Burns & McDonnell Launches Together By Design Newsletter Focused on Spotlighting Importance of Business Diversity

Burns & McDonnell is launching Together By Design, a quarterly business diversity newsletter that seeks to advance a community of inclusion. The email newsletter features stories of great opportunity, innovative approaches, and diverse perspectives that can shape best practices for the architecture, engineering and construction industry.

Each quarter, Burns & McDonnell will introduce readers to diverse clients, subcontractors, community partners and employee-owners, highlighting the extraordinary talent and resources that exist within the company’s growing network. The newsletter will also celebrate the benefits that diverse perspectives bring to the business community and world at large.

“At Burns & McDonnell, we believe that unlimited opportunities should be available to everyone, regardless of business size, ownership or designation,” says Michelle Word, business diversity director at Burns & McDonnell. “That’s what we’re hoping to accomplish with this newsletter — to open up tremendous possibilities for the future. Together By Design will lift up new ideas, approaches and leadership to inspire meaningful conversations and demonstrate how a diverse group of suppliers and subcontractors can represent the diversity of the communities we serve.”

The inaugural issue of the newsletter will share stories of how subcontractor Carol Taylor, president of A Clean Slate LLC, has persevered to keep her business operating during the COVID-19 pandemic; how Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, uses the desegregation of baseball to demonstrate the value of diversity; how Black-owned businesses play a critical role in the continuing growth of the U.S. economy; and more.

“This important new initiative strengthens our commitment to cultivating and maintaining a diverse mix of suppliers who provide innovative ideas and a service-oriented attitude,” says Ray Kowalik, chairman and CEO of Burns & McDonnell. “We value the talent that all suppliers and subcontractors offer to Burns & McDonnell to help us provide the highest standard of design, construction and consulting solutions.”