wbjournal.com | September 13, 2021 | Worcester Business Journal 5
Editor, Brad Kane,
bkane@wbjournal.com
Senior Staff Writer,
Monica Benevides,
mbenevides@wbjournal.com
(Manufacturing, higher education,
diversity & inclusion)
Staff Writers
Katherine Hamilton
khamilton@wbjournal.com (Real estate,
health care)
Sloane M. Perron
perron@wbjournal.com (Banking &
finance)
Editorial Interns
Devan Greevy,
dgreevy@wbjournal.com
Contributors
Susan Shalhoub, Livia Gershon
Photgraphers
Matt Wright, Edd Cote
Lead Researcher, Timothy Doyle,
tdoyle@nebusinessmedia.com
Research Assistant, Heide Martin,
hmartin@nebusinessmedia.com
Production Director, Kira Beaudoin,
kbeaudoin@wbjournal.com
Art Director, Mitchell Hayes,
mhayes@wbjournal.com
Senior Accounts Manager
Christine Juetten,
cjuetten@wbjournal.com
Senior Special Accounts Manager
Mary Lynn Bosiak,
mlbosiak@wbjournal.com
Marketing & Events Manager
Kris Prosser, kprosser@wbjournal.com
COO, Mary Rogers,
mrogers@nebusinessmedia.com
Accounting Assistant, Rae Rogers,
rrogers@nebusinessmedia.com
Account Receivable Specialist,
Patty Harris,
pharris@nebusinessmedia.com
Human Resources, Jill Coran,
jcoran@nebusinessmedia.com
Director of Audience Development,
Valerie Clark,
vclark@nebusinessmedia.com
Operations Assistant,
Leah Allen,
lallen@nebusinessmedia.com
Publisher, CEO, Peter Stanton
pstanton@nebusinessmedia.com
Associate Publisher, Mark Murray
mmurray@wbjournal.com
President, Tom Curtin
tcurtin@hartfordbusinessjournal.com
Worcester Business Journal (ISSN#1063-6595) is published bi-weekly,
24x per year, including 4 special issues in May, September, October,
and December by New England Business Media. 172 Shrewsbury
St., Worcester, MA 01604. Periodicals postage paid at Worcester, MA.
Copyright 2021. All rights reserved. Postmaster: Please send address
changes to: Worcester Business Journal,
PO Box 330, Congers, NY 10920-9894.
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Worcester Business Journal
WBJ
A
s a white male, can I
effectively lead reporting
on diversity & inclusion in
the Central Mass. business
community? Sure. Would I
be better at it if I were someone from an
historically excluded group? Absolutely.
In her feature "Who reports the news"
on page 16, Senior Staff Writer Monica
Benevides points out the many limitations
of media being composed of mostly white
staff – or in the case of Central Mass.
newsroom leadership, 100% white men in
a region where a quarter of the population
is non-white. We just don't have the lived-
in experiences of people of color, women,
and, speaking for myself, members of the
LGBTQ+ community. As a journalist,
I am trained to put biases aside, and be
objective and skeptical in all things, but
no amount of research or interviews can
compare to the knowledge and perspec-
tive someone has gained in being Black in
America for their entire life, for example.
e media response to the murder of
George Floyd by Minneapolis police show-
cases this dilemma. As horrific as the video
of the murder was, for a significant portion
of Black Americans, the incident was an
extension of what they experienced their
entire lives. For white media, myself in-
cluded, the video laid bare the intolerance
many of our fellow Americans have dealt
with because of their skin tone. We vowed
change. WBJ Publisher Peter Stanton and
I put out an editorial saying our economy
could only achieve its true potential if all
its members were given equal access to
opportunity. I made diversity & inclusion
one of WBJ's major coverage areas. Before
Floyd's murder, 16 of the 129 WBJ cover
pages under my tenure as editor featured a
person of color. Aer his murder, eight of
32 featured at least one.
I am simultaneously extremely proud of
WBJ's diversity & inclusion coverage over
the last 17 months and utterly disgusted
by it. I'm sickened because all that really
changed in the world was I watched a vid-
eo. I should have known more about how
inequality and racism had permeated all
corners of American society, but I've been
shielded from needing to be concerned
about institutional racism on an every day
basis. If I had been, I likely would have
already baked diversity & inclusion cover-
age into WBJ's ecosystem, and our audience
would have been well versed in the systems
of oppression inherent in our economy.
e best I can do now is accept my lim-
itations, learn as much as I can, and strive to
be better than I was yesterday.
– Brad Kane, editor
e limitations of being a white man
N E W S & A N A LY S I S
6 Central Mass. In Brief
8 Focus on Diversity & Inclusion
21 Special Sponsored Section:
Diversity & Inclusion
37 The List: Top minority-owned
businesses
38 Know How
40 Movers & Shakers
40 Photo Finish
41 Opinion
42 Shop Talk: YWCA Central
Massachusetts
34 Immigrant health
Holes in health insurance coverage for
Worcester's immigrant population weighs
heavily on healthcare providers.
39 Why QCC is focusing on robotics
Guest advice columnist Betty Lauer details
why Quinsigamond Community College
has shaped its latest curriculum around
the anticipated robotics needs of multiple
industries.
D E P A R T M E N T S
A division of:
Member FDIC
For more information, contact:
Peter Staiti, First Vice President
Commercial Lending Center Manager
508.957.1108
Peter.Staiti@RocklandTrust.com
RocklandTrust.com/Worcester
A relationship your
business can rely on.
Now with three branches across the greater
Worcester area, and a dedicated commercial lending
center – our team is ready to support your business.
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CORRECTION: The 2021 WBJ Giving Guide, published on Aug. 30, mistakenly left off
The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts, which has $89 million in assets,
off of the Charitable Foundations list. A new version of the list, which has been
renamed Largest Grant-making Foundations, has been added to the digital edition
of the Giving Guide and can be found at WBJournal.com.
I N T H I S I S S U E
