In 2020, WashREIT created the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Council. The 18-memeber council oversees diversity and inclusion initiatives at WashREIT. With direct Board oversight, the council both tracks and monitors our diversity metrics and facilitates learning and training opportunities for the comany.

The DEIB Council was formed to advocate for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging within the organization through initiatives and tasks to be executed on an ongoing basis. Our DEIB Council is overseen by WashREIT's senior leadership team and Board of Trustees.

In its inaugural year, the DEIB Council at WashREIT laid the groundwork for a more inclusive envirnment where employees can create a sense of belonging. The following initiatives were accomplished and will be ongoing practices at WashREIT.

• Diversity Learning Journey Series featuring speakers from diverse backgrounds speaking on their life and career experiences
• Minority-, Women-, and Veteran-owned business tracking of both our vendors and tenants to provide baseline metrics on interactions with the local community
• Targeted recruitment and relationship development at HBCUs and with diverse industry groups
• Diversity and equity audit for baseline information and target setting
• Recognition of diversity and inclusion months and celebrations
• Partnership with Jubilee Housing to provide tutoring for school-aged children
• Annual inclusion and belonging survey to gather employee sentiment around DEIB efforts
• Hired a D&I consultant for both company-wide development and help with the DEIB Council

Our DEIB journey has really just begun, but early feedback indicates that we are already having better conversations, recognizing our own biases, and improving ourcultural intelligence. In 2020, we explored ideas and implemented actions that will lay the groundwork for the years ahead. Our goal for 2021 is to think bigger and more longer-term, and to build upon the framework that we laid this year. We are committed to advancing diversity inclusion in the workplace and we look forwad to providing future updates on our progress.