Chanin Kelly-Rae

Chanin Kelly-Rae (born 1970) is an American diversity and inclusion practitioner. She is the founder and chief executive officer of Chanin Kelly-Rae Consulting, a diversity management firm.

She served briefly as the global director of diversity in the Amazon Web Services division of Amazon, and resigned to expose what she alleged to be "deep, systemic issues" disadvantaging underrepresented workers, especially those that are Black.

Early life and education Kelly-Rae attended Rufus King International High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she grew up with her father, Gus Kelly, who was a chef, mother and five siblings. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and cultural studies from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and a graduate certificate in diversity management from Cornell University.

Career

Kelly-Rae started her career as a middle school and high school teacher in Milwaukee.

Kelly-Rae then went on to serve as the senior director of inclusion and equity for the National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association, the diversity manager for Catholic Community Services of Western Washington, and as the statewide diversity manager for Washington State. In January 2020, she said that she was dismissed by Beth Galetti at the company's first annual diversity summit when she offered to share why access to data was imperative for diversity and inclusion work because she hadn't worked at the company for long enough. Galetti had said at the summit that the employees don't "need the data to do [the] job". She was the first worker to come forward on the record, and has since helped others speak out, including Charlotte Newman, who has since filed a lawsuit against Amazon alleging discrimination and sexual harassment. She alleged she was also "de-leveled", which she said was confirmed by two vice president and the hiring manager. Kelly-Rae said that the 26% of Black workers Amazon shared in its diversity statistics were misleading, as the majority of Black workers at Amazon work in the warehouses and "the only Black people that [she] saw [in Amazon’s Seattle headquarters] every day were either opening doors or cleaning floors."

Amazon has said that they "work hard to make Amazon a company where our Black employees and people of all backgrounds feel included, respected, and want to grow their careers" and that they "do not tolerate discrimination or harassment in any form." They also said it is a common practice for the company to "de-level" all employees, indiscriminate of their identity.

As of February 2019, Kelly-Rae resided in Everett, Washington with her husband Richard Rae and two children.