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I Fought To Keep VOA Independent. Now It’s Gone.

I Fought To Keep VOA Independent. Now It’s Gone.

Project 2025 and the Assault on Immigrants

Project 2025 and the Assault on Immigrants

Just the Facts: Digital Services Tax

Just the Facts: Digital Services Tax

Hands reaching for each other

Power of One: What Tyler Perry’s Hiring of Sinbad Teaches About Clemency and Second Chances

Kids' Healthcare Can't Withstand Medicaid Cuts

Kids' Healthcare Can't Withstand Medicaid Cuts

Anusha Harid-Paoletti: "Diversity is intertwined with success"

Anusha Harid-Paoletti: "Diversity is intertwined with success"
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Hugo Balta
By Hugo BaltaMar 03, 2025
Hugo Balta
Hugo Balta is a journalist, educator, and communicator. Hugo is the executive editor of the Fulcrum and a board member of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund, the parent organization of The Fulcrum. He is the publisher of the Latino News Network, a trainer with the Solutions Journalism Network, and an adjunct professor teaching journalism courses.
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Anusha Harid-Paoletti, the CEO of Ellevate Network.

Ellevate’s mission is to “make work, work for all” and to create a world where everyone belongs by helping women thrive at work.

I spoke with Anusha on a recent episode of Fulcrum Democracy Forum (FDF). The program engages citizens in evolving government to better meet all people's needs. Consistent with the Fulcrum's mission, FDF strives to share many perspectives to widen our readers' viewpoints.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Anusha shared that Ellevate has a reach of 200,000 plus women globally. "We have 50+ corporate sponsors that we (Ellevate) speak to," she said. "Where we have standing to speak to is what is needed in the workplace for everyone who earned their spot to truly succeed."

In February, the Fulcrum published a column by Anusha titled Even Without The Acronym, Diverse Workforces Thrive. In our conversation, she shared how data does not support President Donald Trump’s executive orders against diversity, equity, and inclusion in government. She noted, for example, that "Boards that have gender diversity are 27% more likely to outperform financially."

Anusha immigrated to the US with her family from India after spending her childhood in the United Kingdom and Dubai.

A graduate of The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, she worked in financial services at Goldman Sachs for 10 years until launching a financial technology company in 2017. "Innovation happens because you are constantly interacting with the best and the brightest from all backgrounds. I live in New York City. I feel that way about my city as well. Diversity is intertwined with success," she said.

If you have a suggestion for a change leader I should profile in an upcoming episode of the Fulcrum Democracy Forum, please email me at Hugo@thefulcrum.us.

I am the executive editor of the Fulcrum and a board member of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund, the parent organization of The Fulcrum. I am also the publisher of the Latino News Network and an accredited solutions journalism trainer with the Solutions Journalism Network.

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Today, Hispanic-Serving Institutions enroll 64 percent of all Latino college students.

Getty Images, andresr

Tennessee’s Attack on Federal Support for Hispanic-Serving Colleges Hurts Us All

The Tennessee Attorney General has partnered with a conservative legal nonprofit to sue the U.S. Department of Education over programming that supports Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), colleges, and universities where at least 25% of the undergraduate full-time equivalent student enrollment is Hispanic. On its face, this action claims to oppose “discriminatory” federal funding. In reality, it is part of a broader and deeply troubling trend: a coordinated effort to dismantle educational opportunity for communities of color under the guise of anti-DEI rhetoric.

As a scholar of educational policy and leadership in higher education, I believe we must confront policies that narrow access and undermine equity in education for those who have been historically underserved. What is happening in Tennessee is not just a misguided action—it’s a self-inflicted wound that will harm the state's economic future and deepen historical inequality.

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Inclusion Is Not a Slogan. It’s the Ground We Walk On.

A miniature globe between a row of blue human figures

Getty Images//Stock Photo

Inclusion Is Not a Slogan. It’s the Ground We Walk On.

After political pressure and a federal investigation, Harvard University recently renamed and restructured its Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. MIT announced the closure of its DEI office, stating that it would no longer support centralized diversity initiatives. Meanwhile, Purdue University shut down its Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging and removed cultural center programs that once served as safe spaces for marginalized students. I am aware of the costs of not engaging with ideas surrounding diversity and difference, and I have witnessed the consequences of the current administration's actions— and the pace at which universities are responding. It’s nowhere good.

I was forced to move to the United States from Russia, a country where the words inclusion, diversity, and equality are either misunderstood, mocked, or treated as dangerous ideology. In this country, a woman over fifty is considered “unfit” for the job market. Disability is not viewed as a condition that warrants accommodation, but rather as a reason to deny employment. LGBTQ+ individuals are treated not as equal citizens but as people who, ideally, shouldn’t exist, where the image of a rainbow on a toy or an ice cream wrapper can result in legal prosecution.

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Leaders Can Promote Gender Equity Without Deepening Polarization − Here’s How
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Leaders Can Promote Gender Equity Without Deepening Polarization − Here’s How

Americans largely agree that women have made significant gains in the workplace over the past two decades. But what about men? While many Americans believe women are thriving, over half believe men’s progress has stalled or even reversed.

To make matters more complex, recent research has revealed a massive divide along gender and partisan lines. The majority of Republican men think full gender equity in America has been achieved, while the majority of Democratic women think there’s still work to be done.

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Trump Is Sabotaging America’s Greatest Demographic Advantage

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Getty Images, Thanasis

Trump Is Sabotaging America’s Greatest Demographic Advantage

“A profoundly dangerous and destabilizing thing.” That’s how Vice President J.D. Vance recently described America’s falling birthrate. Recently, the “ inherently pronatalist ” White House is considering a new set of proposals to address it—including government-funded menstrual cycle education and even a national medal for women who bear six or more children. But while Republicans may recognize the problem, their broader agenda actively undermines the most immediate and effective solution to population decline: immigration.

The Trump administration is enacting an all-out assault on immigration. Breaking from decades of Republican rhetoric that championed legal immigration, the current approach targets not just undocumented migration but legal pathways as well.

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