Episode 35: A Conversation On Making Media Equitable - How Latoya Drake, Head Of Media Representation At Google, Created A Role To Elevate Underrepresented Voices In The World Of Media And Tech

Latoya Drake

Head of Media Representation, Google

This week’s episode features Latoya Drake, Head of Media Representation at Google. Latoya landed in the world of media after pivoting from her path to law school and quickly finding herself immersed in the world of messaging, soundbites and ultimately becoming the voice and face for global corporations. Inspired by the quote “I am a voice in this world and I deserve to be heard” from 90s tv show “A Different World,” Latoya has built a career elevating underrepresented voices and creating a more inclusive and equitable media ecosystem.

Listen as we discuss how Latoya identified the need for her current role at Google amid the challenging social and media landscape of 2020, her take on higher education addressing DEI and the importance of a multicultural lens in the media industry as a former Adjunct Instructor at NYU, and why she advises Black women to chase the role not the company.

BWTW Conversation Highlights

Myriha (Host): You recently took on the position as Google’s first ever Head Of Media Representation? I want to first dig into why was this role created? What influence did the overall challenging social media landscape of 2021 have on the creation of the role?

Latoya Drake (Guest): Last year (2020), I was just exhausted. I'm not alone in this. But it was hard to watch what was happening around us, especially starting in May of 2020 and really show up and just do business as usual. I realized people had a hard time understanding what was happening and talking about it, especially if you were not living it and you were just a passive participant. You see things and you think, “well, that's sad that that's happening, but on with my life.” Some of us couldn't divorce ourselves from it. And we were carrying it.

A lot of the work that I was doing didn't really have the right scope, it didn't have a title, it wasn't properly resourced. So I started talking with our team and I'm thinking “this should be the job. This is what I want to do. This is what I’m meant to do.” I wrote it all down, I put it into a document and sent it to my managers. I said, “Here's what we need to be doing, what can we call it?” And they responded, okay, let’s give this some thought. We soon gave it a name, Head of Media Representation. We announced it and we started doing the work.

Myriha (Host): Tell me about what your day-to-day looks like. I would imagine, no one day is probably the same.

Latoya Drake (Guest): Between 11am and 2pm I'm hyper productive. That's when I can get work done and that's when I can strategize and plan. I'm also doing a lot of reading and paying attention to what's being said in the media, especially on Twitter. I am trying to I look around and see what's happening, where can we plug in, and who we can support with the resources that I have. I’m identifying those who never thought to partner with us, but I see what they need and I see how we can do some coalition building. So there's a lot of planning and strategy.

There's also a lot of meeting across teams. At Google we always say, no one has power but what you have is influence. So I spend days influencing and using my reputation to look across teams, because it's not just about me and my team and the work that I do. It's about what's happening on the product side, and what questions can I be asking? What's happening over there on YouTube? And what should we be doing? And how can they help me do this? What's happening outside of the company? So it's really looking long-term, strategizing, and actually doing the work as well.

Connect with Latoya Drake

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Myriha Burce