Tag Archives: diversity

Improving Gender Diversity Hiring – by Addie Swartz

Returning from The Great Resignation

Recent findings from the Pew Research Center uncovered that across 34 countries, a median of 94% of respondents think it is important for women in their country to have the same rights as men, with 74% saying it is very important. Yet, women are less optimistic than men that they will achieve gender equality. How can these two diametrically opposed trends exist in the same world at the same time? It’s the sad reality for women in the world and the workplace that while their talent abounds, opportunity does not.

The numbers simply do not lie. According to the World Economic Forum, it will now take 135.6 years to close the gender gap worldwide. Post-pandemic, there’s a dearth of women in leadership roles, estimated to be only 27 percent of all managerial positions. According to McKinsey, the gender-regressive reality of these trends might mean that global GDP growth will be $1 trillion lower in 2030; conversely, taking action to advance gender equality could add as much as $13 trillion to the global economy by the same year.

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Diversity and the Media: Student Voices  

What is the future of the media and its attempts to reach a diverse audience? We can better understand the upcoming generation’s issues concerning diversity and the media with this collection of quotes from articles by Communication students at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. These issues include race, gender identification, intellectual disabilities, healthcare, cultural differences, stereotyping and discrimination of women, as well as microaggressions.
Note that some of the quotes include links to a full article. 

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Expanding DEI in Advertising & PR Education

Landmark Project with Innovative Curriculum, Facilities, and Increase in Faculty Will Transform the Next Generation of Advertising and PR Professionals 

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, (UT) and Knoxville-based advertising agency Tombras have partnered to create a first-of-its-kind landmark program and investment plan to modernize and expand advertising and public relations education. 

Key goals for the newly named Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations, which will be housed in UT’s College of Communication and Information, are to double the number of Black, Indigenous, and people of color entering those industries after graduating from UT and to help make advertising and public relations industry demographics more representative of state and national populations.

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Supporting Employee Diversity and Wellness – by Julia Morris

During the COVID-19 pandemic, employee diversity and wellness came under the spotlight like never before. Corporations sought to support workers both in the office and at home, and a major pre-pandemic cultural shift completed its arc. In addition, employers have been making significant strides in diversifying their workforces.

Focusing on diversity and offering innovative benefits that enhance work-life balance don’t just boost employee satisfaction. These efforts help attract new talent in a competitive market, and improve productivity no matter the size of your organization.

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Diversity and Speech No. 28: Teaching Diversity across Generations at Harvard – by Carlos E. Cortés and Joseph Zolner

A Co-Authored Interview

Carlos:  Joe, it’s been more than two decades since we started working together at the Harvard Summer Institutes for Higher Education.  Lots of continuities, but also lots of changes.

Joe: Yes, I first attended your sessions on diversity in higher education in the late 1990’s.

Carlos: Even through I’d been doing diversity workshops for a couple of decades, using the Harvard case study method was a brand new experience.

Joe: The Harvard Graduate School of Education’s summer programs have a distinctive leadership development structure.  Very immersive, retreat-like experiences for cohorts of a hundred or so higher education administrators.  I recall framing your early sessions as “diversity and community.”

Continue reading Diversity and Speech No. 28: Teaching Diversity across Generations at Harvard – by Carlos E. Cortés and Joseph Zolner

Challenges of Teaching about Diversity and Health Equity – by Carlos E. Cortés

A Difficult Conversation about Difficult Conversations forDeveloping Medical Educators of the 21st Century:
New Ideas and Skills
for Adaptable and Inclusive
Learning Environments Conference

February 4, 2022 (Revised, February 6, 2022)

 Let’s start with today’s ground rules.  None.  No rules; no powerpoints.

But three hopes.  That you speak honestly without obsessing about maybe saying the wrong thing, a bane to diversity discussions.  That you contemplate divergent ideas.  And that you reflect openly on your own perspectives by posting comments and questions in the chatbox as we go along.   

So let’s turn to our theme, difficult conversations about diversity and health equity.  Health equity conversations necessarily involve discomfort because they address the idea of group diversity, not just random individual differences.

Continue reading Challenges of Teaching about Diversity and Health Equity – by Carlos E. Cortés

Diversity Dilemma: Should there be a Black History Month? – by Deborah Levine

The debate over Black History Month is not new, but it intensified when the Oscar nominees were all Caucasian and earned the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite. Provoked an outcry, it raised questions about the existence of Black Entertainment Television awards (BET) and whether it hurt rather than helped African Americans in Hollywood.

“Either we want to have segregation or integration. And if we don’t want segregation, then we need to get rid of channels like BET and the BET Awards and the Image Awards, where you’re only awarded if you’re black. If it were the other way around, we would be up in arms. It’s a double standard, ” said actress Stacey Dash in Variety.

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Diversity and Speech No. 27: Training Future Psychologists Using the Lens of History – by Carlos E. Cortés, Marjorie Graham-Howard

A Co-Authored Interview

Carlos: Marjorie, as a historian, I was blown away by the richness of your class syllabus.  How did you come up with the idea of using history to ground a clinical psychology course?

Marjorie: I was a history major in college, so I have always loved it.  I remember when I first discovered that history is not just facts about wars and dead people, but was an interpretation of past events.  Then I began to learn that most history was controlled by those with power and privilege, which meant there were those whose voices were silenced or never heard from.  I knew it would be important for therapists.  Once I began teaching at Azusa Pacific University, I found that students were often overwhelmed when working with older adults and clients from a different historical era.  They did not know their history, which became a barrier to providing effective treatment.  We decided to add a class to close this gap.

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Eileen Koteles Podcast: Teaching Through the Arts

Arts Eileen Koteles is an actor and choreographer. Raising her three sons, she realized the gift of teaching through the Arts. Now returning to the stage, Eileen performs  as Dr. Ruth, an iconic sex therapist who lost her family in the Holocaust.

Eileen finds she is still teaching through the Arts and urges us to support the arts as a platform for tolerance whether theater, writing, poetry, dance, painting, or photography.

Hear Eileen talk about:

1. How does teaching through the Arts apply to diversity and inclusion?
2. What does the one woman show about Dr. Ruth teach us?

CLICK for Podcast

Trends in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging – by Gail Dawson

Following the death of George Floyd and the subsequent protests, the number of diversity-related jobs increased significantly as organizations worked to address issues that could no longer be ignored. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) became more important as organizations launched initiatives focusing on making meaningful change. While some organizations simply increased their diversity efforts, others created new positions focused on diversity. These positions ranged from entry-level jobs to executive-level positions and spanned all types of organizations including academia. Indeed.com reported that diversity, inclusion, and belonging (DI&B) job postings increased by 123% between May and September of 2020.

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