DEI Foundations: Practices for Accelerating Your Bank’s DEI Journey

Rapidly changing demographics and social and cultural trends have made diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace vital to success. Not withstanding 30 years of advancements in DEI training and education, many industries and organizations have not changed—leaving them ill-equipped to recruit and retain talent today. DEI is a broad field, constantly expanding to help all marginalized groups—and it can be overwhelming to keep up. DEI Foundations: Practices for Accelerating Your Bank’s DEI Journey provides DEI basics, leading organizational practices, and a tangible framework for starting and leveling up DEI programs in America’s banks.

About Naomi

Naomi Mercer was senior vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion at ABA from 2019-2024. She had recently transitioned from a 25-year military career where she served as an assistant professor in the Department of English and Philosophy at the United States Military Academy and in the Pentagon running the Army’s gender integration and religious accommodation programs. Her educational background includes a doctorate in literary studies with a minor in gender and women’s studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an executive certificate in strategic diversity and inclusion from Georgetown University’s Institute for Transformational Leadership. She is the author of the academic monograph, Toward Utopia (2015).