Category Archives: Inclusion

Diversity and Inclusion

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, 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, 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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Levine articles, Teams & Leaders

Leadership in Our Challenging Times – by Deborah Levine

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I often hear that leadership is greatly needed in these challenging times. But what does leadership mean? Is it a matter of personality? Is leadership defined by mission and goals? Are leaders inspirational figures who leave the nuts and bolts to others? The more we try to define leadership, the more the concept undefinable. “There are almost as many definitions of leadership as there are persons who have attempted to define the concept,” said Ralph Stogdill, a Professor of Management Science and Psychology known for his research and publications on the Personal Factors Associated with Leadership.

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Around the world, Authors I-Q, Education, Holocaust/antisemitism, Religious Diversity

Holocaust Ethical Implications – by John T. Pawlikowski, OSM, Ph.D.

The academic study of ethics, in light of the experience of the Holocaust, has witnessed rapid development in the last decade. In addition to research into ethical decision making during the Holocaust itself in such volumes as Rab Bennett’s Under the Shadow of the Swastika: The Moral Dilemmas of Resistance and Collaboration in Hitler’s Europe, more general reflections on the significance of the Holocaust for contemporary ethics have come to the fore from Jewish and Christian scholars alike. There have also been voices such as Herbert Hirsch who have questioned whether we can learn anything from the Holocaust in terms of the moral challenge facing us today given the sui generis nature of that event as well as the immense complexity of a modern, global society.

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Advisors, AI, Authors A-H, Inclusion, Trends 2026

Renewing Diversity Part 12:  Diversity and the AI Frenzy – by Carlos Cortés

During 2025 few trends, if any, received more attention than developments in artificial intelligence.  You can hardly pick up a magazine or listen to a newscast without hearing something about AI.  However, I have encountered relatively little addressing the intersection of AI and diversity. 

What might AI mean for diversity?  What can diversity advocates do to address the implications of AI?  Questions range from the ethical to the practical.  In this column I will focus on one question: what are some of the diversity implications arising from the creation of AI databases and the resulting “information” that they supply when prompted?

Continue reading Renewing Diversity Part 12:  Diversity and the AI Frenzy – by Carlos Cortés →

Levine articles, Religious Diversity

Sacred Calendars and Holidays Define Us — by Deborah Levine

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Religious diversity and holidays are challenging regardless of the time of year with deeply held beliefs regarding food, sacred texts, and worship traditions. Yet, there is no season like the end of the year for demonstrating cultural differences linked to religion. The differences can be glaring, giving rise to culture clashes and political controversies. It’s astonishing that there was ever a planetary-wide agreement on a calendar that named the months, determined their length and decreed when one year ends and the next begins. How did that calendar happen and can we capture the global mindset that created it for today’s “Holiday Season”?

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Authors R-Z, Books, Religious Diversity

The Art of Resilience. From Pain to Promise: Book Review – by George Simons

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Deborah LevineFar from being abstract research on the dynamics of resilience, Deborah Levine has provided us with a life story, and highly relevant biography, an ethnography if you will, of the struggle for resilience lived out, day by day. It is filled with the challenges to resilience from health, work, environments, and relationships. Today we speak of the cost of intersectionality on oneself. The term is extremely relevant here, as Deborah herself is bundled into her white female identity, her Jewish ethnicity, the cultural marks of her places of upbringing, her immigrant status, her health vulnerability, and her religious belongings. Each of these shows up repeatedly both as a liability and an asset in her resilience narrative.

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Authors A-H, Race & Ethnicity

20 Interview Questions I Should Have Asked – by Sharon Hurley Hall

More than 300,000 Black women have lost their jobs this year. As a Black woman who’s navigated similar systems, it’s made me think about the interview processes I faced: extremely stressful, multiple rounds, and not a person who shared my identity at any of them. I know from my own experience that there are double-takes as you walk in the door. There’s extensive questioning about birth, nationality and my right to be there, and extreme scrutiny of my qualifications. And even if I then get the job, there’s no guarantee it’s a safe place to work. 

I know I’m not the only one to experience this. But what if you could use the interview process to get the answers you really need as a Black person? You might not get the job, but you’d be a whole lot clearer about whether it was the right workplace for you.

Here are 20 questions I wish I’d been able to ask.  Continue reading 20 Interview Questions I Should Have Asked – by Sharon Hurley Hall →