Chanin Kelly-Rae
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Chanin Kelly-Rae (born 1970) is an American
diversity and inclusion Diversity, in a business context, is hiring and promoting employees from a variety of different backgrounds and identities. Those characteristics may include various legally protected groups, such as people of different religions or races, or ...
practitioner. She is the founder and
chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...
of Chanin Kelly-Rae Consulting, a diversity management firm. She served briefly as the global director of diversity in the
Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Amazon that provides Software as a service, on-demand cloud computing computing platform, platforms and Application programming interface, APIs to individuals, companies, and gover ...
division of
Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...
, and resigned to expose what she alleged to be "deep, systemic issues" disadvantaging underrepresented workers, especially those that are Black.


Early life and education

Kelly-Rae attended
Rufus King International High School Rufus King International High School, or Rufus King, is a public magnet high school located on the north side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, part of the Milwaukee Public Schools district. The school is ranked the 1,658th best public high school in the ...
in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...
, where she grew up with her father, Gus Kelly, who was a chef, mother and five siblings. She has a
Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...
degree in
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...
and
cultural studies Cultural studies is an academic field that explores the dynamics of contemporary culture (including the politics of popular culture) and its social and historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers investigate how cultural practices rel ...
from the
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UW–Milwaukee, UWM, or Milwaukee) is a Public university, public Urban university, urban research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropo ...
and a graduate certificate in diversity management from
Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
.


Career

Kelly-Rae started her career as a middle school and high school teacher in Milwaukee. Kelly-Rae then went on to serve as the senior director of inclusion and equity for the National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association, the diversity manager for Catholic Community Services of Western Washington, and as the statewide diversity manager for
Washington State Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is often referred to as Washington State to distinguish it from the national capital, both named after George Washington ...
. In 2019, Kelly-Rae joined Amazon as the global director of diversity of
Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Amazon that provides Software as a service, on-demand cloud computing computing platform, platforms and Application programming interface, APIs to individuals, companies, and gover ...
. In February 2021, she went public about her resignation 10 months into her career at Amazon as part of a ''
Recode ''Recode'' (stylized as recode; formerly ''Re/code'') was a technology news website that focused on the business of Silicon Valley. Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher founded it in January 2014, after they left Dow Jones and the similar website ...
'' investigation that uncovered a practice at Amazon to rate its Black employees more harshly than their white peers in performance reviews, and as a result are promoted less frequently.'''' In January 2020, she said that she was dismissed by Beth Galetti at the company's first annual diversity summit when she offered to share why access to data was imperative for diversity and inclusion work because she hadn't worked at the company for long enough. Galetti had said at the summit that the employees don't "need the data to do hejob".'''' Kelly-Rae described Amazon's culture as having a culture of fear around speaking out about workplace issues. She was the first worker to come forward on the record, and has since helped others speak out, including Charlotte Newman, who has since filed a lawsuit against Amazon alleging discrimination and sexual harassment. Kelly-Rae has also said that her resignation followed the company's philanthropic
Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a Decentralization, decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and Racial inequality in the United States, racial inequality experienced by black people, and to pro ...
response, which she said did not align with the corporate culture. Kelly-Rae also alleged that after joining, she noticed a pattern of "de-leveling" of women in which roles advertised at a certain level, at which the women applicants were qualified, would be extended offers at a lower level. She alleged she was also "de-leveled", which she said was confirmed by two
vice president A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...
and the hiring manager. She also said that she was given a tight budget that her peers told her didn't even amount to their budgets for organization swag like t-shirts and said the company under-used its
affirmative action Affirmative action (also sometimes called reservations, alternative access, positive discrimination or positive action in various countries' laws and policies) refers to a set of policies and practices within a government or organization seeking ...
hiring plan.'''' She further alleged that her time at Amazon showed the company's reluctance to "devote serious attention" to creating and maintaining a diverse workforce, and that the company's release of data hid disaggregated data to make it look like their corporate workforce was more diverse than what she witnessed. Kelly-Rae said that the 26% of Black workers Amazon shared in its diversity statistics were misleading, as the majority of Black workers at Amazon work in the warehouses and "the only Black people that hesaw
n Amazon’s Seattle headquarters N, or n, is the fourteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages, and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...
every day were either opening doors or cleaning floors." On ''
Fox News The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...
'', Kelly-Rae pointed out the issues with company responses which try to downplay employee unrest involving diversity with numbers, referring to large workforces compared to small percentages of outspoken workers. She said that companies don't recognize that the share of employees speaking out about workplace issues is representative of those affected by those issues. Amazon has said that they "work hard to make Amazon a company where our Black employees and people of all backgrounds feel included, respected, and want to grow their careers" and that they "do not tolerate discrimination or harassment in any form." They also said it is a common practice for the company to "de-level" all employees, indiscriminate of their identity. After leaving Amazon in September 2020, she founded Chanin Kelly-Rae Consulting, a diversity management firm.''''


Personal life

Kelly-Rae said she relocated to
Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
to avoid racial issues in Milwaukee. In 2004, the ''
Seattle Post-Intelligencer The ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (popularly known as the ''Seattle P-I'', the ''Post-Intelligencer'', or simply the ''P-I'') is an online newspaper and former print newspaper based in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. Th ...
'' named her "coach of the year" for boys'
tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
after her third year coaching boys tennis at Lakeside School. As of February 2019, Kelly-Rae resided in
Everett, Washington Everett (; ) is the county seat and most populous city of Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is north of Seattle and is one of the main cities in the Seattle metropolitan area, metropolitan area and the Puget Sound region. Everett ...
with her husband Richard Rae and two children.


See also

*
Ifeoma Ozoma Ifeoma Ozoma (born 1991 or 1992) is an American public policy specialist and technology industry equity advocate. After two years working on public policy at Pinterest, Ozoma resigned and spoke out about mistreatment and racial discrimination s ...
* Sophie Zhang *
Frances Haugen Frances Haugen (born 1983 or 1984) is an American product manager, data engineer, scientist, and whistleblower. She disclosed tens of thousands of Facebook's internal documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission and ''The Wall Street Jou ...
*
Chelsey Glasson Chelsey Glasson (born 1982 or 1983) is an American user researcher, author, and workers' rights advocate. She sued Google, her former employer, for pregnancy discrimination, which ended in an undisclosed settlement after two years of litigation ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly-Rae, Chanin 21st-century American businesswomen 21st-century American businesspeople 1969 births Living people 21st-century African-American businesspeople Amazon (company) people American whistleblowers Businesspeople from Wisconsin Cornell University alumni People from Milwaukee People from Everett, Washington