Bringing two decades of experience in research, consulting, teaching, writing and mentoring in gender and diversity to the forum, Stacy Blake-Beard was among the speakers scheduled to share insights at this year’s PMA Women’s Fresh Perspectives April 17-19 at Loews Coronado Bay Resort in San Diego.

Blake-Beard, a professor at Simmons College in Boston, will specifically address the effects of diversity/inclusion, along with unconscious bias, on the areas of women’s leadership and careers.Stacy Blake-Beard

Currently professor of management, Blake-Beard teaches organizational behavior at Simmons, and in addition to that role, she serves as faculty affiliate for the college’s Center for Gender in Organizations. She has also been visiting faculty member at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, India.

Prior to joining Simmons in 2001, she was a faculty member at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, teaching electives in diversity and mentoring in organizations. Today, she continues to serve as a consultant for the Harvard Center for Workforce Development.

Much of her research work is focused on the challenges and opportunities offered by mentoring relationships, with a focus on how these relationships may be changing as a result of increasing work force diversity.

Blake-Beard said she is particularly interested in issues women face as they develop mentoring relationships, and she studies the dynamics of formal mentoring programs in both corporate and educational settings.

Her path to this level of expertise came by way of practicing what she advocates. Blake-Beard earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Maryland-College Park and a master’s and doctorate in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan. She was recipient of a 2010-11 Fulbright Award to support “Systems of Sustenance and Support: Exploring the Impact of Mentoring on the Career Experiences of Indian Women,” carried out in partnership with the Center for Leadership, Innovation and Change at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad.

She has also received awards from the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the Robert Toigo Foundation.

Her research been appeared in dozens of respected publications, including Journal of Career Development, the Academy of Management Executive and the Psychology of Women Quarterly, and Blake-Beard co-edited the Handbook of Research on Promoting Women’s Careers, published in 2013. Her perspective on mentoring is also featured in Stanford University’s Voice and Influence series, sponsored by the Clayman Institute for Gender Research (http://gender.stanford.edu/mentoring).

Outside the halls of academia, Blake-Beard has worked in sales and marketing at Procter & Gamble and in the corporate human resources department at Xerox. Her clients include organizations across industry settings, including Hewlett Packard, IBM, Cisco, Bank of America, Chase Manhattan Bank and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

All of which begs the question: How did you first embark on this multifaceted career?

“I am from Baltimore, and I grew up thinking I wanted to be a pediatrician because my mother was a nurse, my aunt was a surgeon and I liked kids,” she said. “After taking organic chemistry — that great mind changer of formerly pre-med students — I decided to revisit my goal of becoming a doctor. At the time, I was also taking psychology classes; I decided psychology was the direction I wanted to go.”

Her goal is “connecting people to opportunity,” and she said, “With psychology you can do that.”

On the Harvard faculty for six years, she worked with many organizations to accomplish that connecting in that venue. During her time at Harvard, she began developing her own program for teaching organizational behavior and gender/diversity in leadership as part of executive education.

“Recently, I have been developing teaching and training materials to explore unconscious bias,” she said, noting that unconscious bias is something everyone has but isn’t necessarily aware it exists. “It comes to the surface in response to the issue of diversity,” she said.

Blake-Beard is particularly interested in working with people on the topic of diversity “because this is a concept that raises so much emotion,” she said. “Even though we are surrounded by diversity, even talking about the topic scares us. Through my work, I want to give people a way to delve into and create actions to welcome and support diversity.”  

She is focused on diversity in the workplace because she believes it is a huge plus, and she shared thoughts on the benefits that come from “those diverse perspectives” offered by women.

“Organizations that have taken the time and energy to crack the glass — or concrete — ceiling have done really well,” she said, citing a major global accounting firm.

Blake-Beard also referred to comments from Pat Milligan, senior partner and global leader of a multinational client group and former president of Mercer’s North America. Milligan delivered a video message on International Women’s Day, noting, “The only way we hit gender parity is if we fundamentally change the way we hire, retain and promote women. It will take a global village.”

In the produce and floral industries, Blake-Beard said, the role of women in leadership is obvious.

“Look at the customer base,” she said of the majority of shoppers. “Those are the clients and companies do well to be proactive.”

And when asked how women’s conference such as PMA Women’s Fresh Perspectives benefit attendees, she said, “Something spectacular happens when you get a group of smart women together. There’s energy and companionship, community and a spirit of giving and sisterhood. It has an impact that lasts long after you’ve gone home — like a tool you can use and refer back to.”

The takeaway is “learning how to make the theory applicable and relevant and make it work,” she said. “We are building strategic relationships through these gatherings.”

Her advice to the women in attendance is “be aware of unconscious bias. You can’t help but have it, but be aware and question and challenge when you see you’re locking some folks out. Use inquiry as much as advocacy. Ask questions. Take some time and don’t look away.”

In matters of bias, “We all have the responsibility to do something” to quell it. Fear stops many, but she said, “When we dare to step out, it becomes less and less important if we are afraid. And one of the ways we step out is by supporting each other. Don’t try to do it all by yourself. Strong people ask for help.”

She also said it’s important after leaving a conference such as the Women’s Fresh Perspectives to “take time to reflect. What’s the goal? What do you want to utilize your skill set to accomplish? What are you going to do, and who’s going to help you. And then, just do it.”

In conclusion, Blake-Beard said, “My hope is that diversity and inclusion are not just lip service. My hope is we actually do it.”