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PR pros on diversity: Be comfortabletalking about what's uncomfortableOctober 01, 2015 by Laura Nichols , Be the first to comment

At an Advertising Week panel in Washington, DC, comms pros discussed someof the pervasive issues surrounding diversity - or lack of it -- in the PRindustry.

(Left to right) Roberto Gomez, Pallavi Kumar, and Sharon Jones

WASHINGTON: Avoiding the topic of diversity because it’s not easy to discusswon’t magically solve any of the issues plaguing the PR industry, experts agreedat an Advertising Week panel in Washington, DC.

"Be comfortable talking about what’s uncomfortable. All the [political correctness]

will never get us to the table," Roberto Gomez, SVP of marketing and sales atMosaic, said at the event on Thursday.

During the panel, Gomez and Pallavi Kumar, assistant professor and divisiondirector in the public communications division at American University, discussedsome of the pervasive issues surrounding diversity – or lack of it, on someoccasions -- in the PR industry.

Kumar said she "consciously" made an effort to diversify staff at AmericanUniversity because it’s important for students and recent graduates to "belearning from the field from someone who does look like [them]."

But those students have to be in a position to learn and the abundance of unpaidinternships doesn’t do much to help pupils not economically inclined to work forexperience alone.

Kumar said opportunities like those provided via fellowships by the LagrantFoundation are at least one factor that is "really making a change."

When it comes to outreach, Gomez summarized what outreach efforts need inone word: sustainability.

"When you do any program that’s going to go out to an ethnic community, it [canbe an 18-month commitment]," he said. "It’s not a one-time, get in, get the resultsand you’re out of there."

Gomez said Home Depot is an example of a corporation taking the extra step toconnect with its Hispanic constituents by partnering with local leadership andgroups and opening technical schools – with support from some tool companies– in Georgia and North and South Carolina.

"That was a true collaboration of corporation, community, and actuallymanufacturing working together to expose themselves," he said.

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