Tara August

Many executives join DEI groups and even lead them, but it takes a D&I Champion to recruit more than 40 colleagues to join those efforts. As executive sponsor for the People Advisory Council, an internal umbrella program which drives DEI across Turner Sports and Bleacher Report, August has done that and much more.

The senior WarnerMedia exec also launched an internal mobility and career development program supporting Turner Sports’ recent tentpole event “Capital One’s The Match.” Six employees who typically don’t staff such big budget productions joined teams onsite for a hands-on learning experience. She developed a partnership with the Obama Foundation and hired five ambassadors for the event from My Brother’s Keeper, a Chicago-based organization that offers diverse young men professional opportunities.

August’s primary role at Turner Sports is overseeing the talent roster, which she sees as a chance to make inroads in a field dominated by men. Her hires have included Candace Parks as an NBA and NCAA analyst and Cari Champion, who hosted “The Arena,” a storytelling franchise for Turner Sports that debuted leading up to the restart of the NBA season in 2020. It was a forum for topics such as the pandemic, Black Lives Matter and systemic racial injustice.

“It’s refreshing to see female voices in new roles throughout the industry—broadcasting games, coaching teams, leading organizations and everything in between. For far too long, women have been shut out of specific roles solely based on gender—not experience or credibility—so the number of opportunities which have emerged are like small rays of light giving us hope,” August says. “But we’re still on the long journey to equality—in pay, awareness, support and visibility. There’s much more work to be done.”

Speaking of work to be done, like many other companies, part of Turner Sports’ business was in a state of crisis regarding DEI. Rather than shrink from the challenge, August ran to it. One issue is that parts of the organization are in different stages of DEI achievements, with some needing to catch up. August organized mechanisms for improvement within the People Advisory Council, placing critical importance on diversifying the hiring pipeline. She introduced PAC Advisors, which help hiring managers and recruiters diversify job listings and interviews along with holding teams accountable for meeting with diverse candidates.

These PAC Advisors have worked with managers to socialize more than 40 roles across a wide range of job boards, with the end goal of meeting diverse candidates. Under her leadership, PAC has launched a mentoring program with more than 50 mentor-mentee pairings, with women accounting for 63% and people of color, 51%.

PAC also launched a program designed to bring BIPOC students into the hiring pipeline and held an inaugural Summit attended by 200 HBCU students looking to launch careers in sports. The Council wants to make sure efforts don’t end once new hires get their employee badge—hence the introduction of an onboarding program that has connected more than 20 new hires with “buddies” to show them the ins and outs of the organization.

“Diversity is a critical force of forward momentum for any progressive entity,” August says. “When I think of all that has been done for generations in the fight for equality, diversity and justice, it pains me to think of the sacrifices which have been made while challenging me to think about the small part I can play to ensure that the trials of history were not in vain. Forward motion is its own reward.”

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