As Diversity Council Australia (DCA) approaches the end of 2024, we prepare to farewell our exceptional CEO, Lisa Annese, after a decade of transformative leadership. Lisa has been instrumental in positioning DCA as Australia’s leading voice for workplace diversity and inclusion, leaving a legacy of remarkable growth and impact.
The DCA Board is actively progressing the CEO search and looks forward to sharing an update early in the new year. In the meantime, we invite you to join us in celebrating Lisa’s contributions – and thank her for a decade of dedication to building more inclusive workplaces across our nation.
A message from Lisa Annese
After ten incredible years as the CEO of DCA, and as my time with the organisation comes to an end, I write to you all filled with immense gratitude.
I was appointed in 2014 by the Late Anna McPhee, DCA’s former Chair and the namesake of our biennial Oration, together with Her Excellency, Sam Mostyn, Australia’s Governor General who was Deputy Chair at the time. In those days, DCA had just over 200 member organisations and diversity and inclusion, while important, was not the mainstream business conversation it is today.
Over the past decade, we have grown our membership to almost 1,400 organisations including Australia’s biggest ASX companies, multinational organisations, government departments, universities and smaller workplaces including not for profits and private companies. We have developed a world-leading research function, best-practice education programs, innovative and pragmatic resources, toolkits and guidelines as well as an expansive event series that include popular webinars and thought-provoking in-person events.
We contribute to important academic literature and create a research evidence base to advocate for positive policy reform. Importantly, our diversity and inclusion expertise has developed in an expansive way and supports workplaces in their efforts to achieve gender equality, racial and cultural equity, LGBTIQ+ inclusion, and accessibility, as well as tools for understanding social class, inclusive leadership, inclusive recruitment, the impact of artificial intelligence on job-seeking and countless other areas. Critically, our work has been centred on both subject matter expertise as well as lived experience and we have pioneered an approach to centring marginalised voices and intersectionality in workplace efforts.
Our achievements are too numerous to mention but I am especially proud of the work we have done:
- establishing a national index of Workplace Inclusion (the Inclusion@Work Index)
- supporting more respectful and safer workplaces through a series of Myth Busters on sexual harassment and family and domestic violence as well as work on closing the gender pay gap and ‘sharing the care’ outside of work
- building racial literacy amongst our members and in the broader labour market, especially our Racism at Work report and with an intersectional gender approach, the RISE project
- introducing social class as an element for consideration in workplace diversity programs
- establishing a Global Alliance of like diversity and inclusion organisations (GIDA) to both support our members but also to continue to build a global perspective into our work
- running 11 dynamic and thought-provoking debates on D&I and five Orations on topics of national importance
- Creating a dedicated webinar series that focuses on building First Nations capability, achieving gender equality and on general diversity and inclusion leadership.
I have been fortunate to have been supported by an incredible team of talented and hard-working individuals who have brought their passion and commitment to the work they do at DCA, either working directly with members, or running research and education projects or the important behind-the-scenes work of running communications, systems, operations and administration. To everyone who works at DCA and who has worked (or volunteered on the Board) at DCA, thank you.
There is still much work to be done before Australia can realise the full benefits of its diverse talent. Groups that have been traditionally marginalised because of their gender, race, LGBTIQ+ status, disability or social class have much to offer employers but because of systemic barriers, have been unable to fully realise their potential at work.
Luckily, the business case for focusing on workplace inclusion is strong. We know that workplaces that focus on diversity and inclusion are more innovative and productive. To all of you who have worked hard to drive positive change, thank you. DCA remains your partner in achieving our collective goal of creating more inclusive workplaces for a fairer and more equitable Australia.