When she was a kid, Trisch Smith wanted to be three things: an elected official, a talk-show host and a teacher, just like her mom.
Those three gigs reveal facets of what makes Smith, Edelman’s chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer, the strategic communicator and DEI force she is today: the opportunity to make and lead change, the forum to hear and amplify others’ stories and the commitment to educate and support — even when the assignment is a tough one.
The assignment of leading a global 6,000-employee PR firm through efforts to be inclusive, just and equitable officially became Smith’s in 2015, when she was named managing director of equity and inclusion. Three years later, she became the firm’s first global chief diversity and inclusion officer, putting her in a role many companies didn’t start to formally consider until after the racial reckoning of 2020 forced corporate America to confront its deepest fissure.
During her two-decade career at Edelman, equity…
Read the full story from the Washington Business Journal.
