DeRetta Cole Rhodes
DeRetta Cole Rhodes, Ph.D., is a longtime Diversity, Equity and Inclusion professional who was recently promoted to Executive Vice President, Chief People Capital Officer for the Atlanta Braves. While she has a breadth of experience and impact within her work, Performance Paradigm highlights DeRetta as a R.I.C.H. Human for her commitment to improving human capital and equity within her spheres of influence.
When it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), Dr. Rhodes is a vocal advocate, often using her social media platforms to share thoughtful insights. During a recent social media video post, she emphasized how people are becoming more aware of the word equity and its importance in leveling the playing field to create equal opportunities.
“The word that I love we’re using now that we weren’t using two years ago, or maybe not even 18 months ago is equity.”
Equity defined, is the quality of being fair and impartial and the value of the shares issued by a company and has become a business priority across organizations. While more organizations have been showing a commitment to diversity, over the last year, diversity in the workplace has to include equity as the foundation. Equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances and allocates the resources and opportunities needed to reach an equitable outcome.
In 2018, “From Survive to Thrive: Women of Color in Corporate Leadership” TEDx Talks | UGA, DeRetta shared a startling statistic. “Women of color hold only four percent of top corporate jobs.” Through hard work, perseverance, and dedication, DeRetta is one of the few who holds a corporate leadership position.
As a strong believer in education and its importance to advancing to new levels of success, DeRetta chose to continue her pursuit of higher learning after earning a masters degree in Marketing and Organizational Behavior.
DeRetta hanging out with her sons Cole and Austin
“In my experience, I decided to go back and get my doctorate,” DeRetta explained. “And when I did that, it's interesting. Those who I thought would support me and help me in that journey told me that I either wouldn't graduate or that I wasn't committed to the program. At the time, I was a single Black mother with two sons. So guess what? I didn't have a choice. I had to persevere. I had to show up every single day, and show that yes, this matters.”
DeRetta’s guiding principle is grounded in the importance of showing up. She is committed to showing up with excellence, fairness, equity, unwavering standards and compassion. These principles have helped her make some tough decisions throughout her career.
“My biggest concern is that I don't ever want to say to someone, ‘Oh, you need to understand your worth and make sure you get your value,’ if I'm not getting my own. And so I've had to deal with that, personally.. People will say to me, ‘Oh, you're credentialed, and you have all this experience,’ but that hasn't necessarily equated to me having the title or the money. I'm coaching and mentoring women and telling them the same thing.
What I have found in 2020, is that there's a larger awareness for everyone to understand what it looks like in terms of having women in the workplace, in terms of understanding the importance of diversity and inclusion. And the word that I love we're using now that we weren't using two years ago, or maybe not even 18 months ago is equity. That wasn't a word that we were using before. We would say that we were enlightened when we were using diversity and inclusion. Talking about equity changes the dynamics completely because equity means that regardless of your outside appearance, you should have equitable opportunities. And that speaks to training, development, learning, and promotions.”
Perseverance is a way of life for DeRetta. She is living proof that challenges and adversity will only make us stronger. She’s well aware that there is still a lot of work to be done in the diversity, equity and inclusion space, but she’s committed to making progress daily, one person and one situation at a time.
Published works include:
Cole, D. (2010). Courage under Fire: How Black Women have learned to survive in Corporate America (Doctoral Dissertation). University of Georgia, Athens, GA.
Cole, D. (October 2012). The Storm is Still Brewing; Leadership Challenges for Women Leaders and their Corporations: A Call for Change in Leadership. Presented at the conference of International Leadership Association (ILA), Denver, CO.
Cole. D, Munley, A, Santana, L. (October 2013). Realities, Challenges and Leadership Resilience for the Female Executive: Practices Revealed from across the Globe. Presented at the conference of International Leadership Association (ILA), Montreal, Canada.
DeRetta has been a speaker and served as a panelist at several events such as; Argyle (Atlanta, Dallas), Marcus Evans, HR Strategy & Innovation Summit, Connect HR Leadership and TedXUGA (March 22, 2018); to name a few.
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All images are courtesy of DeRetta Cole Rhodes: @derettacolerhodes
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