Cascade Public Media

Abstract

This case study focuses on Cascade Public Media (CPM), a nonprofit whose mission is to inspire a smarter world through public broadcasting, which chose to deliberately change their organizational and board culture to be more equitable and inclusive. In this case, students and practitioners will learn the importance of adopting diversity, equity, and inclusion to better serve their audience and improve board and organizational performance. CPM, using careful and deliberate actions, was able to address systemic injustices and inequities within their board of directors. Over a multi-year period, the CPM board was able to build an accountability-driven strategic framework that brought an equity lens to all aspects of governance. We introduce two theoretical frameworks—Institutional Theory (Powell & DiMaggio, 1991) and Inclusive Interactions Framework (Bernstein et al., 2022)—as a means of highlighting the imperative of adopting actionable practices designed to transform board culture, power dynamics, policies, and structures to generate impactful results. The case is designed for undergraduates, graduates, and DEI and governance practitioners.