Hear Julie Donaldson, outspoken, brimming with enthusiasm and determination about the dignity to be given to women who paint for Dan Snyder’s beleaguered Washington soccer team.
“I know what it’s like to have a bad culture, a bad emotional culture, and I know what it takes to have a smart culture,” Donaldson told USA TODAY Sports. “I will have 0 tolerance for anyone who is not compatible with our plan in the future. Zero tolerance for (expletive). Zero tolerance to mistreatment of people, men or women. “
It’s certainly a message when 42-year-old Donaldson takes up his new position as senior media vice president, just over a dozen years after surviving a high-profile domestic attack through an ex-boyfriend.
“If I can be a voice, even if it’s just for a woguy or a guy who wants to be defended, then this task is valuable,” he says.
Hired in July after The Washington Post published the first of two reports in which 40 women, all existing or former workers, alleged widespread sexual harassment and office culture issues within the organization, Donaldson is the toughest woman in the franchise beyond Tanya Snyder. The owner’s wife.
It also makes history. When Washington opens the 2020 season against the Eagles on Sunday at an empty FedEx Field, Donaldson will make his debut as the first Woguy to take on a full-time role in the radio booth of an NFL team. personal team that includes player Bram Weinstein and analyst DeAngelo Hall, the former Pro Bowl cornerback.
The task of broadcasting, he insists, is easy. Donaldson, a long-time reporter and presenter who for more than two seasons hosted Washington before and after the game at NBC Sports Washington, has a number of new concepts to implement.
However, like Jason Wright (the first black team president in NFL history) and new coach Ron Rivera, Donaldson is tasked with inheriting a mess to blank out, while the allegations are investigated. Sexual harassment and lawsuits threaten to further embarrass a franchise mired in losing at more than just soccer.
In addition to the demanding situations of plans to play a full season amid the coronavirus pandemic as social justice issues go offstage, the NFL faces a #MeToo scandal involving the franchise that, in July, however, withdrew. the name of his racist team.
Donaldson, whose résumé is based on paintings in major media markets in Miami, New York, Boston and Washington, stated that he had reservations about joining the franchise.
“I’ve heard the stories,” he says. “I knew, before this first article appeared, some of the men who appear in it; however, in the extension and in the main points that have been revealed.
In July, Alex Santos, Director of Professional Scouting, and Richard Mann III, Deputy Director of Professional Scouting, were relieved of their duties some time before the Post’s first report featured detailed allegations of sexual harassment that opposed them. The Post’s moment report alleged that a raunchy video featuring racy clips from a 2008 cheerleader video footage was commissioned through veteran broadcaster and team manager Larry Michael for the enjoyment of Snyder and ‘other top executives. Snyder issued a denial of having seen or known the video; Michael, who withdrew before the stories were posted, has also denied any involvement in the video.
Why make a sign for this? Change the culture. This is the motto that illustrates Donaldson’s challenge.
“If I dedicate a lot of time to my task, we sacrifice a lot for those tasks, it has to be in an environment in which I feel comfortable, in which I want to spend my time running with other people. Donaldson said. “And I already knew that there were many other smart people in this organization, however, I sought to know what authority I have to make a difference. I don’t want to come in and be her puppet and be her pretty face that can make television screens. It’s the nature of the moment for me. Redoing those screens is easy. But making adjustments is all that it is not, and you want to have full control and the homeowners to do it. “
Donaldson said Snyder’s number one direction to help build “a wonderful organization. “
Donaldson is a life-filled emergency ball. During her first 4 days of work, she established a seven-member board of directors for a new organization, Women’s Initiative Now (WIN), committed to supporting the 57 women who make up approximately 20% of the franchise’s non-player employees. At this time of the week, she said that at least forty-five of the women attended a Zoom convention to begin defining the priorities of the organization that, she said, was considered through other women before her arrival and before coronavirus replaced the previous workflow this year.
When the Post’s current article fell, Donaldson said the executive committee members called everyone else in the organization.
“How are you?Donaldson talked about the nature of the calls. ” People just need to be able to percentages and know that they are noticed and that they matter. That’s the interest of this WIN group. I think women really enjoyed someone taking the time to see them, because it was so heavy and very touching. Some women have experienced this or know the women who have spoken».
When Wright resumed business operations last August, Donaldson said that on their first exchange, she presented him with a list of WIN considerations and invited him to the organization’s next meeting.
Some of WIN’s goals come with building human resource capacity to facilitate a credible formula for accountability and court case management, social support, mentoring, and professional development. The organization also aims to combine a series of internal seminars and workshops and team up with women’s teams from other NFL teams.
“Things are happening, ” said Donaldson. ” We’re talking, we’re in action. “
However, a frank speech is on the learning curve when Donaldson embarks on the first leadership position of his career. Transparency too.
“What I learned is that some (of the women) that have been here for a while, some of them were a little sure that things were happening, once the main points were made,” Donaldson said. “Why didn’t we know? We may have just talked. This is one of the real disorders that we have here. There is no valid and genuine protocol on how to file a complaint and how to escalate it and how to take action on it. That is why I believe that culture has lasted as long as it has existed.
“Well, now we’re putting that in place. It will no longer be confusing, as to what is reported, what is accepted and what is not and how it is reported. “
In 2008, Donaldson said she and two visitors were attacked in her Boston apartment through her then-boyfriend, Ivan Lattimore. Lattimore pleaded guilty to three counts of attack and was sentenced to one year in prison. He was then sentenced to another year for sending letters to Donaldson after his conviction. There is also a lifetime restraining order.
“It’s been eight months of my life,” he said, “from the first date to his incarceration. Coming out of a divorce. I don’t care if it’s a friendly divorce; Divorce is very complicated to live in. backwards and deranged, and I fell in love with his lies, after experiencing this and the way the story told in the media, I was victimized, as if it were my fault that I had been beaten, it was horrible, they gave the microphone to my attacker in prison. It’s salaz and frankly false.
Donaldson claims that he became more powerful after this ordeal, refusing to spend the rest of his life in the role of victim. Now he relies on deep empathy to develop his project to replace the existing culture.
“I know what it’s like to be a victim,” he says. “I know all the feelings that come with being a victim. I know what it’s like to be blamed as a victim. I know what it’s like to be a victim. ” about that, to say, “ I’m not going to let that describe who I am and what I stand for. ” I think it has prepared me well to deal with the disorders these women face. to be mistreated, what it is to not be heard. I know what it is to not be respected, not to be respected, to let go, to work, not to be appreciated. I can feel all those feelings.
“I will be very touchy with any victim who has the courage to speak up and expose their story, because it is easy to do. “