Bright Compass adds presidential hopeful Julian Castro to client list

With Bright Compass, a Washington, DC-based full-service human resources consulting firm, political campaigns will be able to lay a foundation for sexual harassment awareness and prevention.

Since its March launch, the firm has led sexual harassment trainings for the Democratic National Committee and US Senator Tim Kaine’s 2018 campaign. Now, it is also working with presidential hopeful Julian Castro, who previously served as Housing and Urban Development Secretary on President Barack Obama’s cabinet, from 2014-2017. The firm will also provide its services to other, unnamed presidential candidates, according to an article by Business Insider.

Bright Compass is headed by founder Dallas Thompson, the former operations director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign in North Carolina. The firm itself was a response to lawsuits and complaints following the 2018 midterms, the goal being to “eradicate discrimination and harassment in all forms ahead of the 2020 election cycle.”

“The #MeToo movement and recent allegations of sexual harassment on electoral campaigns show that we have a long way to go to end workplace harassment in progressive spaces,” Dallas Thompson, Bright Compass president and founder, said in a press release. “It’s clear that existing campaign policies and practices have failed to root out the problem, and Bright Compass is committed to addressing this systematic challenge and creating empowering compliant, and inclusive campaign workspaces.”

Studies have shown that 81% of women and 44% of men have experienced some form of sexual harassment in their lives, according to Bright Compass’s website. Additionally, a 2016 report from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) revealed that 70% of people don’t report workplace harassment at all. It’s the recipe for a toxic environment – something Bright Compass plans to rectify.

“We believe that you need live, engaging training with hypotheticals and discussions about the gray areas that exist, particularly, in politics because it’s not your average nine to five,” Thompson said in an interview with Business Insider. “You’re going to be working long hours, a lot of your employees are going to be very young, it may be their first job. We make sure that people have definitions of what harassment is.”

Working with Thompson are Ally Coll and Dan Kanninen, who currently serve as Bright Compass advisors. Coll is an attorney and president of The Purple Campaign, a nonprofit dedicated to ending workplace sexual harassment. Kanninen is partner and CEO of political and public affairs advocacy firm STG. He also served as state director for the Obama and Clinton campaigns.