June 14, 2017

Dear Members of the Community,

As the College moves into summer many of you are appropriately focused on summer projects and, hopefully, vacations.

In the Office of Diversity & Inclusion, we’re also looking ahead as we concentrate on the continued execution of our mission and goals next year.  As a part of that process, I want to offer a brief update on some members of the diversity & inclusion team and tell you about some of our plans.

On the personnel side, I’d like to highlight the work of five talented individuals who are playing important roles in our office:

Angie Tissi-Gassoway has been promoted to Associate Dean for Diversity & Inclusion, where she will serve as second-in-command on all student-facing matters related to diversity and equity. She will continue to help advance the College’s goals for inclusion, working to make our differences a benefit to everyone’s educational experience.  The Queer Resource Center, Women’s and Gender Center, Multicultural Resource Center, Center for International Student Engagement, and the Office of Campus Diversity and Student Leadership will report directly to her.  We also congratulate Angie on being voted an Honorary Member of the Class of 2017.

 

Dina Levi joined the team on April 17, 2017, as Director of Inclusive Leadership.  She comes to us from many years of experience in K-12 education and most recently, the Federal Reserve in Chicago where she led the effort to infuse diversity and inclusion into the organization’s operations.  Dina is responsible for working with staff and administrators to identify important leadership competencies and develop skills anchored in inclusive and equitable practices.

 

Tenzin Kunor, who was formally an Assistant Director of Residential Life, joined the team on May 1, 2017, as Associate Director of Diversity and Leadership.  His office, the Office of Campus Diversity and Student Leadership, focuses on support of undocumented/DACA students, transfer students, first-generation students, and student veterans. Additionally, he will work to develop and cultivate leadership opportunities for all Amherst students.

 

Marisa Parham has been serving a three-year appointment as one of two faculty diversity and inclusion officers since December 2016.  She is helping to design workshops for faculty (particularly those serving on department search committees) focused on high-impact practices to increase faculty diversification and retention.  She is identifying activities that will help us improve our advising and support so that more students from historically underrepresented groups will pursue PhDs, fellowships, and prizes.  Finally, Marisa will help bring greater focus to our leadership efforts in STEM diversity and excellence.

 

Allen Hart has been serving a three-year appointment as a faculty diversity and inclusion officer since December 2016.  His primary work has been the design and implementation of a comprehensive database that will preserve and display all information related to faculty searches.  It will allow academic departments to access information on competitive faculty candidates, best search practices across various disciplines and subfields, and flagship PhD programs producing greater numbers of faculty scholars from underrepresented and marginalized communities.  Allen will focus his time on the expansion of our programmatic offerings for prizes and fellowships and will co-lead our increased emphasis on STEM diversity and excellence.

 

The Office of Diversity & Inclusion will share Year 1 accomplishments in an annual report to be published in August.  Meanwhile, we are pleased to tell you about our Year 2 strategies which support three long-term goals:

  • Recruit, support and retain a diverse community of first-rate faculty scholars;
  • Create a greater sense of belonging for all Amherst students; and
  • Help create the conditions for successfully recruiting and supporting a more diverse staff.

Some of the projects that will support these goals are:

  • Launch of an oral histories project which encourages Amherst students and alums to connect past, present, and future through recorded narratives. The Office of Diversity & Inclusion will solicit ideas for the project from the community and will provide funding for interesting and innovative projects.
  • Continued and intensified focus on accessibility programming and education.
  • Introduction of Tenure Track, a portal into which untenured faculty can submit narratives about their service to the College. This will allow us to better capture the kinds of out-of-classroom contributions our faculty are making to the community.
  • Implementing additional programs aimed at dialogue across difference.
  • Establishment of the Office of Inclusive Leadership which will focus on staff development with an emphasis on inclusion and equity.
  • Introduction of the Pioneer Valley Project, a workforce development project examining recruitment and retention trends in the Pioneer Valley as part of Amherst’s quest to be a leader in workforce development and employee retention and satisfaction.

Additionally, we are pleased that all student-facing offices connected to diversity and inclusion are now housed in the Keefe Campus Center.  This includes: the Multicultural Resource Center (MRC), the Women’s and Gender Center (WGC), the Queer Resource Center (QRC), the newly named Center for International Student Engagement (formerly known as the International Student Office), and the Office of Campus Diversity and Student Leadership.

As a part of this coming together, the WGC will be moving to the second floor game room and the Center for International Student Engagement, for the first time, will have its own space in the first-floor office currently housing the WGC.  Angie’s new office will be located in Keefe 203, and we will inform you of new office locations upon welcoming a new QRC Director and Director for International Student Engagement.  Tenzin and the Office of Campus Diversity and Student Leadership will be housed in the Center for Community Engagement.

Lastly, we offer a special congratulations to all seniors who contributed to the work of diversity and inclusion through their affiliation with our office:

Office of the CDIO

Lauren Benjamin - Sociology and Russian

George Long - Black Studies

 

Women’s & Gender Center

Austin Lee - Black Studies

Jessica Maposa - Architecture and Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought

Kamini Ramlakhan - Psychology and Sexuality, Women's & Gender Studies

 

Queer Resource Center

Saren Deardorff - Sexuality, Women's & Gender Studies and Black Studies

Nayah Mullings - Sociology and Five College African Studies Certificate

 

Thanks to everyone who helped us have an engaging first year as a newly-created office of the College.  We welcome your continued feedback (diversityandinclusion@amherst.edu) and partnership.

 

Have a great summer! 

Norm Jones

Office of Diversity & Inclusion