When the current administration tried to cancel diversity, equity and inclusion work, Kanetra “Kiki” Hights, a DEI leader with more than 20 years of experience, knew what she had to do.
“I’m going to amp it up,” Hights said. “That was my clapback.”
It can be exhausting, Hights said, to constantly be fighting a system that doesn’t fight for her. But despite the DEI fatigue, Hights is certain of one thing: “I can’t quit now.”
For almost five years, she has been the talent management director for the San Antonio-based global food manufacturer C.H. Guenther, where she also is responsible for the culture sector and employee resource groups. By looking outside the box, Hights helps find and uplift people whose skills and talents could be overlooked due to biases and assumptions.
She writes DEI training, manages and directs employee resource groups, and does career path mentoring at C.H. Guenther. She takes pride in helping employees identify the next steps to advance their careers, advising people on how to approach conversations around promotions or pay raises.
“If I can change one person’s life, then I feel like I accomplished something,” Hights said.
Courtesy photo.
Her commitment to DEI deepened in 2024 when she started her consulting business, Cultural Heights Solutions. In her four month program, she leads a cohort of emerging and midlevel leaders looking to learn and take action to cultivate a more inclusive space, teaching real-word applications like writing policy or implementing inclusion practices.
The passion project was born out of a life-changing procedure Hights underwent the year she started it.
“I didn’t think that I was going to make it out of the surgery alive,” Hights said. “When I did, I made it a personal mission to myself that I would put my mark on different things in the world.”
At the end of March, she began doing that in a new way and with a new title: chair of the San Antonio LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce. When she first joined, she said, no Black women were on the board.
“It was important for me to have a role in the chamber where I could actually have a voice in the room to offer a different perspective,” she said, noting that her specific experiences as a Black bisexual woman are different from other facets of the LGBTQ+ community.
Courtesy photo
She had been chair for only a week when she shared her plans for her first year. (She can run for one additional year). She has challenged board members to visit businesses twice a quarter to strengthen personal connections within the chamber.
Like any other nonprofit, Hights said, she wants to increase the chamber’s finances. But she is most excited about orchestrating her legacy project this year after receiving a $10,000 Spurs Legacy & Leaders Award in January. She gifted the money toward the chamber and is creating an annual small business summit during October, LGBTQ+ History Month.
After her time as chair concludes, Hights plans to trade the LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce for the City Council chambers. She was accepted into a LGBTQ+ and a women-centered campaign school and will begin learning in July how to be a candidate for City Council.
“I know it’s ambitious,” she said. “But I feel like if I put the work into it, I can make it happen.”
The chamber’s end term aligns with the timeline to run for City Council. And, Hights knows, her perspective is deserving of a seat.
“You’ve got to be in spaces,” she said. “And then you got to make room at the table for people who look like you.”