Black History Month | Interview Series

For our third interview, we reached out to Gary Gooden who graciously answered our questions. Prior to joining Seattle Children’s, Gary spent the last 26yrs at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Amgen, Mattel and The Walt Disney Company in several IT executive leadership roles within Information Systems Infrastructure and Application Development and delivery.

WHAT IS A MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE IN YOUR CAREER WHERE YOU SAW PROGRESS, AND IF THAT MOMENT HAS NOT HAPPENED, WHAT DO YOU THINK NEEDS TO BE DONE TO START THE CHANGE NOW?

As a technology professional progress has been too slow and there is no one memorable experience that stands out as some seed change moment for me. Young minorities (female and male) need to be pulled into mentorship programs at a much faster rate.

HOW DID YOU HANDLE UNCOMFORTABLE ENCOUNTERS AS YOU MOVED UP IN YOUR CAREER? ANY ADVICE FOR ANY YOUNG MEN OF COLOR?

I always took the high road and as an immigrant who happens to be black, my perspective was to always work harder than everyone else. However, whenever I was met with open racial hostility, it simply was not tolerated professional.

DO YOU FEEL THAT YOU ARE INCLUDED IN OPPORTUNITIES IN THE NAME OF “DIVERSITY” OPTICS OR GENUINE INCLUSION?

Not really. I have always gotten recognition for the work that I was involved in and have spent years trying to be better than everyone else so that I could be treated with some measure of fairness.

DO YOU THINK THAT BLACK IT EXECUTIVES HAVE TO FIGHT HARDER FOR THE SAME RESPECT IN THE WORKPLACE?

Yes, that has been my experience of over 35yrs in the technology industry. There are way too few of “me”.

AS YOU HAVE WORKED IN CORPORATE AND ARE CURRENTLY IN HEALTHCARE, DO YOU NOTICE A DISCREPANCY IN HOW DIVERSITY IS APPROACHED??

This is an interesting question. Since I am still in corporate America. Suffice to say there is a heightened focus on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. So everybody is getting onto the bandwagon and as such EDI related activities are increasing. So historically there was insufficient attention paid to this issue