General Motors (GM) has announced the appointment of Telva McGruder as chief of diversity, equity and inclusion. She has been director of workplace engineering and operations solutions at GM since 2016. Ms. McGruder is also a familiar figure at Women of Color STEM conferences in Detroit, Michigan.

She is the GM executive liaison for the Women of Color STEM Conference, which GM sponsors. Last spring, she served as one of the judges who volunteered to review hundreds of nominations for the 2019 Women of Color STEM Awards.

2019 judges on the Women of Color STEM Selection panel also came from Kohler Co., Corning Incorporated, The Boeing Company, NASA Glenn Research Center, Northrop Grumman Corporation, the Department of Homeland Security, Huntington Ingalls Industries, NetApp, World Wide Technology, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, The MITRE Corporation, Consumers Energy, Raytheon, AT&T, and Fannie Mae.

The selection panel is comprised of professionals drawn from a wide spectrum of the scientific and technical community. Panel members do an extensive read of nomination packages, then rank, and score each candidate based on established criteria and guidelines.

During the course of her more than 26-year career at GM, McGruder has served as engineering group manager for die programs, engineering group manager for press machinery and equipment, and as engineering manager.

"Telva is one of the greatest leaders, I have had the opportunity to work under during my career," wrote Amanda Gaudet on LinkedIn. An assistant professor and part of the teaching faculty at Ontario Tech University Faculty of Business and Information Technology, Gaudet noted that in her new position as Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, McGruder will help bring the change GM is seeking.

McGruder earned a master's degree in electrical engineering with a focus in biomedical engineering at Purdue University, after earning a bachelor's degree with a minor in biomedical engineering, also at Purdue.