Equity Through Leadership summit spotlights diversity, equity and inclusion tensions, future

EY Partner Kristi Eckert thanked UC for hosting Equity Through Leadership and current students — including many from Lindner — for attending, especially during finals week.

“This is our 10-year anniversary, so it’s a really big milestone for us collectively at P&G, GE and EY. A big part of that when we were planning this event is talking about the future. How do we cultivate the future of DE&I?” Eckert said. “And a big piece of that was the next generation and students. All of our companies — EY, P&G and GE — source top talent from the University of Cincinnati.”

Lewis’ keynote centered on managing personal and professional tensions, the subject of her coauthored book, “Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems.”

“What you find is these same tensions show up in different places,” Lewis said. “They certainly show up in our leadership. Am I monitoring or empowering? Am I building teams and fostering culture or hitting targets? It’s always going to be ‘both’ around diversity, equity and inclusion.” 

• Bleuzette Marshall, vice president, UC Office of Equity & Inclusion
• Maureen Howard, vice president of human resources — global equality and inclusion, P&G
• Germaine Hunter, chief diversity officer, GE
• Susan Marshall, Ameritas Consulting DEI Leader, EY

After answering prompts on points of pride in their work and scenarios that forced them to reconsider previous initiatives, the panelists tackled the sustainability of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

“There’s benefit for everybody, but we find the ‘and,’ right?” Howard said. “Because in saying it’s for everybody, we cannot walk past the fact that there are underrepresented and marginalized populations who have distinct needs and biases against them. You have to be able to hold those two tensions side by side without smashing them together.”

Hunter addressed the inherent tensions of diversity, equity and inclusion measures.

“We’re putting new wheels on the bus as it rolls down the freeway,” Hunter said. “I think one of the things that I've certainly come to appreciate about our organization is our willingness to create space for lots of different divergent points of view. The real trick of the game is to figure out how we can exploit the things we all hold in common and use those as a springboard to advance not only our organization but our own growth as individuals.”