ABOUT BACE


The BACE Committee for Advancement & Equity is collaborating with The Center for Accounting Transformation supporting organizational talent recruitment and retention. Join us and become our partner in the work!

This groundbreaking report uncovers strategies to attract, retain, and empower a diverse workforce in accounting. Get your FREE copy of The DEI Journey of the Accounting Profession.

DOWNLOAD HERE

BACE HBCU/PBI Working Group - Finance, Real Estate, Appraisal, and Brokerage

The Supreme Court has struck down affirmative action in higher education admissions with an exception of military academies.

The BACE Committee for Advancement & Equity transformation initiatives for inclusive and diverse talent with a focus on innovation with HBCUs and PBIs including the BACE HBCU/PBI Fall Convening with The Appraisal Institute University Relations Committee. The convening centered around pipeline and pathways along with supplier diversity for real estate, appraisal, construction and brokerage.

FINANCE, REAL ESTATE AND APPRAISAL RESEARCH AND RESOURCES
BACE Career Center (https://bacecareers.org/jobs
)
The Black Alliance of Colleges and Employers (BACE) launched a Career Center offering a unique medium to connect with highly qualified candidates across academia and industry. By posting your opportunity with us, you’ll gain access to those actively and passively in search.

Veterans Advocacy Group (https://www.facebook.com/VetAdvocacyGroup) 
For over 20 years, Veterans Advocacy Group (VAG) has collaborated with higher ed institutions and veteran-service organizations in support of military and veteran students. BACE and VAG have merged to form the BACE V-SUITE, a gender-based career and entrepreneurship center supporting military, veterans and spouses.

Breedlove Accelerator (bit.ly/AboutBreedlove)
*Breedlove Accelerator is a YWCA Metropolitan Chicago program supporting later-stage women of color entrepreneurs who are the majority owners of their businesses, have at least 2 years of experience running their business, and have annual revenues of $100,000+ that are undercapitalized.

The PhD Project (https://phdproject.org/)
*Annual Conference - 2025 Mar 20-21 (application deadline 2024 Nov 30)

Appraisal Institute
*University Relations & Scholarships (https://www.appraisalinstitute.org/insights-and-resources/resources/university-resources)
*Appraiser Diversity Initiative (https://www.appraisalinstitute.org/advocacy/appraiser-diversity-initiative)
*PAREA & January 1 2025 Scholarship Deadline (https://www.appraisalinstitute.org/the-appraisal-profession/parea)
*Become an appraiser
(https://www.appraisalinstitute.org/the-appraisal-profession/become-an-appraiser)

National Black MBA Association (https://nbmbaa.org/)
NBMBAA represents the most powerful network of individuals and partners dedicated to increasing corporate diversity, access to capital, and intellectual advancement.

BMO Barriers to Business (https://www.bmo.com/en-us/main/business-banking/specialty-lending/)
BMO is driven by a single purpose: to Boldly Grow the Good in business and life. Through BMO Zero Barriers to Business™, we’re committed to helping business owners gain better access to capital, educational resources, and partnerships.

WWBIC VBOC (https://www.wwbic.com/veterans/)
The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Veteran Business Outreach Centers (VBOC) providing business development services in Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota to men and women who are: Active duty service members, including Guard and Reserve; Veterans; Family members of the above


RELEVANT INCLUSIVE/DIVERSE RESEARCH AND ACTION

*https://www.npr.org/2023/06/29/1181138066/affirmative-action-supreme-court-decision
*https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2024/01/08/west-point-and-the-naval-academy-can-keep-affirmative-action-for-now/
*Katznelson, Ira. 2006. When Affirmative Action Was White. New York, NY: WW Norton.

BACE Values & Commitment to Black Talent

Credibility

Trusted Voices and Spaces

Equity

Equitable Opportunity

Action

Get to Work

Service

Committed to Community

Transparency

Standard of Excellence

Innovative

Industry Transformation

Mission: Equity at Work!

The Black Alliance of Colleges and Employers (BACE), originally ideated in 2008, addresses the unique needs and challenges of institutions and employers serving inclusive and diverse tale including a focus on military, veterans and spouses.

BACE V-Suite is fiscally sponsored by the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago Breedlove Accelerator with their mission of eliminating racism and economic empowerment including career services, workforce development and entrepreneurship.

BACE Research

Inter-disciplinary forum advancing racial equity through data transparency and reporting with a focus on policies, procedures and accountability.

This pillar led by the BACE Committee for Advancement & Equity provides:

• Credible research and publishing alliances
• Best practice and setting the standard of excellence in the practice and operation of inclusion and belonging in academia, corporate, non-profit and government
• Research Fellowships

BACE Campus and Careers

Inter-disciplinary forum advancing racial equity through leadership advocacy and development along with organizational transformation in support of workplace talent.

In partnership with Onyx2Rise, BACE Campus and Careers join to provide:

● Advanced level of alliance with Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Primarily Black Institutions
● Advancing work of pathways, pipelines and business opportunities to fill gaps around hiring, retention and career progression along with entrepreneurship for communities including our V-Suite supporting Military/Veterans and their families
● BACE Research Institute in collaboration with our campus alliance partners focusing on procedures, policies and organizational transformation
● Campus Scholars, Internships and Service Learning in alliance with corporate and non-profit alliance partners

BACE Impact

Learn more about what we do

Campus Research and Career Pilots

The Black Alliance of Colleges and Employers has been engaging in DEI Summits, award-winning MSHR/SHRM Chapter mentorships with colleges and universities, strategic partnerships with Wiley Diversity in Careers and The PhD Project along with corporate ESG/ERG initiatives. View a full list of our past events on the JOIN US page.

2024 Initiatives included:
*BACE Committee for Advancement & Equity industry transformation initiatives for Black talent with a focus on innovation with HBCUs and PBIs including the BACE HBCU/PBI Fall Convening with The Appraisal Institute Diversity and University Relations Committee tackling talent inequity and supplier diversity for real estate, appraisal, construction and brokerage. Our research also includes executive and talent pipeline and pathways along with entrepreneurship.
*BACE HBCU/PBI Working Group - Finance, Real Estate, Appraisal, and Brokerage
*BACE V-Suite, career and business support for military, veterans & military spouses including alliance with YWCA Metropolitan Chicago Breedlove Accelerator and SBA Reboots to Business

2023 Initiatives included:
*Launch of BACE Committee for Black Advancement & Equity at the National HBCU Business Deans Roundtable Summit at KPMG Lakehouse Orlando. The committee presented the closing panel: "HBCU Organizational Sustainability Through Alliance" at the 2023 National HBCU Business Deans Roundtable Summit and Student Conference hosted by the KPMG Lakehouse Orlando on June 9, 2023. 
Panelists:
Stephani Mason, Associate Professor, Accounting, DePaul University School of Business; 
David Canada, Director of Global Supplier Diversity, Boeing;
Capt. Patricia Crawford, Medical Service Corps Officer, U.S. Air Force Reserve;
Eve Lewis, Senior Director, Global Inclusive Talent, Uber;
Shannon Stone-Winding, President & CEO, Black Alliance of Colleges & Employers (BACE);
Tatum Thomas, PhD, Dean, DePaul University;
Moderator: Kelli Lester, Co-Founder, Onyx Rising

About the National HBCU Business Deans Roundtable Summit https://www.hbcubusinessdeans.org/

BACE Bronze Level Panel Sponsor: Uber https://www.uber.com/us/en/about/diversity/black-at-uber

*BACE Committee for Advancement & Equity launches industry transformation initiatives for talent with corporate partners

*Soft launch of BACE V-Suite, career and business support for military, veterans and spouses

In addition, BACE has supported youth engagement in North Lawndale, Chicago pre-K through 8th grade institution. This engagement has included Board support, career and entrepreneurship programming and service learning opportunities for campus partners.

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WonderWomen of Diversity

WonderWomen of Diversity has hosted dinner conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion in the academic and corporate setting with female leaders.

Outside of the intimate dinner discussions and business tours, we convened during The PhD Project Conference for a discussion on diversity with leading diversity scholars – Drs. Quinetta Roberson (formerly of Villanova University) and Tina Opie (Babson College), along with Erika Broadwater, the National President of National Association of African Americans in Human Resources, during the annual conference of The PhD Project.

We reconvened for Building the Diversity Pipeline in virtual format during The PhD Project Conference virtually in 2020 to highlight how Corporate America can engage with academia to build a talent pipeline that is diverse and inclusive. The panelists were Dr. Erika James, Dean of the Wharton School of Business; Dr. Sandra Richtermeyer, Dean of the University of Massachusetts Lowell School of Business; and Dr. Jennifer Joe, Chief Diversity Advocate, Alfred Lerner College of Business & Economics, University of Delaware. Jamal Watson, executive editor of Diverse: Issues In Higher Education, was the moderator. Read more at Wiley's Diversity in Research: https://www.diversityinresearch.careers/article/the-wonder-woman-group-diversity-discussion-building-the-talent-pipeline/?s=11

Early Spring 2021, we hosted Expanding the Diversity of Women in Policy, Politics, and Government with Hasoni Pratts, the National Director of Engagement – Pete for America; Cecilia Cabello, California State Director – Pete for America and Hillary for America; Karen Freeman-Wilson, Former Gary Mayor/Indiana Attorney General; Kira Sanbonmatsu, Professor of Political Science at Rutgers and Senior Scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics, and Kimberly Peeler-Allen, the co-founder of Higher Heights.

​ In May 2021, we convened WonderWomen of Diversity series on Cultivating Diversity in Philanthropy and Non-Profits with Dorri McWhorter, the CEO of YWCA Metropolitan Chicago, and Dr. Una Osili, Associate Dean for Research at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Una’s research focuses on diversity in philanthropy. Andrea Saez, COO, Chicago Community Trust represented the perspective of community foundation, especially as a leader from a diverse background. The panel was moderated by Cora Cervantes from MSNBC.

In December 2021, WonderWomen of Diversity reunited with The PhD Project for How Bias in Economics Hurts Us All. The economics profession includes disproportionately few women and members of historically underrepresented racial/ethnic minority groups, relative both to the overall population and to other academic disciplines. This underrepresentation is present at the undergraduate level, continues into the ranks of the academy, and has barely improved over time. It likely hampers the discipline (and allied disciplines such as finance, accounting, management, and marketing), constraining the range of issues addressed and limiting our collective ability to understand familiar issues from new and innovative perspectives (Bayer and Rouse, 2016). The WonderWomen of Diversity and The PhD Project discussed how the Economics pipeline issue impacts public policy, theories used in academic research, as well as how we can all participate in being a part of the solution. Hosted by Dr. Stephani Mason, Professor, DePaul University, School of Accountancy and MIS; Founder, WonderWomen of Diversity featuring: Dr. Lisa Cook, Professor, Department of Economics and in International Relations (James Madison College), Michigan State University Dr. Miriam Jorgensen, Research Director for the Native Nations Institute, University of Arizona and the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development Dr. Marie Mora, Provost and Associate Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives University of Missouri - St. Louis and moderated by Dr. David Porter, Executive Vice President of Strategy, People + Culture at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.


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BACE Impact

Learn more about what we do

Career and Entrepreneurship Pilots

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BACE V-Suite for Veterans and Military Families

2024 BACE V-Suite Launch
The Black Alliance of Colleges and Employers (BACE) is excited to launch a career and entrepreneurship accelerator for military and veteran families.  

*Career and workforce cohorts
*Incubator and Accelerator cohorts
*ERG Quarterly Roundtables
*Veteran Empowered with YWCA Metropolitan Chicago for women veterans and spouses
*Career and entrepreneurship support at regional VBOCs including Reboot to Business


2020-22 ACTIVITIES

Military Entrepreneurship Summit

The Black Alliance of Colleges and Employers (BACE) collaborated with Syracuse University Institute for Veterans and Military Families on their September 2022 Military Entrepreneurship Summit. BACE focused on the corporate Chicago panel with The Obama Foundation, Uber, World Business Chicago, and American Water. BACE also secured the opening remarks from Choose Chicago representing the Mayor's Office Tourism and Events.

Women Veterans Wellness Initiative expansion into career and entrepreneurship
The Black Alliance of Colleges and Employers (BACE) supported the Women Veterans Wellness Initiative as it expanded into career and entrepreneurship. This initiative included the strategic framework collaboratively with Onyx2Rise. In addition, BACE designed the Women's History Month programming for the March 2022 Women Veterans Convening that gathered higher education, industry, and community leaders to explore research, career and entrepreneurship best practice and gaps.

Opening Remarks:
Walidah Bennett, Director, Multi-Faith Veterans Initiative (MVI) at DePaul University
Anthony Cosby, Director, AmericaServes at Syracuse University Institute for Veterans and Military Families

Scholars Across the Discipline:
Willie Reddic, PhD, Associate Professor, Syracuse University Whitman School of Management and The PhD Project
Rosalinda Vasquez Maury, Director of Applied Research and Analytics, Syracuse University Institute for Veterans and Military Families
Master Sergeant Tamesha Armstead, EdD, Dissertation, Baylor University: “When You Finally See Us: A Narrative Inquiry of The Rare Sighting of Black Females in Officer Ranks and Positions in the United States Air Force”

Corporate Panelists:
Karen Freeman-Wilson
President & CEO, Chicago Urban League
Former Mayor, Gary, Indiana

Philip T. Anderson, Ph.D., CDP
Director, Leadership Institute, Argonne National Laboratory
Training and Organizational Effectiveness Advisor for the Army Readiness Group at Fort Sheridan, Illinois (Retired)

Stacey Dixon, Ed.D.
Former Director, Student Veteran Service Support, National Louis University
U.S. Marine Corps, CWO3 (Retired)

Moderated by:
Kelli Lester (McMiller)
Chief Strategy Officer, Engaging Solutions
Kelli Lester is the new Chief Strategist at Engaging Solutions, a management consulting firm headquartered in Indianapolis. She has spent nearly a decade as a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) consultant for The Kaleidoscope Group, and years working in corporate America creating the foundation for organizational success in the DEI area. Kelli has a proven record in defining vision, developing strategy and executing action plans that produce sustainable results.

Closing Remarks:
Shannon Stone-Winding
President & CEO, Black Alliance of Colleges and Employers (BACE)

The inaugural Women's History Month VetHER Convening was sponsored by the Multi-Faith Veterans Initiative (MVI) and Boeing supported by the Arthur Lockhart Resource Institute Sister to Sister Program, Christ Universal Temple “Women Veteran We Rise” with the Black Alliance of Colleges and Employers (BACE), Syracuse University Institute of Veterans and Military Families (IVMF), and the Coalition of Veterans Organizations (CVO).

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Strategic Alliance Partners

YWCA Metropolitan Chicago

BACE V-SUITE for Military, Veterans and Spouses

The Black Alliance of Colleges and Employers (BACE) is pleased to announce our fiscal partnership with
YWCA Metropolitan Chicago!


The PhD Project

Committee for Black Advancement & Equity

The Black Alliance of Colleges and Employers (BACE) is pleased to announce our strategic partnership with
The PhD Project!