TEDxKelly Ingram Park, October 29, 2025 Topic: How to Address Cognitive Dissonance at Work
Dr. Tammy L. Hodo’s talk, “Cognitive Dissonance: The Hidden Barrier to Learning and Change,” examines how deeply rooted beliefs shape our ability to learn, adapt, and connect across differences. Drawing on psychology and sociology, she explains how the discomfort of holding conflicting ideas can block people from accepting new information—particularly around race, identity, and social systems. In a society still divided by neighborhoods, schools, and socioeconomic status, understanding cognitive dissonance is key to disrupting bias and supporting real growth.
Dr. Hodo invites audiences to confront inherited beliefs and embrace the tension of unlearning as a pathway to progress and inclusion. This talk was delivered at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but organized independently.
This question sits underneath every course we teach. You can't train someone out of a behavior if they don't believe there's a problem, and most workplace training fails on exactly that step. It's also why our catalog is built and evaluated against a national standard rather than assembled from slides.
Second Annual Racial Healing and Reconciliation Conference 2022
Keitha Nelson of First Costs News discusses the Second Annual Racial Healing and Reconciliation Conference with Dr. Tammy Hodo, President of All Things Diverse LLC. The theme of this years virtually conference is “The Blueprint for a Beloved Community”. Local and nationally recognized speakers and thought leaders participated in the event include Health Educator, Dr. Eric Griggs, Dr. Kaia Stern with Harvard Graduate School of Education, Founder of Beloved Streets America, Melvin White, Attorney Luther Wright and Jacksonville icons, Dr. Nathaniel Glover and Dr. Johnetta Cole.
TEDX Jacksonville, September 26, 2020 Topic: Small Great Conversations
As a biracial woman, Dr. Tammy Hodo has experienced two different Americas: one for whites and one for blacks. As a Ph.D. social scientist who studies the impacts the variables of race, class, ethnicity, and sex have on life chances, she has incredible insight into how to start the difficult dialogue about the irrelevance of enduring racial constructs.
In her 2019 TEDxJacksonville talk, The Social Implications of Race, she explored how, throughout history, perceptions of race have changed over time to justify who should have privilege and who should not. Like race, racial identity can also be fluid. But the social, political, and economic implications of race remain rigidly entrenched.
TEDX Jacksonville, October 19, 2019 Topic: Deconstructing Race
Race is a social — not a biological — construct. There is no gene or cluster of genes common to all blacks or all whites. Nevertheless, the concept of race has been used to create statuses and stratification. Throughout history, perceptions of race have changed over time to justify who should have privilege and who should not. Like race, racial identity can also be fluid. But the social, political, and economic implications of race remain rigidly entrenched.