We welcome Toya Spencer, Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Worthington Schools. A fascinating interview with her about her role at the school system, and her previous work at Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
She joined the district with 18 years of corporate experience. For the majority of her career, she has been guiding organizations in becoming more diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces.
Having worked at the corporate headquarters for Abercrombie & Fitch, Huntington National Bank and Danaher Corporation, Toya's experience working in such vastly different industries provides the dexterity required to understand and serve a school district with needs across many aspects of diversity.
In her corporate career, she served as Global Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Manager at Danaher
Corporation, where she created the foundational work for the Executive Diversity Council to establish employee resource groups and collaborated with HR teams in Europe and China to implement the company’s D&I strategy abroad.
As Vice President/Inclusion Manager at Huntington National Bank, Toya partnered with the Executive Leadership team members to develop tailored strategies to achieve their recruiting and hiring goals.
Additionally, she coached and advised HR Business Partners on D&I best practices as well as served as the subject matter expert (SME) on all D&I training content.
During her 16 year tenure at Abercrombie & Fitch, she managed relationships with minority professional and collegiate organizations, creating a more diverse candidate pool and eventual workplace. She also co-chaired the company’s executive diversity council and was credited with introducing family-friendly programs and events as well as establishing the company’s first-ever employee resource group for working parents.
At A&F, her work assignments took her to 18 countries - from facilitating store manager D&I training in Europe and Asia to establishing workplace inclusion policies in Australia.
Toya held the sole responsibility of creating and overseeing the company’s global D&I training program, impacting over 40 international stores and over 20,000 employees.
During the company’s expansion into the Middle East, she was also responsible for leading cultural training and providing direction on inclusive practices.
Upon leaving her corporate career in 2016, Toya worked with TAPO Institute and Strategic HR Advisors as a Senior Consultant and Trainer.
In 2019, Toya launched Spencer Allen Consulting Group, a small consulting firm focused on providing inclusion strategies to help organizations and schools create more diverse and inclusive workplaces.
Toya holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies from Kent State University and a master’s degree from Duquesne University in Corporate Communication.
The 2020 Porter Novelli Executive Purpose Study - Porter Novelli
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