Equity Statement

Since its founding in 1986, LGW has worked toward its vision of creating a more dynamic and collaborative community through engaging leaders of diverse backgrounds, geographies, and sectors. Each year, 50+ influential decision-makers who reflect the region’s diversity across race, gender, faith, sexual orientation, and ability join the Signature Program, a facilitated 10-month experience that elevates the region’s most pressing needs while creating spaces that nurture enduring relationships grounded in authenticity, trust, and respect. Placing these values at the forefront, LGW equips its members to engage with one another and the community at-large to dismantle systemic racism and oppression in all forms across our region.

With a membership network of hundreds of leaders positioned at the highest levels of this region’s business, government, and nonprofit sectors, LGW is uniquely positioned to harness our network’s experiences and resources to advance racial justice and create urgent, meaningful, and lasting change. Our diverse community of leaders find common ground through the LGW experience to address the inequities that hold our region back.

But centuries of systemic oppression and racism cannot be undone overnight, despite our members’ individual and collective commitments and incremental progress. True change requires both radical readjustments in racist and discriminatory systems, as well as the intentional undoing of subtle and pervasive systems of white privilege and white dominant culture. These shared pursuits are the most critical challenges of our time, and success will take all of us to examine and take action on the many ways racism and discrimination exist within our businesses, organizations, and governments, and within ourselves.

Throughout LGW’s history, we have become known for advancing important dialogues about racial equity in the region. Special programming, such as the Anti-Racist Leadership Series and national and regional civil rights learning journey tours, extend LGW’s purpose and shed light on the region’s and nation’s structural issues and solutions within members’ reach. But there is still so much work to be done, and LGW is intent on putting racial justice at the forefront of all our programs, teachings, and actions.

To learn more about LGW’s commitment to equity, please see our Board of Directors’ Purpose Statement on Creating Racial Equity from August 2020 following the murders of George Floyd, Ahmad Aurbery, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks and the devastating effects of COVID-19 on communities of color. To register for any of our upcoming events centered around racial equity, please visit our Equity & Anti-Racism Events Page.