Written by Gretchen Rosenberg, President and CEO of Kentwood Real Estate
This week we celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. and the massive and positive impact Dr. King made on 20th Century America. His most iconic “I have a dream” speech still resonates 57 years later.
So many Americans have a dream for equity, equality and inclusion. That extends to the dream of homeownership. A dream realized for many, but not always equitably. A dream we in real estate are privileged to help with.
At Kentwood Real Estate we formed a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council in 2020 to address both internal and external issues facing our company and our industry. Thank you to the volunteers on our Council and the wonderful input they provided last year. All of them offered to renew their commitment to volunteer this year and we now have a waiting list!
- Berenice Bejarano, Broker Associate, Kentwood Cherry Creek
- Jennifer Dechtman, Broker Associate, Kentwood Denver Tech Center
- Andrew Gonzales, Broker Associate, Kentwood City Properties
- Kris Laine, Broker Associate, Kentwood Northern Properties
- Jonathan Lopez, Broker Associate, Kentwood Denver Tech Center
- Parker Loveless, Broker Associate, Kentwood Cherry Creek
- Lori Pace, Broker Associate, Kentwood City Properties
- Kaila Price, Marketing Support and Staff Representative
- Brian Rosen, Broker Associate, Kentwood Cherry Creek
- Nancy Walters, Broker Associate, Kentwood Denver Tech Center
- Greg Yoshida, Broker Associate, Kentwood City Properties
DEI Goals
Our goal is to make a real and positive difference in people’s lives. To that end, we’ve translated our Listing and Buyer information into Spanish and discussed what the next language should be. Vietnamese perhaps.
We’re in the process of forming a Kentwood Foundation to help our communities – our Kentwood Community and the communities we live in. More on that to follow.
We’re encouraging our managers to recruit for diversity and we’re welcoming many new brokers from all sorts of life experiences and backgrounds to the Kentwood family.
A Pledge to Do Right
Kentwood “took the pledge” and is among hundreds of companies joined as Colorado Companies United Against Racism. But taking a pledge isn’t an end, it’s a signal that we intend to be a part of the process and solution going forward. Our industry has historically not been purveyors of best practices. We’re grappling with that and determined to make a positive difference going forward.
Let Dr. King’s words guide us. “We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”