wbjournal.com | January 23, 2023 | Worcester Business Journal 3
the initial stage of justifying its existence,
we're never going to be in a place where
WBJ's reporting makes businesses and the
economy better.
- Brad Kane, editor
W
orcester entrepreneur
Shawna Curran said
something particularly
profound in this edi-
tion's main cover story
"A place for innovation" from Staff Writer
Isabel Tehan on page 10.
In discussing the need for dedicated
spaces for business professionals of color,
Curran said whenever she interacted with
white entrepreneurs in Greater Worcester's
startup community, she was oen having
to justify the need for her company to
exist. Her business, STEM ENRG, seeks to
train women of color on coding, project
management, and financial literacy. Cur-
ran developed the business idea during her
career in tech, an industry where women
and people of color are underrepresented.
e switch to remote work as part of
COVID provided relief for professionals
of color, Curran said, as they didn't have to
deal with microaggressions or constantly
having to justify their work. I can only
imagine how exhausting it must be to deal
with all this on a daily basis. If the founda-
tion of every professional conversation I
have is establishing why WBJ should exist
as a business or a journalism publication,
I would barely get anything else done. For
entrepreneurs like Curran, who are hustling
to grow out of the startup phase, such con-
versations must be irritatingly distracting.
Yet, WBJ's coverage of diversity, equity,
and inclusion has oen fallen into this trap.
In my mind, whenever we write about DEI
issues, I feel like I have to justify to the face-
less, skeptical masses why DEI is important.
For example, take our weekly Flash Poll
of our readers, which I develop with the
staff writers. Whenever we ask about a DEI
topic, the question always revolves around
the basic idea of "Do you think diversity is
a good thing?" By continually taking this
approach, we don't move the conversation
forward and are instead stuck in the cycle of
trying to prove the importance of a topic we
already know is important. We don't do this
for other business principles like "Do you
think low unemployment is a good thing?"
is is going to change. e fundamental
question of "Why DEI?" is going to shi
to "How can we achieve better diversity,
equity, and inclusion?" in WBJ's stories.
ere is much to know and even more to
report about DEI. If we don't move out of
Moving beyond basic DEI coverage
W
I N T H I S I S S U E
Editor, Brad Kane,
bkane@wbjournal.com
Staff Writers
Timothy Doyle
tdoyle@wbjournal.com (Real estate,
higher education)
Kevin Koczwara
kkoczwara@wbjournal.com
(Manufacturing, energy & environment)
Isabel Tehan, itehan@wbjournal.com
(health care, diversity & inclusion)
Contributors
Giselle Rivera-Flores, Laura Finaldi,
Monica Benevides, Alan Earls, Susan
Shalhoub, Livia Gershon
Photgraphers
Matt Wright, Edd Cote
Research Director,
Stephanie Meagher,
smeagher@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
Senior Account Executive
Yasmin Nasrullah,
Ynasrullah@wbjournal.com
Marketing & Events Manager
Kris Prosser, kprosser@wbjournal.com
Human Resources Manager,
Tracy Rodwill,
trodwill@nebusinessmedia.com
Accounting Manager, Sara Ward,
sward@nebusinessmedia.com
Accounting Assistant, Rae Rogers,
rrogers@nebusinessmedia.com
Account Receivable Specialist,
Patty Harris, pharris@
nebusinessmedia.com
Audience Development Manager,
Leah Allen, lallen@nebusinessmedia.com
Business Office Assistant,
Nicole Dunn,
ndunn@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 2023. All rights reserved. Postmaster: Please send address
changes to: Worcester Business Journal,
PO Box 330, Congers, NY 10920-9894.
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• 508-755-8860 fax
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Worcester Business Journal
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TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S
4 Central Mass. In Brief
12 Focus on Commercial real estate
16 The List: Notable commercial sales
17 The List: Notable commercial leases
18 Column: The Hustle is Real
19 Know How
20 Movers & Shakers
21 Opinion
22 Shop Talk: Foster-Healey Real Estate
Inc.
6 Solving health care's inequities
Commonwealth Medicine has hired a
MassHealth executive to help address the
most pressing needs in health care.
8 Prices falling, competition rising
Business owners in the still-young cannabis
industry are facing new headwinds.
CORRECTION: The Best of Business awards profile on Worcester
Fitness in the Jan. 9 edition had the incorrect website address for
the company, which won the Best Exercise Facility/Fitness Center
category. The correct web address is worcesterfitness.com.
