QUEENS HAS A HUGE OPPORTUNITY IN
CHARLOTTE TO NOT ONLY DEEPEN ITS POSITION BUT ALSO BE MORE NATIONALLY KNOWN.
—Jeff Brown MBA ’03, board of trustees chairman
reflected in the student experience, employee hiring, student recruitment and offerings through the McColl School of Business that help companies and employees create diverse, equitable environments. In 2015, Brown prioritized an expanded commitment to diversity and inclusion with the Ally board when he became CEO and since then has shown how that commitment to fostering diversity within the company leads to economic mobility for both employees and customers. Under Brown’s leadership, Ally launched eight different Employee Resource Groups, which encourage listening, learning and understanding across different experiences. Notably, nearly half of Ally’s employees participate in these programs. Te company also offers employee benefits designed to serve and support diverse families. In 2020, Ally leaned even further into social justice
efforts with the development of a formal Financial and Social Inclusion Team tasked with looking at how the company could further advance actions that counter prejudice and promote equity. It developed a framework of four pillars to focus on. Te first one is community, where the emphasis
is on furthering social justice and addressing disparate systems and policies through an intentional approach to philanthropy, volunteerism and board service. Trough this effort, the Ally Foundation launched in 2020 with a mission of advancing economic mobility. Te other three pillars include employees (increasing
representation of Black and brown employees at professional, managerial and executive levels), customers (developing education and/or product solutions to strengthen economic mobility) and supplier diversity (actively recruiting and promoting how diverse businesses can engage and succeed in doing business with Ally). Brown’s value of and commitment to diversity and
inclusion were recognized in 2019 when he was named CEO of the Year by the Turgood Marshall College Fund. He was also one of the first 150 CEOs to sign the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion, which is the largest CEO-driven business commitment to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
“It’s all in the spirit of equality and creating
opportunity—and equal opportunity for everyone,” Brown said. “You create an inclusive environment; you create an empowered environment and the whole mentality of the company shifts.” President Dan Lugo added that many corporations talk the talk on diversity, but that Ally has put its resources and its priorities behind it. “It’s making a difference in their bottom line,” he said. “Tey’re outperforming the market.” Mirroring that focus at Queens means taking a
hard look at the composition of faculty and staff, and investigating the campus culture. “Are we a place that truly is trying to make the Queens experience equitable?” Lugo asked. “Does everyone truly have access to the full experience? It’s one thing to be here, but it’s another thing to not only be here but to have just as much opportunity for success, for growth, and to feel a sense of ownership and belonging in the community.” “I think what a lot of institutions and corporations
have found is that they can no longer stay silent on a lot of these social issues,” said Willis when he recently spoke to the board of trustees at Brown’s invitation. “[Institutions and corporations need to be] willing to recognize and address how they may have played a role in that historically and what they plan on doing to change that narrative for society today and for the institutions that they run.” Willis adds that he thinks that’s going to be a big
part of how Queens differentiates itself from some of the competition within Charlotte and the region. “We’re trying to be disruptive, right? We’re trying to disrupt our current position in the higher education marketplace and hierarchy, which is really difficult to do,” said President Lugo. Building on the university’s solid foundation while leading the board of trustees and guiding Queens into the future is the ultimate goal for Brown and President Lugo. “It is about what we call these defining moments,”
Brown said. “And this being a really defining moment, Queens has a huge opportunity in Charlotte to not only deepen its position but also be more nationally known.” ■
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