Dr. Naomi Ludeman’s colleagues and clients describe her as a polished professional with a keen and creative ability to listen and then deliver relevant training and coaching initiatives. She customizes DEIB strategies to meet the unique setting and goals while offering her 30 plus years of research and experience to pursue a measurable impact.
Committed to incorporating intercultural learning with leadership development, Naomi has worked with an array of organizations and levels of employees. She has advised, coached and trained mid-level managers, C-suite executives, non-profit boards, rural and agricultural innovators, higher education specialists, manufacturers’ HR specialists and team leads, faith-based leaders serving in urban, suburban and international settings, non-profit community development stakeholders, entrepreneurial professionals, and key regional leaders in Amman, Jordan. The foundation for her career is in higher education for 35 years as an administrator and professor of intercultural studies primarily at Bethel University (St. Paul, MN) in the Department of Socio-Cultural Studies.
Ludeman’s personal vision statement is to have an impact for peace and to be a champion for human dignity of all people.
Naomi has worked with Michael Carter and the IC Edge team and clients since 2019. IC Edge client work includes Blue Cross Blue Shield, Target Corporation, The Nature Conservancy, The Itasca Group, Genesys Works, Eureka Recycling, the Greater Mankato Inclusivity Study, Compass Capital, Minnehaha Academy, Concordia College, Ann Arbor District Library, and the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra.
An example of Naomi’s leadership and expertise was her initiative to design and administer a Bush Foundation grant-based program for the Aberdeen Area Diversity Coalition in Aberdeen, SD. This community intercultural leadership development program’s final outcome was to develop strategies to positively impact the community in the midst of demographic changes with the influx of immigration laborers and families. Another example is collaborating on a multi-partner team with IC Edge on a city-wide mixed-method research project to discover community members’ perspectives about inclusion of the city’s growing diversity and the barriers to address.
Active on the national stage, Ludeman’s notable invitations as a presenter and panelist have been at the Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign and the Islamic Society of North America Annual Convention, Houston; the American Islamic Congress Institute for Global Engagement and the Telos Group; the Northern State University Center for International Business Annual Conference; the Society for Intercultural Education, Training & Research-USA Annual Conferences; and President Obama’s White House Interfaith and Community Service Challenge Convening, Georgetown University. Recognized for her collaborative leadership and ability to bridge cultures, she participated as an invited member of the Middle East delegation to the National Prayer Breakfast, Washington, D.C.
Dr. Ludeman has provided professional leadership as a national board member for the Society of Intercultural Education, Training and Research (SIETAR-USA) with oversight of the Professional Development offerings. Currently she is an Executive Officer for the grassroots non-profit Pathways for Inclusive and Equitable Workplaces in Sioux Falls, SD. She is a Qualified Administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory® (IDI), the Intercultural Conflict Styles Inventory®. She is also a Gallup trained facilitator of the Clifton StrengthsFinder, introducing this tool to Bethel University.
She has been involved in community development partnerships in the U.S. and Ukraine and has lived in Jordan where she designed curriculum, won clients and trained Jordanians for Global Professionals, LLC. She has studied and directed programs in Ukraine, Jordan, Ireland, New Zealand, Dominican Republic, Argentina, Paraguay, Guatemala, Malaysia, Thailand, China, and India.
Dr. Ludeman holds several degrees: a B.A. in Communication Studies, an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership and Curriculum Development, an M.A. in Global Studies, and a D.Min. in Global and Contextual Leadership from Bethel University and Seminary. In addition, she earned the Intercultural Foundations and the Intercultural Practitioner certificates from the Intercultural Communication Institute where she also served as a Fellow. Ludeman is ordained by the Federation of Christian Ministries for ministry as a chaplain in clinical health settings.
Her published scholarship is in the areas of intercultural training, contextual leadership development, the intersection of intercultural and worldview development and intercultural ethics. Her publications include The Spiritual Cross-Cultural Sojourn: Seeking the Sacred and Peace With Others (2008); “Preparing Professional Interculturalists for Interfaith Collaboration” in The Changing World Religion Map (Spring Publishing, 2014); “(Re)Considering a Critical Ethnorelative Worldview Goal and Pedagogy for Global and Biblical Demands in Christian Higher Education” in the Christian Scholars’ Review (Summer, 2013); and co-editor and contributor to Eye on Ethics: A Conversation for Intercultural Professionals (SIETAR-USA, 2012).