In early 2019, OPB embarked on focused, intensive DEI work. We partnered with the Center for Equity and Inclusion to build a strong foundation, and established our own employee-led equity team to steer it.
Since then, we have made progress in the following areas:
Our journalism and programming
· We’ve embedded our journalists into more communities in Oregon and southern Washington to report on the stories that matter to these individuals.
Related: Race to the bottom: How big business took over Oregon’s first protected aquifer
· We have elevated the voices and stories of marginalized and underrepresented people and communities in our content and coverage.
· We use an equity lens when selecting our TV and radio programming, and are intentional about elevating the stories and voices of different cultures and backgrounds. We also challenge distributors to provide more robust offerings that center BIPOC creators, stories and hosts.
· Employees within OPB’s content group led the creation of an internal diversity, equity and inclusion committee specifically focused on issues related to our journalism and programming:
1. The committee uses an equity lens to provide recommendations and guidance to reporters and producers through content reviews and are working with Content leadership on source auditing.
2. The committee also advocates for DEI policies and practices within OPB.
Related: Indigenous inmates, volunteers navigate a year without ceremonies, celebrations
Training and education
· We’re conducting ongoing diversity training and learning sessions for OPB staff, individual teams and OPB’s Senior Leadership Group, supervisory and management staff. These trainings are focused on consciousness raising, understanding white culture and decision making through an equity filter.
“— From OPB's Equity StatementShared power, inclusivity and transparency in decision-making elevate and strengthen our work, and the commitment to these core institutional values must begin with senior leadership.”
· We’ve established employee affinity groups — such as a BIPOC affinity group and a white learning group — to raise awareness around topics, practices and experiences and to provide support for BIPOC staff.
Policies and practices
· As part of our rigorous onboarding process, every hiring manager and team undergoes bias training before entering into any interview process. We also provide all new OPB employees with a suite of equity materials and introduce them to our equity and inclusion work.
· In 2019, we eliminated unpaid internships, offering paid opportunities to existing interns, and created two new paid fellowships.
Related: Learn more about internships at OPB
· In late 2019/early 2020, we conducted an anonymous cultural assessment survey for OPB staff, which provided a baseline to identify the causes of systemic racism and inequities in our organization and to prioritize our DEI work.
· We conducted a pay equity study to ensure our pay practices are equitable within OPB and enacted adjustments where necessary.
· We participate in Public Media for All – a coalition of public media organizations led by people of color raising awareness around the need for diversity, equity and inclusion in public media, and adopting key actionable, shared practices for addressing it. Learn about our progress toward Public Media for All’s action items.
Related: OPB Joins ‘Public Media for All’ initiative
· In the spring of 2022, we hired OPB’s first-ever equity leader, Shayna Schlosberg, who will be instrumental in helping us move forward in our journey.