Dena Herbolich (she/her) is a champion for inclusion and diversity (I&D) because she’s studied the topic and experienced its impact on the culture and people of organizations who are committed to that work. Dena left Moss Adams in 2005 but returned two years later as the firm invested resources to better retain and advance high-performing women at Moss Adams. Today, Dena is as proud of the firm’s commitment to I&D as she was in 2008 with the launch of our first business resource group (BRG): the Forum for Women (Forum W). She speaks about her efforts to inspire inclusion as part of this year’s Women’s History Month celebration.

You’ve been part of Forum W since its earliest years. How has the BRG evolved to support the needs of folks at Moss Adams?

Forum W has created amazing leaders who have evolved our firm culture—initially by recognizing and addressing the unique challenges of our women, and later through the launch of the GroWth Series and other BRGs.

Forum W and the GroWth Series have expanded, now broadening the umbrella to include gender nonconforming and nonbinary team members to give our managers a stronger foundation to accelerate their career growth. We also see great collaboration between our BRGs, like the upcoming internal training led by Forum W, the Disability BRG, and the Pride BRG.

I love seeing men at Forum W events who are actively engaged as allies to women at the firm.

I understand you left Moss Adams and returned partly because of Forum W. Can you tell us what brought you back?

Well, it wasn’t easy to leave. 

Back then, I struggled with our industry’s personal and professional expectations of women with families. I had twin boys, and though I was given a lot of opportunities at the firm to advance, balancing everything felt challenging and I didn’t have enough examples to prove we could do both.

But I knew I’d miss the people, so it’s no wonder I lost sleep and cried a lot over the decision to leave. Moss Adams is full of people who embrace you and have your back, who want you to learn and be your best, and I didn’t realize how unique that was at the time.

Before I left, partners told me leaders were already working on something to retain the high-performing women who were leaving the firm.

I stayed in touch with some of my colleagues, and while I was gone, Moss Adams evaluated their processes with an external consultant to better support women in their careers. Leadership committed to coaching our people and bringing them around to increase the retention of women—that’s what drew me back. It proved inclusion matters here.

That’s a great transition—the theme for this year’s Women’s History Month celebration is Inspire Inclusion. Can you speak to what that means to you?

In my career, I’ve had moments when I felt like an outsider, but I’ve also felt like part of the in-group—being ”in” feels better, but it carries a responsibility to others. We’re part of a community, and every community has sub-groups based on common experiences. People in those sub-groups shouldn’t feel like outsiders at our firm, and it’s incumbent on us all to create a culture of inclusion.

We have to remember how much we learn from those who aren’t like us. Organizations with a diverse workforce and equitable opportunities do better than those with a culture of exclusion. When people feel included, they meet and exceed expectations and pass that back to their colleagues and clients. I’ve seen this personally.

It makes me sad when people deny this. When people feel excluded or unsupported, they seek out new environments. Turnover and onboarding are expensive, and it comes with a reputational risk. Providing opportunities where people can shine is good business practice. A rising tide lifts more boats, and that’s exactly what inclusion does for Moss Adams.

As a leader at Moss Adams, how do you inspire inclusion?

I do my best to help our people feel safe and supported, but they’ve taught me so much too. My life, personally and professionally, has been enriched because of what I put into the relationships with people I meet at the firm and through the BRGs, regardless of what we have in common.

When I was coming up, I didn’t see women like me. Nowadays, we have a great, talented, and diverse workforce and our leaders are beginning to reflect that. As partners, we need to look beyond the people most like us and find opportunities to take our firm culture further. When we support each other, we all thrive.

That’s why I take a genuine interest in the careers of the people I work with—I know the difference it makes because it made a difference for me.   People around me saw something in me and helped me achieve it. A little bit of encouragement, even from people just two years ahead of me, made me feel like I belonged. Being included influenced the way I showed up to work.

I loved hearing Alicia Keys at the 2025 Grammy Awards this year. She reinforced that our I&D work is “a gift,” and “not a threat.” There is no doubt a more diverse workforce makes us a stronger firm—I’m a better person because I know people who are different from me.