Worcester Business Journal

10 Worcester Business Journal | September 22, 2025 | wbjournal.com companies and organizations have chosen to take DEI out of their lexicon in favor of more ambiguous terminology that won't raise alarm bells. While changing language does not inherently mean companies are abandoning their DEI practices – in fact, it can mean the opposite – leaders cannot do so while leaving their stakeholders and employees in the dark, said Valerie Zolezzi-Wyndham, CEO of Promoting Good, a DEI consulting firm out of Worcester. Promoting Good works with leaders to tackle the evolving workplace landscape in an effort to cultivate inclusive and successful workplace cultures. In April, Promoting Good launched a new leadership program called Cultiv8, a course using a proprietary assessment tool to measure the difference between the impact leaders think they have and how their workers actually experience them. ough the timing of Promoting Good's launch may seem to correlate with the federal administrative turnover, the two are actually quite independent, said Zolezzi-Wyndham. roughout the past eight years, Promoting Good has built an understanding of what traits contribute to inclusive leadership, said Zolezzi- Wyndham, but she wanted to take the next step and confirm their beliefs were backed by science. "We could have just used our gut and built questions that got it those traits, like courage and curiosity, and it might have worked just fine, but we really wanted to make sure that the tool would have rigor behind it," she said. us, a year ago, Promoting Good partnered with e Bridgify Group, a Virginia-based research company, to conduct extensive literature reviews and engage the public in answering questions to help Promoting Good select and test its assessment questions. "If leadership isn't doing the leadership work that they need to be better leaders for everyone, those [DEI] initiatives are going to fail," said Zolezzi-Wyndham. "at's why we're focusing on leadership, because it's needed for the work to sustain itself." ough Cultiv8 wasn't designed specifically to tackle DEI challenges during the Trump era, the program Palliative Care —for improved quality of life. Our Adult Palliative Care Program serves patients living with serious illness with a focus on relieving pain or other distressing symptoms, assisting with advanced care planning, clarifying goals of care, and improving quality of life. Our team provides palliative care services in personal homes, other nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, or wherever patients call home throughout Central Massachusetts. 555-559 Plantation Street Worcester, MA 01605 508-852-5800 Contact us to learn more about the mission-driven, not-for- profit difference at Notre Dame Health Care. Notre Dame Palliative Care notredame healthcare.org F O C U S DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION Continued from previous page

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