Anthony D. Brew III

Anthony D. Brew III (he/him), chief diversity officer of TrueBlue Inc., has a passion to help others achieve their full potential. “Now that I’m a father of twin girls, I don’t want my children to go through what others went through,” he says. “Everybody has a right to be heard and seen … and to be looked at in the same way.”

With parents who grew up during the Civil Rights Movement, Brew wants to leave a better world for the coming generations. From his mother, who was denied access to higher education due to her race and gender, to his father, who was denied access to opportunities due to his race and disabilities, Brew has a drive to make sure everyone is given access to opportunities and treated with respect along the way.

One of his first accomplishments after joining TrueBlue in 2021 was to significantly strengthen its DE&I council to best reflect the diverse population within the company. With an emphasis in 2022 on breaking down barriers, Brew and the council made sure all leaders had individual development plans, created and provided unconscious bias training, and launched a number of employee resource groups.

Human nature is to be around others who look and talk like you, and sometimes you have to get out of your comfort zone and go hear other people’s unique stories.

“Employee resource groups are the backbone of the DE&I program,” Brew states. “Human nature is to be around others who look and talk like you, and sometimes you have to get out of your comfort zone and go hear other people’s unique stories.

In addition to the council, Brew developed a five-year strategic plan for DE&I. He started by spending a significant amount of time with people of various levels in the company, getting to know them and their understanding of diversity. What Brew found, from the CEO down, is that everybody was “all in” on creating a more diverse culture, which makes the company’s future even more exciting.

Brew anticipates the next few years will likely include more emphasis on training and development of their workforce, in addition to creating a pipeline of diverse talent through community organizations and colleges and universities. He would also like to expand on some of the initiatives and programming that have been successful with TrueBlue staff and the clients they serve.

A visionary who is supported by company leadership from the board down, Brew truly walks the talk when it comes to advancing DE&I within TrueBlue. Brew stated that he wants “to make diversity the norm.” He is ambitious in furthering this goal and looks forward to what will be accomplished together.