Category Archives: About Us

About the American Diversity Report

Advisors, Authors A-H, Gender, Race & Ethnicity, Religious Diversity

Renewing Diversity #13: Diversity History as a Foreign Country – by Carlos Cortés

In his mesmerizing novel, The Go-Between, L. P. Hartley wrote one of the finest opening lines of any novel I have ever read:  “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”

That certainly holds true for the historical trajectory of diversity.  At age 91, I’ve lived through myriad changes in the American diversity landscape.  As we wrestle with ongoing, inevitable challenges faced by the diversity movement, it behooves us to thoughtfully consider our past trajectory.  Yet to actually learn from that trajectory, we need to recognize how our presentist lenses can distort the very past that we are trying to understand.

Continue reading Renewing Diversity #13: Diversity History as a Foreign Country – by Carlos Cortés →

Authors R-Z, Holocaust/antisemitism, Interviewing Deborah

Responding: Resilience interview with Levine at St. Elizabeth U.

Holocaust author/educator Deborah Levine, The Art of Resilience: From Pain to Promise

Thanks for sharing the youtube video. Your interview was enlightening and further exhibits your strive to help make the world better. I agree with you that people must first understand the roots of historical tragedies. Too often, these stem from widespread indifference, people ignoring suffering or choosing not to get involved.

I appreciate how you are demonstrating for others by your own active engagement that is rooted in core human qualities like resilience, determination, courage, perseverance, humanity, and decency. It is further emphasized through your personal journey via physical, mental, and spiritual resilience, turning pain into promise through storytelling and lessons from your life that include health setbacks and triumphs. The childhood diary comments are very memorable portions of your talk.

 

You convey hope and a practical blueprint. Learn from history’s failures of inaction, cultivate inner strength and empathy, use tools like writing and storytelling to grow and inspire, and step up to build a more decent world.

DL Opinion columns, Holocaust/antisemitism

Holocaust Remembrance with determination – by Deborah Levine

originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is January 27th, the anniversary of the 1945 liberation of the Nazi’s Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. In 2005, the United Nations assigned the date to commemorate the Holocaust’s 6 million Jewish victims. But recently, the Google calendar removed International Holocaust Remembrance Day as part of the trend to blank out cultural and ethnic observances. Given the growing antisemitism and violence, like the recent arson of a Mississippi synagogue, many of us are determined to disallow this erasure of the Holocaust.

Continue reading Holocaust Remembrance with determination – by Deborah Levine →

DL Opinion columns

Protect and Serve: East Ridge Fire Rescue – by Deborah Levine

(originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press)

I was intrigued by the email about the ‘Push In’ celebration of a new fire truck in East Ridge, a role model for growing TN cities. I joined the community folks, council members, fire fighters for a tradition since the 1800s when fire trucks were pulled by horses. This modern truck cost $900,000, and given the powerful engine, we didn’t have to push it into the fire engine bay to put the truck officially in service. But what fun to do it! 

Decades ago, the downtown fire station was a privately owned, relatively small building. Now the East Ridge Fire Rescue is a city service and the building is a modernized version of the original. Even so, it may be outgrown in the not too distant future, symbolic of the growth in East Ridge. 

Continue reading Protect and Serve: East Ridge Fire Rescue – by Deborah Levine →

Authors I-Q, Trends 2026

Build a 2026 Professional Development Plan That Actually Works – by Julie Morris

…and Still Feels Like You

A professional development plan is a personal roadmap for building skills, earning opportunities, and staying employable as your work (and life) changes. It’s for anyone who’s ever thought, “I’m busy… but am I growing?” or “I want the next role, but I’m not sure what I’m missing.” The goal isn’t to cram your calendar with webinars. The goal is to make growth predictable, realistic, and tied to the life you want. And that sounds like a fantastic ambition for 2026. 

If you only read one section

A solid development plan starts with clarity: what you want next, what you’re good at now, and what’s in the way. Then it becomes routine: small actions you can repeat, a simple system to track progress, and a cadence for feedback. Done well, it doesn’t feel like homework—it feels like direction.

Continue reading Build a 2026 Professional Development Plan That Actually Works – by Julie Morris →

Authors R-Z, Race & Ethnicity

DEI: The Heart and Soul of America – by Niloo Soleimani

Why Micro-Belonging Is the Future

When people talk about DEI, they often turn to statistics, trends, and political debates — but for me, it began as something far more personal. I didn’t begin my American journey with belonging. I began it with silence, loneliness, and a depression I didn’t have words for at fourteen. I came with colored olive skin and an accent that marked me as “other” the moment I opened my mouth. I watched people connect effortlessly while I stood at the edges — unseen, unheard, and aching for a place in a world that was unkind to someone who didn’t quite fit. Those early years taught me how deeply not belonging can cut into the human heart. And it was in the small, unexpected moments — a classmate who smiled, a teacher who believed in me, a coworker who listened — that I learned something even more powerful: belonging is built in tiny, human gestures. And those gestures became my first understanding of what America could be at its best.

Continue reading DEI: The Heart and Soul of America – by Niloo Soleimani →

Advisors, Authors A-H, Race & Ethnicity

Rewriting History: Playing the Race Card – by Terry Howard

 ‘DEI Hire’ and other dog whistles 

I have something to say and will say it on a few issues I’ll get to shortly. 

Why me? Well, I guess it is because I’m blessed with several platforms to educate, elevate, cajole, annoy, encourage, or enrage based on what happens to crop in the latest news or on the sociopolitical menu. And this is a privilege I don’t take for granted. If I win or lose friends, well so be it. It comes with the territory. 

Now class, pull out your notebooks and ready yourselves for a lecture beginning with how one migrates from “Rewriting” to “Revealing” to “Amending” History. After lunch, we’ll switch to “Responding to the ‘playing the race card’ nonsense then finish up with boogeyman number three, dubbing someone a “diversity hire.” 

Continue reading Rewriting History: Playing the Race Card – by Terry Howard →

Advisors, Authors A-H

The legacy of Dr. Gladys West – by Terry Howard  

Gladys West “Thanks homegirl,” I said to myself as I left the car’s garage and punched my hotel’s address into my GPS. I thanked her again after the GPS she developed guided me through heavy California traffic and back roads and got me safely to my hotel. And thanks to your legacy, Dr. West, I’m proud and delighted to kick off African American History Month with your incredible story.

Now if anyone is as insecure as I am when you’re about to drive to some unfamiliar place, you’re probably quick to rely on your destination’s address in your GPS. Yes?  No? 

Continue reading The legacy of Dr. Gladys West – by Terry Howard   →

Advisors, Authors A-H, Race & Ethnicity

Black History: A Personal and Historical Reflection – by Gail Dawson

Origins and Significance of Black History Month

In February 1926, Carter G. Woodson initiated the celebration of Black History Week to honor the achievements and contributions of Black Americans, which had largely been overlooked in mainstream history. Woodson specifically chose February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, which fall on February 12th and 14th, respectively. Fifty years later, in 1976, the observance was officially expanded to cover the entire month of February. Subsequently, in 1986, Congress passed Public Law 99-244, formally designating February as National Black History Month.

Continue reading Black History: A Personal and Historical Reflection – by Gail Dawson →