The Power of Planting DEI Seeds

Angela Russell is the Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at CUNA Mutual Group. Angela is responsible for leading the development, direction, and implementation of short and long-term strategies and programs that support diversity, equity and inclusion. She shares her journey and how she began doing public health work, her transition to the financial services industry, and how interconnected those are.

In our conversation, Angela details the why and how of making lasting change for both the individual-level and the systems-level within an organization and she provides helpful insight on how others can take up this work as well.

Topics in this episode

• The connection between public health, politics, and financial services.
• Having clarity on your purpose.
• Being intentional with diversity, inequity, and inclusion
• The importance of executive-level buy-in of the work, and how that makes a difference
• Individual change and systems change. Are you trying to change hearts and minds? Or are you trying to change policy? It can be “both, and”
• How to start the process of looking at and changing policies: Who is this policy benefiting, and who is it unintentionally hurting?
• Being compliant versus being inclusive and what ally-ship looks like
• The role of vulnerability in this work, and how it impacts your emotional intelligence

Contact Info

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelarrussell

I’m so glad you got the chance to hear her and learn from her. We would love for you to share this episode and make sure you stay connected by going to http://www.deannasingh.com/. It’s only by staying connected and learning together that we can make the change we want to see.