Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

diversity equity and inclusion

May 7, 2025

Law firms advise businesses on Trump 2.0 policies

Virginia law firms see surge in client questions as Trump’s 2025 executive orders spark regulatory, immigration, and DEI compliance concerns.

Spencer Goidel, an Equal Employment Opportunity Specialist with the Internal Revenue Service who was notified his job would be eliminated as part of the government's efficiency cuts, stands for a portrait outside his home in Boca Raton, Fla., April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Daniel Kozin)
May 6, 2025

Disabled workers have faced prejudice. Now they face DOGE firings

Mass federal layoffs under Trump target disabled workers, raising concerns about the future of inclusive hiring and Schedule A protections.

May 2, 2025

Virginia Tech’s president defends NIH research funding

President Sands warns NIH cuts will harm research, national security, and Virginia Tech’s future as Trump-era policies challenge higher education.

FILE - President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he signs executive orders in the White House, Feb. 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Mar 28, 2025

A federal judge temporarily blocks parts of Trump’s anti-DEI executive orders

CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge has temporarily blocked the U.S. Department of Labor from implementing parts of President Donald Trump‘s executive orders aimed at curbing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts among federal contractors and grant recipients. Judge Matthew Kennelly of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois halted the Labor Department […]

Mar 26, 2025

Founders of Black-owned brands adapt their hopes and business plans for a post-DEI era

NEW YORK (AP) — The co-founders of a company that makes lip products for darker skin tones no longer hope to get their line into Target. A brother and sister who make jigsaw puzzles celebrating Black subjects wonder if they need to offer “neutral” images like landscapes to keep growing. Pound Cake and Puzzles of Color […]

The headquarters of the U.S. Department of Education, March 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
Mar 14, 2025

More than 50 universities face federal investigations as part of Trump’s anti-DEI campaign

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 50 universities are being investigated for alleged racial discrimination as part of President Donald Trump‘s campaign to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs that his officials say exclude white and Asian American students. The Education Department announced the new investigations Friday, one month after issuing a memo warning America’s schools[...]

During a Jan. 30, 2025 White House news conference, U.S. President Donald Trump blamed federal diversity and inclusion promotion efforts for the mid-air crash between American Airlines and a military helicopter over the Potomac River. (Photo by Chen Mengtong/China News Service/VCG via AP )
Jan 30, 2025

Trump-led DEI crackdown may leave glass ceilings intact

In the “Mad Men” era of the 1960s and 1970s, when my mother was climbing the corporate ladder at C&P Telephone, she was frequently the only woman at out-of-state national technical trainings for managers. And from her recollection, if the men in the classes weren’t hitting on her, many were resentful or threatened by her […]

Jan 30, 2024

Left behind?

In June 2022, Booz Allen Hamilton was without a chief diversity officer. The McLean-based Fortune 500 management consulting contractor’s chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer, Jon G. Muñoz, stepped down after a year in the role. A year and a half later, Booz Allen hasn’t hired anyone new for the position — but that’s by […]

“If you haven’t been ... in a room where you’re the only one that looks like yourself, it can be a challenge,” says Thomas Ransom, Virginia regional president for Truist Financial Corp. Photo by Shandell Taylor
Jul 30, 2023

Building equity

When BB&T recruited Thomas Ransom, a Black economics student at Hampden-Sydney College, to join its management development program in the late 1990s, he quickly had to pick up the world of banking and its culture.  The Urbanna native says he’d never met a banker before starting at BB&T and certainly didn’t know what moves to […]

Jan 30, 2023

After the crisis

During summer 2020, racial inequities took center stage in the United States as protesters took to the streets after the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, by a Minneapolis police officer was captured on video and widely disseminated via social media and news outlets. Corporate America also responded, primarily through public statements vowing […]

Pharrell Williams and Ryan Shadrick Wilson, founder and CEO of Boardwalk Collective, speak during the Mighty Dream forum. Photo by Mark Rhodes
Nov 29, 2022

Pharrell brings Mighty Dream to Norfolk

In November, Grammy-winning music superstar Pharrell Williams hosted the three-day Mighty Dream forum in Norfolk and broke some news about his Something in the Water music festival and the status of his team’s proposal to redevelop Norfolk’s Military Circle Mall site. Mighty Dream, a sequel to his 2021 Elephant in the Room business conference at […]

Nov 3, 2022

Innovation was at center of Mighty Dream Day 3

On the third and final day of Pharrell Williams‘ Mighty Dream Forum in Norfolk, the theme was innovation. The first day‘s focus was diversity and equity, while Wednesday was largely dedicated to inspiring entrepreneurs to find and create opportunities. Panelists throughout the day Thursday encouraged attendees to innovate, seek out resources and do their homework […]

YOUR NEWS.
YOUR INBOX.
DAILY.

By subscribing you agree to our Privacy Policy.