Showing posts with label diversity officer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diversity officer. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
White supremacist to be sentenced in Ariz. bombing
By JACQUES BILLEAUD, Associated Press
PHOENIX (AP) — A white supremacist is set to be sentenced Tuesday in a 2004 bombing that injured a black city official in suburban Phoenix.
A jury in February found Dennis Mahon, 61, guilty of three federal charges stemming from a package bomb that injured Don Logan, who is black and was Scottsdale's diversity director at the time, and hurt a secretary.
The explosive detonated in Logan's hands on Feb. 26, 2004, in Scottsdale's Human Resources Complex.
Full Story: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jYta5buyBCLxCzfGR4xz_nD4Hh4g?docId=a60ce23722b54c7ab7b190f1819edf52
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
For Diversity Officers, No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
Workforce Management
February 2009
Diversity officers struggling to increase minority headcounts come in for criticism. As the executives themselves note, having a thick skin and a healthy dose of perspective can be essential to the role. By Rupal Parekh
It’s not easy being a chief diversity officer.
Some of the insults hurled at those taking the job have included "pimp," "Uncle Tom" and "window dressing." In fact, as the executives themselves note, having a thick skin and a healthy dose of perspective can be essential to the role.
"I don’t see those individuals who say those things standing with me on the front lines," says Tiffany R. Warren, who recently left her position as a diversity executive at Havas-owned Arnold to take on the newly created role of chief diversity officer at Omnicom Group.
"I’m literally on the front lines, and sometimes it’s a lonely place. If there were more of me, maybe we could make more of a difference," she says.
The ad agencies who have hired diversity officers are likely praying that they do figure out a way to make a difference—and quick. Civil rights attorney Cyrus Mehri is knocking on the door, after all. Last month, he released research in partnership with the NAACP that is believed to be the groundwork for a race discrimination suit against the ad industry.
Nancy Hill, president and CEO of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, said after reading the report: "The numbers speak for themselves."
Ask the advertising companies that have hired diversity officers—only Interpublic and Omnicom have done so at the holding-company level—and they say the fact that they have appointed chief diversity officers shows their commitment to improving diversity, a massive task that requires sweeping organizational and cultural changes.
What’s more, they say, these individuals are responsible for some measurable strides—from rising awareness to rising numbers of minorities in agency ranks.
Making strides Interpublic Group of Cos., for example, reported to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that from 2004 to 2007, it increased minority headcount across various ethnic groups by 25 percent overall and by 50 percent in terms of total "officials and managers."
Interpublic’s U.S. headcount during this period was essentially flat (up 1.5 percent, or fewer than 300 people), but it changed the composition of the workforce to increase minority professionals and managers by more than 1,000 people.
Beyond headcount, it points to initiatives such as a two-year multicultural fellowship program, relationships with historically black colleges, minority job fairs and linking executives’ incentive compensation to how well it is meeting its diversity objectives.
"When I got here, all there was a desk and a chair and a telephone," says Heide Gardner, Interpublic’s chief diversity officer.
Full Story: http://www.workforce.com/section/09/feature/26/16/87/index.html
February 2009
Diversity officers struggling to increase minority headcounts come in for criticism. As the executives themselves note, having a thick skin and a healthy dose of perspective can be essential to the role. By Rupal Parekh
It’s not easy being a chief diversity officer.
Some of the insults hurled at those taking the job have included "pimp," "Uncle Tom" and "window dressing." In fact, as the executives themselves note, having a thick skin and a healthy dose of perspective can be essential to the role.
"I don’t see those individuals who say those things standing with me on the front lines," says Tiffany R. Warren, who recently left her position as a diversity executive at Havas-owned Arnold to take on the newly created role of chief diversity officer at Omnicom Group.
"I’m literally on the front lines, and sometimes it’s a lonely place. If there were more of me, maybe we could make more of a difference," she says.
The ad agencies who have hired diversity officers are likely praying that they do figure out a way to make a difference—and quick. Civil rights attorney Cyrus Mehri is knocking on the door, after all. Last month, he released research in partnership with the NAACP that is believed to be the groundwork for a race discrimination suit against the ad industry.
Nancy Hill, president and CEO of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, said after reading the report: "The numbers speak for themselves."
Ask the advertising companies that have hired diversity officers—only Interpublic and Omnicom have done so at the holding-company level—and they say the fact that they have appointed chief diversity officers shows their commitment to improving diversity, a massive task that requires sweeping organizational and cultural changes.
What’s more, they say, these individuals are responsible for some measurable strides—from rising awareness to rising numbers of minorities in agency ranks.
Making strides Interpublic Group of Cos., for example, reported to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that from 2004 to 2007, it increased minority headcount across various ethnic groups by 25 percent overall and by 50 percent in terms of total "officials and managers."
Interpublic’s U.S. headcount during this period was essentially flat (up 1.5 percent, or fewer than 300 people), but it changed the composition of the workforce to increase minority professionals and managers by more than 1,000 people.
Beyond headcount, it points to initiatives such as a two-year multicultural fellowship program, relationships with historically black colleges, minority job fairs and linking executives’ incentive compensation to how well it is meeting its diversity objectives.
"When I got here, all there was a desk and a chair and a telephone," says Heide Gardner, Interpublic’s chief diversity officer.
Full Story: http://www.workforce.com/section/09/feature/26/16/87/index.html
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Virginia Tech to Increase Investment in Diversity
From Diverse Online
Current News
Virginia Tech to Increase Investment in Diversity
By Associated Press
Sep 2, 2008, 00:16
BLACKSBURG, Va.
Virginia Tech plans to invest nearly $1 million over the next five years to increase ethnic diversity on campus.
A report said the school will spend $899,000 to implement task force recommendations that call for additional faculty, greater minority student recruitment efforts, outreach programs and curriculum changes.
Last fall, Virginia Tech's Black student enrollment was 4.6 percent, third-lowest among the state's 15 four-year public universities, according to the State Council of Higher Education. Hispanic enrollment ranked in the bottom half.
Tech Provost Mark McNamee formed the task force in the summer of 2006, in response to protests over the announced departure of Black political science professor Christopher Clement, who received a negative review in his tenure process.
The task force's action plan calls for ``cluster hires'' in the 2009-10 and 2010-11 academic years to bolster the complement of minority professors and provide mentors to faculty already at the schools.
Six would be hired next year, four of them senior positions in Africana studies and race and social policy.
Overall enrollment of Blacks at Virginia Tech has declined since 2003, when the board of visitors voted to end affirmative action in hiring and student enrollment. The board quickly reversed the decision, but Black freshmen enrollment plummeted and has been slow to recover. [To read the entire story, go to: http://diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_11626.shtml ]
Current News
Virginia Tech to Increase Investment in Diversity
By Associated Press
Sep 2, 2008, 00:16
BLACKSBURG, Va.
Virginia Tech plans to invest nearly $1 million over the next five years to increase ethnic diversity on campus.
A report said the school will spend $899,000 to implement task force recommendations that call for additional faculty, greater minority student recruitment efforts, outreach programs and curriculum changes.
Last fall, Virginia Tech's Black student enrollment was 4.6 percent, third-lowest among the state's 15 four-year public universities, according to the State Council of Higher Education. Hispanic enrollment ranked in the bottom half.
Tech Provost Mark McNamee formed the task force in the summer of 2006, in response to protests over the announced departure of Black political science professor Christopher Clement, who received a negative review in his tenure process.
The task force's action plan calls for ``cluster hires'' in the 2009-10 and 2010-11 academic years to bolster the complement of minority professors and provide mentors to faculty already at the schools.
Six would be hired next year, four of them senior positions in Africana studies and race and social policy.
Overall enrollment of Blacks at Virginia Tech has declined since 2003, when the board of visitors voted to end affirmative action in hiring and student enrollment. The board quickly reversed the decision, but Black freshmen enrollment plummeted and has been slow to recover. [To read the entire story, go to: http://diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_11626.shtml ]
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