The NPR board of directors passed a resolution Friday to form a diversity, equity and inclusion committee.
The new committee will support NPR’s “efforts to realize the North Star of its strategic plan through key strategies, policies and initiatives related to diversity, equity and inclusion with a focus on content, audience, staff, workplace and … NPR’s work helping the network of member stations think about DEI issues,” said Howard Wollner, chair of the board’s governance committee, during the Friday board meeting.
In a February interview, CEO John Lansing, who is currently on medical leave, told Current that DEI is the center of NPR’s strategic plan because it “filters through everything that we do with all of our work.”
The board will vote on which members will serve on the DEI committee at a later date, said LaFontaine Oliver, NPR’s board chair.
“We thought that this was very important to help strengthen our ability to meet the diversity goals that really undergird all parts of NPR’s strategic plan,” Oliver said.
Wollner also announced that the board elected Carlos Watson, CEO of Ozy, and Neil Zuckerman, senior partner and managing director at Boston Consulting Group, to their second three-year terms on the board beginning in November.