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Consultants recommend transforming EDI coordinator role into change‑management stewardship
Summary
UPD Consulting recommended that Benton County reframe its EDI coordinator role as a facilitator of distributed stewardship across departments and focus initial work on organizational alignment and leadership engagement, with a one‑year phased roadmap.
UPD Consulting presented findings from a short engagement re-evaluating Benton County’s equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) coordinator role and recommended a shift from a siloed coordinator model to a distributed stewardship approach tied to departmental performance goals.
Sherry Chen Jackson (UPD) said interviews with about 10–12 county leaders revealed that EDI work succeeds when aligned with each department’s core performance priorities. UPD suggested the coordinator act as a facilitator and change manager rather than the sole owner of EDI, with an executive sponsor to provide authority and protect the role from isolation and turnover. The consultants proposed a phased one-year roadmap: foundation work and steward design in quarter 1, leadership learning and practice in quarters 2–3, and pilot performance-management routines in quarters 3–4 to surface equity issues through data-driven improvement conversations.
Commissioners voiced support for pilots, attention to staff retention and pragmatic tools for leaders who are not EDI experts. UPD noted high turnover in comparable EDI roles nationally and recommended building shared leadership and measurable performance routines as initial steps.
The county agreed to use the consultant materials for internal planning and to share resources with the equity committee.
