DiversityInc - January/February 2009

Leadership Profiles

DR. JOSEPH M. GUZMAN: A PASSION FOR POLICY

At first, it wouldn’t make a lot of sense that a first deputy assistant secretary working in the U.S. Navy’s Office of Financial Management & Comptroller would be a champion of promoting diversity. After all, comptrollers deal with planning and budgeting.

But Dr. Joseph M. Guzman views diversity as everyone’s responsibility.

“My belief is that diversity is a requirement for every organization,” Guzman says. It’s a belief that has followed him to the Navy from earlier stints in the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army, although in different capacities.

Guzman, who earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Arizona, grew up in Tucson, a town richly steeped in Latino culture.

But a keen interest in public policy led Guzman to pursue advanced degrees in statistics, economic analysis and policy, and a career that put him squarely in the fight for diversity in government ranks.

“I was always aware in the professional setting that the numbers of minorities were not high. It was hard not to be aware of that,” he says.

Guzman later joined the civilian ranks of the Air Force and the Army, where he embraced the idea of codifying diversity practices—a concept that had never before been achieved.

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DR. JOSEPH M.
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U.S. Navy

Guzman has brought his passion for diversity along with each of his title changes, right up to his current position as deputy assistant secretary of the Navy. Although, he points out, the Navy has its own long-term plan for diversifying its ranks of admirals.

“The Navy has been upfront in pushing diversity 10, 20, 30 years from now,” Guzman says. “It is doing things we should all be proud of.”

MICHEL MARTIN: BRINGING A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

MICHEL MARTIN National Public Radio

Michel Martin enjoys multiple roles as journalist, broadcaster, mother, Black woman and voice of a generation. Each role brings its own perspective, and as the host of NPR’s “Tell Me More,” Martin is able to incorporate each of those perspectives into a unique point of view for her listeners.

“We are just basically trying to let people know that there are all kinds of people out here, doing all kinds of things, thinking all kinds of interesting thoughts,” says Martin. “And they don’t necessarily look the way you think they do.”

“Tell Me More” tackles issues ranging from independence in Kosovo to segregation in the classroom. It has also featured DiversityInc’s “Things Not to Say” series with DiversityInc Partner and Cofounder Luke Visconti. Martin says the show aims to give a voice to subjects

that otherwise might not be covered.

Martin has always strived to tell the “untold story,” even in her earlier careers at The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, where she covered politics. She also served as a correspondent on “Nightline.”

“When I first got into network television, it was an expanding business—the era of newsmagazines. Now it’s contracting again,” she says, adding that public radio is different. “NPR has been an expanding universe over the last 10 years.”

NPR allows Martin to incorporate her other identities as a Black woman and a mother into her job as a journalist and broadcaster through her “Mocha Moms” segment and as the female contributor to the “Barbershop” all-men commentary on “Tell Me More.”

“I felt like my show was a very female space,” Martin says. “And having it be a female place, I was missing the guys’ perspective. I think it’s a great balance with ‘Mocha Moms’ and ‘Barbershop’ [both being part of ‘ Tell Me More’].”