Black History is American History. What many forget is that history is happening every day—and we don’t have to wait to celebrate it. But what does that look like, exactly? Join host Jennie Brooks in conversation with senior consultant, Annabella Rossetti and lead associate, Damarius Coleman-Everett, who both sit on the Recruitment and Retention Committee of Booz Allen’s African American Network. Listen in as they talk about how to elevate Black excellence to new heights and what each of us can do every day, to make a real, tangible difference in our workplaces and beyond.
Black History is American History. What many forget is that history is happening every day—and we don’t have to wait to celebrate it. But what does that look like, exactly? Join host Jennie Brooks in conversation with senior consultant, Annabella Rossetti and lead associate, Damarius Coleman-Everett, who both sit on the Recruitment and Retention Committee of Booz Allen’s African American Network. Listen in as they talk about how to elevate Black excellence to new heights and what each of us can do every day, to make a real, tangible difference in our workplaces and beyond.
Jennie Brooks:
Welcome to Booz Allen Hamilton's, Unstoppable Together Podcast. A series of stories that unite us and empower each of us to change the world. I'm Jennie Brooks with Booz Allen Hamilton, and I'm passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion. Please join me in conversation with the diverse group of thought leaders to explore what makes them, and all of us, unstoppable.
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Unstoppable Together Podcast. I'm your host, Jennie Brooks, and today I'm excited to be joined by Anna Rossetti and Damarius Coleman-Everett. Anna is a senior consultant with extensive experience in recruiting, fostering and nurturing partnerships with core universities, and ensuring that Booz Allen's employee experience starts at recruitment. She also devotes her time to recruitment and retention for Booz Allen's African-American Network, also known as AAN, as well as serving as a member of our women's business resource group.
Damarius Coleman-Everett is a lead associate with 15 years of experience in social services, public administration, and program management. She specializes in delivering innovative solutions to federal agencies, recently pioneering cultural initiatives to enhance service delivery and customer satisfaction, and she also mentors and empowers others in their career transitions.
Anna and Damarius, welcome to the podcast.
Damarius:
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Anna:
Thank you for having me, Jennie.
Jennie:
Well, I'm excited to speak with both of you today. February is Black History Month, which we are celebrating, and it means different things to different people. For Black History Month, Booz Allen's African American Network has selected the theme Black Excellence Elevating to New Heights. To start with, I'd like to ask each of you, what does that mean to you, and can you tell us a little bit about where the theme came from? Damarius, why don't you start us off?
Damarius:
Okay, sure. For me, it's about shining like that spotlight on great accomplishments for Black people, and especially in the workplace and not really settling for the status quo. It's like saying, "Okay, I'm here. We're here. We're doing excellent work. We're making a great impact. And we're ready to keep doing that."
As far as the theme is concerned, it's really about celebrating remarkable accomplishments and leadership, and thought leadership, and everything that we've done. It's like celebrating ourselves, and those contributions, and that they're very vital and they're very important to overall success and innovation as a whole.
Jennie:
Thank you. Anna, what about you?
Anna:
Thank you, Jenny. So Black excellence for me is an unspoken, yet very keen understanding within the Black community that we will always uplift one another and collectively celebrate our wins no matter how big or small they may be. In addition to that, really having the mindset and cultivating the mindset that we will persevere, and have always persevered, and further building on the path that has been set by those before us and to continue the legacy even thereafter. So, kind of piggybacking off what Damarius had said: the contributions of Black individuals is a vital component of organizational success and innovation. So really seeing that within leadership and various accomplishments, no matter where you are in your career. So that is what Black excellence means to me.
Jennie:
I want to ask you both for a little bit of a follow on relative to what you both shared, just celebrating and uplifting no matter how small or how big the accomplishment. What does that look like in action as a Black employee? Damarius?
Damarius:
That's a wonderful question. In action, that looks like team kudos, right? It looks like telling people you did a great job on facilitating a conversation with the client, all the time. It means you don't wait until some big thing. You don't have to wait until people get a promotion. You don't have to wait to, they've landed some large contracts. You can just do it every single day. So it's like me reaching out to my team and said, "Oh my gosh, you really handled that very well. I really appreciate the time that you took to do that." That's what it looks like in action. It's celebrating people in a human-centered way.
Jennie:
Anna, anything to add to that?
Anna:
I think Damarius really nailed it perfectly. But adding on to it, celebrating the wins no matter what size they may be, is of course giving those kudos, but also giving those kudos to folks when they're not in the same room as you. Right? And identifying opportunities on their behalf in spaces where they may not be in. But that then provides them the opportunity to elevate in their career and elevate within their network in ways that they probably hadn't identified before. I definitely see that as a win in some capacity, but also celebrating it most importantly. So that's what I think it would mean for me.
Jennie:
Okay. And now turning the question to you, tell me how this theme of Black Excellence Elevating to New Heights shows up in your role at Booz Allen, including the roles that you play for the African American Network. Damarius?
Damarius:
What I do is I help federal agencies to better serve their customers, so in a human-centered way. So that could mean, so we're going out and I'm doing research, I'm talking to actual people that they serve. And I'm bringing that back to the client and I'm saying, "Hey, this is the data." I'm translating that for them so they can understand this is how you can better serve people. This is how you can improve on your mission, and this is how you can meet your business outcomes.
For me, sitting in a space of I'm a Black woman, sitting in that space is really important in doing that work is that I make sure that the voices of the people who are actually most impacted by the work and by the organizations have a voice. Right? That they're seen and that they're heard, and that we're not just going in there and getting something from them and then just leaving out. So, it's important to me that I translate that over to my clients.
As far as the African American Network's concerned, I see myself doing the same thing. For me, I've been in places that I just really didn't feel like I had a voice. I felt like people didn't hear what I was saying, or they didn't understand where I was coming from, or my perspective, things like that. And so, my goal is for R&R, the Recruitment and Retention Committee, as part of the AAN, is really to make sure that my colleagues, that we have a voice. That we're being heard. That we're being elevated and celebrated when we should, as we should. And creating a safe space for people to ask questions and for people to uplift ourselves without feeling bad about that. So basically, I'm saying ask questions. It's okay to ask questions. It's okay to make mistakes. That psychological safety. So that's kind of what I provide with AAN. And making sure that we are getting in the roles that we want to be in, we're showing up when we get in those roles, and that we're being confident in how we show up, and we're getting the opportunities as everyone else.
Jennie:
Thank you. Anna?
Anna:
Yeah. Love your response, Damarius. So, a little bit of background of my day-to-day role in recruitment. So, I support the university recruiting and relations team, and I do have core partner schools that I'm aligned to. Three out of four are HBCUs. HBCUs are historically black colleges and universities. And so, my every day is really further fostering and partnering with my core HBCU schools, in addition to supporting candidates throughout the entire life cycle and pipeline as they go through their recruitment journey with us here at Booz Allen.
And it really goes hand-in-hand, my day job and serving on the leadership committee on the African American Network. Which by the way, Damarius and I both serve on the same committee, Recruitment and Retention. And so really the overall mission on the African American Network, but primarily on the Recruitment and Retention committee, is to partner with internal, both talent and recruitment teams and external stakeholders, being HBCUs and MSIs, and MSIs are minority-serving institutions, stakeholders to strengthen recruiting and retention practices for Black employees at Booz Allen.
But in addition to that, our overarching goal is to ensure, as Damarius mentioned, to ensure that Black employees, all the way from in entry to mid-level consultant roles, are fully supported as we all navigate the corporate space. And really ensuring that we're all elevated to the next level in our career. So that looks like hosting local and/or virtual events simultaneously for promotion opportunities. Right? How to navigate the base end and ladder of the promotion cycle and timeline within the firm. All the way to networking events, hosting networking events when the opportunity arises, in addition to attending national conferences if the opportunity does present itself as well. So really providing a holistic, safe place to authentically be yourself. But also most importantly, having folks that look like us in those spaces to provide that support.
Jennie:
Anna, I want to clarify just one thing that you mentioned when you referenced “people like us”. Can you just tell us a little bit about what you mean by that?
Anna:
Absolutely. From my experience, I am a biracial woman, my mother is Ethiopian, and my father is Italian. And so, when folks meet me for the first time, they see my name, very Italian. They would never think that I am half Black. And so, I want to kind of highlight that Black comes in all shades, and so many different lived experiences. It's not just one particular shade or one particular lived experience. We are a plethora of many different cultures and ethnic groups and religions. And so, there isn't a one size fits all, or a one shade.
Jennie:
So, let's talk a little bit about that: folks who look like us. Which I agree with you, is such an important part of the process. But for those listening who want to be part of the solution, and perhaps they're not Black. So, for someone listening who wants to be part of the solution, may not know the direct experience. What would you offer if you had one tip for them to consider to be part of that solution of creating a safe space?
Anna:
Absolutely. I love that question, Jennie. So first thought that comes to mind to those that do want to extend their support and be an ally, is just first remaining curious, asking the right questions. Involving themselves in areas where it may be out of their comfort zone, but it's their curiosity and the passion in serving the Black community, our community, in any way that they're willing to do. So, the first piece for me would be having that curiosity, remaining open-minded, and of course remaining respectful. So that would be my first point of thought.
Damarius:
I like that, and I agree with that. And to piggyback on what you said about remaining curious, that is a topic that is talked about a lot. What does that even look like? What does that mean? That means that you may have to go off and Google something. Right? Because sometimes it can be exhausting, just questions about, "How do I do this," or "How do I do that?" It can get exhausting, especially when you're one of the only ones on the team.
So, I would encourage people that want to help is first, remain curious, as Anna said, but try to do a little bit of your own research. There's so much out there now where you could search, you can YouTube. You can ask somebody, maybe that's already in your peer group outside of work, Black or some ... And ask first and then remain curious.
And I would say to listen. Listen and pay attention. Right? Pay attention about how do peers act when certain things happen? How do we act when we have those icebreakers? Do people shy away from that? There may be a reason for that. I would say listen to understand, not to respond. And then adjust and apply. Sometimes we have so much information overload and we do nothing with it. So, I would say remain curious, as Anna said, listen, and then try to apply some of that what you've learned. And that'll help build relationships anyway. But I love that question.
Anna:
Also, extending yourself to local events or virtual events and sitting in on those, if that is kind of the first step that someone would feel an ally would feel most comfortable starting off at. Right? And so many events that, as I mentioned previously, that the African American Network hosts, that would be a wonderful starting place where you can learn about the history, hundreds of years of history, especially approaching Black History Month. Right? So that would be a wonderful place to also start.
Jennie:
I love it. Thank you. And yes, February is a great time to start. If you haven't been to one of the African American Network events at Booz Allen and you're a Booz Allen employee, we'd love to see you there.
So just in the last couple minutes we've given our audience a number of things that they can take on board and think about as we move forward. Is Black Excellence Elevating to New Heights, not just for the month of February, but perpetually being mindful of celebrating the small, the medium, the large, the big things, the small things. Every day, recognizing and celebrating one another. Diverse interview panels that are representative of all. And remembering that identifying as Black shows up in different ways that we may not always think of.
Anna:
That's an excellent summary, Jennie.
Damarius:
Yes, I agree. Very good summary.
Jennie:
We started our conversation talking about Black History Month and the theme of Black Excellence Elevating to New Heights, but how would you suggest we carry that forward throughout the year, not just in the month of February? What are some of the things you would offer to those listening to make this a perpetual commitment year-round? Damarius?
Damarius:
That's a great question. I would say get to know people past our ... We all have biases in some type of way. Past our biases. I would really say get to know people and see people as human, number one. And then I would say make a commitment, like this is really ... Like you said, this is daily. This is not, we ramp up, we find a good quote, MLK Day and Black History Month, and then we're back to business as usual. I think it's important to realize the impacts and the harm. It's really those everyday decisions. Are you listening to ... Are you taking into account cultural awareness? Are you educating yourself on different people and different cultures, and enough, and bringing that into the work you do? So are your icebreakers, are they inclusive of all different cultures? That's the everyday type of things that we can do.
Listening to people, actually really listening to people. Not just like, "How are you doing?" Because we just say it. But really asking people, even in one-offs, "How are you doing? What do you like to do? Why is that? What do you do for the holidays?" Because everybody does different things. And I really think listening is at the core of all of that. I think the more we listen, the more people are humanized, the more we're empathetic, the more our emotional intelligence can kick in, and you can really see and be appreciative of differences and recognize them for just being differences and not being anything that's negative or positive. They're just differences. That's, to me, some of the daily practical things that we can do regularly.
Jennie:
Thank you. Anna?
Anna:
Yes. Damarius, you hit on so many great points that I wanted to touch on as well. But I can definitely piggyback. First and foremost is we are human first. Right? And part of Booz Allen's ethos is putting our people first. And so, to Damarius's point, that interpersonal piece can go such a long way. For example, career managers when having their one-on-ones, setting some time to really get to know their people and vice versa. Consultants across all levels having the opportunity to connect interpersonally with leadership, especially Black employees across the firm.
Supporting and being an ally of the African American Network is also a great place to learn the history, to learn all that we have going, and all of the incredible Black employees who are so talented. Understanding really, okay, who are we? Who are they? And so, I would say that pretty much, Damarius has done such a great job of summarizing all of it. But remembering that we are people first, that we are humans first. And connecting with each other on an interpersonal level is so key. Doing research on one's spare time, learning about as much as we can.
Jennie:
One of the things that you both touched on that resonated with me, and we've talked about before on this podcast, is the importance of checking in and asking someone, "How are you?" But recently, someone offered me a little bit more amplification on that question, which was, don't ask it unless you're really prepared to sit with the answer and listen and engage in an authentic conversation. Because we know that often when you ask someone, "How are you," you're going to learn something about them that you may not have known before. Something that they're working through, or something that they might be struggling with, or that they need help with, or something fantastic to celebrate. Right? Either way, the intent of the feedback that I recently received was the conversation we had was around really being authentic with that question, that intention behind it, not just a platitude. But in this type of work, to be prepared to engage in a meaningful conversation that might come as a result of checking in with someone.
Ladies, this has been just a very inspiring conversation, and I really appreciate your taking the time to give us some things to think about as we head into Black History Month, and to join you in the work around Black Excellence Elevating to New Heights, not just for the month of February, but perpetually around the year for all of us to take some action on, and perhaps stretch or join a conversation or an event that we haven't yet joined before with curiosity in mind.
At the end of every podcast, we give our guests some free space to share their final thoughts. What would you like to leave us with today? Damarius?
Damarius:
Thank you for the space and for the time. This was a really good conversation.
Really what we talked about today, it's a call to action basically to me every day. So not just during MLK Day or week, or not just during Black History Month, but daily. It's a daily commitment for us to challenge the status quo, to question bias, and really to provide safe spaces for Black people particularly to be authentic. And really dig into what does that even mean and look like? Because we've heard it so many times.
It's to sponsor and mentor Black people so that they can continue to shine, continue to go to higher levels faster, without all the noise, without all of the perfectionistic environments. And to really just, let's not keep talking about it. And this is what I tell my kids. Let's just be about it. You're doing too much talking. Let's just do it.
Jennie:
Thank you. I appreciate it, Damarius. Anna?
Anna:
Yes. Yes, absolutely. I do want to leave you on this note, and thank you for having me today, Jennie. This has been a wonderful conversation. But really amplifying the underrepresented voices. Right? And being of a continued support and ally to Black community. As well as, at any moment if you can be a voice to support and provide growth opportunities, or be a mentor to, even if you may not identify with the community, being of any support and being of any ally, remaining curious, it goes a long way. It always starts with that interpersonal piece.
As I encourage all of our listeners to take all that we've provided in any way that they choose, but always remaining mindful that this serves a greater purpose and amplifies the Black community as a whole.
Jennie:
Well, thank you for your time. It has been such an inspiring conversation that I know will lift us up and keep us moving forward. Happy Black History Month everyone.
Damarius:
Thank you.
Anna:
Thank you.
Jennie:
Thanks for listening. Visit careers.boozallen.com to learn how you can be unstoppable with Booz Allen. Be the future. Work with us. The world can't wait.