Hattie Hill was working in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion, also known as DEI, long before it became as well known and recognized as it is today.
“I was one of the early pioneers,” she says. “Originally it started [from the] ground up with employees who had an interest in this area. But over the years, after 20-plus years of doing this work, we realized we had to have a top-down focus, from the board of the company, from the [chief executive officer] and the senior leaders, for the work to really be lasting and have a bottom-line impact.”
Now Hill — who has made a name for herself as an international business consultant and entrepreneur working for DEI and gender equity — is being inducted Saturday into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame.
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Once a farm girl, born and reared in east Arkansas, Hill is the founder and chief executive officer of Hattie Hill Enterprises, serving as a strategy growth and development consultant for such heavy-hitter corporations as IBM, McDonald’s and Southwest Airlines and wielding her influence across more than 70 countries. She’s also president and CEO of the T.D. Jakes Foundation, named for one of the country’s most prominent pastors and faith-based influencers.
With more than three decades of experience in diversity and inclusion strategy, board governance, profit and loss management, and risk mitigation for multinational industries, Hill is also an author and speaker who has shared her wisdom on “Oprah,” in USA Today and in The Wall Street Journal. Her awards and honors include being named to Forbes’ Top Texas Women in Business, selected as EY’s Inclusiveness Champion of the Year and featured on National Restaurant News’ 2018 Power List, as well as receiving Dallas Business Journal’s Minority Business Leader Award, the Dallas Women’s Foundation’s Maura Award and Working Woman’s Working Woman Entrepreneurial Excellence Award.
Hill, who lives in Dallas, believes corporate DEI got a boost from tragedy … specifically, the tragic experience that made headlines in 2020.
“After the murder of George Floyd, companies have really doubled down; corporate America really doubled down on their support,” she says during a phone interview. “Diversity is really the representation. We have people in the roles but there’s also inclusion, and making people feel like they belong, so you can have people there who are different, and they still don’t feel like they belong. So the companies have to really put forth more effort.”
How far would she say the United States still has to go toward reaching optimum DEI and gender equality?
“I’m concerned that we could be going backwards with a lot of the activity in the last few years,” Hill says. “I’m really concerned about that. But I also know that there’s really good people in the world.
“I think that the corporations have a good intent in the space of DEI, but it’s still requiring us moving, and we lost so much ground. Millions of women left the workforce, people of color, during covid. So now we’ve got to try and make that back up.”
Those who do the making up will have to be movers and shakers like Hill.
PRODUCT OF LEE COUNTY
Growing up in the small town of Moro (Lee County), Hill was the product of a single mom, one of six girls.
“I was part of the New Hope Church community. … It was truly a village that we grew up in. So it was about our faith, our family and making a difference. And even though we didn’t have a lot of resources, we shared with each other; we supported each other, and I always felt supported in my village.”
Hill remembers growing up chopping and picking cotton. “I always had a yearning to travel, because I would see the planes, even standing in the cotton fields, and I’d wonder where they were going and what they were doing,” she says. “It’s no surprise that I have traveled to over 70 countries around the world and all over the U.S. because I always had an interest in what else is beyond here. And I was always supported by this little community. And that’s awesome.”
Hill credits her mother, the late Carrie Flowers, with leading her into the fields in which she has worked.
“She basically taught us to be fearless. … ‘You can be born in poverty, but don’t let poverty be born in you.’
“It was everything from the people at the church to my teachers, because you always felt this commitment around you that you had to do better. They held us to a different standard, just because the people in that little community cared so much about us — all of us. So that was probably the greatest gift that I could have enjoyed.”
Hill went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in education from Arkansas State University at Jonesboro; she also earned a master’s in rehabilitation psychology.
In Hattie Hill Enterprises, Hill created what she describes as “a leadership company focused on leadership development, customer service, diversity and inclusion.”
“It was a consulting firm. Southwest Airlines was one of our early clients when we first started,” she says. “My master’s from Arkansas State was in psychology. And I was certified to teach, and I basically put both of those skill sets together and realized there was an opportunity to work with corporations who were doing learning and development for their employees.
“And it was just a gift, actually. … Someone asked me to do them a favor. You never know what God’s going to do in your life, right? Someone asked me to do them a favor by coming in and teaching for a new team they had in the corporation, and I did, and literally discovered that I really enjoyed this. I like it.
“So I would tell all kids, young people, just try things because you never know … 35 years later, that led me into a dream I never even knew was possible.”
   Hattie Hill, 2022 Arkansas Black Hall of Fame inductee, takes a photo with Bishop T.D. Jakes, noted megachurch pastor and influencer. Hill is president and chief executive officer of the T.D. Jakes Foundation. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette/Kathy Tran Photography)
  STEERING A FOUNDATION
Hill came to be with the T.D. Jakes Foundation from her membership at The Potter’s House, Jakes’ Dallas church.
“I had supported a big conference called MegaFest that Bishop Jakes had … years ago. … Prior to that I had been running an organization, nonprofit, called the Women’s FoodserviceForum, which was … the largest women’s leadership development organization for women in the food industry. [Jakes] knew I knew how to set up a nonprofit. And he wanted to start this. This is really his legacy organization to focus on science, technology, engineering, arts and math for underrepresented communities and [the] underserved. And so he said, ‘I know you know how to do this. Can you set it up for me?’ And I said, ‘Sure.’ … I’m getting to that age where you’re doing the ‘give back’ work.”
The foundation launched in 2020, and then the pandemic struck. “We’ve just continued to move forward in a really positive way, even though we were in the pandemic. And we’re in the process right now of working on a hundred million dollar grant for the foundation.”
The skills that have most stood her in good stead? “I would say definitely, first of all, hard work, because my mother taught us, if you say you’re going to do something, you do it; you do it to your best. That was a huge piece.
“And then the bridge-building piece is a great example because it’s not always about you. It’s all about the people you help along the way; the people you mentor, spend time with. … It’s the old, ‘to whom much is given, much is required.’
“I would love to be a role model for some young girl who thinks she can’t [succeed].”
NO PLACE LIKE HOME
Looking back over the shining moments in her career, Hill says her favorite was going back to speak at her high school, Lee Senior High School in Marianna.
“I was so nervous … because all of those people who taught me English and history and all those were there,” she says. “And I just remember thinking, ‘Oh, my goodness,’ and my mother was working there at the time. So I think of all the moments in my career — that’s one that I’ll never forget because you’re at home with people who’ve known you since you were born in the world. And to this day … that’s such a big part of my life. … It’s my community.
“And to be honored by people who are where you’re from, the honor doesn’t get any better than that.”
