Ep 179. Natalie Edwards: Changing the Conversation about Race and Work

“We are all chief diversity officers.”

Natalie Edwards

Natalie Neilson Edwards is the Director of Inclusion & Diversity for The Estee Lauder Companies. She joined Estee Lauder in May of 2018 after graduating with her MBA from the Wharton School, with a concentration in business analytics. She leads inclusion strategy and operations for all 45,000 Estee Lauder employees and 25+ brands.. While at Wharton, Natalie drafted the school’s official diversity plan, working with the Dean as the Wharton Graduate Association's VP of Diversity and as one of the only student members of the Diversity Strategy & Policy Task Force. She was instrumental in doubling the black student population in one year. She has a BA in finance from Howard University where she was Female Graduate of the Year.

In this episode, Stew and Natalie discuss the challenges employees at all levels face discussing and grappling with race and how to help them do so more effectively. She describes what she learned from her experience about this issue growing up in suburban Houston and throughout her academic and professional career, including as a student at Wharton in Stew’s Total Leadership course. Natalie addresses what makes it hard to engage in meaningful dialogue about race and what we all can do to deal with deeply-ingrained sources of resistance and fear and thereby build a better tomorrow.

Here then is an invitation, a challenge, for you, once you’ve listened to the conversation. Look for an opportunity to have a conversation about race with a co-worker using the insights you gained from hearing Natalie’s ideas. What did you discover that you can apply now and in the future? Write to Stew to let him know, at friedman@wharton.upenn.edu, or connect with him on LinkedIn. While you’re at it, share your thoughts with him on this episode and your ideas for people you’d like to hear on future shows.

Listen below or on ApplePodcasts, GooglePlay, Spotify…