Hello colleagues,
As we settle into the new academic year, I want to take a moment to celebrate what we have accomplished together.
Our work together is a small step in a long history of striving to build a more welcoming and inclusive society. Our work honors the legacy of those who came before us.
We have to keep pushing for progress and change, even when it is hard or unpopular. Together we can build a welcoming community by challenging ourselves and others to learn, grow, empathize and celebrate our differences.
I am passionate about building an inclusive and welcoming community of engineers because of my own lived experience. For the longest time, I wondered why I struggled to run my hands under the water of automatic faucets. Then I learned, it was because it was an engineering problem. The faucet was not designed to read the color of my skin. This made me realize how much engineering affects our everyday lives, and how much it matters who designs the products and services we use.
The belief that a diverse community of engineers promotes innovation and a better world for all of us is the “why” behind the Office of Inclusive Excellence.
It is why we have programs like WE Rise to create an environment where students of all genders feel welcome in engineering; why we are working with partners across the College to provide anti-bias training for the recruitment and hiring of faculty; why we have an incident reporting platform to help all our community feel valued. You can read about all the work we have done together in the 2022-2023 impact report.
Inclusive excellence is not a catch phrase or a political agenda; it’s the right thing to do. Thank you for all your work and collaboration to build a place where all can feel welcome and thrive.
Sincerely,
Dr. Karen Thomas-Brown
Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
