July14, 2026

Dr. Malasri Chaudhery-Malgeri

Topic:

When DEI Isn't Enough: Psychological Safety as the Missing Layer

Description:

This course explores psychological safety as a necessary layer for making diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts meaningful, actionable, and sustainable. Participants will examine why DEI initiatives can stall when organizations focus on representation and policy without building the relational

conditions for truth-telling, trust, repair, and integration.

The course will introduce psychological safety as a workplace and leadership condition that allows people to speak honestly, raise concerns, ask questions, name harm, and participate fully without fear

of humiliation, retaliation, or loss of belonging. Participants will also explore intersectionality, identity load, emotional culture, microaggressions, micro-affirmations, and real-time repair strategies. Special attention will be given to the role of leaders, HR professionals, EAP providers, consultants, and organizational influencers in creating environments where difference is not merely included, but genuinely integrated into practice.

Goals:

1. By the end of the presentation, participants will be able to describe how psychological safety strengthens DEI efforts by moving organizations from symbolic inclusion toward trust, voice, repair, and integration.
2. By the end of the presentation participants will be able to explain how intersectionality, identity load, and emotional culture influence emplyee belonging, participation, and willingness to speak honestly.
3. By the end of the presentation, participants will be able to identify microaggressions and apply practical repair language to respond to harm in real time.
4. By the end of the presentation participants will be able to identify observable leadership, EAP, and organizational practices that support psychological safety and reduce silence, avoidance, and performative inclusion.

Objectives:

1. Participants will be able to name two aspects of psychological safety and distinguish it from general comfort, avoidance of accountability, or surface-level inclusion.
2. Participants will be able to identify at least three ways identity load may appear in workplace interactions, meetings, supervision, or organizational culture.
3. Participants will be able to analyze a workplace microaggression by identifying what was said, what it communicated, who may carry the cost, and what type of repair is appropriate.
4. Participants will be able to apply the SAFER micro-repair model to a workplace scenario and name one instance of harm, one instance of minimization, or one instance of exclusion.
5. Participants will be able to develop one practical 30-day action step to make psychological safety more observable in a team, leadership meeting, EAP consultation, or organizational setting.

Bio:

Dr. Malasri “Mala” Chaudhery-Malgeri is an executive leader, psychologist, and strategist who helps organizations and high-performing individuals turn complexity into clear, repeatable outcomes. She operates at the intersection of behavioral science, clinical quality, and program execution—translating human motivation and real-world constraints into systems that improve adoption, performance, and trust. Her work spans executive leadership and advisory roles across tech-enabled healthcare and behavioral health, with a focus on outcomes strategy, measurement frameworks, and “connection-to-care” design that reduces friction from first interest to next-step action.

A sought-after speaker and panelist, Dr. Mala brings a rare blend of boardroom fluency and clinical depth. She speaks on Blueprint to Bridge leadership (turning strategy into delivery), workplace optimization and burnout prevention, behavior design for follow-through, recovery literacy (outcomes plus storytelling), clinical quality as a differentiator, rural systems of care, and intergenerational trauma and family systems. Known for an engaging, direct style—equal parts rigorous and human—she equips audiences with

practical frameworks, language, and tools they can apply immediately.

Dr. Mala’s expertise includes trauma and stress-related conditions (including PTSD),

rehabilitation-focused psychology, military-informed care, performance and resilience,

relationship and family systems, and integrative approaches that draw from both Western psychology and Eastern philosophy. Whether addressing executives, clinicians, educators, or community leaders, she is committed to making progress measurable, culture actionable, and care more accessible—building the bridge from intent to impact.

Outline

Main Point 1: DEI can open the door, but psychological safety determines who can speak honestly once they are inside.

Main Point 2: Inclusion is not the same as integration; integration means people’s perspectives shape decisions, norms, and practices.

Topic B: Interpersonal Risk, Intersectionality, and Identity Load

Main Point 1: Psychological safety is shaped by whether people can tell the truth without losing belonging, credibility, safety, or opportunity.

Main Point 2: Intersectionality and identity load create layered risks that influence voice, silence, overperformance, emotional labor, and withdrawal.

Topic C: Emotional Culture and the Hidden Rules of Belonging

Main Point 1: Organizations communicate what emotions can be named, challenged, repaired, grieved, or ignored.

Main Point 2: Silence, politeness, or calm should not be mistaken for trust.

Topic D: Microaggressions and Real-Time Repair

Main Point 1: Microaggressions are not “small” when they are repeated, tied to power, or left unrepaired.

Main Point 2: Repair is where trust is either rebuilt or quietly forfeited.

Topic E: The SAFER Micro-Repair Model

Main Point 1: Participants will learn to Stop the drift, Acknowledge impact, Find the person, Explore the pattern, and Repair forward.

Main Point 2: Repair requires moving beyond intent defense and toward dignity, accountability, and changed behavior.

Topic F: Leadership, EAP Practice, and Observable Safety

Main Point 1: Leaders and EAP professionals can support individuals while also noticing the organizational roots of distress.

Main Point 2: Psychological safety becomes measurable through voice, trust, repair, belonging,retention, and follow-through.