Newswise — On May 24, 2017, Babson VP for Programming and Community Outreach Jane C. Edmonds, along with the Boston Chamber of Commerce President James Rooney, Mayor Marty Walsh, and 50 Boston business and civic leaders took a trip to Washington, DC to discuss issues of race and economic mobility.

The MA Chamber took a tour of the National Museum of African American History & Culture and met with the DC Chamber and members of congress to discuss the work that needs to be done to solve racial inequalities.

“When Barack Obama spoke here he said, one person cannot change the world but it takes a complete society…When we talk about race and racism, today is a day for us to learn and for me to learn,” Mayor Marty Walsh addressing the MA Chamber of Commerce and distinguished guests.

Edmonds was joined by Chair Emeritus of the Babson Board of Trustees Richard Snyder on this trip.

Jane C. Edmonds

Early in her career, Edmonds was appointed by Governor Michael S. Dukakis as Chair of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (“MCAD”), the civil rights law enforcement agency for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

She later founded and ran her own consulting firm, Jane C. Edmonds & Associates, Inc., a workforce development and diversity leadership firm serving clients in the private, public and non-profit sectors for more than twenty years, among them: GE Capital Corporation, Fidelity, U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, American Red Cross, United Technologies, Bureau of the Census, and Camp Dresser & McKee.

In 2003, Edmonds served as a member of Governor Mitt Romney’s cabinet and as head of the Department of Workforce Development responsible for oversight of three-line operating divisions and several centrally-managed functions, and for the flow of over two billion dollars in federal, state and tax revenues within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Most recently, Edmonds served as Senior Fellow at Northeastern University’s College of Professional Studies where she taught graduate-level domestic and international leadership courses in the Master of Science in Leadership Program.

At Babson, Edmonds is responsible for introducing and incorporating the principles of Entrepreneurial Thought & Action® to Entrepreneurs of All Kinds® with business, governments, and non-profit organizations through programming and community outreach for the College’s Boston Campus at 100 High Street.

About Babson College

Babson College is the educator, convener, and thought leader of Entrepreneurship of All Kinds®​​​. The top​-ranked college for entrepreneurship education, Babson is a dynamic living and learning laboratory where students, faculty, and staff work together to address the real-world problems of business and society. We prepare the entrepreneurial leaders our world needs most: those with strong functional knowledge and the skills and vision to navigate change, accommodate ambiguity, surmount complexity, and motivate teams in a common purpose to make a difference in the world, and have an impact on organizations of all sizes and types. As we have for nearly a half-century, Babson continues to advance Entrepreneurial Thought & Action®​​ as the most positive force on the planet for generating sustainable economic and social value.