My experience taking action for racial equity at PwC

For many of us, our everyday work is largely separate from the issues, topics or people we care about most. We may make time to volunteer in our communities, but work is generally work, and passions, if explored, are usually left to evenings and weekends. Throughout my career, I always felt like I had a good balance between work and everything else. But in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and a summer marked by racial justice protests, my concept of work changed entirely.

At that point, I had been working at PwC for 10 years — the consulting role I was in was my first job out of college and I had been in the same practice group the entire time. I loved my team, enjoyed our work and my career was steadily advancing.

But in June 2020, the firm’s chairman and senior partner, Tim Ryan, announced something new. PwC was starting an ambitious business-led public policy advocacy effort that would focus on addressing issues of racial injustice. I immediately felt a pull to apply to be part of the program. I didn’t know what it would mean for my career in the long term or for my day-to-day work, but I was certain that working to address the issues of the poor and oppressed was one of the most important things I could do with my time, skills and experiences. That effort became the CEO Action for Racial Equity (CEOARE) Fellowship, and I joined the first cohort of Fellows.  

CEOARE is now one of the largest business-led initiatives focused on advancing racial equity through public policy at the federal, state and local levels. And for the past two years, I’ve had the privilege of spending my days working with the other brilliant and passionate Fellows from over 100 different companies from across industries and regions. Together, we are writing letters to legislators, participating in public hearings, building relationships with other advocacy organizations, educating our companies and sharing insights based on our research. Specifically, I’ve been focused on advocating for police accountability databases, which gather information on police misconduct and can be used to develop solutions to curb future misconduct. In all of this, I’ve experienced not only professional growth, but also been able to live out my values and explore my passions.

Admittedly, this has been one of the hardest challenges I’ve faced in my professional career but, like any challenge, I’ve been able to learn so much that I expect to carry back over to my role at PwC:

• Importance of multi-stakeholder communication: While the topical focus of my work changed, I’ve been able to use and hone skills that I began developing in my consulting work. I’ve learned that there can be more similarity between different types of work than I expected. Being a Fellow has helped me with executive communication, stakeholder engagement and relationship building. I’ve also seen, in a new light, how important it is to understand your audience’s needs and perspectives so you can present arguments that can be more persuasive to them. Understanding your clients is important, but in policy work, there are multiple stakeholders with very nuanced opinions who all have influence on the political process. 

• Being open to growing your skills in nontraditional areas: This experience has also exposed me to new skills. Early on in the Fellowship, I volunteered to be a part of a small group focused on introducing virtual collaboration tools and platforms to make our work more effective. I didn’t have a technology background, but I knew how to handle basic questions about using and locating shared files, and knew I could learn anything else that came up. Eventually, I was asked whether I’d be open to managing the implementation of a new technology tool for the Fellowship that would help us track and organize our interactions with stakeholders. With 100+ organizations in our coalition and hundreds of other collaborators including lawmakers and advocacy organizations, an effective tracking system was crucial to help us better leverage our collective network to drive policy change. We took on the challenge and, with a lot of help from some technologists, managed a smooth implementation and launch for the Fellowship. In turn, we gained a digitally enabled relationship management approach for CEOARE and I gained an opportunity for digital upskilling, which is invaluable to my work today and tomorrow. 

• Embrace the complexity: Now that my time in the Fellowship is ending, I can truly say this experience has been more enriching than I could have ever imagined. That’s not to say it has been without its challenges — we brought 200 people together from different organizations, created processes and culture, developed new relationships, navigated emotionally charged conversations about race, managed conflicts, and figured out how this first-of-its-kind initiative could effectively advocate for policies that lead to racial equity.

But maybe my most important takeaway? Don’t be afraid to proactively seek out those opportunities that bring your personal passions together with your professional responsibilities. I’m ending this chapter extremely proud of the work my team has done and am so excited to see the next cohort of Fellows do the same.