Fighting Systemic Racism with Dr. Selena Cozart
Martin Horn is excited to announce that Selena Cozart, Ph.D. will be guiding the team as a diversity consultant.
Dr. Cozart is a Philadelphia native and has called Charlottesville home since completing three degrees at the University of Virginia. These include, a Bachelor of Arts, Master of Teaching, and a Ph.D. in Educational Evaluation. She has been working as a diversity consultant for eighteen years, focusing on group facilitation, program evaluation, and coaching.
Our mission at Martin Horn is “to build value and earn trust by doing the right thing.” After the murder of George Floyd in May, 2020, which acted as a catalyst for the following Black Lives Matter protests worldwide, the owners of Martin Horn made two promises to employees in an effort to strive to do the right thing.
The first promise was to provide Black employees with a safe space, away from management, where they can talk freely about their experiences working for Martin Horn and in Charlottesville. The second promise was to provide diversity training to all Martin Horn employees, since ignoring the problem of systematic racism and shrugging shoulders isn’t going to help fix anything.
That is where Dr. Cozart comes in. Impressed by her strong resume and experience working with other businesses, Martin Horn management decided she would be a perfect resource. She first met with Black Martin Horn employees, giving them a space to speak. Dr. Cozart has already facilitated diversity training programs with Martin Horn employees and more are planned for 2021. Martin Horn hopes to raise awareness of systematic racism, its root causes, and how it affects everyone in our personal and professional lives.
“I believe systemic racism in America is an ongoing problem. At Martin Horn we are trying to proactively combat systematic racism. One way we are doing that is to provide diversity training to all our employees. Dr. Cozart has been a huge help in providing that training.” – Jack Horn, President