As part of an interracial marriage with three biracial children, triracial grandchildren, and neurodiversity and other forms of invisible diversity in her family, Consciously Unbiased CEO Anita Scott has a personal passion for diversity and inclusion. Scott says she was exposed to a wide range of different types of diversity throughout her formative years growing up in California. “I realized fairly young that people were just people,” she recalls. “As a result, we all deserve respect and opportunities.”

This experience became particularly valuable when Scott joined eBay in 2011 as the senior manager for contingent workers. There, she noticed that while contingent workers made up a significant number of eBay’s workforce, in the name of mitigating risk they were consistently excluded from company events, coffee talks and the like. “I saw firsthand how exclusionary practices negatively impacted morale, productivity and our brand at the same time,” she says. “I had to do something to change that.”

The inclusion of contingent workers at eBay created a springboard for Scott by providing her with opportunities to change policies and increase visibility of various DE&I issues — visibility that has allowed Scott the opportunity to speak on DE&I at various companies, such as Adobe and LinkedIn.

"I’m not courageous. ‘Courageous’ suggests that you bring forth something that should be hidden. I’m just sharing my life; it’s just who I am."

It was a natural move for Scott to continue her DE&I mission by joining Consciously Unbiased in 2020, enabling her to work with companies directly to create personalized DE&I training that fits their unique needs. Consciously Unbiased training programs always begin by creating psychological safety, and include connecting the hearts and minds of employees and providing realistic actions on how trainees can impact their company culture for increased DE&I. Anita has helped scale inclusion into the contingent workforce space for Fortune 1000 clients at Consciously Unbiased through their training, launching several diverse MSP programs and, most recently, assisting in the launch of the first truly diverse global payroll program called CUPayroll. Scott became the company’s CEO in January.

When asked about how DE&I has impacted her own life, Scott shares, “After a speaking engagement, people will typically come up to me and tell me how courageous my story is. But I’m not courageous. ‘Courageous’ insinuates that you bring forth something that should be hidden. I’m just sharing my life; it’s just who I am.”

2023 DE&I Influencers List