United Way Knoxville affiliate quietly cuts DEI office after racism allegations

Show Caption

As companies and government agencies across the country grapple with the politics of diversity, equity and inclusion policies, the United Way of Greater Knoxville in Tennessee, which previously boasted about its DEI structure, has long since quietly stopped its work.

The nonprofit has gone without a chief equity officer since early 2023 when it fired Yashika Smith, a Black woman, shortly after she filed a racial discrimination complaint with the agency's human resources office and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She says her supervisor questioned her and another Black employee about how much they were working from home instead of the office.

United Way investigated Smith's claim and deemed it unfounded, interim CEO Chrystal Armstrong Brown told Knox News. Afterward, she said, United Way leaders held meetings to discuss Smith's job performance, which managers say had become an issue.

Ultimately, the United Way paid Smith $104,000 in a settlement to leave the organization. That would have been the end of it, but after receiving the payment, Smith filed for unemployment benefits and the United Way asked the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development to rule the nonprofit did not need to pay.

After a two-day hearing, an officer ruled against the United Way's objection, requiring the organization to pay Smith’s unemployment insurance. Knox News obtained a copy of the agency's decision and recordings of the hearings.

Smith declined to comment for this story.

Armstrong Brown told Knox News the organization doesn't have dedicated DEI positions any longer, but it has embedded those practices and lessons into its work in the community ‒ more so than it has in years.

Smith was sought after as United Way tried to build DEI mindset

Like countless organizations, the United Way hired a DEI expert following the national racial reckoning after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. More pressing, though, was the local turmoil from the shooting deaths in 2021 of five Black teenagers, all of them students at Austin-East Magnet High School. One of the students, Anthony Thompson Jr., was shot and killed by a Knoxville police officer.

DEI explained: What is DEI and why is it so divisive? What you need to know.

It was in that spirit that the United Way praised Smith when it announced her initial hire in October 2021. “Yashika is leading our organizational collaborative journey to normalize and organize racial equity and inclusion into the fabric of who we are and how we show up as an organization … we are confident she will make an incredible impact on our team,” the company wrote in a Facebook post announcing her hire.

Similarly, in February 2022, then-CEO Matt Ryerson told Knox News that United Way created a DEI position so the organization could better focus on equitable systems internally and externally.

“When we talked to her, we said, 'we need you on our team,' because we want to dive into more meaningful work in our community, but it's got to be equitable. It has to be equitable for Black families that historically have been devastated in this community.

“And we still have one of the highest rates of African American poverty in the entire country. And if we ignore that, then we're not doing our work. So, we have to recognize, 'Where's that coming from?' What is the core to that and how do we start moving that issue?

“So, we hired somebody to help us think through every one of those things, because if you don't, it's really easy to fund the stuff that's always been funded. And if you look at a statistic like Black poverty rate, and how high it is, we can say, 'hey, we've done some good work, but we missed something.' So we needed somebody on our team that is constantly looking at all of our work through that lens and saying, 'let's not miss it again.'”

What happened to United Way's DEI team?

The United Way reorganized its staff in late 2022, placing Chief Financial Officer Blake Valentine in charge of the office's two-person DEI team, among others, according to testimony recorded as part of Smith's unemployment hearing.

Smith recounted, under oath, that shortly after Valentine began supervising her and her deputy, Jasmine Harper, who also is Black, he asked a staff member who reported to him why Smith and Harper were hardly ever at work.

The woman, whom Knox News is not naming because she is not directly involved in the case, thought the comment was not just wrong but discriminatory. She told Valentine so, recounted the incident to both Smith and Harper, and filed a complaint with company human resources.

“Valentine … said to her that he had only witnessed Jasmine and I in the office, me 12 hours in December and Jasmine six hours in December," Smith recalled in the hearing. "To which (name redacted) said to him, ‘That’s not true. I’ve seen both of them in the office longer than that and there are other employees who I haven’t seen in the office, and you didn’t mention them and that feels discriminatory because they are both Black females.’"

“There have been many, many other people who have been out and I find it peculiar that Mr. Valentine would only mention the two Black women as his basis of ‘I haven’t seen these people in the office,’ when in fact there were many, many employees who have been out, several white people,” Smith said in the hearing.

“So, him bringing up to a white woman, the only two Black women in the racial equity office, … he brought us up to a white woman, never bringing up another employee. And it wasn’t even accurate.”

'A first taste': Trump DEI war escalates, reshaping diversity in corporate America

Smith filed a complaint with United Way's human resources in February 2023 and requested a different manager to oversee her work. In the hearing, Smith said she requested a new manager because, “If he (Valentine) is being racially discriminatory, then I have concerns about him being my supervisor.”

United Way denied the request.

The company immediately began an investigation into the allegations and within a couple of weeks determined the complaint was unfounded and unsubstantiated and that the employees had not been singled out. Instead, the investigators concluded, United Way managers were determining new areas of responsibility after the restructure, interim CEO Armstrong Brown told Knox News.

Some six weeks after filing the complaint, and after at least one virtual meeting between her and Valentine, Smith had a meeting with Valentine and human resources manager Tina Dell. The company offered Smith a severance package, which Dell called a “very generous offer,” Smith said.

The United Way gave Smith 24 hours to accept, she said.

After a few days of negotiations (which included an extension once Smith retained an attorney), Smith accepted a $104,000 severance, an amount more than her annual $91,500 salary.

“This entire process … I was ambushed by it,” Smith said in the hearing. “We never discussed this prior to March 21 (her meeting with Valentine and Dell). I was told not to come back to the office and I was pretty much given this ultimatum and was never given this report from the complaint I filed with HR … this all started from me filing a complaint against my supervisor and I was the one who was asked to leave.”

She asked that her dismissal be listed as “voluntarily resigning” since she had never been fired from a job and didn’t want it on her record. The United Way agreed.

Shortly after Smith left the United Way, her deputy, Harper, left as well. The DEI department of two was emptied by the fall of 2023. It remains empty. Harper declined to comment for this story.

Ryerson, the former CEO, left to become the president and CEO of YMCA of East Tennessee in November 2024. In a statement to Knox News, made before he was asked any questions, Ryerson declined to comment or answer questions for this story.

"As you know, I am fully engaged at the YMCA now and have no affiliation with United Way," he wrote. "Chrystal Armstrong Brown is the CEO at United Way and would likely be your primary point of contact for any related United Way question.

"Sorry I can't offer any more than that."

Smith fought for her benefits from United Way

Months later, when Smith filed her unemployment claim, the United Way balked and appealed the request, citing the organization's severance payment, which doesn't allow such claims. In essence, as attorney Brandon Morrow would later argue on behalf of the United Way, the organization believed Smith was double-dipping and that there was language in the confidential settlement saying Smith couldn't file for unemployment insurance.

The hearing officer disagreed, ruling in Smith's favor following two days of testimony, saying she could receive unemployment insurance on top of the settlement agreement because the state has "no obligation and is not bound by" such agreements.

Workplace diversity: America's largest companies hired more Black executives. Then came the DEI backlash.

United Way: There were issues

United Way interim CEO Armstrong Brown spoke with Knox News in a lengthy interview to talk about Smith's departure from the United Way and how the organization views and incorporates diversity into its work. Armstrong Brown was not with the United Way when Smith filed her grievance and wasn't selected as interim CEO until November 2024.

Work performance issues

Armstrong Brown said Smith’s removal was related to concerns about work output, and that was discussed after United Way's investigation into her complaint. This was coupled, she said, with Smith voicing her concerns about her role and position.

“So, it’s my understanding that it was by mutual decision that the two parties arrived at the fact that Ms. Smith continuing in the role of chief equity officer would probably not be the best solution or best option for either party," Armstrong Brown told Knox News.

Armstrong Brown's explanation is supported by United Way board chair Clarence Vaughn III, who has served on the board since 2018. He told Knox News in a statement that Smith's job performance and effectiveness were an issue "prior, concurrently and following" the time of her complaint about Valentine.

"There was a noted lack of progress and outcomes, as defined by the roles and responsibilities of the position and the expressed expectations of the board and leadership," he said. "The board therefore supported the decision in late March 2023 to offer separation to Ms. Smith and ultimately enter into an agreement to accept her resignation."

Smith, however, said under oath in her unemployment benefits hearing that she had no hint of work performance issues and that her most recent review with then-CEO Matt Ryerson was sterling. In the state’s decision to grant her benefits, the hearing officer found Smith wasn’t removed due to misconduct in her work.

In a statement from United Way's lawyer, through spokesperson Lauren Miller, the organization said Smith’s work performance wasn’t relevant to the state benefits hearing as only “gross misconduct” − which did not apply to Smith’s situation − factors into those decisions.

A mutual parting

Armstrong Brown called Smith’s exit a resignation and said it was a mutual decisionn, a point echoed by attorney Brandon Morrow, who represented the United Way during Smith’s unemployment hearing.

“Ms. Smith signed a separation agreement that clearly states that it was a voluntary resignation, which was a term she bargained for in the agreement and she received a hefty severance payment as part of that agreement,” he said.

Smith pushed back on that description vigorously in the hearing, repeatedly saying the United Way approached her about leaving. She said she felt “ambushed” by the request. She negotiated the language of the settlement to make it most favorable to her, she said in the hearing.

In the state’s decision granting her benefits, the hearing officer found the United Way “initiated the employment by giving the claimant (Smith) a separation agreement that was unexpected by the claimant.”

How the United Way is handling diversity now

The United Way maintains its "Commitment to DEI," but no longer has a position solely dedicated to the effort. Armstrong Brown said this is in keeping with how the organization has viewed diversity work from the beginning: It is a journey, but not one with a specific destination or end goal.

The organization created the position, developed it into a two-person office and then inculcated it across all of the United Way's work, she said. It is an evolution.

“Diversity, equity and inclusion, as a value, as a set of practices and strategies, remains integral to our work and remains integral to our identity as the United Way," she said. "Like, it’s in our name. It’s in our mission. But yes, it is no longer relegated to a single role or to a single department."

The shift, she said, is in keeping with the national United Way's corporate focus of equitable community impact. Among other changes, United Way’s philanthropy arm has undergone change and is intent on a “data-driven and impact-driven” focus that can burrow down to specific communities that are most in need and then track how the organization uses those dollars.

“So, we want to not just steward resources well," Armstrong Brown said, "but we want to steward them to the highest possible use and to be able to tell a story of the impact of the difference that those dollars are making.”

To this end, in 2024 the United Way expanded its donations from the typical 30 or so organizations that received money each year to include dozens of organizations that Armstrong Brown said are doing good work. The end result: Ninety-six organizations were grant-funded, 21% of them were grant recipients for the first time, she said.

Across the country, DEI programs have been rolled back

DEI programs and policies are intended to level the playing field for all employees. Historic advantages have helped men dominate the business world, widening gaps in status, pay and wealth. Women are outnumbered 5 to 1 in senior leadership, according to a Paste BN analysis of the top executive officers at the nation’s 100 largest publicly traded companies. The gap for women of color was five times wider than the disparity for white women, the analysis found.

Following waves of pushback from customers, more than a dozen GOP attorneys general and online campaigns, companies across the country have backtracked or rescaled their DEI programming in the past year. Added to this, President Donald Trump has eliminated DEI efforts from the federal government in an executive order signed on his first day in office.

Companies across the U.S. got in line with Trump: Harley-Davidson, John Deere, Molson Coors, Stanley Black & Decker and Jack Daniel's distiller Brown-Forman have taken steps ranging from ending participation in external workplace rankings to dropping diversity goals for employees and suppliers, according to Paste BN.

Recently, Nashville-based Nissan cut back its DEI policies, slashing partnerships with organizations that are “heavily focused on political activism" and refocused employee training programs on "core business objectives" while creating a formal process for the review of marketing partnerships to “ensure that they align with business priorities.”

Tyler Whetstone is an investigative reporter focused on accountability journalism. Connect with Tyler by emailing him at tyler.whetstone@knoxnews.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @tyler_whetstone.