Washington has been with NAMIC for a little more than a year, joining just in time for the organization’s annual conference in 2018. She’s spent more than 25 years in both the nonprofit and corporate sectors, including leading the Congressional Black Caucus. She says that women need to lift each other up, and “we also need to turn around and extend a hand to the next generation of female leaders by mentoring them and passing along our lessons learned so young women can learn and benefit from the women who came before them.”
What specifically does your company do to support and elevate the women who work there?
We’re an organization whose mission is to educate, advocate, and empower for multi-ethnic diversity in the communications industry, and that includes supporting and elevating women. That translates into a staff that is dedicated and passionate about our mission.
Currently, we have an all-female staff. We are a small staff, we work hard, and we support and elevate one another each and every day. I always pay forward by sharing my experiences as a corporate executive, business owner and non-profit executive.
How can the industry do a better job of recruiting women and ensuring they have a path to senior positions?
As women, we need to lift each other up. We also need to turn around and extend a hand to the next generation of female leaders by mentoring them and passing along our lessons learned so young women can learn and benefit from the women who came before them.
But it’s not just our responsibility. We also need the support and commitment from our male colleagues. After all, it is going to take everyone working together to ensure women are recruited, mentored, and given appropriate opportunities to help them advance in their careers and prepare them for senior-level positions. In this day and age, there is no reason that should not be happening every day at every organization at every level.
What changes, if any, has your company enacted since the dawning of the #MeToo movement, and what results have ensued?
The #MeToo movement has not had the same effect on our organization as it has on so many organizations in our industry. NAMIC was founded specifically to educate, advocate, and empower for multi-ethnic diversity in the communications industry, which has always included educating, advocating, and empowering women. I take immense pride in the fact that our role has been to shine a light nationally and locally — through our conferences, events, and awards — on the men and women who are making a measurable difference in our industry to empower and elevate women.
