During my time I saw the foundation repeatedly state they cared about diversity, equity, and inclusion, and wanted to move us towards being a more diverse workplace, where all felt included and able to bring their best forward for the mission of the org. And yet, during my tenure I saw multiple women, half women of color, leave my division. Not truly out of choice, but because their management chains were atrocious. Retention is key to making any org a truly inclusive space but I'm quite convinced that several white people here see POC as interchangeable - all you need to do is hire the next POC when one leaves rather than fix the toxic system that views us as less capable and yet asks us for more work than our white colleagues.
White men fail upwards here. WOC are pushed out. This needs to stop now and not in 2 or 3 or 5 years from now. But from everything I've seen the foundation's plans to address this, it means taking an incredibly slow pace on this to the detriment of those most discriminated against.
Every year our division saw new guidelines about what was required to go up for promotion - and yet none were actually applied equitably. It was disheartening to see that I met most of the requirements for a role twice more senior than what I had and to hear from multiple colleagues that they saw that in me as well, but to get the opposite message from my chain of management who were disengaged with my work. There's very little accountability here when you're discriminated against.
Many people hired here are bright, smart individuals but know nothing about what they're hired to do. People hired to do public health research and yet have never done it before and are managed by other researchers with no prior experience in the field either. It's the (hopeful) blind leading the blind here and the people purportedly being served and supported by this research deserve better. But you won't get that when you have poor leadership with little relevant experience with the field (here I'm not referring to the CEO, but rather individuals lower than that).
Finally, let me repeat: I was gaslit by several people in my division. Bringing it forward did nothing for me besides put a target on my back. White men have questioned my work when they have no expertise in it and they are taken seriously solely because of the seniority of their role but not their actual experience. They can speak to you condescendingly and nothing will happen to them even if you bring it forward. They can repeatedly fail at doing their jobs and be given chance after chance, more training, more time, etc but POC will not be given the same support. I could not recommend this place for any POC at the moment as it's unsafe to be our authentic selves.
