Participant Bios
DEI Is Not Affirmative Action:
The Future of Diversity Within
Internship Programs
ModeratoR
Sam Fulwood III
Sam Fulwood III is the former dean of American University’s School of Communication (SOC) and an award-winning journalist, public policy analyst and author, whose work addresses key issues of media influences on American life. He has written and lectured extensively across the United States and internationally on U.S. race relations, data-driven journalism, and the intersections of media, technology and democracy.
In addition to his work at SOC, Fulwood is a nonresident senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he was a senior fellow and vice president for race and equity programming. He was also the former director and founder of American Progress’ Leadership Institute, a program to assist with the advancement of people of color in public policy.
Earlier in his career, Fulwood was a metro columnist at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio, the last stop in a nearly three-decade journalism career that featured posts at several metropolitan newspapers. During the 1990s, he was a national correspondent in the Washington, D.C., bureau of the Los Angeles Times, where he contributed to the paper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
He has also worked as a business editor and state political editor for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; as an assistant city editor, business reporter, editorial writer, and Johannesburg, South Africa, bureau correspondent for the Baltimore Sun; and as a police, business, and sports reporter at The Charlotte Observer.
Fulwood is the author of two books: “Waking from the Dream: My Life in the Black Middle Class” (Anchor, 1996) and “Full of It: Strong Words and Fresh Thinking for Cleveland” (Gray & Company, 2004). Fulwood earned a Bachelor’s in Journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Panelists
Greg Taylor (tentatively confirmed)
As Executive Director of the NBA Foundation, Greg Taylor is responsible for the strategic development, creation and implementation of programs and partnerships that advance the Foundation’s efforts to increase access and support for high school, college-aged, job-ready and mid-career Black men and women. Additionally, Taylor oversees the administration of grants to national and local organizations that provide skills training, mentorship, coaching and pipeline development.
Taylor also guides the Foundation’s organizational goals, manages its operations and resources and designs fundraising that yields long-term success. Working closely with the NBA Foundation Board of Directors, Program Officers, National Basketball Players Association and all 30 NBA teams, he forms impactful partnerships and oversees support for national and local organizations in NBA markets and communities across the United States and Canada. He also manages a team of program managers, administrators and interns.
Previously, Taylor served as Senior Vice President of Player Development for the NBA, leading the league’s initiatives to assist players in their personal, professional and social development by building innovative programs in the areas of continuing education, financial management and mental health and wellness.
Prior to joining the NBA in 2013, Taylor served as President and CEO of the Foundation for Newark’s Future, where he positioned the foundation as an influential voice in education reform, developed a board comprised of distinguished local and national leaders and raised $78 million in matching funds. Taylor was previously Vice President of Programs at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, where he established strong relationships with local and national organizations and led a series of economic, education and youth development initiatives that supported youth and families of color.
A native of New York City, Taylor graduated with honors from Hunter College of the City University of New York and earned a law degree from Indiana University Bloomington’s School of Law. He currently serves as a board member for Athletes for Hope and the BRICK Education Network.
Jodi Rabinowitz
Jodi Rabinowitz is a seasoned Talent and Organizational Development professional who has led several in-house executive leadership positions in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors concentrating on organizational, talent, learning management and diversity and inclusion. She is a passionate driver of all aspects of employee development designing processes and programs that touch every single point of the employee life cycle from pre-hire to exit.
Her most recent role was the Global Head of Diversity and Organizational Development at Zoom Video Communication where she joined, before the Covid pandemic, and helped the organization scale to keep the world connected. Prior to that Jodi led the Talent Acquisition and Organizational Development function at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Jodi’s nimble approach as a talent advisor stems from her time as an executive at The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) and her early career in social work. At CCL, she designed custom programs for Fortune 100 companies to help them build and enhance their leadership pipeline and achieve business outcomes. Prior to this work, she tackled the behavioral aspects of leadership with the clinical skills she honed at a boutique Employee Assistance firm and New York’s famous, Bellevue Hospital’s Psychiatric Emergency Room.
She lives in Connecticut with her husband of 30+ years along with her brown Labrador, Bosco and yellow one, Nilla. One of her grown son’s works in New York at a hedge fund and her “baby” will be graduating from UCLA this Spring and hopes to work in the entertainment business.
Marc B. Minor
Marc Minor is senior counsel in the firm's Corporate Transactions & Securities practice group. He focuses his practice on the areas of Investment Management and Business Litigation.
Marc has extensive experience with all aspects of federal and state financial services regulation. Among other services, he counsels clients on implementing compliance programs and regulatory controls and on conducting internal investigations. Marc advises clients on the due diligence, negotiation and execution of mergers and acquisitions of investment advisers and broker-dealers; the creation of new financial products and services; and the preparation for and response to regulatory inquiries, examinations and enforcement actions by federal and state agencies, state AG offices and self-regulatory organizations (SROs). Marc also created a course at Seton Hall University School of Law on developments in fintech law and regulations, including blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies, robo-advisers, privacy, cybersecurity, big data and artificial intelligence.
Prior to joining Thompson Hine, Marc was chief compliance officer for five years at an SEC-registered digital adviser, overseeing development, implementation, auditing/testing, IT integration and reporting of all policies and procedures; responding to regulatory and corporate examinations and due diligence needs; and advising executive management on legal, strategic and operational issues. In addition, Marc founded and served as president of a consulting firm providing structural, transactional and regulatory advice to broker-dealers, investment advisers, private equity funds, consumer and investment banks, servicers and marketing company clients.
Marc has served as chief of the New York Attorney General’s Office’s Investor Protection Bureau, chief of the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office’s Bureau of Securities, senior counsel at FINRA and director and enforcement counsel of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange.
Pipa Elias
Pipa Elias is deputy director of the Walton Family Foundation’s Environment Program. She began her role with the foundation in February 2021. As deputy director, she manages environmental grantmaking and advances strategic direction across the program’s three geographic areas of focus. Pipa fosters an inclusive approach to leadership and is passionate about developing partnerships to solve problems.
Before joining the foundation, she worked at The Nature Conservancy (TNC) as director of agriculture for North America. Skilled at applying scientific research to advance policy and conservation solutions, Pipa leveraged collaborations to help producers meet the growing demand for food while protecting critical lands and waters.
Pipa also served as a senior policy advisor, leading land use policy advocacy at the United Nations climate negotiations and other multilateral venues. In her eight years working on the UN climate negotiations she led a coalition of nearly a dozen NGOs that helped influence the system of incentives and measurements for the land-use sector in global climate agreements. Pipa also served as policy lead on the team that helped to publish a seminal paper on Natural Climate Solutions.
Pipa received her M.S. in forestry from Virginia Tech, and her B.S. in environmental science from the University of Notre Dame.
Véronique Pluviose
Véronique Pluviose is minority staff director for Representative Bobby Scott (D-VA) on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. She has also served as the committee’s general counsel and civil rights counsel. Prior to that, she served as the congressional and intergovernmental liaison at the U.S. Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce during the Obama Administration. Formerly, she served as staff director of the House Subcommittee on Emergency Communications, Preparedness, and Response and as policy director for the House Committee on Homeland Security.
Earlier in her career, Véronique worked as the principal legislative counsel at the National League of Cities; as a legislative counsel in the U.S. House of Representatives focused on Judiciary Committee issues including the impeachment of President Clinton; and at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, working on civil rights issues.
Véronique earned her bachelor’s degree from the City College of New York and her law degree from the University of Virginia.