Verizon has 10 employee resource groups, including the Consortium of Information and Telecommunications Executives (CITE), an organization primarily made up of African-American employees. The groups promote personal and professional growth for employees with common interests and assist with strategic business goals such as employee development, diversity awareness and recruitment, and volunteerism in the community. More than 12,000 resource group members in chapters around the country participate in a variety of activities and events that help enrich their communities.

The purpose of CITE is to raise the level of consciousness of all employees with regard to minority concerns; and to facilitate the personal, professional and career development of African-American and other employees.

CITE provides employee advocacy and makes a positive impact by hosting annual conferences, providing over $150,000 yearly in scholarships to needy students across the country, and implementing training and professional development programs. CITE's commitment to literacy is demonstrated through its partnerships with Verizon Reads and First Book. First Book is the national nonprofit agency that provides a first new book to children from low-income families. These partnerships enabled CITE local organizations to distribute over 500,000 children's books to various schools and community organizations in 2004 alone.

The CITE logo is a quilt design with four Adinkra symbols and the CITE name. Adinkra symbols were and still are used in Africa as a language and form of communication. Each motif that makes up the corpus of Adinkra symbolism has a name and meaning derived either from a proverb, historical event, human attitude, animal behavior, plant life, and forms and shapes of inanimate and man-made objects. Adinkra symbolism is a visual representation of social thought relating to the history, philosophy and religious beliefs of the Akan people of Ghana and Cote' d'Ivoire.

The Adinkra symbols used in the CITE quilt include the wisdom knot (for intelligence and ingenuity); the talking drum (for communication, united action and goodwill); the two-headed crocodile (for unity in diversity and oneness of the human family despite cultural differences); and twistings (for selfless devotion to service, adaptability and ability to withstand and overcome hardships). In the old days, quilts were made to keep families warm. Quilts also protected and helped slaves during their escape to freedom. The logo colors are black, red and white to represent CITE's affiliation with Verizon.

CITE-WV Executive Board Members include

President Marlene Hackett

Immediate Past President Monica Ashford

Executive Vice President Dena Golden

Recording Secretary Mario Denson

Treasurer Sherry James

Assistant Treasurer Dola Bowles

Parliamentarian Dorothy Setzer

CITE-WV address is

PO Box 3682