Ms. Michelle Gadsden-Williams Speaks at DEI Facilitator Certification Series

By: Tyra Watts | March 22, 2022

On Monday, February 28th, 2022, Kean University hosted the third installment of the four-part “Engaging in Difficult Conversations” Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Facilitator Certification series.

The program involves Kean University’s College of Liberal Arts, the Office of DEI, the Holocaust Resource Center, and the Global Studies program. They partnered up with the School of Communication, Media, and Journalism (CMJ) to make this happen.

To receive the DEI Facilitator Certification, Kean students must attend all four of the lectures (in-person or virtually) and participate in one additional LIVE, in-person training session as the fifth and final step towards certification.

In the third DEI Facilitator Certification lecture, which was located at the STEM Auditorium, the guest speaker was Ms. Michelle Gadsden-Williams, the current Managing Director and Global Head of DEI at Blackrock, an investment management company. 

Gadsden-Williams was grateful that students were taking part in the certification program, and she hopes that the new generation of students will use their DEI certification in the workforce.

“I’m looking for my successor, I’m looking for the next generation of chief diversity officers,” Gadsden-Williams stated. “So again it is a privilege to be here with all of you.”

During the lecture, Gadsden-Williams provided a presentation about DEI and how it is very important to a company and its employees. She also adds in her personal experience living in Basel, Switzerland, describing it as challenging for a black woman, especially since she was one of the few black professionals at the company.

“So as you can imagine, I’ve been mistaken for the hired help, I’ve been mistaken for the administrative assistant, I’ve been mistaken for a refugee trying to cross the border,” Gadsden-Williams said. “So those were some of the challenges that I had.”

This had led her to take part in the DEI program and other diversity-related work. She ended her speech by stating how as chief diversity officers, they have the power to change things, and that change happens over time, not overnight.

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