Dawn Frazier-Bohnert
Senior Vice President and Global Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer
Liberty Mutual Insurance
Headquarters: Boston, MA
Business: Insurance
Website: www.libertymutual.com
“Liberty Mutual Insurance is committed to continuous improvement, innovation and excellence,” says Chairman and CEO David H. Long. “By encouraging a broad array of ideas, attracting people of all backgrounds, and fully engaging all employees, we further the kind of company we are committed to being—one where people treat each other with dignity and deliver a consistently exceptional customer experience.”
In 2018, Liberty Mutual expanded diversity and inclusion initiatives across the organization, by taking the following actions:
- Working through WE@Liberty, the company’s women and male allies ERG, with the employee benefits team to expand paid parenting leave, short-term disability, and bereavement leave
- Promoting Inclusion in Action & Unconscious Bias Awareness, hosting a company-wide event featuring D&I expert Howard Ross, and offering new resources to help employees use the Guidelines for Inclusion to have productive conversations across differences
- Continuing gender collaboration work with Men as Allies webinars; building on Gender Collaboration, the company launched four Race & Ethnicity Collaboration pilots with key stakeholders to increase awareness of the costs and benefits of race & ethnicity in the workplace
- Expanding ERGs outside Boston. The office of Diversity & Inclusion and six ERGs hosted successful membership activation events at Liberty Mutual campuses in Seattle and Plano
The CEO and CDIO also participated in CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion closed-door sessions and programs.
Dawn Frazier-Bohnert, Liberty Mutual senior vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer, explains, “Our job as D&I leaders is to disrupt the historical systemic “-isms” that persist. If we’re not disrupting, we’re perpetuating the status quo and doing more harm than good. However, how we disrupt is also important. We need to act with positive intent. That is the art of this work.”
Under Frazier-Bohnert’s leadership, the company plans to do even more to advance diversity and inclusion in 2019, including the following:
- Continue D&I content integration and embedding work in learning and management curriculum
- Continue to expand the ERG/ D&I Council infrastructure
- Build on Inclusion in Action learning and practice
- Continue the Executive D&I Advisor program
- Expand and tailor programs internationally
Build on programming to strengthen understanding and collaboration around gender, generations, race, and the concept of intersectionality