Donte Hilliard
Racial Justice Center Director
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Koya | Diversified Search Group partnered with Service Employees International Union (SEIU) on its Racial Justice Center Director search. Our work resulted in the placement of Donte Hilliard.
SEIU is a union of about 2 million diverse members in healthcare, the public sector, and property services who believe in, and fight for, our Vision for a Just Society: where all workers are valued and all people respected – no matter where we come from or what color we are; where all families and communities can thrive; and where we leave a better and more equitable world for generations to come.
Hilliard is a long-time Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) professional who specifically identifies as an applied social justice practitioner. Hilliard has a deep understanding of the structural relationship between individual, organizational, and institutional development. Donte seeks roles in mission-driven organizations where he can leverage his vision, passion, leadership, and expertise to make a strategic and measurable impact on those most affected by social inequity (BIPOC Women, Youth, and LGBTQ folks).
As a DEI professional, Hilliard has discovered that many organizations operate in a 1980’s “diversity model”, so that much of his work has been focused on moving organizations toward a 21st century intersectional Social Justice, Equity, and Inclusion model. His fluency in this work – in particular Hilliard’s understanding of the role that sustainability, equity, capacity building, and application play in efforts to operate in a Social Justice model – sharpens his ability to be an effective DEI leader and strategic partner.
As a racial justice subject matter expert, Hilliard has been called on to share his insights on projects such as: “Money, Power and Race: The Lived Experience of Fundraisers of Color” (2019); Networked News, Racial Divides: How Power and Privilege Shape Public Discourse in Progressive Communities (2017) and Uncomfortably Predictable: Race, Community and the Cycle of Violence (2016).
