Wake Invest in Women program to move into county Office of DEI; staff to formalize MOU with Wake Tech

Wake County officials on Feb. 10 heard an update on Wake Invest in Women and were told the county plans to transition the initiative from Wake Tech to the county’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and to formalize roles in a memorandum of understanding with Wake Tech.

The program was launched after a 2017 task force identified a gender wage gap; Wake Invest in Women was set up as a collective-impact initiative to increase women’s representation in high-demand, high-wage fields, expand management pipelines and close occupational wage gaps, Wake Tech and county staff said.

County staff said the move to the Office of DEI is intended to sustain the initiative, align it with existing DEI programming and expand employer partnerships. Donya Perry of the Office of DEI and Wake Tech staff briefed the Wake County Board of Commissioners during a work session.

Wake Tech’s executive director, Carrie, told commissioners that Wake Tech served as the program backbone beginning in 2018 after the commission funded the initiative. “We built awareness through venues like the Women’s Leadership Conference. And we launched the Wake Invest…