Welcoming Human’s New Head of Diversity & Inclusion — Anna Tubbs
If history is any indication, when diversity and inclusion are not baked into a company’s DNA from the beginning, the chances of creating a strong foundation become harder and harder as it grows. Just as engineers at the early stages of building deal with “technical debt” (the concept that optimizing for speed in the short term may be compromising building for scale in the long term), companies today have to consider the concept of “diversity debt.” [H/T to First Round Capital’s Phil Barnes on his insightful thoughts on this concept in a recent Twenty Minute VC podcast.]
As operators and investors at Human Ventures, it is our mission and responsibility to build companies that move humanity forward. To achieve this, we bring together a wide variety of voices and viewpoints by investing in humans who live our shared values.
With this in mind, I’m thrilled to welcome Human’s new Head of Diversity & Inclusion, Anna Tubbs. Anna has been a friend to the Human family for years, and I’ve been struck by her thoughtful approach to the thorny questions surrounding diversity & inclusion. She is a writer and PhD student who is passionate about including more people in conversations surrounding race, gender, and class, and we’re thrilled to welcome her expertise to the team. She’ll be focused on informing our founder finding process and team building efforts and pushing us to put action to our belief in the importance of diversity and inclusion.
I invite you to read Anna’s introduction below and follow her Medium blog as she chronicles her journey working with Human:
A Human Approach by Anna Tubbs
I often think about the experiences in my life that have made me who I am. By “who I am,” I do not mean the titles or degrees I’ve earned, but instead the deeper components of my identity that tell my story. I think about the moments that define my beliefs, influence the way I approach problems, and those that have taught me new life skills that are even transferrable to professional settings. For many people, these occasions that form us are deeply personal and quite often we are not given the opportunity to speak about them or to share what we’ve learned. It’s like being asked what we do but not why we do it. Perhaps when you think about an experience that has made you who you are, you think about where you grew up, you may think about your family dynamics, maybe you remember something difficult you endured that pushed you to overcome an incredible obstacle. Such experiences influence our perspective and explain much more holistically how we know what we know and why we do what we do. Additionally, they speak well to our strengths and weaknesses.
For example, I graduated from Stanford University in 2014 with my bachelors degree in Anthropology, I also have a masters from the University of Cambridge in Gender Studies, and I’m currently pursuing my PhD in Sociology back at Cambridge. And while this tells you something about me, these details are rather superficial. Perhaps it helps to share that I specialize in race and gender, yet you would still be left with only a small part of the picture. I could talk about groups I’ve led, initiatives I’ve started, and my current role but again, when it comes down to it, this wouldn’t really tell you all that much about me, nor what I have to offer. While you may be likely to offer me a job just based on these credentials, I believe a deeper understanding of who I am and what experiences have made me who I am, would better inform your decision. A switch to this approach would also greatly increase our discovery of talent.
To continue with myself as an example. I am the daughter of a Ghanaian father and an American mother of Swedish and French descent. I spent my life traveling nomadically from country to country as my parents took temporary teaching positions abroad so my siblings and I could travel with them. I lived in places like Dubai, Estonia, Sweden, Mexico, and Azerbaijan, before returning to the States and living in Wyoming for four years, then attending boarding school in Indiana for two years before moving to California for undergrad and England for grad school. I believe being a Black woman of mixed descent who has witnessed different ways of living, loving, and learning around the world has made me a better anthropologist than my degree did. My personal story has made me understand gender, race, and society more than my studies have. I have gained experiences that inform my very unique perspective more as a result of my family than anything else.
Now don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that my time in school was not influential on my life and my skills, it most certainly was, but it was not where my story began and my degrees are not the things that made me who I am. They are testament to my hard work ethic, they have built my network, and they’ve opened countless doors to opportunities, but I am afraid that we’re closing the doors of opportunity to others when we assume they are what matter most. I am also not saying that my personal experiences of travel make me better than anyone else, but instead I am saying that we must consider what truly makes people who they are, what experiences prove someone’s ability to do something, and what perspective different people with different experiences bring to any team.
In my role at Human Ventures, this is the philosophy I plan to test as we attempt to build a more diverse pipeline of entrepreneurs from all over, including those with and without degrees from Stanford, those with and without fancy titles, those with different experiences that have made them who they are and have influenced their different perspectives. Human Ventures is all about new approaches to venture capital that are uniquely human, and I cannot think of a better way to honor this mission than to highlight the things that makes us the humans we are on the deepest levels, connecting with others who are also attempting to open the doors of opportunity to more people, widening all of our networks in the process, and operating from a position that allows us to discover talent even in places that we might not usually consider.
Please join me welcoming Anna Tubbs to the Human family!
Are you a founder interested in building with Human Ventures? Please email human@humanventures.co.
