LOCAL ADVOCATE RETHA HILL LOOKS FOR DIVERSITY IN EVERYTHING

Our goal at Schmitt Jewelers is to be Unlike Any Other. This mantra spans all aspects of our company – from the pieces we make to the customer service and satisfaction that we provide. To celebrate leaders in our community, we’ve chosen to highlight people who are Unlike Any Other.

Some people pride themselves on their ability to overlook differences. Retha Hill built her career on looking differences right in the eye and making them shine.

Retha is a media innovator and local advocate who is passionate about finding, encouraging and enhancing diversity in all forms of media. Her work over the years has spanned organizations as varied as The Washington Post, the New Media Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab at Arizona State University’s Cronkite School of Journalism and BET. She’s consistently led digital innovation projects to keep them ahead of the curve.

“There’s a lot of choice out there in terms of the media you follow, the clothes you buy and the jewelry you wear,” she says. “I’ve always been a person to support authenticity. Whenever you can support a local artisan and a local business, you should do that.”

For her, staying on the cutting edge of technology includes celebrating and recognizing diversity in society and supporting them. Her success and expertise is proof that the most powerful media comes from diversity in the stories being told, the people telling them and the mediums of storytelling.

Retha’s self-described lifelong passion is ensuring that the media is representative of all people. She believes human-centered design is at the heart of technology. One of her many projects includes helping train young journalists in the latest virtual reality technology and promoting strong entrepreneurial skills.