A champion for diversity throughout a long career in telecommunications, Janet Uthman, Market Vice President for Cox Communications, Las Vegas, is our guest this week on Nevada Week In Person.

♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week In Person is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

-Welcome to Nevada Week In Person.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

Ebony magazine named her a Power 100 executive while Cablefax magazine recognized her as one of the most influential minorities in media and broadband.

A longtime leader in the field of telecommunications, she's worked for Disney, Black Entertainment Television, and Comcast.

Now Market Vice President at Cox Communications, Las Vegas, Janet Uthman, thank you for joining Nevada Week In Person.

(Janet Uthman) My pleasure.

Thank you for having me, Amber.

-So telecommunications is the transmission of information by electronic means.

And in an interview that you did with Nevada Business, you said it is a field that you never imagined you'd be in as long as you have.

What has kept you in telecommunications?

-Well, let me tell you.

You can have so many career paths in this industry.

I started out in programming at Disney Channel in Burbank and went to Manhattan with Disney Channel and actually worked for Black Entertainment in Corporate Marketing.

And then I came to-- went to Comcast, and I was heading up Sales and Marketing, both residential and B2B.

We were rebuilding cable systems in Baltimore City.

I was doing my own commercials and marketing.

Then that led me to multicultural marketing, diversity and inclusion.

And now this is kind of the sum total, at Cox as Market Leader for Las Vegas, of all the experiences I've gained over the last couple of decades.

-I was gonna ask you this later on, but the multicultural marketing aspect, what was the state of it back then when you entered that field?

-Well, you know, it was interesting, because I'm an analytical person by nature.

And I looked at the demographics and the penetration of folks that had Cox-- sorry, Comcast Services, and it was a 19 percentage point gap between multicultural and general market consumers.

And that equated to about 150,000 households.

And the folks that were doing all the marketing at the time were sitting in Manchester, New Hampshire, and they were stating that, We're sending them all the same direct mail pieces.

We're not sure why we're not, you know, progressing on our penetration among this group.

And my answer to them was, You can't just send out general market mail pieces to this segment and expect them to come running.

So for whatever reason, they thought they'd been done an injustice in the past with whether it was technical service or service by the care agents.

I said, you have to establish authentic relationships with these consumers.

So I'm like, we have to get from behind the desk, get out in the community.

And we partnered with churches, we partnered with Panhellenic groups, which are the fraternities and the sororities who really care about their community.

And we had a message to get out that there's a divide out there.

There's a lot of multicultural children that don't have access to broadband, so partner with us to help us get that message out.

And you would be amazed at when you connect with them on something that's important to them in their community, they're more than willing to help.

Not only that, they're more willing to consider your product and to be loyal to your product as well.

But you have to get out in the community with your activations.

-And that digital divide is an issue here in Nevada.

In Clark County, it's estimated that 150,000 residents are affected by it.

And that's what that means is access to broadband or access to internet and not having it.

At what point in your life did that become such a passion for you?

What happened that made you say, I gotta tackle this?

-I think when I had the role with multicultural marketing, as well as in diversity and inclusion.

On the diversity and inclusion side, I developed the strategy for 20,000 employees in the Northeast division while I was at Comcast, because I said everyone should have an opportunity to be successful.

So I think that and the multicultural marketing partnered together and that there were so many kids and seniors out there that don't have access to broadband.

It really became my purpose.

And when I interviewed for this role at Cox, I told them that underserved communities, doing everything in my power to help close that digital divide, that is my purpose and my passion.

So that's where it started.

And you mentioned the numbers.

And over the last couple of years with the help of the federal government subsidy, that $30 subsidy, in our ConnectAssist program, which is $30, consumers who are on any type of government program do not have to pay anything for broadband.

So we were trying to get out in the community to increase awareness for that, because unfortunately, too many black and brown children and families and seniors fall on the wrong side of that digital divide.

-For those who may not understand, not having access to the internet, how detrimental can that be?

How impactful is that?

-Yeah.

Interesting you should mention it.

We sat down with the FCC Commissioner, Geoffrey Starks, as well as Congressman Horsford last week at Harry Levy public housing.

And the Commissioner wanted to hear firsthand from the residents of how ACP and that subsidy really helped them gain a connection to broadband.

And they were stating that it's, it's everything.

I can connect with my doctors.

Sometimes my daughter can't pick me up to take me to a doctor's office, but now I can access via telehealth.

Or just educating themselves on the social services that are out there, their social security.

So it is their connection to the world or connecting with family.

I can see my grandkids now.

So what we did, our sales and marketing folks, would go public housing unit by public housing unit and actually hand walk seniors through that process to get them connected.

-And there's another interview that I listened to.

You talked about being in a board meeting or among your employees and that, quote, Sometimes you're the only person of color, you may be the only woman at the table, but you have to make sure that perspective is heard because that could be the one thing that helps the business to progress.

So kind of a similar question, at what point did it become obvious to you that my perspective as a person of color and as a woman is not only valuable, but needed for the success of a business?

-Absolutely.

Great question.

So it was-- I was at Disney Channel.

And we just had a new Head of Programming that came in, Rich Ross.

He came from Nickelodeon.

And I was in New York office.

He wanted to go office by office to hear the perspective of the Disney Channel's programming.

This was in the '90s at the time, and I was very frank.

I said, Frankly, I'm going around with these programming reels to Philadelphia, Baltimore, DC, and I'm talking to folks that look like me, and they're asking me, Why is the programming on Disney Channel not representative.

You know, My kids like the network, like the channel, but they don't see images of themselves.

So again, this was early '90s, and you didn't see a lot of diversity on the Disney Channel.

And I remember talking to Rich Ross--he eventually became president of Disney Studios probably a decade later--and he said, Every day I went into the office, I remembered what you told me.

So I'm not by no means responsible for the wealth of diverse programming that he went on to produce, but you have to use your voice.

So being the only person of color, being the only woman in some of those meetings, you have to use your voice for good.

-How well do you think Disney has changed its programming?

-Phenomenal.

I mean, he and Anne Sweeney did a phenomenal job in changing the programming, as you could tell by the diversity.

-Yeah.

Oh, that's really cool.

Okay, now, long before your distinguished career in telecommunications, you were a girl growing up in upstate New York, small town, I think outside of Rochester, but it was a move to San Jose, California, correct me if I'm wrong, that really opened your eyes to the beauty of diversity?

How so?

-It certainly did.

So I grew up in Henrietta, New York.

And I was probably one of less than a handful of kids of color in my elementary school, so subjected to, you know, taunts and I'll just say not so nice things.

So it was really rough.

My mother would tell me, you know, You just hold your head up and you pull your shoulders back and you go in there and, you know, hold your head high.

So I had a strong role model.

And I must say, my mother grew up in the segregated South in a town called Eatonville.

And there is actually a plaque in Washington, D.C. at the Smithsonian African American Museum for Eatonville.

It was the first all-black integrated town in the United States.

So she grew up in that segregated environment.

So who knew better, you know, how to handle those challenges?

But then my dad moved us all to San Jose.

He was a longtime Xerox guy, got tired of shoveling snow and wanted to move to California.

That was his lifelong dream, and I moved to East San Jose and went to school with every nationality that you can think of, Chinese, Vietnamese, Latino, Latinas.

-What was that like for you?

-It was like Disneyland for me to go to school with so many folks.

We were different in so many ways, but it was, you know, we all wanted the best things and get a great education and to do the, you know, do great by our families and in our life.

So there were so many similarities although we were so different.

And we all got along so well.

So it was a pivotal moment for me.

And then I went to Berkeley.

And then seeing folks at that time, they were boycotting South Africa and companies that were selling products down there because of apartheid.

So I saw students fighting for injustice.

Then you had folks that were like, Love who you love.

Love is love.

And you saw that all over campus.

So that's really where my whole, you know, I guess fight for justice and the underdog, that's where all of that came from.

-I wonder if there is any connection between that and then your time at Black Entertainment Television and being part of the team that launched the first BET awards.

What was the discussion at that time about why is this needed?

-Well, at that time, there were mostly videos.

So this was going into 2000.

So late '90s, going into 2000.

So primarily videos, and I was part of the corporate marketing team.

And we hired Landor Research to do research on what African Americans wanted to see.

And they want to see what everyone wants to see, lifestyle programming, news programming, awards where we're celebrating our people, movies that reflect images of ourselves.

So I remember we all sat around, and we presented the information to Bob Johnson at the time, and out of that came Arabesque Films.

It's no longer in existence.

But a couple of things, 106 & Park was a lifestyle show that lasted for, I think, for close to 20 years.

And then the BET Awards.

It was the first ever BET Awards.

And I think it's still the highest rated show on the network today.

So it was amazing to be a part of that team and have access to Bob Johnson, who was a visionary of his time.

-What kind of impact do you think those awards have had?

-Just a celebration and pride for African Americans, because I think you could probably count on a couple of hands the number of African Americans that were celebrated as part of MTV Awards at that time.

So really, it was pride and something that we owned.

-We could talk career, career with you, but I want to make sure we fit this in: The reason you came to Southern Nevada was personal, right?

-Right.

-What was it?

-Absolutely.

So I will tell you, when I started the interview with Cox, 16 interviews, I was actually interviewing to go to Southern California.

I was going to have my role, Market Leader for Orange County.

And at the time, they found out my father was ill.

He fell ill while I was in the interview process.

And the leader of California and the head of operations, they were like, where are you?

And I was like, Well, I'm in Nevada because my father fell ill. And they're like, How are your parents doing?

And I said, you know, it's been a tough week, I said, but I pray all will be well.

-We've got 30 seconds left.

-That night, they called me and they said, We're going to do everything in our power to get you to Nevada, because that market leader role is open.

So I'll be eternally grateful to COX.

-Quickly summarize the impact your parents have had on you.

-Everything.

My dad is one of the first black engineers at Xerox, and my mother went on to work in Silicon Valley at National Semiconductor.

So just, just amazing, brilliant.

-Look at the woman that they made.

Janet Uthman, thank you so much for joining Nevada Week In Person.

-My pleasure.