Stef Alicia McCalmon, Champion of DEI in Social, Political, & Cultural Contexts

February 15th, 2021

Stef Alicia McCalmon is the founder of SAM, a diversity, equity and inclusion consulting and content company. She is the co-author of SAM’s weekly newsletter, the tuesday tab, examining social, political and cultural issues through nuanced analysis and weekly content recommendations.

In this feature, Stef shares her key learnings from her first role, important skills to have in careers in media and marketing, why she pursued an MBA, and her journey launching SAM. Read along to soak up her incredible career advice for ambitious women, such as yourself.

Early Career

You graduated from Duke University with degrees in Sociology and African & African American Studies, and then started your career at Publicis - a global advertising and PR company - as an Assistant Account Executive. How did your studies influence your first job post-grad?

I intentionally enrolled in a liberal arts college because I believed that was the best opportunity for me to learn, think and grow outside of a pre-professional track. I went into school knowing I had an interest in Sociology, but it was my first time learning that African & African American Studies was an academic discipline beyond the limited Black History Month curriculum I’d been fed in the predominantly white independent school I’d attended for middle and high school. It was my first time taking Women’s Studies courses, despite having attended an all-girls school prior. In high school, I knew I was interested in media and was fortunate enough to have interned in the industry already. My studies at Duke fostered an intellectual curiosity that I knew would be relevant and could be applied to my career in media and marketing.

While at Publicis, you were promoted from Assistant Account Executive to Account Executive. What key learnings did you take from your early roles?

Advertising recruits new hires on a just-in-time basis, which means I had to wait for the right opportunity to become available after graduation, as opposed to trying to secure an offer with the big finance and consulting corporations that send recruiters to campus. I was also graduating in 2008 into the financial crisis—it was terrifying and incredibly risky to choose to wait until graduation to pursue advertising roles. It was the first time that I’d take such a big bet on myself. Little did I know, it would not be the last.

Fortunately, I had interned at Publicis during the previous summer, did well and maintained relationships with executives at the agency. When an opportunity opened in June 2008, I was invited to interview and was hired by a great team. I worked with people who were human beings first—they all have such great hearts. They respected, challenged and mentored me, and gave me critical learning and development opportunities that led to the promotion to Account Executive, in a little over a year. I learned the power and importance of working hard, embracing challenges and fostering strong relationships. Lastly, there’s no substitute for a great team and compassionate leadership.

After working at Euro RSCG & Turner Broadcasting, you accepted a role as Associate Director of Integrated Marketing at the New Yorker. What skills do you believe are most important to have in careers in media and marketing?

When people think about working in media, maybe they envision TV appearances or glitzy VIP parties. But first and foremost, media and marketing are about storytelling. There is great opportunity and responsibility in doing this work. Media is a historically tightly gate kept industry with massive blindspots. The institutions that govern what news, television, music and products we consume, actively and passively marginalize and silence voices that challenge the status quo. It is important to be a lifelong student. If you remain curious and seek to learn more about and pay attention to what’s happening outside of the spotlight, you’ll see issues and stories taking shape long before mainstream publishers decide to take notice. It is important to not look away from nor ignore the stories that challenge privilege and preconceived notions. Talk to people. Develop a point of view and also actively challenge it. Share what you’re learning with your community and colleagues. Use your access to amplify new and marginalized voices. The second you think you’ve seen it all or know it all, your perspective becomes obsolete.

Business School

After the New Yorker, you pursued an MBA at Columbia University with a focus in Media & Technology. Why did you choose to pursue an MBA?

Early on in my career, I felt the pull towards entrepreneurship. I was fortunate to start my career in media at 18, before matriculating at Duke. While I was excited about the opportunity to learn and get such an early start on building my dream career in media, I was also struck by the disparities—I was often the only Black person or person of color in the room. I saw first-hand how the lack of diversity on screen was reflective of the lack of diversity behind the scenes and I wanted to do something about it. While I don’t believe that an MBA is necessary to start a business, I saw it as an opportunity for some structured time off from the corporate world to learn more about the quantitative side of business, which I hadn’t had much exposure to, and explore entrepreneurship.

While in Columbia, you took part in the competitive Summer Start Up Track program offered through the Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center at Columbia Business School. You also were awarded a grant, which were given to <20% of the program participants. What did you learn about communicating your start-up vision and ideas during its early stages?

Broadly, my vision is to build a company that advocates for Black womxn through highlighting issues and stories that have previously received limited attention and advocacy. Communicating this vision is all about storytelling and knowing my audience, an expertise I honed over a decade of working in media. Friends and family members may be more invested in supporting me as a person without a need for me to justify my vision’s viability with financial projections. Classmates may be more interested in the business model than my personal connection to the work. Professional connections may be looking for partnership potential. Whether in casual conversation or a pitch competition, I learned that if someone asked me what I was working on, that became an opportunity to practice my pitch and tailor the messaging to the audience. Over time, I learned how to tell my entrepreneurship story like I’d done for brands throughout my career.

SAM

In January of 2018, you founded SAM: a DEI consulting & content company that elevates and advocates for historically marginalized groups. When and why did you launch SAM?

I launched SAM in October 2019, a few months after I graduated from business school. I’d spent my time in b-school developing content for SAM and shaping my perspective and frameworks as a diversity, equity and inclusion practitioner. In my final semester, I had the privilege of taking a class with the late Professor Kathy Phillips, a leading expert in diversity and inclusion. I originally planned to launch with content because I was more comfortable with the creative side of my business, given my pre-MBA background. But being in class with Professor Phillips was the push I needed to believe in the business and consulting skills I’d been developing over the two years. I knew through SAM I could offer the thought leadership and partnership that organizations were looking for to address the challenges they were facing, and it became urgent for me to launch in order to be a part of the solution.

As the Founder & CEO of SAM, what does your role entail and what is your day-to-day like?

SAM is a small and mighty full-time team of 2: me and Shayna Johnson, the head of strategy who I met in business school. As CEO, every single day is different: there’s business development to secure clients, crafting DEI strategies and building custom programs on behalf of our partners. I co-author and publish our weekly newsletter, the tuesday tab, with my longtime friend, Dr. Amanda Boston. the tuesday tab explores how the content we consume shapes the way we see and show up in the world. We examine social, political and cultural issues through nuanced analysis and weekly content recommendations. I read so many articles, watch an inordinate amount of TV, and listen to podcasts A LOT. Media doubles as a learning tool, as well as entertainment. My queues runneth over! And when email goes down or my computer is moody, I’m the IT analyst!

Advice

What do you wish you knew when you were first starting your career?

I wish I knew how to advocate for myself in professional settings, from how to negotiate a salary to how to deal with discrimination in the workplace.

What are ways individuals can promote diversity, equity, and inclusion at their companies early in their careers?

Diversity, equity and inclusion is a practice for everyone. I believe doing nothing is not an option. Until we’re all free, there is no shortage of work to do. Practice regularly listening to and engaging experts. Practice amplifying marginalized voices—if you are not part of that group, trust that they know what they need better than you do. Practice acknowledging and being accountable to addressing inequities around you. Practice using your privilege to speak up for your colleagues, customers and community. Practice putting your time and money where your mouth is. Practice rolling up your sleeves to dismantle discriminatory initiatives that privilege a few. Practice building new structures that help the most disadvantaged among you. Practice making change from wherever you are.

Who is one woman you aspire to be like?

Ava DuVernay is my guiding light. She is an artist and entrepreneur from a similar background—she started in PR and I started in advertising. She directed her first film at 32, and I launched SAM at 33. And through ARRAY, her production and distribution company, she has committed to using storytelling, business and partnerships to make an impact. While people in power lament the inability to find people of color and women for roles behind the camera, she has worked with dozens of female directors on her hit TV series (and my favorite show) Queen Sugar, and recently announced ARRAY Crew, a database of people of underrepresented backgrounds working in film and television productions. Her films, TV and documentaries address police brutality, Black love, immigration and afrofuturism, to name a few. And she builds coalitions to increase the scale and depth of her impact. I see SAM as a descendent of ARRAY and I look forward to building a team of brave individuals who want to make collective change.