The finalists for WashingtonExec’s 2023 Pinnacle Awards were announced Sept. 25, and we’ll be highlighting some of them until the event takes place live, in-person Nov. 16.
Next is Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Executive of the Year finalist in the Private & Public Companies category Ellen Rice Chever, who is DEIA leader and principal at LMI. Here, she shares key achievements and taking professional risks.
What key achievements did you have in 2023?
Integrating DEIA into who we are and the way we do business at LMI. At LMI, DEIA isn’t just a separate function at LMI, where we check the box, it’s incorporated into who we are and what we do.
Taking this integrative approach to DEIA so it sits at the core of our values and how we operate, we’ve made tremendous advances in building a more inclusive, equitable and accessible workplace. Some of our achievements for this year include:
- Partnering with our technologists and enterprise leaders to update LMI Policies and Technology Systems to be more gender inclusive.
- Continued to strengthen diversity not only in our workforce, but in our executives, in 2023 women executives increased by 5% from 46% to 51% and executives from underserved communities increased by 7% from 13% to 21%. We’re also proud to have 22% of our executives who are veterans and 14% who are people with disabilities.
- Launched our 7th Employee Resource Group ⏤ Disability Resource Group ⏤ to support people with disabilities.
- Made major strides in accessibility ⏤ providing executive support to LMI’s Accessibility Matters! Community of Practice, which was recognized for LMI’s corporate Luminary award in DEIA, LMI accessibility experts built and provide a full suite of services to support accessibility at LMI and for our government partners. We also provided training to LMI practitioners and developed guidance.
- Evolving our 7 Affinity Groups to Employee Resource Groups who have a more direct impact on LMI such as by supporting our recruiting efforts.
- Strengthening of recruiting efforts by bringing together our academic partners and applied research team our ERGs, and talent acquisition team to launch a new recruiting strategy to continue to build top talent at LMI.
What’s the biggest professional risk you’ve ever taken?
I’m proud of taking a leap, to align my talent and passion to go after career full of purpose, passion, and impact. To do this, I transitioned from a management consultant to a corporate leader focused on people and building a top workplace.
After being a management consultant for almost 15 years, I looked at my unique talents and gifts ⏤ my strategic and innovative approach to leadership, my project management and change management skills, my ability to build, launch, and scale new programs, and my ability to unite people across differences to support a shared mission to drive something forward.
Taking those talents, I merged them with my passion to build systems and places where all people can thrive, in their own unique state of being. I understood that people are the greatest strength of any organization, they are the heart of the company, they are the key innovators, driving organizations to succeed in today and tomorrow’s workplace. Simply put, people matter. That led me to leap to a career as a culture executive where I can use my skills to advance diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, making a better workplace for people and businesses to thrive.
I encourage everyone who wants a purpose-filled career to take a hard look at what their unique talents are and what keeps the up at night ⏤ meaning what do you want to solve, that will lead you to finding that career with impact and purpose.