What’s in a Name?

Returning to the Center for Talent Innovation’s Roots, Looking to the Future 

By: Peggy Shiller, Employee Number One, Chief Administrative Officer 

“Your income will never match a man's.” 

More than forty years ago, I went back to school after almost two decades in the garment industry. I was in my mid-thirties, starting a new chapter at Sarah Lawrence, when a professor said those words. 

They stopped me in my tracks. Not simply because they described an inequality I could see around me, but because they presented it as inevitable. 

I didn’t want to and could not accept that. 

That conviction I felt back then—that workplaces could be different, and that talented people shouldn’t be held back because of who they are—led me to a new field, to inspirational founders, and to an organization I have been part of ever since. 

On February 5, 1993, President Bill Clinton’s first order of business was to sign the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) into law. Even unpaid parental leave was unheard of at the time, and the moment set a precedent for a hopeful future for women at work. But when Clinton left office, government research on women and work disappeared.  

Our founders saw that government action alone could not create better workplaces. So they imagined another model: an independent organization that could work hand-in-hand with corporations, studying the barriers that kept talented people from opportunity and developing research-backed solutions. 

I was inspired by their vision, and by Carolyn’s insistence that “business is the most powerful engine for transformation that we have in the world.” I joined what would be the beginnings of the then Center for Work-Life Policy, and I have been here ever since. 

Our definition of talent innovation has not changed much since then: organizations lose talent when people are overlooked, passed over, or simply not seen. 

Workplaces bring together people with different backgrounds, experiences, knowledge, and perspectives. I know that, for me, work has introduced me to people and ideas I might never otherwise have encountered. It expands our sense of the world and of one another. 

That was at the heart of the original Center for Talent Innovation: creating something that could be good for individuals, good for organizations, and good for society. 

By bringing business leaders into the room and convening people wrestling with the same challenges, we could uncover what was getting in the way of talent and provide data-backed solutions. 

Over three decades, I have seen enormous change. I’ve worked in DEI through five presidential administrations. I’ve watched legislation built and dismantled. Our research has expanded to different identity groups and different geographies around the globe. I’ve watched the language we use to talk about workplace challenges change again and again. I’ve gained more than a few gray hairs. 

Yet the central challenge that keeps our work going has changed remarkably little. Too many people are still overlooked. Organizations still struggle to make the most of the talent they already have. Workplaces still have to figure out how employees with very different life experiences and perspectives can contribute, grow, and succeed together. 

That is why returning to the name Center for Talent Innovation matters to me. 

It brings us back to the heart of what we set out to do. This work was never about setting quotas or pitting groups against one another. It was about making sure that all employees have the opportunity for a successful and meaningful work life—and helping organizations recognize the talent they might otherwise miss. 

Why does this matter? We are living through another period of enormous workplace change. New technologies are transforming jobs and expectations of employers and employees are shifting. Conversations about who belongs, who gets opportunity, and what fairness requires can feel more divided than ever. 

In moments like this, it can be easy to focus on KPIs, revenue, and other line items that make a business run. That ignores the fact that people are at the heart of every organization. When employees feel lost, unseen, scared, or left behind, organizations lose something too: knowledge, ideas, perspective, and potential. 

That is why I believe the idea of talent innovation is as relevant now as it was when I first encountered it. 

Many years ago, a professor told me that my income might never match a man's. I could have accepted that as simply the way the world worked. 

I didn’t. I could not.

A great deal has changed since then. A great deal still needs to change. Perhaps that is why returning to the name Center for Talent Innovation feels so meaningful to me. The language has evolved. The workplace has evolved. I certainly have. But the idea at the heart of this organization has endured: talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not. 

Continuing to do this work is one of the ways I stay connected to the world and to other people. This organization has given me a purpose, and it is one I feel incredibly proud to be part of. 

Work is such a big and important part of a person’s life. It is also one of the places where we encounter people unlike ourselves, learn from one another, and see the world through someone else’s eyes. 

Today, that is still something worth fighting for.