Diversity & Inclusion

BIPOC-owned startups seeking out larger investments have come up short, in large part because the deck is stacked against them.

Central Massachusetts Agency on Aging, Inc. will tackle the project of creating a new resource center in Worcester for its populations. The Grandparents Raising Grandkids Resource Center will seek to connect grandparent-led households to essential services, including housing, transportation, and translation.

Victoria Waterman, the CEO of nonprofit Girls Inc. of Worcester is stepping down at the end of June after 11 years in the role. Waterman has been CEO of the Worcester nonprofit since 2012, before which she was president of the board of directors.

UMass Memorial Health has appointed Dr. Lynda Young as board chair and Elvira Guardiola as vice chair of the board of trustees. Young is the first woman to be chair, and Guardiola is the first woman and the first Latina to be vice chair.

After a couple of high-profile violations of the City of Worcester’s policies on diversity hiring and contracting on public projects, the city government is considering instituting stricter enforcement for developers not meeting those goals.

SpadXTech, a Worcester-based climate technology startup, has been selected for a new accelerator that aims to support companies in the climate tech industry led by Black, indigenous, and people of color.

The gap between homeownership rates between Black and white households in Worcester is 32.8 percentage points, up from 6.1 percentage points in 2010, according to a study from Today’s Homeowner, an online home improvement publication.

The Worcester Business Journal editorial staff is seeking reader input for this year's Power 50, the publication’s annual list of the most influential professionals in Central Massachusetts.

“It's really sexy to blame Polar Park or to blame lack of parking,” said Owner Jessica Walsh. “But it’s not the reason. It minimizes the real reasons.”

The newly relocated Worcester nonprofit Southeast Asian Coalition of Central Massachusetts has named Tuyet Tran as its new executive director.