The Walter Kaitz Foundation celebrated its 40th-anniversary fundraising dinner Wednesday by raising more than $1.1 million toward the media and connectivity industry’s continued diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

The dinner, co-chaired by Comcast executive VP and chief diversity officer Dalila Wilson-Scott and Revolt CEO Detavio Samuels, drew more than 500 industry executives to the dinner, which officially concluded the industry’s Diversity Week festivities that included the WICT Network Leadership Conference and the NAMIC Conference.

Proceeds from the dinner, including more than $50,000 generated through a silent auction during the event, will go towards fostering diversity programs from organizations supported by Kaitz, including The WICT Network, NAMIC, the Emma L. Bowen Foundation and the T. Howard Foundation.

During the dinner, the foundation honored The Hidden Genius Project and Hallmark Media’s Black-targeted Mahogany original content division with ChangeMaker Awards. Tied in with the dinner's anniversary, Wilson-Scott surprised Hidden Genius Project CEO Brandon Nicholson on stage with a $40,000 grant supporting the Oakland, California-based group's work mentoring Black male youth in technology creation, entrepreneurship and leadership skills.

Spencer Kaitz addressed attendees by stating the cable industry should take pride in its diversity efforts, which began long before most other industries recognized the importance of a diverse and inclusive workforce. He added, though, that the industry still needs to continue its efforts to further build a diverse and inclusive 

“Martin Luther King challenged all of us with his dream of what America could be,” Kaitz said. “Tonight I believe that if the great Dr. King was here looking around this room, he would say that we have moved past the beginning of achieving his dream. But we are here tonight because we know we are nowhere near the fulfillment of that dream.”

NCTA: The Internet & Television Association president and CEO Michael Powell thanked Spencer Kaitz and the foundation for its diversity advocacy efforts, adding that companies have to remain committed to the ideals of diversity and inclusion to be successful. 

“We will continue to thrive if we preserve our strong pledge to the values and the mission of inclusion, and if we’re unafraid to let the sun shine in to reveal areas where we fall short,” Powell said.

Creating and shaping the television industry’s future, building legacies and staying focused on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts are all themes that will resonate throughout September Diversity Week festivities in New York.

The WICT Network’s Leadership Conference, the 37th Annual NAMIC Conference and The Walter Kaitz Foundation’s Annual Fundraising Dinner — all of which will take place during the week of September 18 — will seek to build on last year’s return to an in-person celebration by emphasizing the industry’s valuing of DEI efforts as a way to stay competitive in an evolving entertainment marketplace, organizers said.  

“The industry is doubling down on DEI, given everything that is going on in our industry with the shifts in companies and the economic environment in which our business is operated,” NAMIC president and CEO A. Shuanise Washington said. “We’re way too invested in DEI and what it means to the industry. For the most part, our CEOs are clear that DEI is not a feel-good proposition, but it actually ties itself to the bottom line.” 

WICT Kicks Off Week

The WICT Network will open Diversity Week on September 18 with its annual Leadership Conference. Under the theme “Co-Create the Future,” conference organizers said the two-day event will feature more sessions and networking roundtables than previous iterations.  

WICT will dole out honors during its opening day Touchstones Luncheon, including for its “Women of the Year”: Comcast executive VP and chief diversity officer Dalila Wilson-Scott and Paramount Global president and CEO of International Markets, Global Consumer Products & Experiences Pam Kaufman. The organization will also honor three “Women to Watch”: Charter Communications senior VP of billing strategy and design, customer operations Stephanie Babin; A+E Networks senior VP, legal and business affairs Kelley Drukker; and Listing Central LLC founder and CEO Nicole Nixon. 

“The industry’s commitment to DEI is stronger than ever,” WICT president and CEO Maria Brennan said. “Our conference promises an opportunity for established and emerging leaders to gain the insights, strategies, and inspiration that are essential for navigating the ever-evolving challenges of our time.”  

The 37th annual NAMIC Conference, under the theme “Our Legacy, a Mosaic of Possibilities,” will look to provide attendees — through numerous interactive sessions and networking opportunities — with actionable solutions to advance diversity and inclusion within their companies, Washington said.   

NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt will headline the NAMIC conference, which runs over two days beginning September 19. During the conference, NAMIC will also honor NBCU News Group’s Jose Diaz-Balart with the Mickey Leland Humanitarian Award during the September 20 Awards Luncheon. Other confirmed NAMIC conference speakers include film producer Will Packer and best-selling author Steve Pemberton.

“The conference is really about embracing our 40-plus year legacy of being focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, and exploring what the possibilities are in terms of going forward,” Washington said. 

Kaitz Keeps DEI in Focus

Comcast’s Wilson-Scott, along with Revolt CEO Detavio Samuels, will co-chair the 40th anniversary Walter Kaitz Foundation Annual Fundraising Dinner on September 23. With its theme of “Staying Focused,” the fundraising affair will acknowledge the DEI progress that the industry has made through the foundation’s partners and supporters, Kaitz officials said.

Charter Communications will sponsor a pre-dinner reception, including a silent auction of “a carefully curated collection of items and experiences,” Kaitz said.

This year’s Diversity Week output will not include the industry’s joint NAMIC and WICT diversity employment study, released every two years. 

Last year’s report concluded that female representation in the workforce increased by 5 percentage points since the prior report in 2019, even as the pandemic had a significantly greater impact on the employment of women overall. Workforce representation by people of color fell by 7 percentage points, dropping to 37% from 44% since the 2019 survey. 

This year’s Walter Kaitz Foundation fundraising dinner on October 12 will be the first in-person celebration since 2019 due to the pandemic. It's also the last will be presided over by the foundation's executive director, Michelle Ray, who is leaving the organization in December. 

During her 15 years as head of the foundation, Ray, a former NCTA–The Broadband & Television Asssociation staffer who joined Kaitz in 2006 as senior program director, has overseen the annual fundraising dinner, which overall has raised more than $23 million in grants toward cable industry diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. She also helped launch Kaitz’s annual Hollywood Creative Forum, which champions culturally accurate representation across the entertainment industry.

Ray provided her thoughts on the resumption of the Kaitz dinner and reflected on her accomplishments and legacy at the organization in a recent interview with Multichannel News, an edited version of which appears below. 

MCN: Why have you decided to leave the Walter Kaitz Foundation at this point in time? 

Michelle Ray: The truth is, over the last year I’ve been dealing with a lot of personal family health issues along with going through the whole COVID environment. I realized that I needed time for me to be the best me. It’s not even about the work. I believe in what we’re doing and I want to be able to give all of my energy to the work that we’re doing.

MCN: Looking back, have you accomplished the goals that you set for the organization as executive director? 

MR: I would love to say of course I did, but the truth is we’re not just trying to solve DEI for an industry, for an organization or even for our companies. We’re trying to make societal shifts, because that’s where the real work lies. I think there’s always going to be more to do. We’re not even close to solving all of the diversity, equity and inclusion issues that are part of society as a whole. The death of George Floyd really brought the issues of DEI front and center from a broad perspective as we thought about social justice movements and what we’re really doing as companies and individuals attacking these issues around DEI.

MCN: Having said that, do you think that the industry has at least taken the right steps forward toward dealing with DEI issues within its own ranks?

MR: Again, I don't want to say that we’re all doing great. The truth is we have to do more, and I think there’s a clear call for us to do more. What I have noticed is that I see a lot of companies really leaning in on social justice, especially on the content side. Those companies were focused on making sure that stories of marginalized and disparate people were being told by hiring people who could ideally tell those stories and then they brought those stories to life on our screens. Also, I saw broadband companies trying to deliver broadband to diverse communities who are largely rural. The issues around broadband deployments continue to be an ongoing effort, but I saw everyone picking themselves up and leaning more into addressing a lot of these issues, whether as a broadband company, technology company or content curator. 

MCN: Diversity Week is fast approaching, and the industry is gathering in-person for the first time in two years. What effect does being in-person have on the diversity discussion across the various events?

MR: I think being in-person and talking about these issues is more important than ever before. I think it will signal to our industry that as leaders, we all should be joining together for the discussion of diversity, equity and inclusion, particularly since it’s a gathering that’s so specifically curated for our industry. No other industry does this, so if you think about it, we just need to continue to do more of it. I think being around each other is an important aspect of what we’re trying to achieve. What I've realized within the COVID environment when we were largely at home and away from each other is that we needed that human touch. From an interpersonal standpoint, when you’re in a room with somebody, it’s so markedly different from being on a Zoom call or a telephone call. 

MCN: What are you personally hoping to accomplish with this year’s Walter Kaitz Foundation fundraising dinner? 

MR: As we approached this year’s dinner, I thought because we hadn’t seen each other in years that we wouldn’t do the same things and show up in the same way that we showed up in previous years. My thought was, how do we come back to something that's different? So one of the things we’ve done is we’ve largely retired our Diversity Champion and Diversity Advocate Awards and created a new ChangeMakers Award. It’s really reimagining what we do in acknowledging someone for the seminal work that they’re doing. 

One of the honorees is an organization called Human-I-T, which focuses on social justice and works with a lot of companies within our industry to make sure that sustainability is at the forefront of the work that they do. They work closely with Cox, Charter and Comcast. The second honor we had was an individual, Daisy Auger-Dominguez, who is chief people officer at Vice Media Group. She’s an executive and game-changer that thinks about inclusive workplaces and what that should look like. So that was part of the reframing of the awards, if you will, and that will continue to evolve and change.

MCN: The Kaitz Foundation is working with WICT and NAMIC to present the AIM/PAR Diversity Employment Study next week. What should the industry take away from the results of that study as it pertains to its diversity efforts?

MR: It’s the only way that we’re going to be able to benchmark how we’re doing as industry. If we were to walk away from that, it would be a disservice to all of us because I think metrics are an important aspect of the work that we do. If we can’t measure something then we can’t see or understand it. That’s why the study continues to be relevant and important. It requires a lot of support and commitment from the industry and the industry has been very supportive of it. 

MCN: Have you considered what your legacy will be at the Walter Kaitz Foundation?

MR: It’s something I haven’t really thought about. I’m in the people business, whether it’s at work or personally, so for me legacy is about making sure that we make connections with people regardless of what aspect of work you’re involved in. So I hope to maintain those connections, and whatever I decide to do after this I hope it still involves touching people. ■

Michelle Ray is exiting as executive director of The Walter Kaitz Foundation, the cable-backed nonprofit effort to advance equity and inclusion in the media and entertainment industry.

Her last day is December 2, so she will still oversee Kaitz’s Annual Fundraising Dinner on October 12 at the New York Marriott Marquis hotel.

The foundation has given out over $23 million in grants toward diversity initiatives.

A search for a successor is underway, NCTA–The Internet & Television Association said, adding that the industry’s commitment to diversity and inclusion “remains strong,” Ray’s departure notwithstanding.

Also: Kaitz Focuses Lens Beyond Hollywood

Ray has been with the foundation for 15 years.

“Michelle has been a true force of nature and her leadership at the Kaitz Foundation has been invaluable to the industry," NCTA president and CEO Michael Powell said. “Her passion and tireless efforts over the years to drive mission-focused diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at NCTA’s member companies have been second to none.”

Ray joined NCTA in 1990 in industry affairs and moved to the foundation in 2006, initially as senior program director. ▪️

The following is a transcript of NCTA president and CEO Michael Powell's speech on diversity during the 2019 Walter Kaitz Dinner.

We typically speak of diversity with a smile. It is a topic infused with the positive belief that a pluralistic society with an ever-expanding definition of “Us” is a better world.

But diversity and inclusion are also euphemisms. They let us disengage from more painful truths about our society. We openly help the historically disadvantaged but closet away the history that made them disadvantaged in the first place. By that I mean the “barbaric system of slavery” and its lasting aftermath.

This year is the 400th anniversary of slavery in America. The year 1619 was the start of a 250-year run in which black people were not considered humans but instead were merely property that could be bought and sold at will and lawfully beaten, raped and killed.

The New York Times in a must-read series on slavery makes a compelling case that 1619—not 1776—is the true origin of America. If one looks with fresh eyes you will see that every facet of contemporary life in this country is rooted in slavery. As the Times wrote:

“From Slavery grew nearly everything that has made America exceptional—its economic might, its industrial power, its electoral system, diet and popular music, the inequities of our public health and education, it’s astonishing penchant for violence, its income inequality, the example it sets for the world as the land of freedom and equality, its slang, its legal system and the endemic racial fears and hatreds that continue to plague it to this day.”

Our forefathers casting themselves ironically as slaves to the British Crown, declared their independence with these soaring words “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.” As these words were inked, 20 percent of the population was in chains. As the Times pointedly said, “we are a nation founded on an ideal and on a lie.”

While the ideals are etched in our monuments and form the vision we try and project to the world, it is the hypocrisy of the lie that America has had to continuously confront—often bitterly and often violently.

There have always been two ways to rectify the lie of our founding ideals. 

The first is to simply write blacks (and women) out of the group of people entitled to equality and God-given rights.

This approach has dominated our history. Slaves were property not people. Freed slaves were a separate and inferior race and not entitled to the benefits of citizenship. Supreme Court law, Read The Ideology of Hate and How to Fight it., David Brooks. https://is.gd/eqDwzl Pseudo-science, politics and religion all seeded and nurtured the toxic myth of racial inferiority.

A myth that underpinned two centuries of laws and public policies designed to keep the descendants of slaves starved of the fruits of American democracy.

There was always a more faithful and humane path to making America a more perfect union. It could eradicate the lie and make “equality for all” the truth. For a brief period after the Civil War, the country experimented with doing just that. Blacks served in Congress, received land, built businesses, and attended universities. But this blossom flowered only briefly, choked by the weeds of Jim Crow laws, fertilized by a belief in white supremacy.

But Black Americans never stopped fighting to be full Americans. A long, bloody struggle led to the 13th and 14th Amendments and groundbreaking civil rights laws. These efforts wrote the playbook later used by women, LGBTQ people, and other groups to win their full rights.

But lies die hard. This country has a long investment in the racial inferiority narrative. Murder in El Paso, white supremacy in Charlottesville, child separation on the border, and chants that “they will not replace us” dims the light and spreads the darkness. Slavery existed for 250 years, but we have only been legally free for 50. Progress is precarious.

Diversity is wonderful. But it is only meaningful if the equality of all people is protected from those who want to go back to living the lie. To be a true diversity warrior requires more than championing the values of pluralism while sitting in air-conditioned offices. It requires we stand.

Stand against the suffocating heat of racism.

Stand against hostility toward the LGBTQ+ community.

Stand against the oppression of women.

And stand for the fundamental equality of all, giving true meaning to our founding ideals.

We have traveled very far from the shores of Point Comfort where the first slave ships landed, and we cannot go back. As black leaders at the time of the Civil War said to those who urged them to go back to where they came from.

“This is our home, and this our country. Beneath its sod lie the bones of our fathers. ... Here we were born, and here we will die.”

I am proud to be part of an industry that is committed to making America a more perfect union.

Thank you

See Also: Diversity Week Highlights Cable’s Continuing Efforts

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The Cable TV Industry’s Annual Diversity Week returns to New York this coming week with Women In Cable Telecommunications, the National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications and the Walter Kaitz Foundation hosting events to highlight the industry’s efforts toward creating more diversity and inclusion both on screen and in the executive suite.

WICT leads things off Monday (Oct. 15) with its annual Leadership Conference. NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Group chairman Bonnie Hammer will deliver the opening keynote at the gathering, which bears the theme “The Intersection of Imagination & Activation.”

WICT Gathering Leads Off

Highlights of the conference include Monday’s Touchstones Luncheon, in which WICT will honor its 2018 Women of the Year: Italia Commisso Weinand, executive vice president of programming and human resources for Mediacom Communications, and Mary Campbell, chief merchandising and interactive officer, Qurate Retail Group. (All three events cited here are at the Marriott Marquis Hotel.)

Author and journalist Joanne Lipman will provide the keynote address on Oct. 16 based on her book, That’s What She Said: What Men Need to Know (and Women Need to Tell Them) About Working Together.

WICT will also bring back its “Pearls of Wisdom” series of mini-keynotes delivered by influential female executives, including Michelle Gadsden-Williams, managing director, inclusion and diversity lead, North America, Accenture; Roma Khanna, CEO of Revolt Media and TV; Matt Abrahams, lecturer, organizational behavior, Stanford Graduate School of Business and co-founder, BoldEcho LLC; Francesca Gino, professor of business administration, Harvard Business School; and Masih Alinejad-Ghomi, journalist and author of The Wind in My Hair: My Fight for Freedom in Modern Iran.

The two-day, 32nd annual NAMIC Conference begins on Tuesday (Oct. 16), with the theme “Empower Leaders, Create Super Heroes.” Led by Shuanise Washington, the organization’s newly named president, and NAMIC Conference co-chairs Italia Commisso Weinand and TV One general manager Michelle Rice, the conference’s numerous panels and events will offer insight towards the industry’s efforts to advance greater inclusion and diversity.

The conference will open with a keynote address from CNN anchor Don Lemon and will close with the organization’s annual awards luncheon Wednesday (Oct. 17). BET Networks chairman and CEO emeritus Debra Lee will receive NAMIC’s Mickey Leland Humanitarian Achievement Award.

The conference will also feature the L. Patrick Mellon Mentorship Program Luncheon. Presented in partnership with WICT and sponsored by the Walter Kaitz Foundation, the program will feature John Kobara, executive vice president and chief operating officer for the California Community Foundation.

During last year’s Diversity Week, NAMIC and WICT teamed to present reports on workforce diversity for women and minorities. While the next report is not set until 2019, WICT president and CEO Maria Brennan said the week’s events put cable in a positive light relative to its diversity goals and initiatives.

“Our industry can teach other business sectors a thing or two about workplace diversity and inclusion,” Brennan said. “Not only does cable allow WICT and NAMIC to measure its workforce diversity, we set aside a full week to convene our stakeholders to share best practices. I know of no other business that does that.”

Kaitz Dinner Is Centerpiece

Diversity Week’s centerpiece is the 35th annual Walter Kaitz Foundation fundraising dinner on Wednesday (Oct. 17). The Kaitz dinner raises funds to support media and telecommunications industry diversity groups. The 2017 dinner raised more than $1.6 million. Under the theme “Diversity Through the Decades,” the dinner will celebrate African-American-targeted cable network TV One as 2018 Diversity Champion and the Boys & Girls Club of America as Diversity Advocate.

“These two organizations epitomize the Walter Kaitz Foundation’s belief that a demonstrated commitment to enhance diversity and inclusion can be achieved in groundbreaking and innovative ways across all organizations,” Michelle Ray, the newly named executive director of the Walter Kaitz Foundation, said. “This 35th anniversary milestone offers our industry a unique opportunity to reflect upon the work we’ve all done to make diversity and inclusion one of the cornerstones of our industry while we chart a course for the future.”

TV One’s Michelle Rice, a former Kaitz fellow, told Multichannel News that her network is honored to be recognized by the Kaitz Foundation for contributing to diversity and inclusion on television.

“When we launched in 2004, there was only BET in the marketplace, and people then were questioning whether there needed to be another black network,” Rice said. “Now, if you look at the proliferation of black content across the platform, we know the answer to that question as the industry now understands the value of this audience, and we believe that we had a lot to do with that.”

David Porter will step down as executive director of The Walter Kaitz Foundation effective April 13, the diversity organization announced Friday.

Longtime Kaitz executive and deputy executive director Michelle Ray will serve as interim executive director upon Porter’s departure, according to Kaitz.

Porter joined Kaitz in August 2006 and during his tenure raised more than $20 million – mostly through the organization’s annual autumn fundraising dinner -- to fuel cable industry initiatives implemented by the National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC), Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT), and the Emma L. Bowen Foundation.

READ MORE: Diddy Uses Kaitz Moment For Diversity Message

Under Porter’s leadership, Kaitz has also pioneered bi-annual industry-wide surveys -- conducted jointly with WICT and NAMIC -- to identify and track diversity within the industry’s employment ranks. Here is a link to a story about the 2017 survey results.

"Under David's leadership, the Walter Kaitz Foundation has reached new and sustained levels of achievement, becoming the bedrock for efforts across our industry to enhance and embrace diversity as a core operating principle," said NCTA President & CEO Michael Powell in a statement. "David's leadership has brought out the best in us, in our efforts to shape our industry into a national leader on diversity and inclusion. His passion for, and commitment to, this work is unsurpassed. We will miss his vision and presence, and we wish him all the best in future endeavors."