Reconciling history with the necessity for dismantling systemic inequality and discrimination: Yale steps up.

From Yale's President today comes this timely and critical recognition and change at the University.  

Today I write to announce that the name of (one of Yale's undergraduate colleges) Calhoun College will be changed, and that we will honor one of Yale’s most distinguished graduates, Grace Murray Hopper ’30 M.A., ’34 Ph.D., by renaming the college for her....The decision to change a college’s name is not one we take lightly, but John C. Calhoun’s legacy as a white supremacist and a national leader who passionately promoted slavery as a “positive good” fundamentally conflicts with Yale’s mission and values.

When he learned of Calhoun’s death in 1832, Benjamin Silliman Sr. 1796 B.A., 1799 M.A., professor of chemistry at Yale and the namesake of another Yale residential college, mourned the passing of his contemporary while immediately condemning his legacy:

“[Calhoun] in a great measure changed the state of opinion and the manner of speaking and writing upon this subject in the South, until we have come to present to the world the mortifying and disgraceful spectacle of a great republic—and the only real republic in the world—standing forth in vindication of slavery, without prospect of, or wish for, its extinction. If the views of Mr. Calhoun, and of those who think with him, are to prevail, slavery is to be sustained on this great continent forever.”

The recipient of Yale’s Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal, the National Medal of Technology, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, “Amazing Grace” Hopper was a visionary in the world of technology. At a time when computers were bulky machines limited to a handful of research laboratories, Hopper understood that they would one day be ubiquitous, and she dedicated her long career to ensuring they were useful, accessible, and responsive to human needs.

An extraordinary mathematician and a senior US naval officer, Grace Murray Hopper achieved eminence in fields historically dominated by men.

Today, her principal legacy is all around us—embodied in the life-enhancing technology she knew would become commonplace. Grace Murray Hopper College thus honors her spirit of innovation and public service while looking fearlessly to the future.

At VeraCloud we celebrate Yale's recognition of this early female STEM pioneer.  Our mission is to tangibly advance progress on critical marketplace issues that include diversity, access, financial inclusion, economic opportunity, and ongoing public/private sector support for all diverse populations across the US. This includes building a better future for women and girls in STEM and all industries.

Our society is inching toward a future when the phrase "you code like a girl" will be a compliment of the highest order.

But there are significant hurdles before we get there. The statistics behind women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) are still far from indicating an even playing field.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, female employees fill fewer than 25% of STEM jobs — even though they make up nearly half of the overall workforce. In the startup world, just 5% of women head up their own companies.

There is much work to be done. #BeFearless #GetInTheArena

Thank you Coca-Cola for reminding us all, as we come together at the start of the Super Bowl, of the great diversity of the people who have built our country over the last 300 years.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows worldwide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Emma Lazarus @The Statue of Liberty

Let the word go forth from this time and place...

"Your mayor... he's a leader..." my taxi driver assured me on the way to Dublin Airport this morning.  News of Boston Mayor Marty Walsh's swift, substantive actions to protect at-risk individuals and families from the Immigration Ban had telegraphed quickly across the Atlantic and indeed around the globe:

In Boston, 48% of children have at least one parent who was born outside the United States. I identify with those kids because I was one of them. My mother and father came from Ireland to Boston looking for opportunity. They found their American Dream, and I got to live mine by becoming mayor of the city that embraced us.

My family was far from alone. In Boston, immigrants make up nearly one-third of our population. We welcome and cherish those who are fleeing persecution or simply seeking a better life. We know our success -- and our nation's success -- has always depended on the drive, talent, community and culture of newcomers.

In these uncertain times much will be said and emotions will run high, but let it be said long after all this plays out — of our leaders and of champions of diversity, access, opportunity, and inclusion everywhere — that we persisted, stayed the course, and unflinchingly supported those who needed it when and where it mattered most.  

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

Resiliency, persistence, democratizing access, and dismantling systemic inequalities: tools for success from the 12th annual Massachusetts Conference for Women

The 12th annual Massachusetts Conference for Women has kicked off last night and today at the Boston Convention Center. This conference brings front and center the underlying systemic disparities around opportunities, support structures, and tools available to help girls and women to achieve economic empowerment, success, and mobility.  The data on the outcomes of these kinds of collective efforts to support women’s business initiatives (despite public, private, and non-profit sector efforts), is still far from promising, and more clearly needs to be done:

Nearly 10 million businesses in the United States are majority-owned by women, 36 percent of all firms. While that’s nothing to sneeze at, the proportion of entrepreneurs who are women actually has dropped in recent years, according to the Kauffman Index of Startup Activity. In 1997, women started nearly 44 percent of new businesses, and by 2014 that level had slipped below 37 percent.

At this Boston conference are many strong role models with invaluable experience, context, and coaching for women to address: #opportunity #access #inclusion #inequality and more. Let’s hope that the organizers put these sessions up so that more than just the 11,000 passionate individuals here can have access to them. Among the speakers who stand out: Sarah Blakely, the youngest female self-made billionaire and founder of SPANX who speaks quite powerfully about resilience, failure, the power of failure as a character builder and foundational learning tool.  (Read 10 Lessons I Learned from Sara Blakely That You Won't Hear in Business School for additional insights into the resiliency of this motivated and accomplished female entrepreneur.)

MWBE fraud: $Billions in lost economic opportunity for diverse businesses and the families & communities they support.

A Manhattan federal jury has convicted Canadian contractor DCM Erectors and its owner Larry Davis for minority- and woman-owned (MWBE) business fraud during the execution of almost $1 billion of steel work at the Freedom Tower and World Trade Center Transportation Hub projects, according to Reuters.

Prosecutors alleged that DCM and Davis enlisted two minority firms to be administrative fronts on the projects while DCM, trying to avoid paying tens of millions of dollars to minority firms, did all the work itself.

Until the 1970’s, federal procurement dollars virtually bypassed Minority and Women-owned businesses.  Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon signed executive orders to increase women and minority participation in the US public contracting market.

President Carter’s Public Works Employment Act of 1977 mandated for the first time that “at least 10% of federal funds granted for local public work projects” be used to procure services and products from MWBEs.

Cities and states have long since joined in, seeking to level the playing field via mandate, legislation, and compliance enforcement. BUT: all of these efforts have lacked effective tools & technologies to match opportunities with diverse businesses that are ready, willing, and able to work.  As a result, inefficiencies and fraud like that at NYC's sacred Freedom Tower cheat diverse businesses out of their fair share of economic opportunity.

@veracloudtech we’ve built our technology platform to efficiently enable private contractors to better collaborate with diverse businesses to fuel greater access, opportunity and inclusion in public sector contracting work.  When barriers are broken down, the market becomes stronger, competition ensues, and tangible progress is made on critical issues: diversity, access, financial inclusion, economic opportunity, and ongoing support for diverse businesses across the US.