The T. Howard Foundation: Unlocking Talent, Inspiring the Future

Fastforward to today and while some good progress has been made much work is needed to address the fact that many leadership teams are still very homogeneous amp160This is the sort of challenge that drives Jo Pamphile who has been President and Chief Executive Officer of the T Howard Foundation for the past 13 yearsPamphile fervently believes in the power of opportunityamp160 As a young fashion designer Pamphile empowered high school dropouts to express their inner strength boldly own their image and take that onto the catwalk of lifeamp160 From the hopelessness she witnessed working in the South Bronx in her early career to the optimistic resilience she has cultivated within the young students at the THF she has made it her mission quotto create opportunityquot and help catapult today39s diverse students into high potential leaders of tomorrowTHF essentially works to create a level playing field in our very uneven worldamp160 By curating a highly selective and fiercely competitive program that elevates the ambitions of diverse students from across the country it opens the door to addressing the state of homogeneity that still plagues many senior leadership teams across the media and entertainment businesses amp160The industry is embracing the THF programs with a voracious appetite both student applications and corporate placements are quotup significantly and have broken all recordsquot Pamphile said amp160From their internship placements to graduate programs the foundation is providing a structured and elegant solution addressing industry pressure to solve for diversity issues during this era of MeToo and greater civic discourse on inequalityAccording to Pamphile for all the corporate attention on diversity and inclusion there is a critical element that is still missingamp160 She calls it by a simple name quotacceptancequot and believes truly accepting diverse candidates goes beyond giving them a role and inviting them to speak at a meeting amp160quotIt is about the person feeling they are being valued not just for being a 39diverse39 candidate but valued for their ideas their thinking and above all their individualityquot she explainedTo underscore just how far acceptance can take you Pamphile shared the story of her quotsuperstar talentquot Rosalyn Durant an alumna of the program who epitomizes the mission of the foundationamp160 Today Durant serves as Senior Vice President College Networks and Programming at ESPN where she continues to break old stereotypes in the highly maledominated arena of sports broadcastingThe THF has perfected the art of leadership development from their stringent screening process to their rigorous orientation program to their engagement platforms targeting men given females account for 66 of students currently and students in STEM amp160The THF program attracts a diverse mix of students with the majority being of African American background 65 followed by Hispanic under 20 Asian and Caucasian Even before starting their corporate roles students are groomed for success with comprehensive orientation programs alumni discussion panels and mentoring conversationsamp160 Students go on to challenging internship roles across various functions in marketing onair talent andamp160production operations legal finance and human resourcesBrian Vaught Senior Vice President Talent Inclusion at Publicis Media who also serves on the THF Board explained how their threeyear partnership has been extremely rewardingamp160 quotOur agencies and clients benefit from a more diverse and culturally representative talent poolquot he saidamp160 quotBringing greater diversity into our industry is what will drive innovation and help futureproof our business because when you have diversity of talent you have diversity of thought amp160which is then reflected in the work we produce for our clientsamp160 The team at T Howard has proven time and again how committed they are to delivering quality candidates to their partners and our alignment with them has been invaluablequotThe THF has amassed an impressive roster of partners from across the media ecosystem from agency holding companies like Publicis to cable networks like Showtime and WarnerMedia to cable operators like Comcast and telcos and tech companies like ATampampT and FacebookWhen our conversation turnedamp160to ROI and the wellestablished evidence that diversity drives financial results Pamphile sharedamp160a novel idea assign responsibility for diversity andamp160inclusion outcomes to the CFOamp160 This would Pamphile said quotelevate its strategic importance to the longterm financial growth of the organizationamp160 It39s not going to work just having a DampampI officer there needs to be a mandate tied to the bottom linequotIt is precisely this bold thinking that the business of equality needsamp160 When I asked Pamphile how she deals with the inevitable frustrations and challenges that come with running a missionbased nonprofit she coyly smiledamp160and sharedamp160with me a new mantra she used the evening before at an NYU diversity panelamp160 quotDon39t get madamp160 Get magnificentquotBeing magnificent might just be the winning antidote to address bias in the opportunity game a game that Pamphile is working tirelessly to equalize revolutionize and above all humanizeClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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The T. Howard Foundation: Unlocking Talent, Inspiring the Future

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Raquelle Zuzarte

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The T. Howard Foundation: Unlocking Talent, Inspiring the Future

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Raquelle Zuzarte

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