Teaching others how to build inclusive workplaces in the US – and across the world
US Catalyst Executive Director Kelly Montes’s passion for and dedication to diversity, equity and inclusion and her work leading a team for the largest segment in Catalyst’s portfolio showcases why she was chosen as a 2024 Women Worth Watching® award winner. As a DEI champion and relationship builder, Kelly is helping drive gender equity through workplace inclusion and transforming workplaces across the US in the process. Under her leadership, dozens of relationship managers serve as thought partners on issues of diversity, equity and inclusion for nearly 300 US companies.
Kelly is also a trusted expert on DEI in corporate America and beyond. She speaks frequently on inclusive leadership, empathy, ERG best practices, sponsorship, and allyship to corporate audiences. Her belief that finding solutions to today’s challenges requires courageous conversations, curiosity and intentional bridge building across cultures shows up clearly when she leads public discussions on industry stages and serves as an expert source for media.
Kelly’s team leadership and her expertise as a trusted advisor to executives on how to build respectful, rewarding, inclusive companies certainly make her a Woman Worth Watching®. With over two decades of leadership experience, Kelly has worked with Fortune 500 companies, leading CEOs, foreign governments, and institutions of higher education to develop inclusive workplaces, global competency, and conduct research for connection across peoples and cultures. The underpinning of her work has been connecting across differences, whether via her time and work in Inner Mongolia, China, while hosting heads of state for diplomatic dialogue, or training executives on how to be inclusive leaders.
Kelly currently oversees the largest segment for the Catalyst portfolio–the US. Her regionally based team serves as thought partners for nearly 300 U.S. supporter organizations, embedding research, tools, and solutions to build inclusive workplaces from the frontline to the C-suite. Kelly frequently speaks on inclusive leadership, empathy, ERG best practices, sponsorship, and allyship; during her time with Catalyst, she has delivered over 100 speaking engagements.
Kelly is a Fulbright Scholar as well as a Young Sinologist, a fellowship awarded by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. She is a champion for fostering inclusion and cultural understanding and believes both the challenges and solutions for the 21st century require courageous conversations, curiosity and intentional bridge building across cultures and peoples.
