BURLINGTON — Kimberly Carson will be Burlington’s next director of racial equity, inclusion and belonging, pending the City Council’s approval on Nov. 7.
Mayor Miro Weinberger announced Carson’s appointment on the steps of City Hall Thursday, almost eight months after Tyeastia Green, the first person to hold the position, resigned.
Carson, 48, who edged out four other finalists, said she expects to move to Burlington in December.
“I’m at the point in my career where I can really choose where I want to be and what I want to do and I chose Burlington. And so I’m moving me and my family here,” she said at the press conference, noting she hopes to stay long-term.
The office, created in 2019, grew from one employee to 15 under Green’s leadership but has since dropped to just five. City leaders said Thursday two new hires will soon join the team, and they hope to see Carson further rebuild the office.
Carson has served in various positions at the Iowa Judicial Branch and was most recently the director of education and human capital development. That means she led judicial education and professional development for nearly 2,000 employees and helped lead diversity and equity initiatives across the agency, according to Weinberger.
As a Black woman moving to a state that is the second whitest in the nation but has a growing community of Vermonters who are Black, Indigenous or people of color, Carson said, “What they feel is what I’m going to feel.” Her son will attend middle school in the city and her daughter hopes to attend University of Vermont next fall.
“I have a 10-year-old son coming here to live. I have an 18-year-old daughter coming here to live and work,” she said. “So if it’s not fair for them and it’s not fair for you, it’s not fair for all of us. And so I’m really committed not just to see what happens for everybody else, I feel like I want to be one with the community and so I’m just excited for that.”
According to her resume, Carson has experience planning and implementing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. She calls herself “a transformative behavioral strategist with over 20 years experience leading and developing employee efficiency, skills, and contribution to organizational culture.”
Everyone she has met has been welcoming and this is “a community that I feel like is very prime and open for this work,” she said.
Weinberger said Carson “brings extensive experience to the role,” including in training, social justice, advocacy and “organizational cultural change.”
She holds a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from Louisiana State University, and is pursuing a Master’s in organizational leadership and learning from George Washington University.
She will draw a salary of $118,000, city officials said.
Carson also competed in the 1996 U.S. Olympic trials as a track hurdler and was a track and field coach at DePaul and Drake universities.
“In my early conversations with Kim she made it clear that that background as well as her professional work in the judiciary had made her a professional that greatly values teamwork,” Weinberger said, citing Carson’s athletic career.
Phet Keomanyvanh, Burlington’s acting director of the racial equity, inclusion and belonging office since March, said she and her colleagues are excited to work with someone with Carson’s experience and collaborative vision.
Patrick Brown, director of the Greater Burlington Multicultural Resource Center, who was on the search committee, said he liked that Carson is “very strong, very dynamic, very energetic and not a pushover.” The role requires a person like that, he said, adding that the position also needs support from city leaders.
Activists and some city councilors blamed the mayor for failing to provide that support when Green, a Black woman, left in February for a similar job in Minneapolis after serving two years in the role. The office, created in 2019, grew under Green’s leadership from a staff of one to 15 full-time employees.
“I tried hard to avoid that outcome but she is no longer with us. The commitment remains,” Weinberger said, adding that Green had “a very impactful tenure here.”
The mayor said he expects Carson to continue the “substantial progress” made in creating a workplace that is culturally competent and committed to racial equity and belonging, the city’s equitable response to the Covid-19 pandemic and economic recovery, as well as addressing housing challenges. “I’m eager to bring forward a Black homeownership initiative that builds on some of the recent policy work at the state level,” he said.
This year’s budget allocated nearly $2 million to racial equity and inclusion, Weinberger said, “so we’re as committed and well resourced for this work as ever — and I’m excited that we found the right leader to take the work forward from here.”