By Dorothy Coleman
Executive Vice President and CFO, Univera Healthcare
To have an inclusive culture, our goal is to engage all employees and groups within our organization.
Engagement of white males in our organization is demonstrated by their participation in our various diversity and inclusion employee diversity networks, as well as events sponsored by these groups. These include an array of activities coordinated by our LGBT employee resource group, African American group, Latino group, Asian group, and Vegetarian and Wellness group.
In addition, our senior leaders incorporate minorities and females in succession plans and mentor diverse employees with high potential. As an example, Chris Booth, our health plan president and COO, is a mentor to one of our employees, Mona Chitre, director of Clinical Services, who is of Indian descent. Members of our management team also volunteer their time to serve on committees and boards of organizations in our communities.
Another example is that I have been named chair of our Diversity Advisory Council that meets twice a year to implement a sustainable diversity and inclusion plan that supports our mission and vision, engages our senior leaders, and fully utilizes our employee resource groups.
While we are satisfied with the progress we have made thus far, we know that like most large organizations, we still have opportunities to improve in this area. Nonetheless, there is widespread awareness of opportunities for improvement and we are developing initiatives to achieve progress.