Donnica first became involved in ERGs before she went to Philip Morris International (PMI) and wanted to continue that passion in her new role. “I was a part of creating a diversity council at a previous organization,” Donnica says. “When I came to PMI three and a half years ago, I knew I wanted to be a part of an employee resource group within my new company. When I arrived, I made it a part of my personal and professional mission to work on supporting the creation of employee resource groups within PMI.”
Donnica helped set up Mosaic, the US Chapter of PMI’s Global ERG EMBRACE on Race & Ethnicity. She says it all started with conversations with People & Culture, colleagues, and leadership, but at the end of day, perseverance was the key to success. “After the murder of George Floyd, we had conversations on how we should respond and part of that answer was the creation of the global ERG on race and ethnicity,” she says. “That’s what really launched it and gave it momentum.”
Running an ERG is a lot of work, but it has absolutely been worth it. “I love getting to meet different employees from all over the world and from different departments that I otherwise probably wouldn’t be able to talk to because the nature of our roles don’t intersect,” Donnica says. “Mosaic is so active that we also have a number of folks outside the US plug into our programming. We have folks from the UK, Brazil, Canada and Switzerland, who plug in and are a part of the different offerings that we have. It’s been pretty unbelievable and also really impactful. I truly enjoy being able to do that for my colleagues.”
She adds, “This is a community and space within PMI that folks can come and truly be themselves on behalf of the communities they represent, or the communities they want to advocate for. I think that’s really powerful, not just for our current members, but even for employees outside of Mosaic. It helps with mental health and [provides comfort] for colleagues to know this platform exists internally.”
