Diversity leaders talk next steps amid state, federal challenges

Last edited 1:51 p.m., Feb. 11, 2025 [Editor's note: Keke Rover's title has been corrected.]

It was last summer when the Association for Women in Communications Springfield chapter came up with its Feb. 4 panel discussion topic: “Successful DEI Strategies and Initiatives in the Workplace.”

The months between conception and delivery have brought myriad changes in the diversity, equity and inclusion space, as its two participants described ways to incorporate diversity strategies in the current environment.

“One of AWC’s values is to embrace diversity in all forms, foster inclusive community and value different perspectives, backgrounds and experiences – so that’s why we kind of wanted to bring this program to you today,” said Rachel Tripp, AWC moderator, as she introduced panelists Darline Mabins, executive director of the Multicultural Business Association, and Keke Rover, regional health access and belonging partner at Brightli, parent company of Burrell Behavioral Health.

AWC’s organizers may not have guessed at the idea’s inception how timely the topic would be, amid state leadership direction and presidential executive orders against diversity initiatives, leading to shifts in practices by institutions receiving state and federal funds.

Mabins said private businesses are technically insulated right now, but there is a fear that they will be strong-armed into compliance.

“Everybody knows the math: If you have a diverse workforce, you have a more effective workforce; you have more of a profitable company,” Mabins said. “That math has not changed.”

Mabins made a distinction between federal requirements and what the Springfield community chooses to do.

“Federal is going to be federal, and there’s very little that we can do at this point to change some of that that’s happening,” she said. “We’re going to be who we decide we’re going to be.”

According to a December 2023 report by McKinsey & Co., the business case for diversity is strong and it is growing from when McKinsey first began reporting on it in 2015.

The latest study, involving 1,265 companies in 23 countries, found companies in the top quartile for both gender and ethnic diversity in executive teams were 9% more likely to outperform peers, and those in the bottom quartile were 66% less likely to outperform financially – up from 27% in 2020. This means, the report states, that lack of diversity may be getting more expensive for companies.

The study also found companies in the top quartile for board gender diversity are 27% more likely to outperform financially than those in the bottom quartile – and ethnic diversity among boards meant those companies were 13% more likely to outperform than those in the bottom quartile.

Also at play are declining birth rates and an aging workforce, Mabins said. That means diversity is going to be a factor for business.

“I don’t care how you shape it; that’s what’s happening, and where do we get our labor? Immigrants,” she said. “We have to bring people in because we are not producing the numbers for our workforce.”

Mabins said the community can choose to embrace diversity.

“We still have a running, functioning community. We determine what our community is going to be,” she said.

Local case studies
Asked by Tripp to pinpoint a paragon of inclusion in the community, Mabins had a quick response: Commerce Bank.

“It’s not an initiative; it’s just become part of their expectations. It’s part of their measurements, their metrics; it’s how they get vendors,” she said. “It’s not just, oh, we’re doing this today; it has become a top-to-bottom part of what they all do.”

Mabins said when a business focuses on something, the concept goes up on a bulletin board, and the effort becomes part of everything the company does – until the next focus comes along.

“Initiatives come and go, but permeating inclusion into the culture is what makes it stick,” she said.

Rover said at Brightli, DEI is implemented into the behavioral health provider’s strategic plan, with metrics and accountability built in. In her southwest region, for instance, a goal was to make sure 80% of employees had DEI training. That goal was surpassed, she said, with 88% completing the training.

“It really set the culture and the expectation for what we wanted in our southwest region,” she said.

Rover also pointed to Commerce Bank as an example with its employee resource groups – settings where employees with similar identities or interests come together for regular meetings and their own set of goals.

“When you add that layer of executive participation, then you’ve got the people who actually make the decisions and make changes for a company or an organization,” she said.

Commerce Bank officials weren’t immediately available for comment before press time, but the Kansas-City based bank’s website outlines how its culture of inclusivity is a key to its success. It points to hiring diverse talent by recruiting in both traditional and nontraditional methods, celebrating cultural, heritage and awareness months, unconscious bias training and employee resource groups to create “safe spaces” and develop mentors.

Rover said workplaces have changed.

“Twenty years ago, the culture was very much like you come in, you do your job, you do what you’re responsible for, you leave your feelings at the door,” she said.

Now, she said, workers want more.

“People are like, I want to be a part of something bigger. I want to know what you are involved in the community. I want to know what demographics of people you’re reaching out to, and what does your humanity look like?” she said.

The work of embracing diversity doesn’t change, she said.

“We just continue to figure out what’s another angle we can do this,” she said.

Mabins said 2007 was the first year the Springfield/Greene County Community Focus Report expressed a need to examine the community’s makeup and be aggressive in tracking and retaining talent.

“Here we are – we’re still doing the same things, having the same conversations, because there’s no intentionality behind it,” she said. “We just have to be OK with others being OK who do not look like us.”

Rover said a lot of times when people try to build out DEI initiatives, they want to know the return on investment.

“There is going to be a lot of times where our higher-level leadership or other folks are going to look at me and our decision-makers are going to go, yeah, we don’t have capacity for that right now,” she said. “Well, what do you have capacity for right now? I want to circle back and ask that question.”

State, federal challenges
At the state and federal levels, DEI is under scrutiny, with both President Donald Trump and Gov. Mike Kehoe equating it with preferential treatment for minorities, instead of rewarding the merit of the best candidates, regardless of identity.

“This administration will be built on merit, and we will not support DEI programs in state government,” Kehoe said in his Jan. 28 State of the State address.

The governor promised to take action soon on DEI programs in state government. The next day, Missouri State University’s Office of Inclusive Engagement was suddenly closed, with President Richard “Biff” Williams saying the university had to align with requirements laid out by Missouri leadership, as 38% of university funding comes from the state.

Casting the issue in sharp relief was the missing panelist at the AWC event, Algerian Hart, who was ousted from his cabinet-level position at MSU leading the university’s inclusive engagement office.

On the federal level, President Trump issued two executive orders to end DEI offices and initiatives across federal government and referred to DEI initiatives as illegal.

One order, titled “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” issued Jan. 20, directs all federal agencies to eliminate DEI and environmental justice offices and positions and equity-related grants or contracts. A Jan. 21 order, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” addresses DEI in federal contracting and directs federal officials to investigate private-sector businesses for alleged violations of civil rights laws.

As the AWC panel began, Tripp told the audience that Hart was unable to attend. Springfield Business Journal reached out to Hart to ask whose decision it was for him not to participate – his or his employer’s.

Hart responded by email, saying, “The work needed to finalize things for the closure of the Office of Inclusive Engagement had disrupted quite a few things. Unfortunately, the panel was one of them.”