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WBJ Editor Brad Kane
As he departs WBJ, Grant leaves behind a legacy of hard-nosed investigative journalism, data-driven reporting, and the vital-but-all-too-rare trait of speaking truth to power. During a time in the Central Mass. journalism industry where nearly all media outlets are more concerned with appeasing government officials and business executives, as well as promoting their ideas and opinions, Grant offered undisputed facts and thoughts from unbiased experts, unafraid of how his stories often went against the grain, following only where the research took him.
In 2018, Grant published a six-part investigative series showing how Central Mass. is behind the state and national curves in having businesswomen in positions of power. The Boardroom Gap investigative series has now become an annual highlight in WBJ’s coverage. Later that year, after hearing countless officials and executives brag of a Worcester Renaissance, he dove deep into more than three dozen key me
It’s my fourth year writing a submission for the WBJ’s The Boardroom Gap investigative series. To prepare I cautiously started doing some research. In the “Women CEOS in America 2020 Report” published by The Women in Business Collaborative, an alliance of business women’s organizations working to achieve equal position, pay and power for all women, things were looking up.
When Kate Tobiasson, a Westborough resident who spent nearly 15 years working as an English teacher at three different Central Massachusetts school districts, was about to give birth to her first son in February 2013, she had fortunately saved enough accrued paid time off over several years.
When Kate Tobiasson, a Westborough resident who spent nearly 15 years working as an English teacher at three different Central Massachusetts school districts, was about to give birth to her first son in February 2013, she had fortunately saved enough accrued paid time off over several years.
Her accrual, plus fortunate timing with the school calendar, provided her seven weeks with her first baby.
But in 2016, when she was pregnant with her second son, she wasn’t so lucky.
Taking care of both herself and her first child, who was prone to frequent illness, she ran out of paid time off by the time she was ready to give birth.