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July 14, 2010
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Race and Gender in
Non-Profit Leadership
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| A new land-use plan and rail line are changing the development landscape in Tysons Corner and the Dulles Corridor—find out how from an all-star cast at our Breakfast & Schmooze on July 29. Tysons Ritz. Sign up now! |
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| Yesterday, we joined the Nonprofit Roundtable and Young Nonprofit Professionals Network DC to hear a group of young leaders speak their minds about race, gender, and age in the non-profit sector. |
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| People of color make up nearly half of the population in the Baltimore-Washington region, yet account for 22% of non-profit executive directors, according to an Urban Institute study, presented here by National MultiCultural Institute's Kelly Reid. Out of every 100 local non-profit leaders, about 17 are African American, 0.5 are Hispanic, and 4 are Asian or Pacific Islanders. Women comprise 68% of the non-profit workforce, and half of non-profit leadership. And as far as age? One in ten are under the age of 40. |
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| Thurman Consulting's Rosetta Thurman has been blogging about leadership and diversity in the non-profit sector for three years. When she began her career as a development director at the Nonprofit Roundtable, people would mistake her for an administrative assistant. "It wasn't that I was a director of development, but for me, I felt that I was a young black director of development," Rosetta says. "There was also the fact that I really felt different in settings where there were people of wealth or people that had different upbringings than I had." For example, people would want to ask where she came from or what her parents do. "I have one parent, a single mother, so how do you answer a question about what your parents do in that situation?" She decided "I would tell my real story in terms of where I really came from and that has turned out to be really good for me in my career." |
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| As a senior policy specialist for the DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Amy Loudermilk regularly interacts with power holders and DC councilmembers. "They especially are not used to having somebody who's young and female come in and bring a level of expertise and share stories about real issues that are going on in the District," she says. Though it can sometimes be difficult to navigate relationships with people of influence, Amy says, "You have to be true to your own experiences and challenge the stereotypes as much as you can while also trying to be successful and productive." |
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| Community Foundation for the National Capital Region DC Office director Bomani Johnson grew up on the south side of Chicago. His mother was a nurse and his father a janitor in the public schools. He says throughout college and his professional career, he's learned to interact with different circles of people and situations in different ways. In philanthropy, most of those interactions involve white men and women. Bomani told the crowd he can name the black male philanthropists in the region on his fingers. Same for non-profit leaders. To move forward, he encourages people to look deeper than the numbers. He says diversity is not an end, but rather a step toward achieving much greater goals. |
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| As an Asian American woman and the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, Alliance for Children and Families director for civic engagement Linda Nguyen says people sometimes see her as a "safe person of color" who "won't say much." "I think I've tricked a lot of people over the years," she says. Linda was one of the founding members of YNPNdc and has served on several national boards. She adds, people often confuse diversity with racial justice. "Read about race and just follow the dialogue around it," Linda says. "It's hard to talk about it in productive ways if you don't really know." Another piece of advice: Learn how to call things out diplomatically, whether it's passing comments or the way people act in meetings. |
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| At CentroNia, Christian Gonzales is surrounded by a culturally diverse staff led by a female Latina. But especially when hiring, he says organizations have to look at diversity in terms of skill sets as well. "When I think of the diversity we have at our organization, it's amazing how many languages are spoken," he says. Christian, a second generation Mexican immigrant who grew up in a predominantly Hispanic community in Southern California, works with colleagues from Russia, Ghana, Brazil, and beyond: "We're an immigrant led organization, and it's great to be there." |
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| New PhRMA CEO |
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| Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) announced yesterday that John Castellani will step in as CEO in September. He succeeds former congressman Billy Tauzin, who announced his retirement earlier this year. John has led the Business Roundtable, an association of corporate CEOs, for the past nine years. We profiled John a couple years back about his invite-only approach to membership (and his tennis game). He began his career at General Electric as an environmental scientist and has previously worked at the National Association of Manufacturers. |
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| Send story ideas to Jessica Sidman, jessica@bisnow.com. |
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This newsletter is a journalistic news source which accepts no payment for featured interviews. It is supported by conventional advertisers clearly identified in the right hand column. You have been selected to receive it either through prior contact or professional association. If you have received it in error, please accept our apologies and unsubscribe at bottom of the newsletter. © 2010, Bisnow on Business, Inc., 1323 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036. All rights reserved.
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