Katelyn Jackson Nnake has spent her career working for some of the best-known brands in the world. The Cincinnati-raised, D.C.-based leader is now taking on a new role as director of diversity, equity and inclusion for Klaviyo.
In her career, Jackson Nnake went from an intern at Coca-Cola Enterprises to manager of public affairs and communications at The Coca-Cola Company. Then, she began to pivot, moving into roles such as director of community partnerships and director of stakeholder partnerships and diversity, equity and inclusion.
After about 16 years at Coca-Cola, Jackson Nnake joined Twitter at the start of 2022 as the head of global IDEA (inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility) partnerships. Her role ended at the end of 2022 when the social media giant conducted its first round of layoffs under the ownership of Elon Musk.
Her latest role is at Klaviyo, a Boston company known for its marketing automation platform. Jackson Nnake recently spoke with BostInno about transitioning from communications to equity work, lessons learned from Coca-Cola and Twitter, her guiding principle of “salt and light” and her vision for Klaviyo.
This interview has been edited lightly for length and clarity.
You started your career working in communications and over the years moved into more DEI, community impact roles. Why did you make that transition?
In my earlier years, it was about just gaining experience. You don’t know what you don’t know. And sometimes you get closer to what you want to do by taking a chance and experiencing things that you didn’t know or hadn’t thought of. But as I continued to grow in my career and in my experience, it became very clear to me that the professional outlet of my personal motto to be "salt and light" was really within the realms of DEI and corporate social impact.
Tell us more about “salt and light.” How does that manifest in your work?
So for me, that’s how am I enhancing? How am I bringing out the flavors of the opportunity, of the initiative, for all to enjoy? How am I helping to lead us toward that light? Bringing in persons with different perspectives, helping to elevate their light.
After so long at one company, why did you decide to leave Coca-Cola for a new position at Twitter?
I took a chance. While I had learned so much from the Coke system, my experiences there, the people that I met and had the opportunity to learn with and learn from. I felt like it was time for me to learn something new.
There was an opportunity to help shape how Twitter at that time would impact the world and would share its resources with historically marginalized communities and organizations that advocated on behalf of those communities. And as well as prioritizing our IDEA principles and making sure what we did on the outside also matched what we did on the inside.
You saw the posting for this role at Klaviyo on LinkedIn and decided to apply. What about this role felt like the right next step for you?
Different than my Coca-Cola experience or even my Twitter experience, it called out the combination of these two seemingly separate functions of equity, diversity and inclusion and corporate social responsibility. It put them together in one intentionally. For me, that was a signal that the organization understood that the missing magic, the missing spark, was bringing together those two value-added functions so that we can create a virtuous cycle. Going back to the way in which we impact our employees will seep out into our community. And the good work that we’re doing into the community will glean that back into our employee base.
Where does your work start at Klaviyo?
Harkening back to Klaviyo’s key differentiator in the marketplace, it’s not just providing anything to anybody, but really providing customized, personalized experiences to meet the businesses where they are and empower those creators to own their own destiny. We’ll be taking that same level of nuance and customized approach to our equity, diversity and inclusion journey and focusing first on the people. On gaining understanding, creating consistent and relevant programs and routines for people to see themselves, for them to feel like they belong and for them to feel comfortable being their most authentic selves.
