US States News, December 19, 2006, Tuesday

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US States News

December 19, 2006 Tuesday 10:40 PM EST

HEADLINE: PORTLAND DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION HIRES NEW DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY RELATIONS & BUSINESS EQUITY

BYLINE: US States News

DATELINE: PORTLAND, Ore.

BODY:
The office of the Portland Mayor issued the following news release:
The Portland Development Commission (PDC) has appointed Lolita B. Burnette of Portland as the new Director of Business and Community Relations. Ms. Burnette will be responsible for implementing and directing strategies and programs to ensure PDC supports community values, goals, equity and diversity. She will be the primary representative between PDC and community groups, helping to cultivate positive relationships with these stakeholders.
Ms. Burnette will also direct PDC's public participation and community outreach efforts.

She will have responsibility for PDC's minority-owned, women- owned and emerging small business (M/W/ESB) and construction workforce diversity initiatives. She starts her new job on Monday, January 15, 2006 and will report directly to Bruce Warner, PDC Executive Director.
"We heard directly from the community and our own staff that community relations and diversity needed to be represented at this highest levels of the agency-and we have responded," said Bruce Warner. "I am very excited to have Lolita joining the PDC team. She is the right person to build upon our outreach efforts as well as manage our important contract compliance and workforce hiring program," Warner added.

Ms. Burnett is a program manager at Providence Health Systems, where she assists the Office of Diversity with workforce diversity, community partnering and cross cultural care giving. She led the marketing and communications efforts for the Providence internal diversity website and the branding of all diversity products and developed the first diversity marketing and communications plan. She also developed the diversity/cultural competence education program for Providence in Oregon and managed the training of over 3,000 employees.

She served as a consultant specializing in leadership and executive coaching, strategic change initiatives including diversity/cultural competence, public involvement and the design and delivery of related educational programs.

Ms. Burnette has been a small business owner and external consultant helping engineering firms increase their M/W/ESB capacity. She also conducted organization and team assessments and facilitated planning discussions leading to organizational change for clients such as the City of Portland, Clackamas County, Washington County, City of Eugene, and King County in Washington. She has also served as Director of Public and employee Relations at the City of Gresham and spent 20 years in a series of leadership positions at US West Communications, AT&T Communications, Pacific Bell and Pacific Northwest Bell.

Ms. Burnette has a BA in Behavioral Psychology from Reed College in Portland, Oregon. She is a lifetime member of the Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs and has memberships in the Northwest Diversity Leadership Forum and American Society for Training and Development. She is a member and past Diversity Director for the Society for Human Resources Professionals. She holds a certificate in Equal Employment Opportunities Studies from Cornell University.

PDC was created by Portland voters in 1958 to serve as the city's urban renewal agency as laid out in Chapter 15 of the City's Charter. PDC provides comprehensive housing, development and economic development programs within the Portland region.