In honor of its efforts to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace, New Mexico State University’s Arrowhead Center has received the 2022 Diverse Business Leader award from Albuquerque Business First.
Arrowhead Center was one of four organizations in New Mexico recognized with the award for going above and beyond to bolster equality across all areas of diversity, including age, disability, gender, sexual orientation, race and religion.
“Arrowhead has taken steps to ensure diversity, equity and inclusion are at the forefront of planning, programming and organizational evolution since the beginning of our organization,” Arrowhead Center Director Kathy Hansen said. “As part of a Hispanic-serving institution, we embrace our differences as an asset and actively seek to include wide-ranging perspectives. To be recognized as a Diverse Business Leader acknowledges the hard work our team puts into ensuring our programs and services are accessible and impactful for all entrepreneurs.”
Arrowhead Center will be honored Nov. 10 during an awards ceremony in Albuquerque.
Hansen said Arrowhead Center has developed programs and initiatives for underserved innovators and businesses across a broad range of industry sectors and has demonstrated success in working with minority business constituents, including ethnic minorities, women, rural communities and tribal populations.
“Arrowhead defines diversity, equity and inclusion by authentically broadening the representation of underserved entrepreneurs and communities by celebrating differences, promoting equal access to opportunities and resources, and intentionally increasing participation from underserved communities,” she said.
Dana Catron, deputy director of Arrowhead Center, added that programming across the center delivers culturally competent curricula and visual marketing in flexible delivery methods, including in-person and virtual options, to enhance access to resources and tools.
She pointed out that more than 90% of applicants to Arrowhead Center’s New Mexico Clean Energy Resilience and Growth, or NM CERG, program “fall into a diversity, equity and inclusion category,” and that more than 80% of accepted NM CERG startups are underserved.
“We are always looking for areas where we can enhance programming and make it more inclusive,” she said. “For example, with our American Indian Business Enterprise Center, we identified a gap in accessible entrepreneurial assistance targeting the unique challenges and opportunities Native American entrepreneurs face.”
Hansen said she urges the Arrowhead team to participate in professional development opportunities emphasizing diversity, equity and inclusion to learn how to work with marginalized groups intentionally. She also advises the team to learn from the communities Arrowhead plans to work with, leading to more effective programming and ensuring that materials are accessible, relevant and culturally responsive.
“At Arrowhead, we value transformational over transactional interactions, centering the needs of clients through accessible programming,” she added. “We value building relationships and aim to be responsive to the needs of the entrepreneurs and communities we work with.”
For more information about Arrowhead Center, visit https://arrowheadcenter.org.
Original source can be found here.
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