MEET DERRYL GLAZE.

To give you an idea on how I began this journey, I directed sales efforts for large and medium sized media companies throughout the midwest, including IHeart Radio and Emmis Communications where I was appointed to the company’s Diversity Roundtable and was instrumental in setting standards for the recruitment and hiring of diversity focused candidates and the retention of minority employees throughout the organization.

I worked in markets such as Toledo, Ohio, Chicago, Illinois, and St. Louis, Missouri before changing companies and handling initiatives in Atlanta, Washington DC, and Cleveland before moving back home to Toledo. 

Those efforts created an opportunity to work with the Obama Administration on “Better Make Room,” an initiative focused on getting high school students in lower income communities the resources and motivation necessary to attend college.

For a large part of my career I was the only person of color in the board room where corporate wide decisions were being made. I found it interesting that those decisions were made mostly from the perspective of older white men, whose backgrounds were similar, who shared the same values and interests, with very little input from anyone who looked different, spoke a different language, and/or had different interests.

Becoming the advocate for change is sometimes hard and at times unrewarding because, even as an invited guest, asking someone to pivot slightly in their thinking sometimes meant that relationships were damaged. However, I found it important to push for more inclusion within the decision making process because small, sometimes uncomfortable conversations at that point can pay larger dividends further down the line.

During Covid, I decided to change lanes after 13 years of working in the world of media, and I spent time in Ithaca, NY at Cornell University studying in their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion program and began Culture DEI shortly afterwards. 

Attitude reflects leadership, and I’m finding the conversations I’m having with clients today are with leaders interested in moving their companies forward. Having diverse voices in the room is the easiest way to get there!

- Derryl