Mark Sellers, associate labs director for mission assurance, has earned a 2020 Diversity Leader Award from Profiles in Diversity Journal for advancing the evolution of diversity and inclusion at Sandia.

Mark was recognized for designing and implementing hiring practices that are “impressive and inspiring,” said James Rector, the journal’s publisher and CEO.

For this year’s award, the journal saluted 17 leaders from a variety of industries and organizational levels worldwide for their diversity efforts.

“Leaders have to be directly involved in advocating for a culture of inclusion and diversity to make an impact,” said Sandia Chief Diversity Officer Esther Hernandez. “Mark is yet another example of Sandia leadership at every level who walk the talk. His commitment to increasing diversity at the Labs in both his course of action and everyday behavior sparks innovation and achieves the mission success that Sandia is known for.”

Mark’s award follows Sandia’s Innovations in Diversity Award presented by the journal last fall. Companies that are diversity leaders use the expertise of their diversity team in new ways as strategies for change to help meet the challenges of today’s business environment, according to the journal. Individual recipients of the Diversity Leader Award view challenges and opportunities through the lens of diversity and inclusion to achieve business success.

“Since coming to Sandia, I’ve participated in numerous, intensive Sandia seminars and summits that really have opened my eyes to the privileges enjoyed by white males. These experiences have helped me to better appreciate other perspectives and experiences,” Mark said. “I’ve since become more committed than ever to making Sandia a place where diverse interview panels are universal and hopefully lead to greater demographic diversity.”

Mark leads quality assurance and contractor-assurance systems, cybersecurity defenses and mission computing, and surety engineering and weapons quality at Sandia. He sponsors and directly engages in inclusion and diversity events and activities, participates in the corporate reverse-mentoring initiative and implements diverse interview panels for all manager positions.

“Fully expressing and exploring differences of opinion are essential to our success, and that means constantly striving to be more diverse and inclusive,” Mark said. “To the extent that I can influence a premier organization like Sandia in that direction, I’m grateful for the opportunity.”

Now in its 22nd year of publication, Profiles in Diversity Journal focuses on diversity and inclusion in business, government, nonprofit, higher education and military settings. The journal highlights mission-driven leadership, best practices, workforce strategies, innovative ideas and important individual contributions in diversity and inclusion.