Greetings ULI Washington Members!

I hope you are all staying healthy and safe during this challenging time. I want to take this opportunity to share some of the steps we’ve taken over the last year to fulfill ULI’s mission to shape the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide. We recognize that we need leadership, membership, and programming that is more representative of and responsive to the needs of the communities we serve. We also need to address the role that our industry and land use policies and practices have played in creating and perpetuating racial disparities in every facet of daily life.

To this end, ULI Washington embraced diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) as a core value in 2020 and committed to advancing DE&I within our organization and the industry at large, adding DE&I as a pillar of our Strategic Plan. Some highlights of our efforts last year include:

– Listening & Outreach: In January 2020, ULI Washington convened more than 50 diverse real estate leaders for a facilitated discussion about the state of diversity and inclusion in the industry and how ULI Washington can use its resources and network to advance DE&I.

– Organizing for Action: One outcome of this meeting was the creation of a DE&I Steering Committee under the leadership of Adam Weers of Trammell Crow and Dawnita Wilson of JBG Smith. Read the goals and recommendations of the Committee’s three subcommittees — Education and Awareness, Engaging & Connecting Diverse Talent and Strengthening Diverse Communities – in their Action Plan here.

– Programming and Training: ULI Washington hosted eight DE&I programs featuring Brookings Institution’s Dr. Andre Banks and Color of Law author Richard Rothstein and others, and a two-part training for ULI Washington leaders and co-chairs — Developing an Equity Mindset  — with Dr. Kira Banks.  Find recordings and materials here.

– Membership Diversity:  Until FY20, ULI did not collect data on members’ race or ethnicity, making it difficult to measure our diversity or the impact of our inclusion efforts. ULI Washington launched a campaign last year to encourage all members to provide race and ethnicity information. Help us by updating your profile here.

– Pathways to Inclusion:  ULI Washington launched Pathways to Inclusion in 2019 to expand the diversity of our membership and the professional networks of real estate professionals from under-represented groups. Since then, the program has provided complimentary ULI membership, event registration, and enrollment in ULI’s mentorship or NEXT program as well as monthly programming and networking opportunities to 91 professionals of color.

– UrbanPlan: UrbanPlan is a simulation exercise used to introduce participants to the urban development process and careers in real estate and land use. ULI Washington is expanding UrbanPlan to reach more diverse audiences and further diversify our volunteers and instructors. Contact ULI Washington UrbanPlan Director Margit Nahra to learn more.

– Impact Partners: New this year, the Impact Partnership Program allows our annual Corporate Partners to engage with and support our DE&I initiatives, the Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) and UrbanPlan.  Thank you to our 2021 Impact Partners featured below.

Looking for ways to engage? Email [email protected] to join a DE&I Subcommittee or register to attend our next quarterly DE&I Steering Committee meeting on March 12 at 2:00 PM, which is open to the public, to get the latest update and learn how you can engage.

I want to thank our members for embracing this work, especially those that have led and supported the  DE&I Steering Committee. I look forward to what we can accomplish together in 2021

Sincerely,

Jamie Weinbaum
Mid City
ULI Washington Chair