Black Women in Accounting and the Backlash to DEI

An Interview with Jina Etienne

Anton Lewis, PhD

In this article I have the pleasure of interviewing Jina Etienne, (CPA, CGMA, CDE) about the troubling rollback of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) underway in many areas of U.S. business across multiple states. At a time when few senior Black women CPAs existed, Jina has consistently been an innovator in the space of inclusion and belonging. As principal consultant at Etienne Consultants working within the accounting space, she currently helps clients recognize their DEI potential, utilizing her experience at former roles including director of diversity & inclusion at Grant Thornton and past President of the National Association of Black Accountants, Inc (NABA). Her work is prescient at this moment, as nowhere is immune from this diversity pushback, as PwC, a champion of DEI efforts in the past, presently feels the chilly wind of the DEI Winter, as mentioned in previous articles in this column. Due to a challenging legal environment, it has begun to amend wording in its DEI pledges to be less race specific, in effect watering down the intentionality of its DEI initiatives. It is against this backdrop that I specifically ask for her opinion on the current assault against Black women professionals. In the interview I pose the simple question ‘what can be done in our field of accounting about all of this?’