College of Health and Human Services Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee
Following the strong leadership of Linda Benavides, who chaired the committee for several years, the CH&HS DEI Committee welcomed two new co-chair members: Linda Houser and Lori Felker. The DEI committee has focused their recent work on learning the needs of faculty and staff of the CH&HS community, and they created a survey to better understand where to focus our future work. The committee members, under the guidance of Robin Dole and Justin Sitron, finalized a survey, which was completed by faculty and staff in April 2021. The survey identified a focus for the future tasks of the committee including the desire for tailored solutions to each unit, specific trainings (e.g.,how to have and facilitate courageous conversations), product-oriented workshops (e.g. decolonizing the syllabus), changes in policies/procedures (e.g., hiring, advancement), along with concrete action steps. The Committee will have one final meeting in May to prepare for implementing these priorities over the next academic year.
Sept. through Nov. – Weekly coffee conversations
- DEI committee members will facilitate informal opportunities for people to practice these skills with vignettes and to share their own experiences with handling microaggressions. These are scheduled at various times including evening and weekend sessions to allow the most people to attend. Locations and times to follow!
