Pelton Joins Executive Diversity Panel, MLK Events

President Lee Pelton shared his insights on “diversity in leadership” as a panelist at Partners HealthCare’s Martin Luther King Luncheon on Thursday, January 11, at the Sheraton Boston.

The luncheon kicked off a week of events around the city celebrating Dr. King’s legacy that Pelton will attend.

The centerpiece of the Partners luncheon, emceed by physician and WBZ-TV health reporter Dr. Mallika Marshall, was the panel, moderated by WGBH FM 89.7 host Callie Crossley, which addressed ways to increase diversity at the executive level within Boston organizations.

Joining Pelton on the panel were Yvonne Garcia, senior vice president and global head of the client solutions group and program management office at State Street Corporation and national chairwoman of the Association of Latino Professionals for America; and Bob Rivers, chairman and CEO of Eastern Bank and 2017 Bennie Wiley CEO Diversity Award honoree.

On Monday, January 15, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Pelton will attend the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Breakfast at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. The breakfast is “the nation’s longest-running and Boston’s premier event dedicated to honor the legacy of Dr. King,” according to event website. This year’s theme is “remember his words.”

And on Friday, January 19, in the Bordy Theater, Emerson will host its own diversity and inclusion forum focused on the Trump administration’s decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status for immigrants from Haiti and its effects on the Haitian community here.  

Sponsored by the School of Communication and moderated by Boston 25 reporter and alumnus Evan White ’05, the forum will feature state Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry (D-Boston), a first-generation Haitian American; Jacqueline Charles, the Miami Herald’s Haiti correspondent; and the Rev. Myrlande DesRosiers of the Everett Haitian Community Center.