Built on Belief.
Driven By Experience.
Grounded in Science.
Common Ground Institute exists at the intersection of academic rigor, lived experience, and legal reality. We are not a compliance checkbox. We are committed to something better.
"Justice is an idea that relies on the beholder to apply. Everyone deserves a first and second chance at equal opportunities."
Emma Doull, Founder
Our Mission
To give a voice to those who need one, and to give every organization the tools to treat every person they encounter with consistency, fairness, and dignity.
Common Ground Institute was founded on the belief that bias is not a character flaw. It is a condition, inherited, unexamined, and invisible to the person carrying it until someone helps them see it. Our mission is to close the gap between intention and impact, one organization at a time. We serve law enforcement, corporations, and community safety organizations because bias does not stay in its lane. Neither do we.
What Common Ground Institute Stands For
Our Values
Belief in People
Most people are not malicious. They are untrained. CGI is built on the conviction that people, given the right tools and the courage to use them, are capable of real and lasting change.
Comfort and Discomfort
Growth does not happen in comfortable rooms. CGI creates the conditions where people can sit with what is hard long enough to come out better on the other side. That is where real change lives
Science Over Assumption
Every CGI program is rooted in peer-reviewed social psychology research. We do not teach opinion or ideology. We teach what the evidence says about why bias happens and what actually reduces it.
Equity Through Accountability
Real fairness is not just a feeling. It is a documented, measurable standard. CGI builds the certification and reporting structure that holds organizations accountable to the standard they committed to.
Bias Has No Boundaries
Bias does not stay in its lane, and neither do we. CGI serves every organization whose people interact with the public because the need for fairness does not belong to any single industry.
Fierce Loyalty to Community
CGI is not a vendor that disappears after a contract is signed. We are fiercely loyal to the communities our work is meant to protect. That loyalty is the reason this organization exists.
These are not aspirational statements. They are the principles that shape every program we build and every room we walk into.
What Makes Us different
Why CGI is not like every other training program
The market is full of one-day workshops and generic online modules. CGI was built from a different place entirely, and that difference shows up in every program we deliver.
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Peer-reviewed research on prejudice reduction shows that one-time interventions produce little to no long-term behavioral change. CGI uses ongoing quarterly training because the science demands it, not because it is better for revenue.
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Our founder has worked in employment and business law on both sides of discrimination matters. We understand exactly where training could have prevented a lawsuit because we have seen the lawsuits that training did not prevent.
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A police department, a Fortune 500 company, and a private security firm do not need the same training. Every CGI program is built around the specific culture, risk exposure, and compliance requirements of your organization.
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CGI was founded by someone who has been on the receiving end of assumptions her entire life. That perspective is not decorative. It is the lens through which every program is designed and every room is entered.
Meet the Founder
Emma Doull is the founder of Common Ground Institute, a Tampa-based training organization dedicated to reducing implicit bias through science-backed, culturally grounded education. A graduate of Eckerd College with a degree in anthropology and a minor in Spanish, Emma's academic foundation is built on the scientific study of human culture, behavior, and the systems that shape how we see one another.
Her education spans multiple continents. She completed immersive study abroad programs in both Seville, Spain, and Buenos Aires, Argentina. She volunteered directly with children with disabilities in South America, navigating communication barriers across language, culture, and disability at the same time. These experiences gave her a fluency in cultural differences that no classroom alone can teach.
Holding CITI certification in human subjects research, Emma approaches bias training with the rigor of someone trained to understand people ethically and scientifically. Her pre-law track and psychology-focused studies bridge the gap between why bias happens and what it costs. That gap became personal in her work in employment and business law, where she has served as a legal assistant, intake specialist, and case manager on discrimination matters from both sides of the table. She has heard the complaints. She has helped build the defenses. And she understands better than most exactly where early intervention could have changed the outcome.
Before her legal work, Emma spent years as a home health aide, sitting with clients at the end of their lives, navigating healthcare systems, and building real relationships across age, background, and circumstance. She has worked with individuals across every spectrum of ability, culture, and life experience. That human depth is embedded in everything CGI does.
As a Mexican-American woman who was adopted, Emma does not study bias from a distance. She has lived with the weight of other people's assumptions her entire life. That lived experience, combined with her academic training, legal exposure, and cross-cultural fluency, is what makes CGI different from every other training program in the room.
Our Global Experience
A Cross-Cultural Foundation
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Full-semester study abroad program. Language immersion and cross-cultural academic study in a Spanish-speaking environment.
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CITI-certified human subjects research training. Conducted and interpreted anthropological data with academic rigor and ethical responsibility.
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Volunteer abroad program working directly with children with disabilities. Navigating communication barriers across language, culture, and disability simultaneously.
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Years of direct care work with clients across age, ability, background, and circumstance. Built real relationships across every kind of human difference
A note from the founder
"I did not start Common Ground Institute because it was a good business idea. I started it because I have never been able to look away and because assumptions have shaped my life in ways I never chose. I am a woman. I am adopted. I am Mexican-American. And because of those things, people have let their assumptions become biases, whether they meant to or not. But I have always believed in people and that belief is exactly what CGI is built on."
"What drives CGI is a simple belief: that most people are not malicious. They are untrained. Bias is inherited, unexamined, and invisible to the person carrying it until it isn't. I have spent years watching that play out from every angle, in case files, in courtrooms, in communities, and in my own life. And I have come to understand that the gap between intention and impact is exactly where the most preventable harm lives."
"I have always believed that you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable and that is exactly what this work asks of all of us. Not to be perfect, but to be willing. To sit with what is hard long enough to come out better on the other side. This is not about calling anyone out. It is about helping people see what they cannot yet see and giving organizations the tools to close that gap before it costs someone everything. That belief in people, in their capacity to grow, to see, and to change, is the common ground we are always looking for."
— Emma Doull, Founder
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