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| Mari Watanabe |
Leadership Portland is a program of the PBA’s chamber of commerce function, which advocates for business. Partners in Diversity – whose mission is to partner with employers to help them recruit and retain their professionals of color who moved to Oregon and southwest Washington – operates within PBA’s Charitable Institute.
Before joining the nonprofit sector, Mari worked in the apparel industry for over 20 years. In 2011, she was appointed by former Governor John Kitzhaber to the Oregon Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs for six years; the last two as chairperson.
In this Q&A, Mari Watanabe shares her perspectives about supporting the diversity, equity and inclusion goals of Portland’s increasingly diverse workforce and business community.
What is your primary charge as director of Leadership Portland?
In this role, I take the participants through a nine-month program that educates them on what the greatest challenges facing our region are and ways for them to get involved. Often these business leaders are busy working within their business world and are not aware of the ways they can get involved in the decisions being made outside of their organization.
Each year, I have about 36 business leaders participate in the class which informs them of the what the biggest issues facing our region. The goal is to get more business leaders at the table to help solve issues using their skills and knowledge. Joining board, commissions, advisory boards, taskforces, etc. or even running for office are ways we see business leaders getting more involved. Jennifer Williamson, majority leader in the Oregon State House of Representative is a Leadership Portland alumni. Each month we focus on a different topic such as local government, healthcare, public safety, education, etc. I bring in speakers who are experts in the topic to go beyond what the participants read or hear about in the media. They also advise on ways these business leaders can get more involved by serving on boards, commissions, taskforces, etc.
Another important aspect of this class is for them to work on a nonprofit project throughout the year. Nonprofits submit a project they would like five to seven business leaders to work on over nine months that they do not have the resources to complete. Each year, six to seven nonprofits benefit from this part of the program which some may join the board or stay connected long after the project ends. A win-win for both sides. Since the inception of the nonprofits projects within Leadership Portland, we have helped over 80 nonprofits.
Building a network of business leaders within our region is another benefit of Leadership Portland. Many of these business leaders would never have the opportunity to meet other participants normally. Because the class draws from all type of business sectors, participants build a broad network within their class. An alumni organization with over 600 alumni brings the alumni together throughout the year at various events.
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| Honorees at the 2017 Say Hey! event hosted by Legacy Emmanuel Hospital. |
And what about your role as Executive Director of Partners in Diversity?
As executive director of Partners in Diversity (PID), my role is to support employers in helping recruit and retain their professionals of color. Through our programs, events, website and partnership with members and other organizations, we help employers increase their diverse workforce.
PID was formed out of a CEO Forum, in which leaders from the public and private sector got together to tell their peers about the business imperative of becoming a more diverse and inclusive workplace. This small group of leaders saw the change in demographics coming to our State from the 2000 census. They knew that they had to change the way they did business including developing a more diverse workforce to stay competitive. Diversity and inclusion was not just a “nice to have” but a “must have.”
We are supported by members, which allows us to provide services such as posting jobs on our website, events that focus on training and education in diversity, inclusion and equity, and a research project called the Workforce Diversity Project that looked at ways to improve moving people of color into living wage jobs. Our member events provide a network for HR and diversity practitioners to support each other and share best practices. Our website provides the diverse communities a wide array of job opportunities within our member organizations to share with the diverse community. Other events such as the CEO Forum, provide CEO’s a safe place to discuss the challenges and successes in owning and supporting this work.
The last three years, Partners In Diversity has been working on a project to move more people of color into living wage jobs. Our goal was to find ways for employers to better recruit in the communities of color and find solutions to helping community members find jobs. We will be wrapping up this project and presenting to the larger community including employers, unions, educators, and the communities of color on June 22, 2017. This work has also opened doors to finding pathways for the high percentage of immigrants and refugees to who come to the U.S. with advanced degrees to get re-credentialed without having to go back to school to get the same degree they already acquired, just in another country.
Several states have been working on pathways within their states to shorten the re-credentialing process. Hopefully, we can find ways in Oregon to do the same to get these people who are not even working in their credentialed field back working in their field of work. Nationally, this is known as Brain Waste. From an economic standpoint, there is loss to the family as many are working in low pay jobs, there is loss to their career field. An example is in healthcare, where cultural competency is needed and these culturally competent people would be a part of this solution. In the tax arena, people would be making more money and thus paying more taxes locally and at the state level.
What do you find most challenging about the work of Partners in Diversity?
Oregon is the whitest state in the U.S. Although our diverse population is growing, we are still a dominantly white population. To incorporate diversity, inclusion and equity in any organization, the highest level leader, CEO, president, executive director, must own this work, not just embrace it. This is the biggest challenge, I feel, to move the needle on this work. This work is difficult and takes time so it must be a priority within the organization's culture. Even though we know the actual work will be done by HR or the office of diversity and inclusion, the accountability needs to lie with the organization's leader. If the employees do not feel that the leaders of their organizations are not owning this work, it is much harder to make the cultural shift.
Another huge challenge is just being comfortable talking about diversity issues such as race. It is an uncomfortable topic to bring up and when brought up to be respectful of where everyone is on their diversity and inclusion journey. Many feel they do not know how to start the conversation. This last year, I have seen shifts in how people speak to each other, and not in a good way. Much more disrespect and aggressive behavior towards our minority communities, which is shocking to me. At times, I feel we have taken a huge step back but I then I see good things happen such as more people wanting to get involved civically and politically that never would before. It is a good feeling to see this. Leaders need to keep talking about the importance of understanding the business imperative. They must realize their own biases and invest in leadership training and diversity training for themselves, their organization’s leadership team and for employees at all levels.
How do you incorporate your cultural background to the work you do?
I am a third-generation Japanese American. My grandparents immigrated from Japan to American and did not speak any English. They had little help from the government and relied on other who immigrated before them to understand how to live here. My parents grew up bi-lingual and served as the translator for my parents. Then Pearl Harbor was bombed. My entire extended family (first and second generation) were incarcerated in camps located in the worst locations in the U.S during WWII because they looked like the enemy. This greatly affected the way the third generation children grew up. Not knowing anything of what happened because our parents never spoke of it and our history books do not mention it, we grew up being told to not speak up, to keep our heads down, to not make waves. Being a good “American” was our parents priority, we did not get to learn Japanese.
My parents faced racism constantly but never told the kids, today is no different. Since Redress in 1988, which led to an apology by the U.S. government for the incarceration, we have learned so much from our parents about this dark history. The passing of Redress gave them permission to speak about this horrible period of our history and learned about some of the other racist issues they had endure. I am sure there are many more that I will never know.
Unfortunately, today we still face issues. I have been told to “go back where I came from” and asked so many times “where do you come from”. People are shocked when I speak in perfect English and then ask me where I learned to speak English because it is so good. Even though I am American and speak no other language than English, I am the forever foreigner because of the way I look. In restaurants, when I am with friends of color, we have been separated into back room or separate eating areas even if the main restaurant is sparsely filled. This happens in Washington and Oregon. I have traveled extensively for my past jobs and have not had good experiences in the southern U.S. either.
Today, in my work, my cultural background and values are always with me. They remind me why this work is so important for our diverse communities. Finding ways for us to better understand each other and see the value of what diversity can bring to the table is what keeps me doing this work. The late Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii and Senate Pro Tempore when he died once talked about how only in America can an American who was once regarded as the enemyIf rise up to be third in line to the presidency. Through education, collaboration and advocacy on behalf of the communities of colors will hopefully change minds and culture.
Why are gatherings like Say Hey! important for Portland's business community?
The purpose of Say Hey! is to introduce the new professionals of color who move to Oregon and SW Washington to our multicultural community. It is hard when you move here to see a lot of people who look like you at your work or on the streets so Say Hey! brings the communities of color to them. If a new professional (we call them Honorees) who moved here signs up to be introduced, they are introduced to an average audience of 500-700 who learn a little about them such as where they are from, where they are working, etc. After they are introduced, many times someone in the audience will be from the same city they moved from or work for the same company they work at and will connect with our newcomers. Honorees will tell us that this is the first time since they moved here to see so many people of color in one room. They often end up meeting lifelong friends at Say Hey!
For the community members who attend, Say Hey! is the once place they can come to see and meet people from the diverse community. For community members, it is a safe place to be with other who look like you. Regular attendees would not miss a Say Hey!if they cannot help it. They feel it is a must attend event to be with their community. For employers, it is a place to show you embrace diversity and inclusion and to recruit from the diverse network of attendees and to learn more about our diverse community.
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| Say Hey! with Portland State University leaders and staff. |
You've been doing great work in workforce diversity and inclusion for more than two decades. What are some of the key advancements you've observed?
I have been working with PID for five years but the organization was formed in 2005, an outcome of a CEO Forum in our region that focused on the changing demographics and of business imperative to embrace diversity and inclusion.
What I have learned is that this work is difficult and takes a long time. But in just my short time in PID, I have seen much more acceptance of having the race conversation. More and more organizations join PID because they see the value of diversifying their workforce but just need some help in how to do this work.
Given the current societal climate, What gives you hope?
The Friday before the Memorial Day weekend, a horrific tragedy happened on the Max station. Two men were killed and on injured coming to the defense of two young girls, one black, and one Muslim who were being harassed by a white surpremist. Too see how these brave men stood up for two from our diverse community gives me hope.
I feel that over the last several months, I have seen people who have never been civically engaged, become more civically engaged and those who already are step up even more against hate, racism, and bigotry.
Recently, I have also seen more people of color hired into top leaders positions in our region and being elected into state and local level government. More are still needed for many reason so our kids in K-12, who are very diverse, can see people who look like them leading.
In terms of continuing to advance your impact on Portland businesses, what's on your wish list?
I have several, but I will address a couple. One would be for all organizations to understand the importance of incorporating diversity, equity and inclusion into their organizations, starting with leadership willing to own this.
Another is to see more people of color progress upwards into leadership positions. I believe many organizations are working toward becoming a more diverse workforce, which I commend but we need more leaders of color at the top. I would like to see employers invest in leadership training for their employees of color.
The last is to see immigrants and refugees who come to the U.S. with advanced degrees be able to work in their credentialed field without having to go back to school to get a U.S. based degree. Many states are/have created pathways to shorten the time it takes to receive their license. In Oregon, the Oregon Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs (OCAPIA), which I serve on for six years, the last two as chairperson, has been working on this issue.
