Category Archives: Advisors

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.

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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? 

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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.

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Advisors, Authors A-H, Black-Jewish Dialogue

Recharging African and Jewish American Dialogues – by Terry Howard

“I don’t know if you watched it or not, but this year’s Dr. Martin Luther King Day celebration at Ebenezer Baptist Church here in Atlanta was awesome,” I said to Deborah Levine, Founder/Editor-in-Chief of the American Diversity Report.  Continue reading Recharging African and Jewish American Dialogues – by Terry Howard →

Advisors, Authors A-H, Race & Ethnicity

Mr. and Mrs. President, tear down those border walls – by Terry Howard

In case you didn’t know, September 12 is the start of HHM (Hispanic Heritage Month). And I’ll be completely honest with you, readers – I missed writing something uniquely significant and celebratory about HHM and other heritage months over the past few years. To be clear, I’m not Hispanic by birth, although that doesn’t matter, nevertheless I still regret missing that annual opportunity. 

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Advisors, Authors A-H, Politics

Political Violence & Inclusion – by Deborah Ashton

Throughout history, political discourse in the United States has oscillated between civility and conflict. There were notable times when individuals from opposing perspectives engaged in constructive debate, exemplified by the 1965 exchange between author James Baldwin and conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr., as well as the bipartisan relationships of leaders such as Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill during the 1980s. Yet, it is important to recognize that political violence is deeply rooted in the nation’s origins. The American Revolution itself was marked by actions that, had they failed, would have been deemed treasonous. As we complain about masks being worn to hide the perpetrator’s identity, colonists dressed up as Native Americans when they engaged in the Boston Tea Party. Hiding one’s identity is not new.

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Advisors, Authors A-H, Education, Inclusion

Renewing Diversity Part 9: Rediscovering My Professional Journey – by Carlos Cortés

For nearly a year I’ve been going through an out-of-body experience. It was launched by a simple request that has turned into a not-so-simple journey.  Here’s what happened.

In the fall of 2024, Steven Mandeville-Gamble, Director of the University of California, Riverside, Library, asked me to donate my professional papers to the library’s Special Collections.  Feeling quite honored, I agreed.  Since then I have been preparing my papers for delivery.  This has involved months of wading through file cabinets, bookcases, and stacks of boxes crammed with books, articles, correspondence, course notes, past public lectures, workshop outlines, video and audio tapes, and published and unpublished manuscripts. 

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Advisors, Authors R-Z, Gender

Survival Matters: Cross-dressing – by Julia Wai-Yin So

Cross-dressing has a Different Meaning at a Different Place in a Different Time

In recent years, with more and more social acceptance of multiple variations of gender identity, cross-dressing has become an empowering tool for transgendered individuals who are out, proud, and loud to assert their gender identity. Notwithstanding, we have to be cognizant of the fact that cross-dressing validates the practice of the binary system of gender. We also have to remind ourselves that the binary system of gender is a social construct and that it is built on a medical model using the binary system of sex. More importantly, cross-dressing carries a different meaning at a different place in a different time. Here, I will describe three specific examples of females cross-dress as males.

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Advisors, Advisors, Authors A-H, Of Women, Race & Ethnicity

The Realities of Dark-Skinned Black Women – by Terry Howard

I begin this piece with a test on your ability to immediately recognize the names of the following  five prominent Black women in the United States. Any luck? 

Lisa Cook, Federal Reserve Board member
Latitia James Attorney General, New York
Ketanji Brown-Jackson, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Stacey Abrams, former Georgia State Representative
Jasmine Crockett, Texas State Representative

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Advisors, Advisors, Authors I-Q, Teams & Leaders

DEI: What’s Old Is New Again – by Susan McCuistion

The last few years seem to have been challenging for many people, myself included. Last year, I had the privilege to take a bit of a sabbatical. Even though I found it difficult to fully pull myself away from my work, I was removed enough that when Deborah Levine, Editor in Chief for this publication, asked the Advisory Council members to write on upcoming trends, I felt a little out of touch. I decided I needed to catch up a bit, and I started my research. Much to my dismay, I felt like the more things changed, the more they remained the same. I wasn’t seeing much different than what colleagues and I talked about over 20 years ago. People were still focused on hiring and attraction and leadership development. Some spoke of developing business cases and strategies around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)—or whatever form it’s currently taking.

Frankly, I had hoped we had a lot of this figured out by now.

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