Chanin Kelly-Rae

Chanin Kelly-Rae (born 1970)[1] is an American diversity and inclusion practitioner. She is the founder and chief executive officer of Chanin Kelly-Rae Consulting, a diversity management firm.

Chanin Kelly-Rae
Born (1970-02-07) February 7, 1970
Occupation(s)Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Subject Matter Expert and Practitioner
Years active20+ Years
EmployerCHANIN KELLY-RAE CONSULTING LLC
Known forWhistleblowing at Amazon, DEI Expert, Strategist, Policy Writer, Educator, Public Speaker, and Executive

She served briefly as the global director of diversity in the Amazon Web Services division of Amazon, and resigned to expose what she alleged to be "deep, systemic issues" disadvantaging underrepresented workers, especially those that are Black.

Early life and education

Kelly-Rae attended Rufus King International High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,[1][2] where she grew up with her father, Gus Kelly, who was a chef, mother and five siblings.[3][4][5] She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and cultural studies from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and a graduate certificate in diversity management from Cornell University.[6][7]

Career
See also: Criticism of Amazon

Kelly-Rae started her career as a middle school and high school teacher in Milwaukee.[8]

Kelly-Rae then went on to serve as the senior director of inclusion and equity for the National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association, the diversity manager for Catholic Community Services of Western Washington, and as the statewide diversity manager for Washington State.[7]

In 2019, Kelly-Rae joined Amazon as the global director of diversity of Amazon Web Services. In February 2021, she went public about her resignation 10 months into her career at Amazon as part of a Recode investigation that uncovered a practice at Amazon to rate its Black employees more harshly than their white peers in performance reviews, and as a result are promoted less frequently.[9][10] In January 2020, she said that she was dismissed by Beth Galetti at the company's first annual diversity summit when she offered to share why access to data was imperative for diversity and inclusion work because she hadn't worked at the company for long enough. Galetti had said at the summit that the employees don't "need the data to do [the] job".[9]

Kelly-Rae described Amazon's culture as having a culture of fear around speaking out about workplace issues.[11] She was the first worker to come forward on the record, and has since helped others speak out,[12] including Charlotte Newman, who has since filed a lawsuit against Amazon alleging discrimination and sexual harassment.[11] Kelly-Rae has also said that her resignation followed the company's philanthropic Black Lives Matter response, which she said did not align with the corporate culture.[11]

Kelly-Rae also alleged that after joining, she noticed a pattern of "de-leveling" of women in which roles advertised at a certain level, at which the women applicants were qualified, would be extended offers at a lower level.[13] She alleged she was also "de-leveled", which she said was confirmed by two vice president and the hiring manager.[11] She also said that she was given a tight budget that her peers told her didn't even amount to their budgets for organization swag like t-shirts and said the company under-used its affirmative action hiring plan.[10]

She further alleged that her time at Amazon showed the company's reluctance to "devote serious attention" to creating and maintaining a diverse workforce, and that the company's release of data hid disaggregated data to make it look like their corporate workforce was more diverse than what she witnessed.[14] Kelly-Rae said that the 26% of Black workers Amazon shared in its diversity statistics were misleading, as the majority of Black workers at Amazon work in the warehouses and "the only Black people that [she] saw [in Amazon’s Seattle headquarters] every day were either opening doors or cleaning floors."[11] On Fox News, Kelly-Rae pointed out the issues with company responses which try to downplay employee unrest involving diversity with numbers, referring to large workforces compared to small percentages of outspoken workers. She said that companies don't recognize that the share of employees speaking out about workplace issues is representative of those affected by those issues.[15]

Amazon has said that they "work hard to make Amazon a company where our Black employees and people of all backgrounds feel included, respected, and want to grow their careers" and that they "do not tolerate discrimination or harassment in any form." They also said it is a common practice for the company to "de-level" all employees, indiscriminate of their identity.[11]

After leaving Amazon in September 2020, she founded Chanin Kelly-Rae Consulting, a diversity management firm.[11][9]

Personal life

Kelly-Rae said she relocated to Seattle to avoid racial issues in Milwaukee.[3] In 2004, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer named her "coach of the year" for boys' tennis after her third year coaching boys tennis at Lakeside School.[16]

As of February 2019, Kelly-Rae resided in Everett, Washington with her husband and two children.[6]

See also

References
  1. Broom, Jack (September 13, 2014). "Race and police: Four Seattle-area families share concerns post-Ferguson". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on June 11, 2015. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  2. Chanin Kelly-Rae on LinkedIn
  3. Angst, Maggie (September 29, 2016). "Chef used food to bridge community gaps". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Archived from the original on May 11, 2021. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  4. Mitchell, Rikki (September 29, 2016). "Beloved Milwaukee chef Gus Kelly dies at 76". TMJ4. Archived from the original on April 18, 2021. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  5. "Chanin Kelly-Rae – Chanin Kelly-Rae Consulting". Chanin Kelly-Rae Consulting. Archived from the original on April 16, 2021. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  6. "Kirkland City Council Packet" (PDF). Kirkland, Washington. February 5, 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 14, 2022. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  7. "Together Washington: Governor's Race and Equity Summit" (PDF). Washington State Legislature. April 15, 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 24, 2016. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  8. "Amazon and Black Liberation (w/ Chanin Kelly-Rae) - Living Corporate". www.living-corporate.com. June 1, 2021. Archived from the original on March 14, 2022. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  9. Rey, Jason Del (February 26, 2021). "Bias, disrespect, and demotions: Black employees say Amazon has a race problem". Vox Media. Archived from the original on February 21, 2022. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  10. Torres, Matthew (April 4, 2021). "Black Amazon manager sues tech giant over alleged discrimination, sexual harassment and assault". wusa9. Archived from the original on June 16, 2021. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  11. Ayers, Christin (April 5, 2021). "Current and former Black Amazon employees claim racial discrimination". King5. Archived from the original on February 17, 2022. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  12. Ghaffary, Shirin (December 29, 2021). "Big Tech's employees are one of the biggest checks on its power". Vox Media. Archived from the original on December 29, 2021. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  13. Rey, Jason Del (March 1, 2021). "A Black Amazon manager is suing company executives in a discrimination and sexual harassment and assault case". Vox Media. Archived from the original on January 5, 2022. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  14. Anne Long, Katherine (April 14, 2021). "New Amazon data shows Black, Latino and female employees are underrepresented in best-paid jobs". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on February 17, 2022. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  15. Chanin Kelly Rae Discussing Amazon's Racial Bias on Fox Business' Mornings With Maria on YouTube
  16. "Coach of the Year: Boys tennis". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. June 9, 2004. Archived from the original on March 14, 2022. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
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