Meet Sofia Voz, Head of DEIA at Goalbook
In June 2020, Goalbook’s co-founder Daniel Jhin Yoo committed to take anti-racist action as a company. As one way of honoring that commitment, we are pleased to introduce Sofia Voz as Goalbook’s first Head of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti-racism (DEIA). Based in Seattle, Washington, Sofia works with folks across the company to integrate DEIA into our business processes and company culture. In this Q&A, Sofia reflects on how Goalbook works to apply DEIA principles to care for its people and the students and educators we partner with.
1. What was your experience prior to Goalbook?
Prior to Goalbook, I worked for 12 years in education-related non-profits, first at a Seattle non-profit supporting youth in foster care, and then at City Year, in both the Seattle and national office. There, I co-founded their first Office of Equity, which provided long-term strategy, support, and resources to around 4,000 staff and AmeriCorps members across 30 cities. Over the past several years, I also worked in corporate DEIA and was part of a collective, providing DEIA consulting to non-profit, public, and private organizations.
2. Did you study DEIA in college? Did you always know that you wanted to do this kind of work, or was there a specific event that inspired you to go into this field?
If you asked me 20 years ago when I was graduating from high school if this was what I wanted to do when I grew up, I wouldn’t have had the language to name that this was the career I wanted to go into. I studied Public Administration in college and grad school. During college, I worked as a nanny for a wealthy white family whose children attended a very expensive private school. At the same time, I was tutoring and volunteering at a local Title 1 elementary school in Seattle. It was wild to see the disparity in resources, sometimes on the same day, between what was just two miles away from each other. Working in these two places reinforced to me the inequity that I always personally felt was present in our education systems, and how that inequity falls along lines of race and socioeconomic status.
I got more clarity that this was the field I wanted to go into through my work experience at City Year, where we partnered closely with school leaders and districts around supporting students in Title 1 schools. We began to realize there were ways we were replicating (rather than disrupting) oppressive structures and interactions, especially with our Black and brown students and AmeriCorps members. I tried to use the power I had to influence what we did as an organization in terms of our service model, how we trained folks, created policies and expectations on how our partners engaged with us, and what benefits we offered. We examined all the different elements that impact someone’s experience and how we could create the right sort of culture and environment in which folks who are supporting students are offering a different way of showing up — one that truly centers students.
“…an investment in education is an investment in the world we want to build.”
3. What gravitated you towards Goalbook’s mission?
After taking a job doing DEIA work at a for-profit corporation, I was eager to get back into an organization that was aligned with my values and my heart-work. My daughter starting Kindergarten was an everyday reminder of the unique role our schools and education systems play in nurturing, supporting, and socializing young people — an investment in education is an investment in the world we want to build. I have loved ones in the special education system, and working for a company that is focused on ALL students succeeding, in all of their intersections, felt right.
4. What is your role, and what are your favorite parts of it?
As the Head of DEIA, I work with folks across the company to integrate diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism into our business processes, as well as our company culture and mindsets.
My favorite part is that my team consists of everyone! Although I am a one-person department, everyone is on my team. That means I get to interact with people across the organization, and my work is varied day to day. For example, I have one on ones with team members when they want to chat about something related to DEIA, need a sounding board or a thought partner. I also coach managers on how to support their teams in their own DEIA journeys and outcomes.
I genuinely enjoy the complexity that comes with my work being rooted in our shared call to be better humans to one another, while at the same time being about how anti-oppressive systems and processes influence outcomes that have big human impacts.
5. What does DEIA work look like here at Goalbook?
DEIA has been at the center of the work Goalbook has done since being founded in 2011. That commitment has been woven into things like our people policies, as well as the whole-company priorities set each year. Our product was created because of the disproportionately negative educational outcomes that impact students in special education, students who are also more likely to be Black or brown.
Ultimately, DEIA is very connected to the Goalbook values of relationship and growth: how we treat one another (individually and systemically) and how being a part of the Goalbook community means commitment to continuing your own DEIA journey and growth in meaningful ways. As we continue to expand as a company, it is important to be focused and specific about the outcomes we want to achieve around DEIA and put the energy and resources into achieving them.
At the stage we’re now in, a lot of great groundwork has been laid. Our co-founder Daniel has embedded a lot of DEIA principles in the way we live out our values. I’ve never worked for a company whose values were so present in what I see every day. Starting with the values piece and making sure they’re alive in the company is an important part of this work.
Internally, we’re clarifying what DEIA means generally and for Goalbook in terms of our hiring, work force, where we come from, and how each individual (not just the majority) is experiencing the company. So over this next year, we’re setting some goals that are in very close collaboration with our newly hired Head of People. Because patterns of behavior get introduced into a system and then get replicated, we start with ourselves and really focus on what we’re doing internally as a company. The hope is those patterns of behavior then are replicated externally to our work with our partners and the ways they impact students.
Externally, this means we think about our product Goalbook Toolkit and how it adds value to the special education space, especially in a way that is anti-racist and in which students of color see themselves. It’s also about how we support our partners in the implementation of Goalbook Toolkit.
“DEIA is also systems and organization work.”
6. What is a common misconception about DEIA work?
A common misconception is that DEIA work is only about treating people better and having a high level of empathy. But DEIA is also systems and organization work. There are elements of DEIA in every part of the business: how our revenues come to us, to who makes decisions and how they are made, to the professional development we do, to the content we produce, to the onboarding of people when they get here. It’s connecting DEIA to every part because the system is what’s left when we all leave. DEIA is not just about treating each other better, although that’s a part of it.
7. Outside of your role, what are one or two things you love here?
There is a lot of intentionality put into our values and culture, which starts at the top with our co-founders and continues throughout all aspects of the organization. I’ve worked in places where the values seem like just a list on a piece of paper, but at Goalbook they truly do drive the decisions we make and what we prioritize.
I also appreciate the inclusive benefits — from flexible time off to parental leave, to GUBI. They are a tangible example of the ways our commitment to DEIA shows up tactically for our people. As a single co-parent, being able to pick up my daughter from school or respond in emergencies is critical to my family’s well-being.
8. How do you work and communicate with your manager?
Daniel carried a lot of the DEIA and culture work prior to me joining, so working closely with him has been critical in ensuring a smooth transition and the work progressing. Daniel is unlike any other manager I have had or CEO I have met: he is incredibly thoughtful and intentional in the ways he leads. We have a relationship that is one of thought partners and that means we sometimes have different perspectives and ideas. I appreciate that we can push one another, while at the same time living what it means to value diverse and divergent thinking.
9. What have you learned in your role so far?
Goalbook has disrupted my assumptions about and experiences with “corporate” workplaces. With the majority of our staff being former educators, people here are driven by the mission. It doesn’t mean we aren’t inherently connected to capitalism, but my time here so far has pushed me to consider how we can operate within this system, while centering humans and outcomes that authentically, positively impact students. This is a new way of learning to balance things. A lot of it is rooted in the “how” we do our work, and I have learned a ton about the intentionality of that balance from Daniel. It’s easier to do this when I work for a company whose mission I believe in.
“…work towards equity and justice is done in community with others.”
10. What are some areas you’d like to continue growing professionally?
As the world evolves and we are continually deconstructing harmful ideas, while offering new narratives, being a DEIA practitioner means I have a commitment to learning and growing. I really love the network of professionals I get to interact with, where we get to grapple with and make meaning of these ideas together; work towards equity and justice is done in community with others. It also means continuing to be rooted in my core values around this work.
11. What personal goals have you set outside of work?
I’m committed to consistent learning, reflection, and growth as a DEIA practitioner and as a human. Most of my personal goals revolve around maintaining my balance as a whole, healthy being. For me that looks like balancing time to move and nourish my body with space to myself to recharge, and time for pure adventure. It’s also time to celebrate my loved ones’ big and small moments. And I have an ongoing commitment to the practice of staying present and embracing change.
12. What are some of your favorite spots in Seattle?
I am a huge baked goods fan, and my friends know me as the person who can recommend the best spots for cake, donuts, or pastries. I tend to stay in my neighborhood in South Seattle, so Deep Sea Sugar, King Donuts, and Temple Pastries are just a few spots I’d recommend. Seattle is also filled with great parks and open spaces. A walk around Seward Park or a couple hours at Jefferson Park with my daughter are also favorites.
13. What’s your favorite memory during your time at Goalbook?
In-person Celebration Weeks are great to build relationships and a sense of community. During our Summer Celebration, we had an end of week team dinner, when everyone in the company (including some family members and loved ones!) shared a meal together. Getting to share stories over food is one of my favorite forms of connection, and it was powerful to experience our full community all together — there was a lot of joy!
14. Which team activity has been your favorite?
I really enjoy and appreciate the optional Coffee Chats we have an opportunity to participate in weekly. We get assigned to a random group of people and chat about interesting and sometimes out there questions. Last week we were digging through our closets to tell a story about an item that we just can’t get rid of. You never know where the conversations will lead, and I love that we get to spend our work hours doing pure relationship building, with some company-funded coffee.
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