The Obama Foundation’s Marquis Miller on creating pathways for empowerment

Ad Age is marking Black History Month 2023 with our third-annual Honoring Creative Excellence package. (Read the introduction here.) Today, our guest editor JinJa Birkenbeuel turns the spotlight to Marquis Miller, VP of diversity, equity and inclusion at the Obama Foundation.

Here, Miller shares his thoughts on aiming for a better approach to advancing minority economic development.

I am fortunate to have experienced many pivotal moments in my career that placed me on a critical path toward true, authentic diversity, equity and inclusion. A move to Chicago as UNCF vice president of the Midwest region transitioned me into a new opportunity for change.

Working closely with students, their families and minority business owners at the Urban League and Chicago State shed light on strategic sourcing, recruiting and community development. My work at SBLI created a vision for me to design and implement diversity and inclusion systems within organizations and institutions. 

I took everything I had learned and applied it to expanding outreach to minority and women-owned businesses and developed an inclusiveness and diversity framework model emphasizing enhanced opportunities for community advancement. The Great Recession of 2008 was the sign I needed to change my path and realize the vision of creating self-determination for underrepresented communities.

My pivotal moment was the resistance to change the 40-year old National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) model of linking minority business enterprises (MBEs) with corporations and governments. Though corporate members stated in surveys and focus groups that they wanted more minority business owners—including the intersectionality of women—in their supply chains, driving extraordinary economic impact for communities from Seattle to San Juan, the resistance remained. That moment—the realization that the orthodoxy surrounding MBEs and other diverse suppliers would not or could not be changed—transformed me. My loss of faith in the system took on a better, fresher approach to advancing minority economic development.

Many corporations publicly promised to hire and contract with more Black people and businesses and communities; I knew the processes to certify, validate and track MBE participation would not deliver on any of the promises or commitments made. Those corporations with world-class programs circumvented those processes while creating and establishing their diverse, equitable and inclusive vendor base. This difficult work to show value and impact to organizations across the country continues today.

My next role refined my vision of creating economic impact for Black and brown communities with a replicable model for others to adopt. The creation of the City of Chicago chief diversity officer position was a sigh of relief and an exclamation of “finally!” from the communities and business owners that struggled for attention, validation, relevance and wealth creation in the most racially segregated and deeply political city in the United States.

While I led and created extraordinary conversations centered on race, business and wealth creation, I understood that any commitment to change must be authentic and hold promise for true transformation.

My equity work now places me in my most impactful role to date, leading DEI for the foundation named for the 44th president of the United States.

Creating pathways for economic empowerment for historically disenfranchised and underestimated communities means we must consistently show up and speak up for each other, collaborate and reflect the change we want to see in the world.

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