From homegrown candidates to outside prospects, Fort Worth has six candidates to choose from for the city’s newly created Diversity and Inclusion Director — a major recommendation of a task force aimed at ending racial division in the city.
The public will have the chance to meet them Monday at a forum in Morningside Elementary School, 2601 Evans Ave. from 7 to 9 p.m. They’ll field questions from co-chairs of the Race and Culture Task Force: Lillie Biggins, Rabbi Andrew Bloom, Rosa Navejar and Bob Ray Sanders. Estrus Tucker will also moderate audience questions. Those who want to ask questions should sign up beginning at 5 p.m. at the school auditorium.
The Diversity and Inclusion Director will head a 14 person department in the city manager’s office tasked with tackling diversity issues across the city. They’ll make sure city services are applied equitably but also act as liaisons to residents concerned about discrimination. Approved in the 2020 budget, the department has a budget of more than $942,000 and the only new position is the director. The salary will range from $125,820 to $207,604 depending on experience.
The candidates include diversity experts with experience working with cities, major universities, the corporate world and in criminal justice. The city hopes to have someone hired by the end of the year.
This is a key recommendation from the Race and Culture Task Force, created following the 2016 arrest of Jacqueline Craig. Craig’s case resulted in public outcry and surfaced racial and cultural inequalities in the city.
That outcry has not stopped.
Following a string of officer-involved shootings this summer, tension is again high after Atatiana Jefferson, a 28-year-old black woman, was fatally shot by white officer Aaron Dean in her home as he investigated a call about an open door at her house. Dean resigned from the Fort Worth Police Department and has been charged with murder.
Residents decrying aggressive police tactics have voiced concerns about racial divisions in the city through protests at City Hall for two weeks.
The candidates for the Diversity and Inclusion job are:
Christina Brooks
Christina Brooks
Brooks is the first diversity and inclusion officer and LGBTQ liaison for South Bend, Indiana, where she is responsible for overseeing an inclusive workforce, community and contracting policies. She also oversees the Human Rights Commission with jurisdiction over St. Joseph County, population 270,771. She has 20 years of experience working with underrepresented populations.
Before joining the city of South Bend, she held positions at the University of Notre Dame’s Gigot Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, Undergraduate Admissions, and Human Resources as Notre Dame’s first program manager for staff diversity recruiting. She was also the co-founder and executive director of Brooks Running Start Foundation in Washington, D.C., which focused on inner-city youth.
Brooks holds a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University at South Bend with concentrations in political science and history and a master’s in nonprofit administration from Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame.
Stephen Francis
Stephen Francis
Most recently, Francis was the inaugural chief diversity and inclusion officer of Columbus, Ohio, a position appointed by the mayor. He has more than 35 years of experience.
He has worked in the corporate world leading several company-wide efforts, including diversity and inclusion, communications and media relations, advertising, government relations, community relations and philanthropy. He has developed diversity and inclusion training curriculum and has training experience in the areas of diversity awareness, cultural competence, implicit bias and inclusive leadership.
He has worked with the Ohio Department of Development, Ohio Attorney General’s Office, Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, Banc One Corporation and Honda of America Manufacturing Inc. He holds a bachelor’s degrees in both business administration and economics from Morehouse College in Atlanta and earned a law degree from Ohio State University College of Law.
Stancia Jenkins
Stancia Jenkins
As the assistant vice president for diversity at the University of Nebraska, Jenkins leads efforts to develop policies that enhance access, inclusion and retention at a diverse four-campus system.
Before joining the University of Nebraska, Jenkins served as an assistant vice chancellor for the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She developed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to address diversity, access and inclusion concerns, implemented a Chancellor’s Lecture Series on changing demographics and the impact on education, economics and business and managed diversity advisory boards for executive leadership.
Jenkins holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and advertising from the University of Kansas, and a master’s degree in public affairs with a focus on business and government relations from Park University. She completed Cornell University’s Diversity and Inclusion Certificate program.
Mishon Landry
Mishon Landry
A Fort Worth native, Landry has lived across the country and internationally. She has extensive corporate experience, with nine years of experience with human resources management firm ADP and has launched her own diversity-focused businesses.
At ADP, she was active in shaping the company’s diversity and inclusion programs and initiatives through her work on their Resource Group and eventually became voluntary chair of the ADP Diversity Board. In 2015, Landry left ADP to launch Culture Consultants, a consulting firm designed to help bridge the gap between inclusion and leadership.
She attended the University of Dallas Graduate School of Business Management, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Shani Barrax Moore
Shani Barrax Moore
Moore is the director of diversity and inclusion at the University of North Texas in Denton. She oversees the campus cultural centers, leads a learning and development team, plans the Equity and Diversity Conference, and develops strategic partnerships for the university. She has 20 years of experience and is a native of Raleigh, North Carolina.
At Tarrant County College, she served as the chief diversity and inclusion officer and led a district-wide campus inclusion survey and planning process to improve diversity and inclusion. Moore has also served as an academic adviser, tutor and adjunct instructor in business, leadership and social work.
She received her bachelor’s degree in public relations from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a minor in French and her master’s of business administration from Strayer University in marketing and human resources. She is a Certified Diversity Advanced Practitioner through Cornell University.
Ty Stimpson
Ty Stimpson
Stimpson grew up in Arlington as is currently an assistant criminal district attorney with the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office in the Intimate Partner Violence Division. He is responsible for investigating and prosecuting individuals with the highest risk of recidivism involving family violence.
Previously he worked in the Elder Financial Fraud Division and the White Collar Public Integrity Division, where he handled a wide range of economic crimes, including theft and identity theft. Stimpson is an active member of the Tarrant County Bar Association, Rotary Club of Downtown Fort Worth and is a former chairman of the Criminal Justice Committee of Fort Worth’s Race and Culture Task Force. He also serves on the Tarrant Area Food Bank board, the advisory board for the Young Men’s Leadership Academy of Fort Worth and is a graduate of the 2019 Leadership Fort Worth Class.
Stimpson received his bachelor of business administration degree from Baylor University, where he also played football, and received a law degree from Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University. After law school, Stimpson relocated to New York City to attend St. John’s University School of Law, where he received his master’s of law degree while working for the National Football League.
This story was originally published October 25, 2019 at 1:01 PM.
