Biography

Almost 18 years ago, I chose to start my legal career at FBT because of the people at the firm.  Although the start of my journey was in litigation, I’m so blessed to now focus 100 percent of my time on our fantastic people.  I have a passion for what I do and feel privileged to work in a firm where our leadership is steadfast, fully invested in progress, and supports me and my passion for this crucial work.

My job is simple. It’s to make sure that we live and breathe everything we say about diversity and inclusion. It’s not about recruiting, sponsorships, or awards. It’s about making sure that we are constantly challenging ourselves to be more inclusive in everything that we do. That means advancement, partner compensation, practice group and department management. You name it.

FBT is like many other law firms (regionally and nationally) who share the desire to work on inclusion so that our senior leadership represents inclusive thoughts, ideas, and perspectives.  The difference is that FBT has been heavily invested in this work with a budget, a full-time position, accountability to the chairman of the firm, etc. for over 10 years.  Our work isn’t complete, but we’ve learned a lot along the way.   We believe that success and results depend on a shift in culture.  We believe that progress requires us to continue to measure where we are now and hold ourselves accountable.  That means taking the pulse of every single employee who works with us and listening to feedback and input.  It means working individually with practice group leaders, office leaders, committee chairs and team leaders to facilitate change and progress.  And it means challenging all our systems and processes to ensure that unconscious bias is not getting in the way of living and breathing our vision statement of true inclusion.

To read more about the impact of our firm’s inclusion vision, please visit the Diversity & Inclusion homepage on our website.  Please feel free to call me directly to hear more about the firm’s numerous initiatives and successes.

Who I Work With

As the firm’s chief diversity officer, I report directly to the firm’s CEO and I’m responsible for the firm’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.  I also work closely with Kimera Hall, chair of the Diversity & Inclusion Committee, and Kim Mauer, chair of the Women’s Initiative Steering Committee, to lead our initiatives and measure results. Working closely with firm leadership to institute behavioral practices and initiatives that will minimize the impact of unconscious bias and promote the retention and advancement of our people is critical to my role. Collaboration with members of the Executive Committee, Advancement Committee, Compensation Committee, Practice Group Leaders, Department Chairs and the Recruiting Committee to promote a more inclusive environment is key to our success.

Our work isn’t limited to just the firm.  I often work arm-in-arm with national leaders, so that our firm’s measure of success is not limited to our region or footprint.  I manage the firm’s scholarship programs and pipeline initiatives that formally begin as early as seventh grade to expose students from diverse backgrounds to the practice of law so that our firm is making a difference in our region – not just in our firm.  I often collaborate with numerous corporate clients on improving their internal diversity and inclusion initiatives.  In this capacity, I share best practices with our clients and create unique initiatives that bring together our firm and our clients on shared goals connected to diversity, equity and inclusion.