Hailing from a small town in southwest Georgia, Lora McCray (AB ’85) arrived at University of Georgia (UGA) in 1981. Education was important to her family, and Lora was a stand-out student, winning a National Merit Scholarship and being recognized with numerous other awards throughout her academic career. Most of her UGA classmates didn’t look like her, and they weren’t from her community, but Lora settled in at Creswell Hall, determined to focus on her studies and to continue to excel.

Keenly interested in social justice and equity issues, Lora followed this passion, majoring in political science, with law school as her post-graduate goal.

“My journey was not a direct line at all – when I was at UGA, I was going to be a lawyer, and I’ve been many different things since then,” McCray reflects.

Lora did achieve the goal of law school, traveling across the country to earn her juris doctorate at the University of Washington. Scholarship support was a deciding factor in her choice of schools. While there, McCray focused on anti-discrimination issues, and she graduated with the desire to work more directly in that area. Lora moved to Washington, DC, passed the Maryland Bar, became a licensed Maryland attorney, and began work with a civil rights consulting firm dealing mostly with Equal Employment Opportunity (EEOC) compliance.

“I [then] got interested in a lot of the things happening around DC at the time – gentrification and other issues with housing,” McCray explains. “I wanted to go back to school and get more education because I thought it was really important that these communities that were being impacted have a voice and a seat at the table. And I wanted to make sure I had the right skills to help with that.”

McCray earned her master’s degree in applied anthropology with a focus on urban development from the University of Memphis. She chose the program because it provided the exact skills and practical training she needed to work on community change issues. The degree reaffirmed her interest in ensuring access to resources and services to people who are often impacted by change, but not given a voice in the process.  She accepted a position with Fannie Mae where she first worked in diversity and inclusion programming within the organization and later worked in community lending, creating initiatives that made housing more affordable and accessible to underserved communities (i.e., minorities, women, some religious communities that were not being served by the primary markets). McCray continued her work in affordable housing going from Fannie Mae, to McAuley Institute, a nonprofit focusing on women’s housing issues, to Calvert Investments, and then to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). After directing NAR’s national affordable housing program for several years, McCray was tapped by a former colleague to work as the Assistant Vice President of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

“I was excited about that work because of the lack of diversity in the financial arena,” McCray reflects. “The idea of helping to diversify the Boston Fed and to influence the diversity and inclusion practices of the financial organizations and agencies regulated by the Fed was appealing to me.”

After several years in Boston, McCray eventually went back to DC, where she works in her current role, as Director of the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Her career has taught her that diversity and inclusion is critical to organizations, even if it remains a challenge.

“[In this type of work, you are] always convincing people that this is the right thing to do,” she says. “My agency is 100% committed and supportive, so that does make everything much easier.”

“I want people to understand that diversity and inclusion is integral to any agency; it’s not a separate thing to check off your list,” McCray continues. “It actually helps you reach your goals.”

McCray recently testified before Congress regarding the impact of diversity and inclusion on the financial services industry. “The idea was for us to testify about the work we’ve been doing and for them to ask us specific questions,” she explains. “Congress is proposing legislation that would impact our work in diversity and inclusion. It was a great experience to be able to show the work that we’re doing at the Bureau,” McCray continues. “We’re making great progress with workforce diversity both in the general workforce and in leadership.”

For students of public administration and upcoming professionals, McCray emphasizes that diversity and inclusion are important factors and should be integral to how administrators approach their work.

“It adds value to everything you’re doing,” she says. “Research shows that diversity brings better results in decision-making; corporations get better business results when they have diversity in their organizations, particularly in the upper levels.”

Organizations, McCray says, need to be intentional about making diversity and inclusion a priority. “One of my mentors used to say, ‘If you don’t have a plan, you plan to fail,’ so I would tell organizations to have a plan and an intentionality to make diversity and inclusion a priority.”

McCray reconnected with UGA several years ago at a SPIA alumni reception in DC. SPIA dean, Matthew Auer, encouraged Lora to become more engaged with the work of the School by joining the SPIA Board of Visitors, a group of alumni and supporters who meet with the dean regularly to discuss strategies for advancing the School’s mission. She hopes to influence the diversity and inclusion efforts here at the university.

“I love my school: it was the place that I launched my education career,” McCray concludes. “I am glad to be in a position where I can help move the needle for folks in terms of scholarships and new programs so we can make sure that a wide variety of people are getting access to those opportunities.”