DE&I 2021 Year in Review

Reflecting on our past year, our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee is proud of the work we’ve put in, but humble in our journey to move forward. We started with rebranding our committee from Diversity and Inclusion to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. We were dedicated to increasing representation of people in our organization and ensuring everyone within ALICE had a voice, but there was a piece missing for us. The equity piece shows our dedication of fair access to opportunities both in and outside of ALICE.

We kicked off 2021 with Black History Month in February where we welcome renowned activist and speaker, Briona Jenkins. Bri shared her journey of being Black in America and spoke about diversity, being your authentic self, and pushing boundaries to always be growing and learning. We also hosted Chef Lorraine Kenlock for a cooking demo and history of food and culture in the Caribbean.

April kicked off our DE&I led Book Club with Algorithms of Oppression. This book explores the biases embedded in search engine algorithms and effects these algorithms have on marginalized groups. We hosted bi-weekly discussions on the book and key findings of how we interact with search engines and implicit biases that we possess.

In May, we celebrated Asian Heritage Month by highlighting our Asian and Pacific Islander team members on the culture and cuisine of their countries. We had a team building activity during our All hands that included an origami making class.

June kicked off our LGBTQ+ and Pride Month by welcoming Eduardo Placer to ALICE. Eduardo shined a light on the importance of having pride in yourself and bringing your whole authentic self to work each day. He shared his story on sexuality and social norms he felt he had to fit in coming from a Latin American family. Our main takeaway from Eduardo was how do we create a safe space for every team member to bring their whole selves to work, regardless of their sexuality, ethnicity, religion, etc. We have tried to embed his message in our company culture.

Latinx and Hispanic Heritage Month in October was arguably our team’s favorite month of programming. We renamed the month to celebrate a wider range of our employees (Latina, Latino, Latinx, and Hispanic) and although it correlated with what is traditionally known as Hispanic Heritage Month in the United States, we celebrated our global team both in and outside of the U.S. During this month, all of our team members who identify as Latinx and Hispanic shared a piece of their culture with us. Some team members chose to share a special dish, while others taught the company about the geography of their hometown. We created a “Diverse Mosaics” flyer that highlighted the team members, their country of origin, and their short stories. In our weekly All Hands, we had a few team members do a deep dive and share recipes, things to do in their city, regional celebrations and more. We also had our team members create a Spotify playlist with their favorite hispanic and latinx songs that we danced to all month long.

As our committee is growing and we continue to learn, we are constantly reassessing naming conventions, the inclusivity of our events, and ways we can continue to expand our reach to our global workforce. We are excited to showcase our calendar for 2022 to involve more industry speakers, and make DE&I at ALICE bigger and better than ever.

Learn more about the ALICE team & current openings to join us.