2015 Diversity Leader
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
Headquarters: Detroit, Michigan
CEO: Daniel J. Loepp
Employees: 7,651
Recent Recognition Includes:
- DiversityInc, Top 10 Regional Companies List, #8
- SASHE, LLC, Great Companies for Women in Metro Detroit, #2
- DiversityBusiness.com, Top 50 Organizations for Multicultural Business Opportunities
- Diversity MBA Magazine, 50 Out Front for Diversity Leadership: Best Places for Diverse & Women Managers to Work, #8
- Diversity MBA Magazine, Top 10 Best in Class winner in the areas of Representation, Succession Planning, and Accountability
- DiversityBusiness.com, America’s Top Organizations for Multicultural Business Opportunities
Amal Berry-Brown
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan’s Chief Diversity Officer Amal Berry-Brown has seen the organization take big steps in 2014 to meeting its long-term goals.
BCBSM has a long history of commitment to diversity and inclusion across all aspects of our enterprise. Our opportunity for greatest impact is in the implementation of our long-term diversity and inclusion strategic plan.
We developed our three-year Corporate Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan (2014–2016) at the end of last year in collaboration with the Diversity Leadership Council—a team of executive staff from each division within our organization focused on delivering and executing D&I initiatives throughout BCBSM. The plan identifies three corporate objectives and includes five corporate diversity strategic pillars: Members, Leadership, Workforce, Culture, and Community. Strategies, approaches, and metrics have been developed for each of the five pillars, which link to BCBSM’s long-term goals.
Over the past year, we also:
- Delivered diversity training to over 1,000 employees. This included hosting four Diversity Learning Labs on topics such as Exploring Unconscious Bias and Network Level Communications.
- Held our Celebrate Diversity Expo in the month of August. The month-long Expo gave us opportunities to celebrate the many distinct cultures, backgrounds and individuals represented throughout our company. An estimated 2,200 employees attended the event, which included 36 mini-workshops and webinars presented at nine different BCBSM locations.
- Started an internal mentoring program with 14 senior level executives serving as our inaugural mentors.
- Held more than 30 learning forums/events through our Employee Resource Networks (ERNs), and increased the number of ERNs we sponsor from five to seven.
Our Corporate Diversity Strategic Plan will continue to allow us to focus on opportunities to meet our objectives of tying diversity and inclusion to business outcomes, attracting and developing a diverse and culturally competent workforce, and helping to reduce health care disparities among diverse communities.
