KZG’s Trish Zita Discusses Diversity in ROI-NJ’s July 1st Issue
ROI-NJ, which publishes a weekly issue covering some of the most important issues facing the New Jersey business community, recently featured remarks and insight from KZG’s Trish Zita in an article included in their July 1st issue.
The article, “Destination: Diversification,” which focuses on the lack of gender and racial diversity in the lobbying profession, highlights KZG’s Trish Zita as a prominent example of how the profession needs to become more diverse.
According to the article, by most measures and certainly in terms of compensation – recent media reports listing the highest paid lobbyists in the state didn’t include women in the Top 10 – men still dominate the profession. But there are some, one of them being Trish Zita, co-founder and principal at KZG, that have secured for themselves prominent positions on State Street.
Speaking to the lack of diversity amongst Trenton’s power players, Trish said:
“You look across the spectrum of the larger lobbying firms and there aren’t many named female partners even in this day and age. There are more than there was 10 or 20 years ago, but certainly not to the level that’s reflective of the population of the state.”
Trish continued by highlighting how the lobbying profession has yet to catch up with the progress that the State Legislature and Governor’s Office has made:
“There are younger folks entering the government side that have much different backgrounds – their culture, their experiences are much more diverse than you would’ve seen in the State House 20 years ago. I think that contributes to a better discourse in developing policy and laws.”
Finally, Trish went on to discuss the importance of promoting diversity at the Kaufman Zita Group:
“At my firm in particular, I think it’s important to have voices from a range of backgrounds coming in and helping our clients understand what the legislative body is doing and why they’re doing what they’re doing. Whether it’s diversity in political parties, diversity of race or sex – I think it’s all important. At the end of the day, it really provides better representation to our clients if we’re more reflective of the state of New Jersey.”
To read the article, please click here.
