As 2024 ends, I’m amazed by how much the Diversity Advancement Committee has grown and evolved since its founding in 2020. Over the past four years, I’ve had the privilege of watching this committee transform in remarkable ways, working continuously to foster a culture of inclusivity and belonging within CXPA and the broader customer experience community.
Progress often feels incremental—small steps that may not seem significant now. But when we take a step back, the collective achievements tell a powerful story. Our committee members dedicate time from their busy work and personal lives to contribute to a more inclusive CXPA community. Their commitment is truly inspiring and underscores how much we can achieve when we come together.
Over the years, our mission has been unwavering: to ensure a culture of inclusivity and belonging where everyone feels welcomed. Each year, we face the challenge of deciding where to focus our efforts, striving to make the best use of every committee member’s time and energy.
A Year of Observances and Celebrations
In 2024, we prioritized amplifying diverse voices and celebrating global traditions, connecting our community to the experiences that shape customer and employee journeys. These efforts not only enriched the CXPA community but also strengthened the foundation of inclusivity that supports CXPA’s mission and values.
This year, we published eight articles—a 200% increase from last year—on topics like Designing Better Customer Experiences to Serve Hispanic Communities by Eddie Lopez, CCXP and Spotlighting Breast Cancer Awareness Month: A CX and DEI Perspective by Vaishali Dialani, with additional insights from Gabe Smith, CCXP.
We also expanded our recognition of international observances. For example, our post on Passover connected this tradition to customer and employee experience. The feedback we received affirmed the importance of this work: “It connected for me personally and offered valuable guidance for organizations to respect these traditions in employee experience.”
We took significant steps to strengthen our foundation this year, including establishing an editorial pool and clear guidelines to streamline such content creation.
For the first time in our four-year history, we also presented our accomplishments, vision, and suggestions directly to the CXPA Board of Directors through two video updates. These updates fostered deeper collaboration on global DEI initiatives and allowed us to spotlight the impact of our work.
One of these updates pushed us out of our comfort zone, requiring us to produce a video under a tight timeline challenge we weren’t entirely sure we could meet. However, through teamwork and determination, we pulled it off, proving that progress doesn’t require perfection. As I like to say, delivering something at 70% is far better than delivering nothing at all.
Looking Ahead to 2025
As we prepare for the new year, I’m excited to pass the leadership torch to our 2025 Chair, Sue Duris, CCXP and 2025 Vice Chair Eddie Lopez, CCXP. The work and conversations of 2024 have laid the groundwork for exciting opportunities ahead. We’re also setting our sights on 2026 and beyond, aligning our long-term plans with CXPA’s organizational goals.
One of our most ambitious initiatives for 2025 is developing a CXEducation.com course offering actionable insights for creating more inclusive practices across the industry. The course will feature learning modules, videos, case studies (such as the Istanbul Grand Airport), companion materials, and quizzes to enhance learning. We’re thrilled to announce that this course will launch on CX Day 2025, marking a significant milestone for our committee.
This course and our ongoing initiatives represent some of the largest projects our committee has undertaken since publishing Building Diversity, Equity, and Inclusiveness into a Customer Experience Ecosystem in 2023.
In addition, we’ll continue our recognition of observances and celebrations that can help support better outcomes through customer and employee experience. To share our progress and successes, we’ll track and report engagement around our blog and social media content.
Thank you to everyone who has supported our efforts. Together, we’re creating a more inclusive CXPA community and industry. Let’s keep building, learning, and connecting.
#2024
#DiversityandInclusion