By Nicquel Terry Ellis

(CNN) — Rafael Fantauzzi has worked in diversity, equity and inclusion roles in the retail, home health and pharmaceutical industries for the last eight years.

The Philadelphia-area resident takes pride in helping improve the workplace culture and experience for women, people with disabilities, veterans and Black and brown people, he said.

But as Fantauzzi — who left his DEI chief job at a pharmaceutical company last month due to restructuring — searches for a new role in the field, those opportunities may be shrinking as President Donald Trump and his conservative allies wage war on DEI.

After taking office last week, Trump ordered all federal DEI workers to be placed on paid leave and signed an executive order targeting private companies with DEI programs.

The directives came as several major corporations rolled back their DEI initiatives in response to conservative backlash and lawsuits from right-wing groups. On Friday, Target became the latest big company to reverse its DEI programs.

The shift in the industry, DEI consultants and analysts say, has left many professionals concerned about their job stability and the future of their careers in the field.

“There is fear and the fear is real,” Fantauzzi said. “I think some of the fear is a lack of understanding. What are the repercussions?”

Still, Fantauzzi said he remains optimistic that when the dust settles, companies will reinvent DEI in a way that makes sense from a legal and financial standpoint.

Several major companies contacted by CNN did not respond to requests for information about the status of their DEI programs. Other companies and DEI executives declined to comment.

Shaun Harper, founder of the Race & Equity Center at the University of Southern California, said he’s spoken with DEI professionals who are anxious about the state of the industry and how the changes could impact their teams and the work they value.

“They are afraid of losing their jobs, of losing their livelihoods, of not being able to get another job,” Harper said. “Right now the jobs that those folks have been doing for years are not en vogue.”

There is also a sense of anger in the industry because DEI work is largely misunderstood by critics, Harper said.

Experts say DEI was created because marginalized communities have not always had equal opportunities for jobs or felt a sense of belonging in majority-White corporate settings.

“They (DEI professionals) are so incredibly frustrated that they are being lied on and misrepresented as too woke, divisive people who hate America,” Harper said. “And that’s not who those folks are.”

How reversing DEI hurts the workplace

The reversal of DEI programs could undo the progress made over the past decade to make workplaces more inclusive and supportive of employees from underserved groups, some experts say.

Naomi Wheeless, chief customer officer at Nextech and an advocate for diversity, said DEI initiatives have helped elevate women, people of color and LGBTQ+ people to leadership roles at companies.

Now, Wheeless worries some companies may be reluctant to hire too many non-White people because of how it might be perceived.

“Subconsciously, hiring decisions could start to sway, promotional decisions could start to sway in such a way that it becomes harder for these groups to get ahead,” Wheeless said.

“We have suffered in silence for so long, then we worked very hard to try to level the playing field,” she added. “We begin to see the fruits of that labor and now the rug is being snatched from under our feet.”

Fantauzzi said he expects some people from underrepresented communities to leave the federal government or corporations that drop DEI because they don’t feel valued.

The result is a loss of talent that, in some cases, might be hard to replace, he said.

Harper said the dismantling of DEI offices may lead to more harassment and discrimination lawsuits against companies because the policies and people that hold employees accountable won’t be there. In many cases, DEI offices are charged with training workers on preventing unconscious bias, discrimination, inequities and sexual harassment.

“Existing inequities are going to widen, they are going to worsen as a result of this,” Harper said. “Women are going to be disadvantaged.”

Some companies remain committed

But despite concern among DEI professionals, some remain optimistic there is still a future for DEI.

Companies such as Costco, Apple, E.l.f. Beauty and JPMorgan have publicly reaffirmed their commitments to DEI in recent weeks.

A spokesperson for Mercedes-Benz USA said in an email to CNN the company remains “committed to fostering an inclusive and equitable environment.”

The NFL is also still committed to DEI, Commissioner Roger Goodell said during a news conference last month.

Goodell said the league’s rules and policies are “designed around how do we increase the number of people that have an opportunity to have a career in the NFL, including people of color and women.”

“We didn’t get into this because it was a trend and we’re not getting out of it because it’s a trend,” Goodell said. “We’re in it because it makes the NFL better.”

David Glasgow, executive director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at New York University School of Law, said he believes there will continue to be a mixture of companies withdrawing from DEI and those continuing their programs.

Glasgow said he encourages professionals to stay committed to the cause because DEI itself is not going away.

“No matter what happens to the field of DEI as it is presently constituted and branded, the underlying work will endure,” Glasgow said. “What we are all trying to work on together is how do we live together in a multiracial democracy and create institutions of opportunity and fairness where people show up to work each day and feel that they have a fair shot at being hired or promoted. There are too many people in this country that care about these issues for that project to go away.”

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