by Erin Turner | Jan 20, 2015 | News Slider
He does it all — everything from serving in church ministries to playing latin percussion music in his spare time. And his diversity doesn’t stop there. Anthony Carter, Chief Diversity Officer at Johnson & Johnson, spoke to students about the importance of diversity in the workplace at Media Masters Tuesday evening in Ezell. To get where he is today, Carter took a slight detour on his journey into the field of communications. “It took me three hours in a laboratory to prick my finger to do a blood test and I knew right away that this [pre-med] is not really for me,” Carter said. During college, one of his professors invited him to do a radio talk show, giving him the chance to bring current topics to students on campus. Soon, this broadcast endeavor led him to writing for one of his school’s newspapers. “I started to fall in love with this thing called communications because I ultimately thought that it was the true way to express who I am.” His love of communications took him down another path, incorporating both diversity and inclusion. “Diversity is who we are and inclusion is how we work together,” Carter said. “Communications is the understanding of all of that.” In 2002, Carter joined Johnson & Johnson as Director of Corporate Communications, and in 2005 he was promoted to Vice President of Corporate Communications. A day in the life of Carter involves sifting through hundreds of emails and doing exactly what he loves — creating an atmosphere of transparency with those he works with. “My passion in that work [communications] makes me really comfortable in...
by Carly Bergthold | Jan 20, 2015 | News Slider
Business leaders from the Nashville area met Tuesday morning at Lipscomb for a discussion on workplace diversity in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The Lipscomb University Department of Communication and Journalism hosted the event in Ezell Center partnering with the Council on Workforce Innovation and National Organization for Workforce Diversity. Guest speaker Anthony Carter, Chief Diversity Officer at Johnson & Johnson, shared his ideas about diversity over breakfast. Carter discussed his belief that corporations should concentrate more on social leadership and global well-being. “Diversity is who we are,” Carter said. “And inclusion is how we work together. The beauty of that is how we pull all of that together to make sure that we are of best interest to our customers.” Carter views diversity as a social justice imperative, and pointed to Martin Luther King Jr. as a hero worthy of emulation. “His work,” Carter said about King Jr., “in fact his life, illustrates so accurately diversity and social justice. Think about it, Dr. King dismantled the barriers of segregation and transformed a nation.” Breakfast attendees came from all over Nashville to learn how to better support diversity in their own businesses, corporations and organizations. “Diversity really means everything, Lori Adukeh, executive director of 100 Black Men of Middle Tennessee said. “It gives people the opportunity to be different, and yet be the same, to collaborate, to be partners.” Attendees also discussed the increased productivity diversity brings. “Diversity, and workforce diversity specifically, really speaks to equality and opportunity,” said Jacky Akbari, director of employee services at the Nashville Career Advancement Center. “We’ve found that when there is a diverse...
by Danielle Boyd | Feb 3, 2012 | News Slider
The Latino population in Nashville is growing, and Lipscomb is the first local university to reach out to Latino students by offering grants of up to $22,000 per student for those who meet the general admissions requirements. As President Randy Lowry sets new initiatives to increase growth in higher education among Latino students, the Latino community on campus is growing rapidly. In the hopes of increasing diversity and setting a new vision for campus, Lowry appointed Jessie Van de Griek, the director of the Hispanic Achievers program at the Harding Place Family YMCA, to continue bringing students to Lipscomb. “My role on campus is to be a bridge builder,” she said. As the associate dean of intercultural engagement, Van de Griek works with the Latino students on campus to help identify ways to connect the Latino community to Lipscomb. In addition to being a bridge builder, Van De Griek is a mentor to students, helping them understand the importance of higher education and professional development. For many Latino students on campus, Van de Griek played an important role in providing extra assistance in understanding the enrollment process. Jarathzy Lendos, a sophomore majoring in nursing, said, “I didn’t know a lot of the process that goes into applying…and I asked for their help, and they were more than willing to help me out.” Lack of knowledge on the process of attending college and low income are common obstacles of the Latino community, according to Van de Griek. As a result, most Latino students do not even consider attending college. With the help of Lipscomb and the Hispanic Achievers grant program, more...
by Jameson Roper | Apr 30, 2010 | News Slider
Thursday morning, Lipscomb University hosted their second Hispanic Forum in the Ezell Center. Entitled “Opening Doors,” the forum was an informative event meant to cast light on the social outlook of America and Tennessee’s Hispanic youth and their education. Lipscomb held the event to bring together educators, students, and other public leaders to focus on diversity in our communities. President Randy Lowry began the morning stressing the importance of diversity in our community. Dr. Stella Flores shared her outlook on the current situation. Flores is a Vanderbilt University professor and internationally recognized expert on Hispanic relations. Prior to becoming a staff member at Vanderbilt, Flores worked in the United States Government Accountability Office. Flores, a Texas-native and Harvard graduate, stressed from the beginning that America’s Hispanic youth has not been targeted with enough help and it must change. “Immigration is inching to the top of the policy agenda [in America],” Flores said. Flores stated laws like the one recently passed in Arizona are a step back in America’s relations with immigrants. The new law Flores spoke of, entitled Arizona SB1070, has an aim to find and deport suspected illegal immigrants. The law grants Arizona police officers the right to question suspected illegal immigrants and demand identification. If the person fails to produce a valid form of identification, they can and will be prosecuted and deported. Flores said that we as Americans must give these Spanish-speaking students a fair chance at equal education. Flores’ parents are both college-educated Hispanics. However, she said that her mother was placed in speech classes throughout her schooling in an attempt to eliminate her accent...
