Winter Haven hires first director of diversity and inclusion
Kathy Leigh Berkowitz
kberkowitz@theledger.com
WINTER HAVEN — Christine Samuel remembers the days when she was working full time, driving 74 miles one way to go to school for her bachelor's degree, raising three kids and taking her children with her to pick oranges in the groves on the weekends for extra money.
Now as the newly hired director of diversity and inclusion for Winter Haven, she brings more than 40 years experience in the field of human resources and serving on various committees and non-profit boards, including Girls Inc. of Winter Haven. She is currently the president of the Polk State College Alumni Board.
And she owns her own business, a life coaching and counseling service, DES Consultants, which she says will likely take a back seat to her full-time job with the city. She said she will still volunteer to mentor people in the community.
Samuel, said everyone at the city has welcomed her with open arms.
"It's like I fit," she said. "I feel that this is the right time to be here. ... The City of Winter Haven is so ready for this, they are so open. I always said what is important to me is that the city of Winter Haven will truly be the city for all its residents, for them to be able to say, 'my city, our city.' We are going to be working with the community and hopefully we'll be able to put together some mentoring programs and things like that."
Her responsibilities with the city will include making sure that all residents in Winter Haven feel like their voices are being heard in city government and helping ensure the city adopts best practices for diversity and inclusion in its strategic plan.
City Manager Mike Herr said that when he started working with Winter Haven three years ago, he recognized that there was some diversity in their leadership team.
"And I felt like we needed to do better," he said. "If we want to be the employer of choice in local government, we need to have a more diverse workforce. And that needs to start with the leadership team."
Herr noted that there are diverse neighborhoods throughout the city, and he felt like the city needed to have a better representation of all the city's residents.
Herr said Samuel will help train city employees in diversity and inclusion, as well as serve as a person to hear community concerns.
The city might also launch a Diversity and Inclusion advisory committee at some point, which would need to be approved and appointed by commissioners.
Samuel stood out from the 165 applications the city received for the position, Herr said.
"We have a person here who is well known and respected," he said.
Having different voices and people with different perspectives is important to her, she said.
"We all bring so much uniqueness to the table," she said.
Samuel said growth happens in raw and vulnerable conversations that get past surface talk.
"We really want to be one city, and that is what we are working toward," she said. "This is not like a job to me, it is like a mission."
The director of diversity position is newly created.
According to the job description, Samuel will report to the city manager and work with city employees, leadership and community stakeholders to establish "equity as a shared value and operating principle, promote diversity, foster an inclusive environment where employees and citizens feel a sense of belonging, cultivate a culture that encourages collaboration, flexibility and fairness and proactively seek to connect diverse ideas in different ways to achieve common goals resulting in a healthy and strong Winter Haven community.
Samuel, 69, holds an associate degree from Polk State College and a bachelor's in human resources from Eckerd College. She started work June 1 with a salary of $78,000 annually plus a benefit package.
"This is my dream job," she said.
Kathy Leigh Berkowitz can be reached at kberkowitz@theledger.com or at 863-802-7558. Follow her on Twitter @kberkowitzthel1.