discussion!
I appreciate the environment you all created and the entire energy from the start was amazing.
The presenter was very funny and made a very hard topic easier to talk about.
Amazing presentation! Thank you so much for speaking!
NEWS
SPEAKING
ENGAGEMENTS
2018 Ohio Women's Conference
2018 Ohio Healthcare Diversity Summit
2017 Ohio Women's Conference
2016 Cincinnati Diversity Healthcare Summit Council
University of South Florida College of Pharmacy
Greater Cincinnati of Health-Systems Pharmacists
Rosalind College of Pharmacy
American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy
Student National Pharmaceutical Association
National Association of Minority Medical Educators
UC College of Allied Health
University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy
University of Cincinnati Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning
University of Cincinnati College of Pharmacy
Association of Black Sociologists
National Pharmaceutical Assocation
FEATURES
UC College of Pharmacy Faculty Focus
WCPO Cincinnati
Cincinnati Business Courier
Cincinnati Public Radio
NPhA Express
Cradle Cincinnati
DR. AVANT'S AWARDS &
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy 2017 Rising Star
YWCA 2017 Rising Star
University of Cincinnati Darwin T. Turner Champion Awards
University of Cincinnati Black Faculty Association Awards
ASHP Statement on the Role of Pharmacy Technicians
LINKS
Cradle Cincinnati: 2018 infant mortality rate improves but remains far higher for black babies
Tiny Life Lost: Can Hope, Community Help Keep Hamilton County’s Babies Alive?
Commentary: What Infant Mortality in Hamilton County Looks Like Up Close
This Week’s Top Stories Span from Dayton, Ohio, to Cincinnati’s West End
Does Racial Bias Exist in Pharmacy? Educators Lay the Foundation for Change
Trans 101: A Guide to Understanding Gender Identity and Expression