PBN 2022 Diversity Equity & Inclusion Awards
Diversity Champion: Kevin Matta
Diversity & Inclusion Professionals Inc. Board President
Amos House Chief Human Resource And Diversity Officer
KEVIN MATTA’S PASSION for justice and inclusion was forged when he was a child and experienced his parents’ inequities as they navigated the Rhode Island health care system.
As the youngest in a Guatemalan immigrant family, and the only one born in the U.S., Matta, along with his sister, had to interpret for his mom at doctor’s appointments.
“She has chronic health conditions and didn’t speak English,” Matta said. “My sister and I shared the burden of having to tell our mother about diagnoses that weren’t always positive.”
It was a responsibility that translated into Matta’s lifelong commitment.
“I saw my parents struggle when they came here,” he said. “Living with the kind of unease that comes with instability led me to this line of work. I want to change the systems that are in place.”
After four years as the board vice president of Diversity & Inclusion Professionals Inc. in Providence, Matta recently assumed the president’s role when Ralph Tavares Jr. – the Roger Williams University School of Law director of diversity and outreach and 2021 PBN Diversity Champion – stepped down. The networking and professional development nonprofit offers events and training for human resources and diversity officers across the state. Many of these professionals don’t have the chance to share experiences and simply let their hair down, and DAIP creates a community of advice and a safe space.
“DAIP is near and dear to my heart, but it was time for new blood,” Tavares said. “Kevin’s at the intersection of so many conversations about diversity, he’s everywhere. It’s far overdue that he’s being recognized.”
Running an organization such as DAIP takes insight and persistence, another reason Matta was a natural fit as its new president.
“We had a retreat to think about the organization’s future,” Tavares said. “I’m very process-driven. I think of what we can realistically do. Kevin gets people to do moonshot thinking. That creates excitement and momentum.”
After time in the banking world, Matta shifted gears and moved to Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island and worked on diversity issues. His childhood experience led him to look at how Blue Cross was handling those issues.
“They did a great job at closing the gaps of competent care,” Matta said.
Then in September, he became the chief human resource and diversity officer at Amos House, a Providence social service agency for the homeless. Matta says his new role goes hand in hand with his work at DAIP, if not always in predictable ways.
Tavares agrees.
“Recently we were catching up about his new job. He told me about someone who had been incarcerated and was getting back on his feet,” Tavares said. “This guy has a new apartment and Kevin’s giving him his furniture. I said, ‘You’re giving it away?’ and he said “ ‘yeah’ like it was nothing. There are givers and takers and he’s a giver.”
Steering an organization that is on the leading edge of social change also requires deftness. Matta and Tavares point to current U.S. Supreme Court decisions and the challenge of training DAIP members to respond. What does the overturning of Roe v. Wade mean for gender equity in nonprofits and for-profits? How does the potential rollback of LGBTQ rights affect organizations?
“What can we do to prepare for this critical work?” Tavares said.
As DAIP board president, Matta will tackle even more timely problems.
“We have to react to what’s happening in the real world and what it means to people,” he said. “If a shooting takes place targeting a specific type of person, we train supervisors ‘here’s how to respond to your employees’ concerns.’ ”
The pendulum also appears poised to swing back in other workplace issues since the protests over inequity and police brutality in 2020.
“A lot of organizations said they’d make changes,” Matta said. “We still see gender and pay disparities, people of color not rising to leadership levels. People need skills. Organizations tell employees ‘stand up for yourself,’ but they haven’t felt safe doing that. This new position is a remarkable opportunity I’ve been given.”
