Eric Polite II

Eric Polite joined Toyota Motor North America in 2016 after more than 15 years of working in and consulting with schools and nonprofits to welcome and leverage the benefits of diversity. As a skilled facilitator and social justice educator, Eric is adept at building relationships of trust and commitment that advance dialogue across lines of difference on issues that are provocative, emotion-laden, and/or deeply personal.

As an experienced diversity strategist, he develops and implements processes of organizational change for improving the climate for diversity and unleashing all of the human potential that exists in every human system. Eric employs his passion for individual and organizational transformation through strategic learning and leadership development in his current role as manager of Toyota’s Diversity & Inclusion Academy.

Eric is a native of North Carolina and recently moved to Texas after spending the better part of his adult years in cooler Northeast locales including Washington, D.C., Brooklyn, N.Y., and Providence, R.I. He currently lives in McKinney, Tex., with his wife, Kaycee, and daughter, Hayven. Eric received his undergraduate degree from Bucknell University (in sociology and history) and pursued graduate studies at the University of Maryland (in higher education administration) and Case Western Reserve University (in positive organizational development). When he is not trying to transform lives and dismantle systems of oppression, Eric enjoys reading, playing basketball, traveling, and anything that involves good food, friends, and music.