Stay ‘relevant, supportive, in fight,’ Merck’s Warren tells Women of Color conference

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Celeste Warren reflects back on an uncomfortable conversation she had many years ago with her high school guidance counselor. The woman suggested she pursue a career as an administrative assistant. It was steady work, the counselor said, and it would pay the bills.

Speaking to a full audience at Color Magazine’s Women of Color Leadership & Empowerment Conference Monday at Merck & Co. Inc.’s Kenilworth facility, Warren said she never even considered that advice.

Today, she is the vice president of Human Resources and Global Diversity and Inclusion Center of Excellence at Merck. For 21 years, she has been a powerful leader, taking her rightful seat at the table of one the world’s pharmaceutical giants.

The topic of diversity and inclusion is critically important to Warren and, she said, the challenges faced today are not going to be corrected overnight. The problem took a long time to create itself and the solution requires an all-hands-on-deck-approach to fixing it.

Warren began her presentation by recalling 2001. It was a tumultuous year for the world and especially for women of color in the corporate workplace and public sector, she said. Back then, women of color represented 10 percent of working professionals and only 6 percent of managers. There were no women of color in the U.S. Senate and only 12 in the House of Representatives, she said. And in the nation’s top 100 cities, just two were mayors and none governors.

Seventeen years later, things are a bit different — but there is far to go, Warren said, noting “9.8 percent of all midlevel officials and managers are women of color in today’s corporate workforce. Only five percent of executive-level positions are held by women of color.”

The bottom line, she told the mostly female audience, is that it’s up to women of color to do the work necessary to ensure they are heard. Moreover, it is their responsibility to make sure young girls have the opportunities they need to succeed.

“As a woman of color, I know there are issues, challenges, obstacles and barriers that women of color are experiencing in the U.S. It is simply more of a challenge for us than it is for white women,” Warren said. “We must come together and discuss what we can do to overcome the obstacles. We must think about our advancement as women both professionally and personally.”

But how, she asked. “How can we, as women of color, step up and help to create meaningful changes in the world regarding diversity and inclusion?”

Warren offered three answers to her own question that were met with cheers, applause and acknowledgement from the packed crowd:

• Stay relevant. “Learn the trends. Know what’s ahead for you professionally and do everything you can to get ahead of the curve,” Warren said. The speaker suggested attending conferences and training sessions, “And, if your manager says `no,’ don’t get angry. Pay for it yourself. It’s up to you to invest in yourself if no one else will.”

• Stay supportive. Warren challenged the crowd to consider situations in their past when they felt marginalized or ignored. “Have you ever heard a man make a suggestion 10 minutes after a women made the exact same comment? It’s up to you to call attention to that kind of behavior. Be subtle, but do it. Support other women who deserve to be heard,” Warren said.

• Stay in the fight. Everyone gets frustrated and it’s too easy to want to walk away and quit. “We are going to get ours,” she promised. “Pay it forward, stay in the fight — for all of us. Don’t give up. Because young girls need us to prepare them. Today’s young women are going to light a fire on this world but they need us to show them the way.”

Color Magazine is a publication of BridgeTower Media, parent company of NJBIZ.