First gen talent: A study on those who are first in their family to hold a professional career [current project]
In collaboration with Bernice Maldonado, I am currently conducting a diversity and inclusion study on finance and utility professionals in California. This study is the first of its kind, with a unique focus on the impact of class on one’s professional experience.
The challenge: We hypothesize that “First Generation Professionals” (FGPs) may hold unique skills that are often overlooked. Likewise, they may experience both barriers and resources throughout their career that non-FGPs may not encounter. However, very little research has been conducted on FGPs. FirstGenTalent aims to fill that knowledge gap, and provide groundbreaking research to answer the question “what is the experience of first generation professionals, and how can companies better support and utilize their unique talents?”
The methodology: A mixed-methods approach will be used, consisting of an online survey followed by a series of phone interviews.
The results: Published in Harvard Business Review, 2022. Read it here.
DEIA audit and strategy building supposrt
The challenge: While many big consulting firms offer DEIA (diveristy, equity, inclusion, accessibility) audits and strategy building support, their data collection is often designed for large corporations, and at times the values class with DEIA ethics.
The methodology: Having worked in nonprofits, small businesses, and community organizations myself, I designed research-based, customizable feedback tools that are catered towards small, community-centric organizations with aligned values.
The results: In collaboration with a number of outstanding DEIA independent consultants, we’ve worked together to provide custom DEIA surveys for numerous Seattle-area nonprofits and ethically-minded small businesses. I specialize in gathering sensitive, confidential feedback from an organization’s staff, volunteers, donors, collaborators, and other community members. Using tools like surveys, interviews, and facilitated listening sessions and focus groups, I skillfully create psychological safety to enable candid feedback. Then, using techniques to maintain participant safety and anonymity, I analyze the findings and provide clients with a comprehensive report, and custom-build recommendations for how to transform their organization to become more fair, inclusive, diverse, accessible, and safe.
I have been honored to work with local nonprofits serving various communities around the pacific northwest, and have multiple repeat clients who engage my services over several years as they grow as an organization.
Catalyze Seattle: groundbreaking research on gender in startups
Catalyze Seattle is the first study on gender in Seattle startups. I conceptualized, designed, and led this groundbreaking study, with the collaboration of Ruchika T. Malhotra, gender equity expert and author of The Diversity Advantage: Fixing Gender Inequality in the Workplace.
The challenge: Discover the “behind-the-scenes” experiences of Seattle startups, with a gender and racial equity lens, in order to unveil how to create more equitable local businesses from inception.
The methodology: Drawing from decades of previous research on gender in business and startups, we designed a survey that was completed by over 300 Seattle startup founders and employees. Data was collected using Qualtrics, and analyzed across a number of variables.
The result: The data revealed six key findings, which are publicly available at www.CatalyzeSeattle.org. Perhaps most surprising, and exciting, was the discovery of what I coined as the “Female Founder Effect.” In essence, it means that the percentage of women on the founding team is linked to diversity. Women, people of color, and parents of all genders were more likely to work at a startup that has more women on the founding team.
This project gained significant media recognition by the Huffington Post, Seattle Times, Geekwire, and more. Since the release of the data, it has been used as a resource by countless startups, changemakers, and technology companies including Microsoft.
Sisters in Action Sports Diversity and Inclusion initiative
Sisters in Action Sports (SAS) is a nonprofit that hosts action sports events focused on women and girls. I’ve recently been brought on in a volunteer capacity as Director of Diversity, Inclusion, and Operations.
The challenge: How can SAS create events that are even more inclusive, fun and welcoming to those on the gender spectrum, people of color, the LGBTQIA+ community, and those of diverse ages and abilities?
The methodology: Custom design, launch, and analysis of SAS’s first-ever participant survey, alongside DEI strategy sessions and business planning for the leadership team.
The result: Together, we’ll launch SAS’s first diversity and inclusion strategy, hand-in-hand with the implementation of a business plan with the goal of becoming sustainable. Results TBD.
Testimonials
“M. Burwell is one of the most insightful, flexible, responsive, efficient, and planful researchers and consultants I’ve had the pleasure of working in my 20 years of consulting. They are a skilled communicator and project manager, and consistently exceeds expectations with the highest-quality work.”
—Amity Lumper, Co-President, Cascadia Consulting Group, Inc.
“Excellent work! Their thoroughness in their research, organized approach to presenting the information and their ability to bring key insights to the forefront always stand out to me. Their work is excellent all around and I could not say enough about working with them. Professional, responsive and overall just very good at what they do. The thing I always appreciate about M. is their experience in this space. They are able to take a lot of information , digest it and put forth a cohesive picture that is both concise and informative.”
—Diversity, equity, inclusion consulting client
“With a world-class education, data-driven approach, and people-centric philosophy, working with M. on inclusive technology events was not only a value add for the company and projects, but has transformed me as a person and professional. I had the pleasure of working with M. for more than 6 months on inclusive technology events, and was able to experience first-hand how They layer data-driven inclusion strategy into every phase of a project.
Perhaps my favorite part of working with M. was how they kindly educated myself and the team on the reasoning behind their recommendations, sharing the statistics and research behind unconscious bias and systemic biases. This can be incredibly daunting work and forces us to not only look at our world, but ourselves. I never doubted M. was my champion, partner, and coach. This approach has the highest ROI because the benefits and strategy were not only applied to individual projects and aligned with business objectives, but allowed for all team members to grow and approach life and business in a more inclusive and welcoming way.”
—Technology events company
"Not only were the outputs very helpful and actionable, it’s clear that they have a deep understanding of how to approach and explore sensitive topics such as inclusion and diversity. They conducted the primary research in a way that brought in useful information for us, while making our members feel listened to and safe.
They also have a knack for analyzing raw data and helping to transform into valuable information that we can use to help serve our customers better and improve our business.
I would highly recommend working with M. as a small business, nonprofit, or other company working to improve their diversity bottom line - we will certainly hire them for other projects in the future."
—Lindsay Engh, Seattle Impact Hub
"They’re an outstanding researcher and showed great commitment. They continuously followed up with me to make sure that the piece is up to my expectations and without a doubt, the outcome was excellent."
—Research project: Gender quotas in European national parliaments
"Outstanding! M. is incredibly talented and they did a fantastic job with a difficult project. I'm absolutely astounded at what they were able to accomplish in such a short period of time."
—Research and writing project: Gender and entrepreneurship analysis
"M. is undoubtedly one of the most industrious and thorough teammates with whom I have had the pleasure of working. When I started at Global Peace Foundation, I was immediately awed with how much M. had accomplished through their own initiative and without guidance: from organizing an internal communications system and servers, to developing roadmaps for initiatives in nine other countries, to creating an internship program entirely from scratch, and laying the foundation for a new website. Most impressively, they had done all of this within a year and done it amazingly, highlighting another of their greatest attributes: their drive to consistently deliver high-quality outcomes.
In addition to their professional qualities, M’s personality makes her an invaluable asset to any team. They possess graceful diplomacy and innate empathy, which earned them the trust and respect of our organization’s team members around the world. Their calm demeanor, intellect, and friendliness make them a joy to work with and I cannot recommend them highly enough."
—Global Operations Director