Worcester Business Journal

BY MICA KANNER-MASCOLO WBJ Staff Writer T he concept of diversity, equity, and inclusion is hardly new. While the terminology may have not been the same, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 laid the foundation of what we know of today as DEI. e Black Lives Matter movement, though widely popularized in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, began in 2013 in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman aer he killed Trayvon Martin in Florida. Systemic equity work has never been easy, and its oen uphill battle has been compounded by the President Donald Trump Administration's ongoing crusade to uproot DEI: labeling the work as illegal and immoral discrimination and threatening to pull federal funding from institutions and organizations staying committed to their equity principles. Today, DEI practitioners are navigating misconceptions, fears, and layoffs, adapting their efforts to work around gatekeepers, zero-in on effective strategies, and make DEI a sustainable, systemic principle in the workplace. "You have to be quiet. You can't ruffle any feathers. Folks are like, 'Hey, don't bring any attention to my business, to my organization, to my company.' I feel that people are walking on eggshells," said Jessica Pepple, the inaugural chief diversity and culture officer at RFK Community Alliance nonprofit in Lancaster. "People have shrunk. You can't shine, so you have to shrink." For Pepple, navigating this risky landscape echoes a U.S. resistance movement from the mid-1800s: the Underground Railroad. Fleeting commitments Aer Floyd, a Black man, was killed by white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in May of 2020, U.S. business and organizational leaders felt as though they had to get on board with DEI, said Pepple. "If you didn't, people would look at you sideways. People would think 'Oh, so you're okay that the knee was on the neck?'" she said. DEI roles had been steadily growing in the U.S. since 2016, increasing on average by about 1,000 jobs per year; however, the aermath of Floyd's death showed a clear increase in positions, according to research performed by Revelio Labs profiling 8.8 million companies. In the three years from 2020 and 2023, the nation gained 7,842 positions before beginning to decline. During this time period, DEI practitioners were working to make the work systemic: to go beyond just celebrating cultural holidays or dealing with affirmative action, and instead working to implement equity into every aspect of work from human resources to finance to marketing and to research, said Pepple. But these professionals were oen kept beyond arm's reach by those in the positions of utmost power, she said. Owners and CEOs oen acted as gatekeepers from ingraining the work into the framework of an institution, she said. "We didn't make DEI the DNA of an organization. It was still like an add on, like a Sunday dinner side or something like that," said Pepple. "Since DEI was not the DNA of an organization … it was taken away like that. But that's what happens when you're a side piece, right?" Since Trump took office in January for his second presidential term, there's been a stark trend of companies scaling back or altogether dropping their DEI initiatives seemingly overnight, including household names like Walmart, Target, McDonald's, and Disney. "It amplifies the real crux of the problem in a lot of these organizations While losing jobs, facing federal threats, and managing client fears, DEI practitioners are navigating what it means to be inclusive in the Trump era FOCUS DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION DEI's not DEAD Jessica Pepple, RFK Community Alliance chief diversity and cultural officer 8 Worcester Business Journal | September 22, 2025 | wbjournal.com Promoting Good Chief Operating Officer Shawna Curran (left) and CEO Valerie Zolezzi-Wyndham PHOTO | EDD COTE

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