A hurricane made me a civil engineer. When I was 12 years old, category 5 Hurricane Hugo hit my home state of South Carolina. From the devastation, I wanted to learn how to design and build structures that could withstand hurricanes.Today, I help employers create cultures to recruit & retain Black, Latinx and Native women engineers, scientists, data and technical professionals. As a civil engineer, I loved solving the problems my clients couldn’t see coming in construction projects. I’ve taken this same skill set into PositiveHire. PositiveHire aims to reduce the number of women of color leaving their STEM careers. How? By partnering with employers who understand the value of a truly diverse workforce, have created places of belonging and address culture issues from the top down.Why am I taking on this problem? In the nearly 15 years I worked in engineering, I’ve never had a Native, Latina or Black woman manager. Hell none were in any level of management. This was the same for all of my clients. But you say there aren’t that many of us.According to the National Science Foundation, from 2005 to 2015 nearly 1 million women of color have received bachelor’s degrees in STEM. I completed college along with other women of color BEFORE 2005.In 2014–15, African American women earned 2.9% and Latina women earned 3.6% of all STEM degrees.Yet when it comes to women of color in STEM, 1 in 3 will leave her career and will not return.Nearly half of women in STEM leave because of work conditions including, but not limited to frequent travel, lack of advancement and low salary. Impact on EmployersEmployers incur financial impact in employee attrition. These costs can be 33% of an annual salary but in reality technical professionals are not easily replaced. Employers lose on average a base cost of $105,000 with each woman of color STEM professional they lose.Oftentimes, before women of color leave an organization they share their workplace issues with management and human resources. Finding no resolution, some women of color file EEOC complaints for race and gender discrimination. In 2018, employers paid out a combined total of $505 million for EEOC complaints for race and gender discrimination.PositiveHire’s Solution includes assisting employers in creating and retaining a diverse workforce:1. D,E&I consulting2. Recruiting for management roles3. Training and DevelopmentContact me at Michele.Heyward@PositiveHire.co.SPECIALTIES: Recruiting, Diversity Equity & Inclusion Strategy, Project Management, Speaker