Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Timeline

In addition to the comprehensive benefits that USLI offers employees, including floating holidays, adoption assistance and a workplace lactation program, we started a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team to help educate and strengthen our community. Below, explore a timeline of our initiatives and accomplishments so far.

2024

In 2024, we required our community to complete DEI training from Traliant, introducing the Religion, Spirituality and Beliefs module and implementing Unconscious Bias, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training.

USLI collaborated with NEN Philadelphia and TransWork to learn more about inclusive hiring practices in our Student Program.
We hosted our second annual USLI PRIDE celebrationand reevaluated cafe practices at our Wayne, Pennsylvania, campus to eliminate cross-contamination of meat with vegetarian and vegan foods.
We introduced our community Kaleidoscope program, a multimedia series through which community members can share their stories.
We expanded USLI’s Pack the Pantry campaign nationally, collaborating with our branch offices to fight food insecurity on college and university campuses.

In November 2024, USLI University launched USLI’s DEI Proximity degree for the community.

2023

In 2023, we updated the timeline for our new hire “Art of Awareness” module, with contributions from USLI’s Sasha Moul, Portia Waller and Phillip Reese.

We also rolled out mandatory diversity, equity and inclusion training from Traliant, addressing the topics of microaggressions in the workplace and LGBTQ+ inclusion.
Additionally, we continued our participation in the neuroinclusive employment/recruitment network at West Chester University.
Throughout the year, we held our monthly First Fridays, Celebrate USLI series, which highlighted topics such as “Reshaping Our Perception of Disabilities,” “Supporting Black-owned Businesses” during Black History Month, “Celebrating Impactful Women” during Women’s History Month, “Allyship, Education and Unity,” “Celebrating Our Culture, Backgrounds and Traditions,” and “Celebrating Religious Freedom in America.”
In June 2023, we hosted our inaugural USLI PRIDE celebration and toured historically Black colleges and universities to recruit for our Student Program.

2022

USLI ended 2021 with a fireside chat with CEO, Tom Nerney and VP, General Counsel, Shelby Chapman, co-chair of USLI’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team, for a discussion about diversity, equity and inclusion. 
2022 began with the formation of USLI’s DEI Taskforce which is comprised of a representative from each team across the company. Members lead discussions on monthly company-wide chosen themes within their own teams. The DEI team created a newsletter with resources to assist Taskforce members to spark engaging conversation.

On January 6, 2022, Stacey Gordon, Executive Advisor and Diversity Strategist of Rework Work, spoke at our Leadership With Heart luncheon. Gordon covered “The What and Why of DEI,” sharing helpful tools leaders can use while focusing on education, recruiting, community interactions and outreach.

An all-new online DEI resource library was released on the company intranet in April of 2022 and continues to grow every month with the support of USLI community members’ recommendations. Resource categories range from videos, articles, websites, books, podcasts, museums and more.
In 2022, USLI also centralized all DEI messaging by joining monthly company-wide chosen themes with FirstFriday events to create more consistent education, rally as one and inspire the community. 
The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team is now featured in both the community newsletter and the customer newsletter.  This past year was the first full year the entire community participated in two educational courses presented by Traliant: “Diversity, Inclusion, Sensitivity & Racism” and “Cultural Competency & Humility” 
Additionally, some leadership team members and the CEO participated in a pilot training session with the external company Diverse Force.

2021
USLI announces the annual theme “Embrace Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” and the accompanying statement:

Embracing diversity, equity and inclusion is our shared responsibility. Our goal is to come together and strengthen our community and culture by representing all races, genders, religions and sexual orientations. Our journey must be constant and continuous. It is imperative that we take the initiative to educate and immerse ourselves in others' realities. Biases do exist and we must face, identify and address them head on. Continue to challenge yourself to look beyond your individual worldview. Acknowledge your personal biases and be receptive to others' differences. Within your team and our community, move forward conversations of any barriers to diversity, equity or inclusion. Together, we can make impactful decisions to ensure every community member has a sense of belonging, a voice and a seat at the table.

USLI focuses on diversity recruiting — expanding our network and increasing access points to diverse candidates.

2020

The DEI team begins facilitating education courses mandatory annually for all employees.
A resource library, through which employees can learn about racism, unconscious bias and social injustice, is created.
USLI created a leadership course titled Leadership and Conversations Through Controversial Social Times.
USLI partners with the Philadelphia Urban Creators, and employees begin to volunteer at Urban Creators’ Life Do Grow farm on the weekends. Employees also help build a greenhouse and a water filtration system on the farm.
USLI sponsors 12th Street Catering to provide weekly meals at Urban Creators.
The CARE² Fund at USLI contributes to the Equal Justice Initiative.

2019
The monthly First Fridays, Celebrate USLI series is launched to celebrate diversity within our community.
Zachary Woods addressed "uncomfortable learning" at the Leadership With Heart luncheon. In an important talk about finding common ground, Woods made the case that we can build empathy and gain understanding by engaging tactfully and thoughtfully with controversial ideas and unfamiliar perspectives. "Tuning out opposing viewpoints doesn't make them go away,” Woods stated. “To achieve progress in the face of adversity, we need a genuine commitment to gaining a deeper understanding of humanity."

2018
USLI’s DEI team and Executive Leadership team complete level set training with Deborah Vereen, founder and principal of Deborah Vereen, LLC.

USLI hosts a DEI visioning session and creates a mission statement with Deborah Vereen.

2017
USLI writes a letter to Pennsylvania state senators asking them to support the PA Fairness Act.

2016
USLI employees volunteer to start a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) team.