The Trailblazers in Diversity Series, Jan. 2021: Anna Dapelo Garcia, Inclusion, Diversity & Health Equity Leader, Stanford Healthcare

HERS Advisors presents the Trailblazers in Diversity series, a monthly interview with inspiring professionals who are leading the charge as “Trailblazers” in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts within their respective field(s). HERS Advisors (Honest. Ethical. Responsible. Solutions.) is a women-owned, mission driven diversity and inclusion recruitment and consulting firm working with progressive organizations and professionals to proactively move the needle of diversity, equity and inclusion in a positive direction. 

Please visit www.hersadvisors.com to discover why recruitment representation matters.

"As humans, we are wired to respond to stories. In fact, neuroeconomist Paul Zak claims that if we hear a story we relate to, this releases the brain chemicals cortisol and oxytocin, which in turn trigger our ability to connect and empathize with others.

For D&I professionals, storytelling can be a powerful tool in helping people better understand others’ challenges and points of view. “The business case around diversity speaks to logic and IQ, but stories and lived experience speak to the heart and our emotional intelligence,” explains Jiten Patel, director of Diversync, a D&I consultancy.

Following the Black Lives Matter protests and events of 2020, sharing stories of lived experiences has been a powerful tool for organizations to help employees understand how embedded racism can be, and why action should be taken to redress the balance of opportunity. Many have facilitated conversations so that their workforce can ask questions or hear the experiences of others – Fujitsu for example held a roundtable for employees hosted by its CEO, to act as a “safe space” where employees could express how they felt. Similarly, Just Eat ran an “open dialogue day” where the entire focus was on what race meant to the organization as a whole, with Slack channels to share experiences and to keep the discussion going."*

With those words in mind, HERS Advisors presents the first in our series celebrating Trailblazers in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

An interview with Anna Dapelo-Garcia- Inclusion, Diversity & Health Equity Leader for Stanford Healthcare | Founder & President Lean In Latinas

While Ms. Dapelo-Garcia’s certificate in Diversity & Inclusion came from Yale, her education in D & I, and most importantly, Equity, came far earlier in life.

Growing up in an impoverished area of East San Jose, Anna Dapelo-Garcia’s future prospects looked bleak. Anna shared “When I started at Stanford 30 years ago, I didn’t have a clue. I remember sitting at a meeting at a dermatology clinic, they were talking about project plans, milestones… And I realized that I had no confidence and couldn’t open my mouth. I was just mesmerized with these two white females and they were so comfortable. I thought to myself, what is wrong with me? I’m so tongue-tied.” Anna later had an epiphany. “What I realized after a long time is that I was completely unprepared for a business conversation- how to be in a meeting. My mom worked in the family. My dad was a high school dropout. We didn’t know people in our neighborhood that were business-people. I had no role models, I barely have any now- how many Hispanic-American women are in C-suite? Where was I to go to gain inspiration? I figured out over time how to be in that environment. As I started out climbing the ladder, I showed up as a professional, wanted to give back to my community, to Latinas in my community. You can be a high school dropout, a teenage mom, but it doesn’t matter. You can be what you want.”

Anna speaks passionately and from the heart. She is one of the most unapologetically authentic people you’ll ever encounter. Her mission is clear. To empower. To share. To learn.

Anna continues, “For me, it’s about perspective, we need to have perspective in the rooms where the important decisions are being made. Do we have the perspectives of a female, LGBTQ, Disabled, Latino? We [At Stanford Healthcare] are doing an “abilities” survey of the disabled community. There is a lot of movement in the organization about these efforts and it makes me happy. When I started in the organization 30 years ago, I was a single mother on my own raising my daughter. I had no college education. I thought the best way to be successful was to assimilate, communicate and dress in a certain way. This was all me emulating- and I’m talking 30 years ago! I was the only minority in a room, so I thought. I don’t want to stick out, I need to be like these people.” Anna continued, “I climbed to Executive Director. I was not only not college degreed, but also a high school dropout. What I learned from that is I was taking away from who I was. As an organization we want to be loud and proud about who we are. I am no longer interested in assimilating, but to bring to the table my whole self. That’s when you achieve belonging. I can bring my whole self and I am accepted and I feel like I belong. You ask me that 20 years ago, I didn’t feel I deserved it. As a high school drop-out from a bad neighborhood I hid that.”

As a healthcare leader serving underserved communities in the Bay Area, and through its clinical outcomes and research beyond, Stanford Healthcare’s diverse patient base benefits from its equally diverse team. Thoughtful diversity, equity and inclusion talent acquisition strategies led by passionate and empathetic executive leaders like Anna Dapelo-Garcia reflect their community and make all the difference.

Ms. Dapelo-Garcia continues by describing her team’s approach. While Anna herself “is celebrating 30 years at Stanford, the IDHE department is a new department. We are a small and busy department of 3, but the organization has committed to this and it’s the right thing to do. We are committed to more representation. Representation matters.” She goes on to say that “the very purpose of this department is that we have an integrated methodology in D and I efforts in the organization, but she also feels insofar as recruiting strategies, promotions etc. [that] we are at the beginning stages in this work. It has been about two and a half years, but this work is extremely important to the organization. It’s one of the top priorities for the board and for our senior leaders. What I was doing before this call was working on a deck with my boss who was about to talk with the CFO.” Anna describes why it’s a “top priority for a variety of reasons. “First, it’s the right thing to do. We have a diverse workforce due to where we are in the Bay Area. We want to ensure we have a great deal of diversity and inclusion in all areas and how we are looking at promotions for people of color and gender.” Without the people, what is the culture of the organization? [This] is paramount about what we are doing on D and I and B. Belonging, what is that exactly? We certainly have a lot of activities in place.” Anna continues, “What I was just working on now [was] what are our retention programs looking like? We don’t want to lose great talent. What programs do we have in place for promotions- particularly for people of color and women? We are doing a lot of work with our black employees due to the ongoing police violence we’ve seen. We are committed to ending systemic racism. That is a big bold statement. It is prevalent everywhere. But what does that mean for our organization? We are launching a workshop for our leaders around inclusive leadership. We just launched 8 employee resource groups for the very purpose of immersing ourselves in the cultures of others.”

Ms. Dapelo-Garcia’s efforts are proving fruitful and have already shown positive results. “We are getting a lot of great feedback from staff. We were very intentional that the executive sponsors we have leading these groups don’t have an affinity. LatinX led by a white male and our BlackERG is led by a white female. They want to learn and don’t have all the answers. They are intentional to use the word ‘Ally’. [They understand the importance to] participate, to learn. Anna then describes “her own experience sitting in on the Pride group.” “I learned the importance of pronouns.” She acknowledged that she wouldn’t have learned that if I hadn’t been invested.” Anna reported that this involves study of “workforce data and many hours culling through data to inform them where they have those opportunities in order to leverage for their affirmative action plan for the organization.” At the end of each day, Anna is “proud to say that as a 30-year employee, as a Latina and as a person of color, I can look at the 30 years I’ve been with Stanford and still be excited at what we are doing and continue to value what this organization puts into the people- it’s most important asset.”

Anna’s passion for diversity, equity and inclusion is a personal mission extending outside the office. She is a proud and dedicated advocate for her community, mentoring Latinas of all ages in their drive to grow their careers beyond their pre-conceived notions of limitations. Five years ago, Anna was moved by Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean-in organization and began Lean-in Latinas, “When I started Lean-in Latinas, I didn’t [initially] share it with the organization [Stanford] because I didn’t want to be the brown girl at the end of the day.” However, in establishing the group, she learned to embrace her unique perspective more. She grew to understand “that it didn’t matter that I came from a bad neighborhood and no degree.” It was more important “that I made great contributions to the organization and the more I have done that, the better sense of belonging I have, and it helps others.” I’ve learned the importance of “how [to] bring my full authentic self and say that is who I am. It’s been a journey.”

Thank you, Ms. Dapelo-Garcia, for your openness and strength of character. Your organization, and the world, is a better place for it.

*Footnote/Source:

https://dileaders.com/blog/why-storytelling-could-be-your-most-potent-di-tool/