Diversity & Inclusion

In the first year after elected officials allowed a statewide moratorium on evictions to lapse, tenants in neighborhoods where a majority of residents are nonwhite were nearly twice as likely to face eviction than renters in mostly white areas, according to a new report.

Stephanie Williams, who is resigning as Worcester’s chief diversity officer, has been hired by Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner to be the school’s first-ever chief diversity executive.

At Tuesday night’s Worcester City Council meeting, City Manager Edward Augustus said he was open to hiring an independent investigator to help understand the cause of high turnover within the chief diversity officer role in Worcester.

Joseph Corazzini, vice president for government and community affairs at Clark University, has been appointed to serve on Massachusetts’ Black Advisory Commission.

Stephanie Williams, Worcester’s chief diversity officer whose resignation was announced on March 4, has released her own statement about her decision to leave.

"We have gone backwards. With a population so diverse we now only have one person of color in the leadership of the administration and no Black women," wrote Fred Taylor, president of Worcester’s NAACP Unit, in a letter.

The nonprofit Massachusetts Women of Color Coalition, based in Worcester, has named founding member Celia Blue as its first president and CEO, the organization said Thursday, while also announcing a $500,000 donation from the Esler Family Foundation.

The Gov. Charlie Baker Administration will begin distributing $500 payments to 500,000 low-income workers in March as part of a $4 billion spending plan for American Rescue Plan Act funds, Baker’s office announced Tuesday.

While organized labor has historically been hallmarked by the male-dominated trades, unionized women seem to be fueling a new era in the movement, particularly in industries highly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic like health care, education, and hospitality.

In its annual The Boardroom Gap investigation of gender diversity in the region’s business leadership, WBJ found 37% of executives & board members are women, unchanged from 2021.