For more details and a link to the application, see https://wst.gatech.edu/wst-learning-community.

We will share the results of the surveys with the leadership of the Institute, including the President’s Cabinet, Deans, and other Institute leaders, and discuss strategies that will allow us to build upon the strengths revealed by the surveys and identify areas where we can improve our campus climate and culture.

In addition, in the coming weeks and months, we will schedule several townhalls to communicate these results to our campus community and encourage robust conversations that will help us identify ways to capitalize on our strengths and address concerns as we pursue our goal of building a more inclusive campus community for all.

I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Joseph Ludlum, Assistant Director with the Office of Academic Effectiveness and methodologist for this project, Dr. Keona Lewis, and Dr. Dyla Hernández for their leadership and contributions throughout the process of administration, analysis, and production of these reports.

For any questions regarding these reports or the survey results, please contact Dr. Diley Hernández at diley.hernandez@gatech.edu and/or Dr. Joseph Ludlum at joe.ludlum@gatech.edu.

Sincerely,
Archie W. Ervin, Ph.D.
Vice President for Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

“Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the legitimate goals of his life,” King wrote. “The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.”

It's in this spirit that each year during the weekend before the holiday celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy, Georgia Tech invites students from across the country to learn more about what they can achieve through their graduate studies as part of the Focus Program.

This year, more than 160 undergraduate, graduate students, and postdoctoral scholars from more than 75 institutions across the country visited Georgia Tech to get an inside look at what it’s like to be a graduate student, research scientist, or professor at Georgia Tech, including information on fellowship and scholarship opportunities, as well as tips for success in the graduate school and academia decision-making process.

“Many people mistakenly associate power with dominance, force, or oppression,” said Sybrina Atwaters, Ph.D., director of the Office of Minority Educational Development (OMED) and director of the Focus program. “Alice Walker once said ‘The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.’ We invite our Focus Scholars and Fellows to see power as the ability to transform any program, project, or context through their contribution to their fields or industries, their research, and Georgia Tech.”

Since its inception in 1992, more than 3,000 prospective graduate students or faculty have participated in the Focus program, and at least eight Focus alumni have been hired into faculty positions at Georgia Tech, and many are in tenure-track faculty positions or are chairs and deans at other institutions across the country.

Participants were invited to visit with faculty and staff from their programs of interest to learn more about the department and degree programs and panel sessions featuring program alumni who provided tips on connecting with your adviser, building a community of peers and friends, and navigating the changing climate in STEM fields for those with advanced degrees.

During the Focus Program’s President’s Dinner, President Ángel Cabrera addressed students, faculty, staff, and program alumni, and shared a little about his time as a graduate student at Georgia Tech.

“Without talent, you’re not going to succeed in graduate school, and you’re not going to succeed in your graduate career,” he started. “But you need to have connections. You need to be able to see people like you, and that’s what you’re getting out of this program. You get to draw from the inspiration of those who look like you and have been in your shoes.”  

Attendees also had the opportunity to hear from Dr. Angela Marshall, MD, CEO and founder of Women’s Comprehensive Health, Inc., and a Georgia Tech alumna who provided the evening’s keynote address.

“Something I always say is that to be lucky, we must be prepared for opportunity,” Marshall said. “Be prepared and you will feel like the luckiest person in the world. You’ll have so many opportunities come throughout your life, but the difference between the person who thinks they got lucky and the person who thinks they got the short end of the stick lies somewhere in the preparation.

“So, prepare yourself to be lucky. Embrace rigor and discipline in your work. Prepare for your test. Prepare for your career. Prepare for your family. Prepare for your business meeting by getting certifications and prepare for your tomorrow.”

For more information about the Focus program, visit focus.gatech.edu.

Glaude frequently appears in the media as a columnist for TIME Magazine and as an MSNBC contributor on programs like “Morning Joe” and “Deadline Whitehouse with Nicolle Wallace.” He also regularly appears on Meet the Press on Sundays. A former president of the American Academy of Religion, his writings examine religion in Black communities, the difficulties of race in the United States, and the challenges we face as a democracy.

Kicking off this year’s month-long MLK Celebration, the lecture was sponsored by Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and the division of Student Engagement and Well-Being. The celebration’s theme “Cultivating Action: Working Together to Achieve a Beloved Community,” highlights the work still required to achieve Dr. King’s vision.

Glaude shared the nuances of Dr. King’s philosophy and beliefs and challenged attendees to use their power to help prevent the collapse of everything that Dr. King died for.

“In December of 1962, before the March on Washington, or the Civil Rights Act of 1964, or the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Dr. King spoke at a conference centered on the ethics of integration in Nashville, Tennessee,” Glaude shared. “He maintained that there had been a systematic effort to dismantle segregation; however, even if desegregation was 100 percent successful, the relationship between human beings in this country would remain deeply problematic.”

He also shared Dr. King’s view on the difference between desegregation and integration.

“In Dr. King’s view, desegregation was a negative formulation,” he said. “Integration, King said, is the positive acceptance of desegregation and the welcome participation of Negroes into the total range of human activities–integration is genuine intergroup, interpersonal interactions.”

Glaude spoke of Dr. King’s last months before he was murdered, noting that this is a version of Dr. King that is far less celebrated.

“On February 23, 1968, Dr. King spoke at an event celebrating the 100^th birthday of W.E.B. DuBois. Afterward, one of his closest advisers said that he’d never heard Dr. King read something so badly,” said Glaude. “Instead of commanding the room and using his oratory skills to empower the crowd, he just read his speech and was done.”

A few years removed from the euphoria of the March on Washington in 1963, and the historic "I Have a Dream" speech, Dr. King was now faced with the uncertainty of his moral vision for the country, according to Glaude.

“Dr. King had come to understand the depths of American racism, yet underestimated how deeply rooted racism was in the habits of American life,” he continued. “He was clear–unless we are honest with ourselves, tell the truth about who we are and what we’ve done, we will never solve the problem of racial injustice in this country.”

For more information about Georgia Tech’s MLK Celebration events throughout January, visit diversity.gatech.edu/2023-mlk-celebration-and-commemorative-event-series.

The 26 accomplished women leaders will explore curriculum designed to strengthen their leadership abilities, enhance personal and professional growth, and support their overall career development, in addition to facilitating connections among women as an inclusive community across campus.

“This year marks our big comeback,” explained Pearl Alexander, executive director of diversity, inclusion, and engagement for IDEI, at the opening ceremony. “We haven’t been able to gather like this as a group since before the pandemic, and for a community built on creating connections and opportunities, it’s exciting to be together in the same room with you all.”

The program launched in 2016 because of feedback from the 2012 Climate Assessment Survey. The results showed an expressed desire for more mentoring and networking opportunities for women at Georgia Tech. Since its launch, more than 100 women have participated in the program, making it one of the most sought-after leadership development programs at the Institute.

Approximately one-third of the program’s graduates have leveraged the insights they’ve gained through the program to be promoted to higher positions. Others leverage their learning to take empowered approaches to achievement and career fulfillment, according to Alexander.

“Each year, we are inspired by the number of outstanding nominees to the program,” Alexander said. “As part of the Institute’s new DEI Plan, programs such as this allow us to continue to invest in communities of practice focused on leadership and develop intentionally inclusive leaders who are good stewards of the work Georgia Tech is doing to become a more inclusive community.”

The sixth cohort of Leading Women@Tech participants are:

Joi Alexander, Director, Wellness Empowerment Center, Student Engagement and Well-Being

Priti Bhatia, Director of Facilities and Capital Planning, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

Ashley Coogan, Director of Development, College of Sciences

Amy W. Corn, Professor of the Practice & Academic Program Director, FinTech Professional Education Program

Ece Erdogmus, Ph.D., Professor & Chair of the School of Building Construction

Juli Golemi, Director of Innovation Ecosystems, Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI2)

Laura Haynes, Ph.D., Faculty member and Director, Office of Outreach, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Jillann Hertel Del Tejo, Creative Director and CoLab Director, School of Literature, Media, and Communication, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

Sharon Jackson, Director of Lab Business Operations, Georgia Tech Research Institute

Aisha Johnson, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Academic Affairs & Outreach, Georgia Tech Library

Jeonghyun (Jonna) Lee, Ph.D., Director of Research for Education Innovation, Center for 21st Century Universities (C21U)

Samantha Lie-Tjauw, Senior Research Scientist, Georgia Tech Research Institute

Candice McLemore, Director of Operations, Master of Science in Analytics Program

Georgia Parmelee, Director of Research Communications, Institute Communications

Ana Rusch, Ph.D. Associate Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Student Life, Online Master of Science in Computer Program

Beatriz Rodriguez, Assistant Director for Undergraduate Programs, Scheller College of Business

Kelly Rowland Prather, Director of Catering, Tech Dining

Elizabeth Ryan, Associate Director of Athletic Communications and Public Relations

Carrie Shepler, Ph.D., Principal Academic Professional and Assistant Dean for Teaching Effectiveness, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, College of Sciences

Romy Smith, Chief Counsel, Georgia Tech Research Institute

Mattie Smyth, Assistant Director of Fraternity & Sorority Life

Shannon Thomas, Ph.D., Director of Information Technology, Scheller College of Business

Nazanin Tork, Associate Director of Graduate Education, Office of Graduate Education

Lindsay Vaughn, Vice President of Strategic Communications, Georgia Tech Alumni Association

May Dongmei Wang, Ph.D., Wallace H. Coulter Distinguished Faculty Fellow and Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Tech and Emory University

Kimberly Wynn White, Senior Director of Enterprise Customer Relationship Management, Office of Information Technology

These were some of the questions explored during the 14^th annual Georgia Tech Diversity Symposium on September 14.

The 2022 Georgia Tech Diversity Symposium focused on the Illusion of Inclusion: Invisible Barriers to Belonging and featured nationally renowned scholars, as well as Georgia Tech students, faculty, and staff, who shared their thoughts and expertise on creating an environment where every person can feel a sense of belonging.

“Each year, this forum provides the Georgia Tech community with an opportunity to come together and engage in important and sometimes difficult conversations about the issues that face our communities,” said Archie Ervin, vice president of Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. “This year, we wanted to continue the conversation started earlier this year about the factors that impact the experience of our Asian, Asian American, Desi American, and Pacific Islander students, faculty, and staff. There are often external factors that influence a person’s experience that are beyond our control, but as an institution, we have a responsibility to provide any support that we can to mitigate those.”

For the first time, the symposium was held in the John Lewis Student Center’s Atlantic Theater, the significance of which was noted by Archie Ervin, vice president of Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

“John Lewis was a pioneer in the civil rights movement,” Ervin said. “He dedicated his life to building a society that lifts everyone, not just those with a certain background or skin color.”

The program kicked off with a powerful keynote presentation from Evelyn Hu-DeHart, Ph.D., professor of history, American studies, and ethnic studies at Brown University. Before beginning her presentation, titled 'Finding and Locating Asians in America: a Quick Walk Through a Long History,' Hu-DeHart implored attendees to invoke the names of the Asian women who were murdered in Atlanta on March 16, 2021.

“Before we begin, we must remember those who were lost by your community last year during a hate-crime spree,” said HuDehart, remembering the hate crimes that happened last year in the Atlanta area. “Daoyou Feng, Hyun Jung Kim Grant, Sun Cha Kim, Soon Chung Park, Xiaojie Tan, Yong Yue, Delaine Ashley Gonzalez, and Paul Andre Michaels.”

Hu-DeHart then went on to share the history of Asians in America, from their immigration to America to their being labeled as 'the model minority.'

The event continued with a panel discussion featuring Georgia Tech students, 'Empowering Students from the Global South to Build a Culture of Inclusive Excellence.' The panel was facilitated by Katja Weber, Ph.D., professor in the Nunn School of International Affairs, and student participants included Ashan Deen, B.S. candidate in computer engineering, Azell Francis, doctoral candidate in international affairs, Rachel Goh, B.S. candidate in mechanical engineering, and Yasser El Masri, doctoral candidate in architecture. Students shared their experiences and barriers they (and other students from the Global South) face and proposed resources that would assist international students in adjusting to life at Georgia Tech.

A second panel, 'Challenging Conversations: Building Cultural Understanding by Addressing Barriers to Belonging' was facilitated by Diley Hernandez, Ph.D., associate vice president for Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Panelists included Usha Nair-Reichert Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Economics, Kenji Terawaki, business intelligence developer with the Office of Undergraduate Education, and May Dongmei Wang Ph.D., professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, who discussed the tension between superficial knowledge and deep understanding that contributes to the illusion of inclusion.

Following lunch, Keona Lewis, Ph.D., associate director of research for Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion presented Donna M. Ennis, director of diversity engagement and program development with the Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute (faculty), Arianna Robinson, assistant director of business operations for the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business in the Scheller College of Business (staff), Nina Sara Fraticelli-Guzman, fourth-year doctoral student in bioengineering in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering (student), and the LGBTQIA Resource Center (unit), with Diversity Champion Awards for their commitment to building belonging and community at Georgia Tech.

“This was a record-breaking year for nominations,” Lewis explained. “We had more than 65 nominations for this year’s awards, which is a testament to the work being done at Georgia Tech to make students, faculty, and staff feel like they belong here.”

The afternoon sessions kicked off with a keynote presentation from Jennifer Ho, Ph.D., professor of ethnic studies and director of the Center for Humanities and the Arts at the University of Colorado Boulder. In 'My Path to Anti-Racism as an Asian American Educator,' Ho shared her family’s immigration story, why she embraces the label 'Asian American,' and what being Asian American means to her.

The final panel session, 'Media Representations as Cultural Perspectives on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,' was facilitated by Juan Carlos Rodriguez, Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Modern Languages. Panelists included Jin Liu, Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Modern Languages; John Thornton, M.F.A., senior academic professional in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication; Amanda Weiss, Ph.D., assistant professor in the School of Modern Languages; and Ida Yoshinaga, Ph.D., assistant professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication. The panel offered an opportunity to reflect on the ideas about diversity, equity, and inclusion that creators reference in media and that consumers learn about diversity, equity, and inclusion from the media.

To close out the symposium, Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion partnered with Georgia Tech Arts to create a mural that symbolizes what a more inclusive campus community could look like if everyone had a seat at the table.

'The Humble Chair' is an art-based DEI experiential developed by art therapists Deanna Barton and Zachary D. Van Den Berg with ARTiculate ATL, where participants were challenged to explore their background, lineage, and lived experiences, as well as their communities and support systems, as they put together a chair that is as unique and special as they are. The chairs were then incorporated into a larger art piece, where each participant’s chair is arranged around a metaphorical Georgia Tech table. 

The Humble Chair can be found in the lobby of the Ferst Center for the Arts, where visitors can view the different chairs that represent the diverse representation of Georgia Tech.

The event was presented by the 2022 Georgia Tech Diversity Symposium Planning Committee, chaired by Ervin and co-chair Carol Colatrella, professor in the School of Literature, Media and Communication and co-director of the Center for the Study of Women, Science and Technology.

Committee members included: Adjo Amekudzi-Kennedy, professor and associate chair, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Jie Cao, marketing and event coordinator, Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Melanie DeMaeyer, assistant dean of students and director, Women’s Resource Center; Amy Bass Henry, executive director, Office of International Education; Tia Jewell, program and portfolio manager, Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Shiraz Karaa, counselor, Georgia Tech Counseling Center; Sabir Khan, associate professor, School of Architecture and School of Industrial Design, and director, International Education, School of Architecture; Keona Lewis, associate director of Research, Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Natalie Matychak, assistant director of producing and residency, Georgia Tech Arts; Tegra Myanna, director, LGBTQIA Resource Center; Tammy Parrett, communications manager, Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Shamecia Powers, assistant director, administrative operations, Office of International Education; Stephanie Ray, associate dean of students, and director, Student Diversity Programs; Julian Rimoli, associate professor, School of Aerospace Engineering; Catherine Ross, Regents Professor and Harry West Chair, School of City and Regional Planning; John Stein, associate vice president for Student Engagement and Well-Being and Brandt-Fritz Dean of Students Chair; Aaron Shackelford, director, Georgia Tech Arts; Carol Subino Sullivan, senior academic professional, Center for Teaching and Learning; and Ashlee Toomey-Flinn, Education Abroad scholarships advisor and marketing specialist, Office of International Education.

For more information about the 2022 Diversity Symposium, visit diversity.gatech.edu/14th-annual-georgia-tech-diversity-symposium.

As a recipient of the annual HEED Award — a national honor recognizing U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion — Georgia Tech joins 103 higher education institutions who were also named recipients. These institutions will be featured in the November 2022 issue of INSIGHT into Diversity magazine.

“We’re embarking on a new chapter for diversity, equity, and inclusion at Georgia Tech,” said Archie Ervin, vice president of Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer for the Institute. “With our new DEI plan and the efforts being made to operationalize our commitment to building inclusive and equitable communities across the Institute, we are excited to continue our work towards making Georgia Tech a place 

where everyone can succeed, regardless of background.”

“The HEED Award process consists of a comprehensive and rigorous application that includes questions relating to the recruitment and retention of students and employees — and best practices for both — leadership support for diversity, campus culture and climate, supplier diversity, and many other aspects of campus diversity and inclusion,” said Lenore Pearlstein, publisher of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine. We take a detailed approach to reviewing each application in deciding who will be named a HEED Award recipient. Our standards are high, and we look for institutions where diversity and inclusion are woven into the work being done every day across their campus.”

To learn more about the HEED Award, visit insightintodiversity.com/about-the-heed-award.

This year’s symposium explored the illusion of inclusion and the invisible barriers that can make belonging difficult to achieve for some individuals. This year’s diversity champions have spent their time at Georgia Tech working to help build communities and help provide underrepresented students, faculty, and staff with spaces that allow them to be their true, authentic selves.

Donna M. Ennis, director of diversity engagement and program development with the Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute (faculty), Arianna Robinson, assistant director of business operations for the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business in the Scheller College of Business (staff), Nina Sara Fraticelli-Guzman, fourth-year doctoral student in bioengineering in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering (student), and the LGBTQIA Resource Center (unit) were each recognized as Diversity Champions for their commitment to building community and belonging at Georgia Tech.

Donna M. Ennis

Donna M. Ennis has been breaking down barriers for underrepresented and underserved business leaders and enterprises with Georgia Tech since 2004, and her passion for serving minority business enterprises (MBEs) has positioned her at the forefront of helping MBEs learn and understand the role that technology plays in scaling businesses.  

As director of diversity engagement and program development for the Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI²), Donna has dedicated her time, talent, and treasure to addressing systemic inequities that MBEs experience. She is a staunch advocate for the minority business community and has experienced first-hand what it’s like to be the only person of color in a room where critical decisions are being made about MBEs.

“In 2004, I wrote and won a grant to operate a Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) Business Center here at Georgia Tech,” she explained. “While we had been serving the business community—primarily small businesses and manufacturers—for years, we had not focused on the minority business enterprise community. Once we began this journey, I realized that this is my passion—bringing equity to marginalized businesses and communities.”

Through her work with the MBDA, Donna has built a community of successful MBEs and entrepreneurs dedicated to supporting each other and lifting each other up.

“In order to make others feel welcome, we’ve got to look within ourselves,” she explained. “One of the golden rules of life is to treat others how you would want to be treated. Not only should we follow that rule, but we must also learn to be more embracing of each other’s differences.”

According to Donna, this can sometimes mean stepping out of your comfort zone and reaching across the aisle to another person. It can also mean not being afraid to speak up for others who aren’t present.

“I learn so much from my clients,” she said. “We’ve created a strong community. Through their eyes, I see what it’s like to do business in a world that wasn’t built to equitably; and yet their resilience is inspiring.”

Arianna Robinson

As a biracial Black woman, Arianna Robinson, assistant director of business operations for the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business in the Scheller College of Business, is no stranger to the barriers that Black students and professionals face while trying to find a sense of belonging in the classroom and the conference room. While earning her MBA at Scheller, Arianna and her classmates saw the need for a space that would allow Black students to be able to show up fully as themselves.

“For most people of color, we’ve spent our entire lives figuring out how to best assimilate into environments that have historically been built on and centered on values of whiteness,” Arianna said. “Everyone wants to feel seen and heard, and we need to be able to do that as our authentic selves. Blacks in Business at Georgia Tech [an organization for MBA students] was created to provide Black students with a safe space where they don’t have to talk a certain way, watch their tone, or be concerned about being perceived as ‘too much, difficult, or intimidating.’”

She continues to serve as the group’s staff advisor where she helps current members educate others on what it’s like to show up in unsafe spaces. The overall goal is to build a community of allies who have the power to disrupt those unsafe systems.

In addition to her work in building community among Black graduate students, Arianna also organizes and facilitates racial equity discussions among graduate students; alumni panels on allyship; and a book discussion group for the Scheller community that focuses on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

“I’m empowered to lead these initiatives because I understand the need for and the benefits of diversity, equity, and inclusion activities,” she said. “These initiatives make people feel like they matter, and they make me feel like I matter. I’m just grateful for the access and ability to do my part.”

Nina Sara Fraticelli-Guzman

For fourth-year bioengineering doctoral student Nina Sara Fraticelli-Guzmán, community and belonging happen when you find a group of people that you enjoy spending time with and that you go on to build deep connections with, who love and support you through the great times, and help you through the tough times. They listen, offer support, and challenge your actions, assumptions, and thoughts to help you grow.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, she attributes her passion for building inclusive spaces to the community in which she was raised.

“I grew up in a family and neighborhood where we knew our neighbors, their families, and got to spend lots of time talking and sharing experiences and old stories,” she said. “I also come from a family of community leaders, so I often saw the value of bringing others in and working to maintain an environment, both physical and social, where others could flourish, regardless of whether or not we agreed on all fronts.”

When she arrived at Georgia Tech after completing her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at MIT, Nina Sara began her search for a community. She quickly became involved with the Latino Organization of Graduate Students (LOGRAS) external outreach committee, where she helped build programming for communities outside of Georgia Tech to teach them about the importance of STEM fields and higher education. Throughout her time at Tech, Nina Sara has held several positions within LOGRAS, including the president. During her tenure as president, she built relationships with corporations that provide professional development opportunities and mentorship to LOGRAS members. She currently serves as president of the Fellowship of Christian Graduate Students (FCCS), where she is able to combine her passion for lifting others with her Christian faith.

“My faith and my upbringing have been the foundation that showed me the importance of welcoming people and supporting them to grow and reach their highest potential,” she said. “It’s a matter of starting a conversation and taking a chance—we all have initial thoughts and make assumptions about someone, but we have to be intentional about not letting those assumptions influence how we treat an individual before we actually get the chance to learn who they are.”

Her hope is that those who are still searching for a place to belong know that they’re not alone and that there are student groups to get involved with on campus.

“Georgia Tech has several student organizations run by people who would love to meet you,” she said. “Take the chance to meet someone new or join a new club; you might surprise yourself and find people you’ll be able to call friends, mentors, and family.”  

LGBTQIA Resource Center

Since it was established in 2014, the LGBTQIA Resource Center has worked to create opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to embrace and express all aspects of their identities and be their whole, authentic selves without judgment or condition.

“For many of the staff members in our center, our passion comes from our own experiences of feeling included and excluded or seeing the impact of these practices on our communities,” said Tegra Myanna, director of the LGBTQIA Resource Center. “We’ve each engaged with and been supported by inclusive practices or spaces and know of their power to allow our community members to thrive.”

The LGBTQIA Resource Center focuses on the experience of queer and transgender community members by providing spaces for them to explore their identities and build community with their peers.

“Community and belonging are the foundation of the work that we do,” they said. “It means more than a sense of both physical and psychological safety; when reached, community and belonging mean comfort and sense of connection that allows us to fully engage with our professional, academic, and personal selves in the spaces we occupy.”

Through their education and training curriculum, they are also committed to influencing culture change at Georgia Tech and building a coalition of allies and advocates who will center the experiences of queer and transgender individuals by ensuring policies are inclusive and LGBTQIA-friendly; holding others and themselves accountable for their words, assumptions, and actions; and promoting allyship as a desirable and necessary practice.

“There are so many things that individuals can do to make our peers feel more welcome,” Tegra explained. “A great first step is to learn more and educate yourself on topics that you feel less knowledgeable or aware of. This can be done within a group through trainings or workshops, individually with staff from the LGBTQIA Resource Center, or independently using the internet or published materials.”

Another major factor of allyship is having the courage to hold your peers accountable, according to Tegra.

“When others in your community are being exclusionary or discriminatory, true allyship requires that we speak up and let them know that those behaviors won’t be tolerated,” they said. “This can be difficult, but when we start to do this in our personal and professional spheres of influence, we start to create more welcoming and inclusive communities.”

The sixth cohort of Culture Champions recently completed the 18-credit requirement of the 2022 Inclusive Leaders Academy (ILA) program at Georgia Tech after being nominated for and accepted into the program last fall. Thirty-five staff, faculty, and research leaders across 27 departments join hundreds of previous participants as Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion seeks to grow a community of self-aware, mindful, and socially intelligent people called inclusive leaders. 

Participants are strengthened in self-awareness, how to create psychological safety, and interactions across differences or in the face of challenge, uncertainty, and change. Since the program’s 2017 debut, nearly 450 participants have completed the full curriculum and received designation as ‘Culture Champions’. ILA provides tools and techniques through wisdom labs designed to evoke individual leader insights and transformation. 

“The ILA program offers leaders the opportunity and space to be deeply self-reflective and choose how best to integrate their learning into their everyday interactions with colleagues, including direct reports,” said Pearl Alexander, executive director of diversity, inclusion, and engagement, and founder, principal designer and lead facilitator of the program. “Because of the nature of this work, and the virtual format we have adopted since 2020, we intentionally reduced the number of participants we accepted this year to create a more intimate cohort experience. The Inclusive Leaders Academy is Institute Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’s signature leadership development program and is vital to operationalizing the values set forth in the 2020-30 strategic plan, and we must continue to explore how we provide quality at scale.” 

Core curriculum content was curated from the NeuroLeadership Institute on the Neuroscience of Teams (INCLUDE) and Breaking Bias (DECIDE), and Dare to Lead, an authentic leadership book authored by and based on the research of Brené Brown, Ph.D. Content is also inclusive of other research-based programs including Racial Healing by Anneliese Singh, Ph.D. and Creating a Calling in Culture by Loretta Ross, Ph.D. The ILA continued tapping the expertise of Georgia Tech colleagues Joi Alexander, director of health initiatives, and Sonia Alvarez-Robinson, Ph.D., executive director of strategic consulting to facilitate the Resilience elective, and Dean Stephanie Ray coached more than 20 participants on writing their personal diversity stories, a requirement of the program. 

New with the 2022 cohort was kickoff speaker Anna Deveare Smith, an actress, playwright, and professor, who reminded us of the power of stories using theatre to highlight and punctuate the effects of inequality and discord on American communities. Susan O’Halloran instructed the diversity stories workshop and Lani Peterson, Ph.D. joined the line-up of story coaches.  

The closing workshop this year on Understanding Systemic Racism with Steve Robbins, Ph.D. aimed to integrate parts of the entire curriculum. In a powerful interactive session, Robbins lectured on the brain science behind racist behavior and how being open-minded is an intentional act that is challenging for our brain, which prefers certainty. “Certainty closes the door to new information. It is the enemy of curiosity,” Robbins said. He also introduced racism as a formula made up of three components working together and dependent on each other to function in society: individual racial bias + institutional power + conferring privileges to some and not others. 

President Ángel Cabrera, M.S. PSY 1993, Ph.D. PSY 1995, and Archie W. Ervin, Ph.D. welcomed cohort six at the ILA kickoff on February 15 after a rigorous review of 123 nominations by the ILA leadership team.  

“Sharon Riehl, Jillian Jantosciak, and Stefany Sanders did a brilliant job of collaborating and modeling our values as they executed oversight for all aspects of the program,” Alexander said. I am grateful for such amazing colleagues.” 

The newest cohort of Culture Champions includes John Avery, David Bamburowski, Dawn Baunach, Priti Bhatia, Christian Birk, Rayne Bozeman, Amanda Brown, Marla Bruner, Chad Bryant, Caitlin Buro, Mayumi Cole, Macy Fennell, Curtis Free, Houston Freeman, Warren Goetzel, Michelle Gowdy, Linda Green, Joy Harris, Eric Hoffman, Aisha Johnson, Julie Kimble, Joseph Ludlum, Alexis Martinez, Lea Marzo, Julie McCoy, Kevin Mcvay, Emily Monago, Kennedy Oyoo, Chauncey Price, Anne Rogers, Todd Shayler, Kellye Terrell, Ami Waller-Ivanecky, Camerin White, and Ruth Yow.

To learn more about the Inclusive Leaders Academy, visit sdie.gatech.edu/inclusiveleadersacademy. 

In its inaugural year, 19 faculty members completed the Inclusive STEM Teaching Fellows program, which aimed to provide a space for Georgia Tech faculty who are interested in increasing inclusivity in their teaching, and learning communities to collaborate, learn, grow, and develop community. Participants completed the five-week Inclusive STEM Teaching Project massive online open course (MOOC) provided by the National Science Foundation. The course explores power, privilege, and positionality; instructor and student identity; and inclusive course design and implementation practices. The Inclusive STEM Teaching Fellows Program culminated in a two-day institute on May 11­–12 where participants and a group of nine facilitators discussed how to put the practices they learned about into action.

“The NSF’s STEM Teaching Project strongly encourages participation in learning communities while completing the asynchronous course,” said Jennifer Leavey, assistant dean for faculty mentoring in the College of Sciences. “We wanted to put a spin on that idea. Rather than running a learning community in conjunction with the online course, we opted to host a two-day intensive, during which participants could dig into the details of the material and share ideas and experiences.”

Six faculty members from the College of Sciences and the Center for Teaching and Learning completed facilitator training and hosted two pilot synchronous learning communities in summer and fall 2021.

“We proposed the institute as a way to help faculty carve out dedicated time to focus on the concepts covered in the online course and better understand how to put them into practice,” said Carrie Shepler, assistant dean for teaching effectiveness in the College of Sciences. “Having two days to delve into the material and focus on application provided a huge advantage to our participants, and ourselves.”

Participants expressed a clear desire for continued access to resources during the Institute, according to Kate Williams, assistant director of teaching assistant development and future faculty initiatives with the Center for Teaching and Learning.

“One of our ultimate goals was to develop a community of faculty who are dedicated to intentional inclusion in their teaching spaces,” Williams said. “We noticed that participants specifically were interested in understanding how their peers teaching similar classes and facing the same barriers to creating inclusive learning spaces navigate those challenges.”

“Programs such as these, in which faculty come together in community to question, learn, and reflect on how to make their teaching more inclusive and their classrooms more welcoming and equitable for all students, are critical to achieving the cultural transformations we are seeking for teaching, research, and scholarship at Georgia Tech,” said Diley Hernández, associate vice president for Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. “My hope is that the conversations and experiences shared in this program will continue among faculty as we grow this community and continue to tackle these important issues.”

The program was funded through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Inclusive Excellence 3 Community Cluster grant, secured by the College of Sciences, with additional support provided by the College of Engineering and the College of Computing.

For more information about the program, contact Carrie Shepler at carrie.shepler@cos.gatech.edu.

“As we celebrate the 28th anniversary of the Tower Awards, we mark a milestone for underrepresented students at Georgia Tech,” said Denise Ocasio Thomas, assistant director for retention initiatives with OMED. “More than 1,800 students are academically eligible to receive a Tower Award this year, which is a significant testament to our students’ scholastic abilities, work ethic, and commitment to excellence.”

More than 1,800 students were academically eligible for a Tower Award–a marked increase over previous years.

Eligible students were presented with awards in several categories, including Sustained Awards; Yearly Awards, Transfer/Dual-Degree Awards, First-Year Awards, Graduating Senior Awards, Master’s Awards, and Ph.D. Awards.

Several students also earned special awards. The Dr. Dorothy Yancey Scholarship was awarded to Alana Edwards, and Georgia Tech Black Alumni Organization’s Unsung Hero Award was presented to Rachel “Chi Chi” Onyewuenyi. 3M Student Leader Impact Awards were awarded to Mahogany Labor, Jose Miranda, Isaiah Thompson, Angelica Avecedo, Christian Arnett, Kyle Smith, and Nia-Simone Eccleston. The Women of Color Initiative Impact Award was presented to Natasja Hirabayashi.   

“Tonight, you represent what perseverance, endurance, dedication, and strive looks like at Georgia Tech,” said Sybrina Atwaters, Ph.D., director of the Office of Minority Educational Services. “On behalf of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion, and the entire OMED team, I applaud and salute each and every one of you for your hard work.”

More than 30 corporate partners and sponsors provided honorees with giveaways that were raffled off throughout each ceremony.

For more information about the Tower Awards, visit omed.gatech.edu/events/tower-awards.

To watch a recording of both ceremonies, visit the OMED Youtube Channel.

It will serve as a framework that guides Institute, college, and unit leadership in the work needed to become a more equitable and inclusive campus community for all students, faculty, and staff. 

The plan is the culmination of a two-year effort carried out by the Georgia Tech Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council. Comprised of executive and senior leaders, the council is charged with monitoring the progress of diversity, equity, and inclusion on campus and is co-chaired by Archie W. Ervin, vice president for Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Pearl Alexander, executive director of Staff Diversity, Inclusion, and Engagement. Through a collaborative effort, the council developed a plan that outlines five areas of impact, three goals, and 22 strategies that Georgia Tech will use to create a more inclusive campus community.

“Forty percent of the 2030 Institute strategic plan outcomes center on diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Ervin said. “With such an emphasis on DEI efforts, creating a roadmap to guide our efforts is instrumental for success, and our success depends on the support and engagement of the entire Georgia Tech community.”

The DEI plan identifies 22 strategic actions, categorized into three areas of impact:

• Creating a more equitable and inclusive community.
• Recruiting, retaining, and developing a diverse community of students, faculty, and staff.
• Supporting innovative and inclusive scholarship and teaching.

As part of the planning process, the council was able to revisit the definitions of diversity, equity, and inclusion previously held by the Institute, and updated them to reflect current understandings. The council also created new definitions for Georgia Tech’s principles of community, highlighting a commitment to inclusive teaching, leadership, scholarship and research, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

“We are excited and grateful to share this plan, where each and every one of us has a  role in making Georgia Tech a place where everyone can thrive, no matter who you are or where you come from,” Alexander said. “Ubuntu, a term that comes to mind as we unveil this plan, reminds us all that our actions affect each other and society. We’ll be better and go farther together as we write this next chapter of who we will be.”

"We look forward to engaging the communities at Georgia Tech in the coming months to have courageous conversations that will help define the role we all play in making Tech a more inclusive and welcoming community for all," Ervin said.

To view the plan in full, visit diversity.gatech.edu/deiplan.

With the second anniversary of his brother’s murder coming later this year, Floyd spoke with S. Gordon Moore, Jr., executive director of the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion, and Kemuel Russell, president of the African American Student Union, about the ways his life has changed in the past two years, and how we can use the momentum created in that time to continue having conversations about race in America.

“If they hadn’t started recording that video, we wouldn’t be here today,” Floyd said of the 9-minute video showing Derek Chauvin kneeling on George’s neck. “That video has over 5 billion views; it’s not something they could just sweep under the rug. He talked to my brother as he murdered him, and the world watched.”

The day after George’s funeral, Floyd flew to Washington, D.C. to speak before Congress in support of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which thrust him into the limelight in a way he never imagined.

“It was tough,” Floyd reflected. “I didn’t know that I wouldn’t have the opportunity to really grieve with my family, but I knew that this was bigger than me. I knew that if I didn’t want my brother to become another hashtag, I had to step up and do something.”

Floyd acknowledged the progress that we’ve made since his brother’s murder, stating that Martin Luther King, Jr. would be proud of the movement sparked by George’s murder.

“In his ‘I Have a Dream Speech,’ Dr. King said that he wanted little Black boys and girls to be able to join hands with little white boys and girls as brothers and sisters, and everywhere you looked, that’s what you saw,” Floyd said. “When you looked at the marches happening that summer, it wasn’t just Black people taking a stand; white people, Hispanic people, Asian people–everyone came to the table to stand against police brutality.”

But there is still work to be done, Floyd said.

“You have to speak up and continue to do the work in order to make a difference,” Floyd said. “We have to continue to find opportunities to have healthy conversations with law enforcement and create systems that hold them accountable. From the moment that video was published, Derek Chauvin wasn’t the one on trial; George was. My brother is dead, and he’s still on trial.”

The Black History Month Lecture is sponsored by the African American Student Union, Institute Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Student Engagement and Well-Being.

Watch the recording here. 

The lecture was seen by more than 1,700 unique viewers.

“We are thankful to Carter G. Woodson for initiating the observance in 1926 of what was then called Negro History Week,” she opened, referring to the historian and one of the first scholars to study African American history. Woodson became known as the “Father of Black History.” “This week is precisely the week we would be celebrating [Negro History Week] in those days.”

Decades later, Black History Month became, in Davis’ words, “the 28 days that are allocated to us to reflect not only on the contributions of Black people, but on the meaning of the phenomenal collective struggle for freedom that stretches back to the days when the first Africans were forcefully brought to the Americas.”

She was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1944, growing up in the infamous “Dynamite Hill” neighborhood, which gained its name from frequent bombings to drive out middle-class Black residents in the 1950s and 1960s, including the 16^th Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four girls in 1963. Davis attended segregated schools but reflected on the resilience her early upbringing and surroundings afforded her, saying, “Even as we boldly challenged racial segregation, I later came to understand what a gift it was to be able to grow up in a community that realized that resistance was at the core of our visions of new futures. We learned how to resist not so much as a choice, not as an extracurricular activity, but rather as a condition of life — as a condition of our collective conviction that we would someday be free.”

After completing high school in New York (via a program that placed Black students from the South into integrated schools in the North), she would go on to study at Brandeis University in Boston; the Sorbonne in Paris; the University of Frankfurt in Germany; and the University of California, San Diego. In 1969, she received a doctorate in philosophy from Humboldt University in what was then East Berlin.

Davis noted the critical role that Black women have played in advancing civil rights in the U.S., beginning with early suffrage movements. “Especially because I am speaking virtually here at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, I want to pay tribute to Stacey Abrams,” the 2018 Georgia Democratic nominee for governor and the first Black woman of a major political party to win a gubernatorial nomination. Through her voting rights advocacy, Abrams is largely credited with helping President Joseph Biden Jr. win the state of Georgia in the 2020 presidential election and for delivering two Democratic Georgia Senate seats in January. “There’s been a long history of Black women not only saving the Black community but saving the country.”

The lecture, sponsored by Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the Georgia Tech African American Student Union (AASU), included a question-and-answer session moderated by AASU members Shelbe Johnson and Kemuel Russell.

Viewers asked Davis several questions on criminal justice reform. A common theme throughout much of her scholarly work has been the social issues associated with incarceration and the criminalization of communities hardest hit by poverty and racism. She rose to national prominence in 1970 for her arrest — and subsequent acquittal — in a high-profile criminal case for which she spent 18 months in jail and on trial after being placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. In 1997, she helped found Critical Resistance, which aims to dismantle prison systems worldwide. 

Her teaching career has taken her to San Francisco State University and the University of California, Berkeley. She also has taught at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Vassar College, Syracuse University, and Stanford University. Most recently she spent 15 years at the University of California Santa Cruz, where she is now a distinguished professor emerita of history of consciousness and of feminist studies.

“I was hired to teach at UCLA in 1969,” she said, but before she could teach, she was fired for being a member of the Communist Party. “When I think back on the campaign to save my job, I had an enormous amount of support, including from white students and white faculty. What I attempted to do was to develop what we might call an intersectional approach. I was at the same time involved in campaigns to free political prisoners — campaigns against racism against prisoners,” Davis continued, while describing herself as a prison abolitionist rather than a prison reformer. “I took the position that people who supported me and my right to teach at UCLA should also support people in prisons who were facing far worse forms of oppression because of their political beliefs.”

Davis will return to teach at UCLA this spring, but noted her slight disdain for the fanfare her return has already brought to the campus. “I don’t want to be accepted. I still want to make trouble – I like John Lewis’ notion of ‘good trouble,’” a nod to the late civil rights giant and Georgia congressman. “So whereas I am going to be teaching at UCLA again, I will continue to critique the institution, call out the racism, point to the heteropatriarchy, and point to their support of capitalist systems.”

Davis paused when asked a final question about how Black people can best handle racial trauma.

“For so long, we haven’t acknowledged racial trauma. I think what is exciting about this current era is that so many people are taking holistic approaches, teaching us how to make sense of these issues. It’s important how you incorporate acknowledgment of people’s trauma into the very work of organizing against racism.

“Since this is the last question, I just want to point out that we can’t let up. We can’t stop. We should recognize that this is the time that the real work is getting done.”

The lecture can be viewed for a limited time here.

Hosted by Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (IDEI), the event featured campus presenters discussing disability awareness and its importance to diversity, inclusion, and the campus community, and more than 600 viewers tuned in. This year marks the 30^th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, signed into law on July 26, 1990, by President George H.W. Bush.

“Unfortunately, many members of the Tech community have a limited understanding of the term ‘access’ when it comes to understanding the myriad challenges faced by some members of our community,” said Archie Ervin, vice president for IDEI, ahead of the event. “Many of us understand issues of physical access to facilities and technologies. However, fewer realize that many members of our community face additional barriers — both visible and invisible to most of us.”

Featured speaker Haben Girma, the first deaf-blind person to graduate from Harvard Law School and author of Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law School, opened the event and relayed the importance of disability inclusion and disability technologies.

“If we can harness more awareness between disability and technology and innovation, everyone will benefit,” Girma said, speaking with the assistance of a hearing translator and braille computer.

“I have a braille computer; along the bottom are dots. I run my fingers over the dots and feel the patterns,” Girma demonstrated. “The patterns of the dots make braille. During this presentation, this is what I’m using for communication. I have an assistant who will be typing what people are saying.”

Girma urged viewers to let go of the idea that disabilities are a burden. “We have to resist those stories and instead reframe what disability means.” She described winning battles while at Harvard Law (such as successfully arguing for braille menus in campus cafeterias) and learning to salsa dance and surf. Today, she travels the world teaching the benefits of choosing inclusion.

The event also featured three panel presentations and discussions, including a group who discussed their experiences with their disabilities on campus and in everyday life.

“Awareness is only one part of it,” said Danny Housley, assistive technology manager with Tools for Life, part of the College of Design’s Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation (CIDI). “I use a white cane and I’m blind. You’re now aware that I have a disability — what does that change? We want to move toward acceptance of disability and for people to look at it like a trait, like anything else. I may be blind, but that doesn’t mean that I’m incapable of working.”

“I think this is a great step toward things that we need to be doing more of,” added Liz Persaud, also a CIDI staffer and panelist. “Recognizing that we have a diversity symposium and being able to focus specifically on disability issues is unbelievably important.”

Other panels focused on Tech-centered disability technology research and development, design, and Georgia Tech’s IT accessibility policies.

“The 2020 Diversity Symposium raised critical awareness of accessibility issues and exclusion that many in our Georgia Tech community and around the world face due to poor design of the built and digital environment,” said Chantal Kerssens, panelist and CIDI’s executive director and director of research. “Disabilities, permanent and temporary, are much more common than we think. Removing barriers and designing for inclusion opens up society and unlocks joy and productivity from which we all stand to benefit.”

The symposium also featured live captioning from CIDI.

“The Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation was a proud partner in planning the event and we were proud to share our lived experiences, our scholarship, and our service to communities around the country,” Kerssens added.

The event ended with the annual awards presented to this year’s Faces of Inclusive Excellence honorees and the Diversity Champion Awards honorees, who were recognized for their achievements in accessibility and inclusion on campus. They included Cassie S. Mitchell, assistant professor, Biomedical Engineering (faculty winner); Johan “John” Rempel, UX/ICT quality assurance manager, CIDI (staff winner); Nandita Gupta, graduate student, Human-Computer Interaction (student winner); and the Writing and Communication Program in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts School of Literature, Media, and Communication (unit winner).

“This year’s Diversity Symposium told the story that every person in the Tech community is valued and entitled to full access to all that we have to offer to fulfill each person’s aspirations, Ervin added. “Seeing access as an issue of inclusion demonstrates that everyone is welcomed and that we should all be dedicated to eliminating barriers of any kind for our community members.”

To learn more and to view the event’s panel recordings, visit: diversity.gatech.edu/12th-annual-georgia-tech-diversity-symposium.

A full transcript of the event is also available here. 

This is the seventh consecutive year the Institute has been named a HEED Award recipient.

“Our diversity and inclusion core values support our vision for building and sustaining an inclusive and welcoming community,” said Archie Ervin, vice president for Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (IDEI). “In the years ahead, these values will also undergird our commitment to ensuring success for all our students, staff, and faculty so they can thrive and succeed unimpeded by social barriers.”

Open to all colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada, the award measures an institution’s level of achievement and intensity of commitment in regard to broadening diversity and inclusion on campus through initiatives, programs, and outreach; student recruitment, retention, and completion; and hiring practices for faculty and staff.

The HEED Award announcement comes on the heels of Tech’s enrollment of a record number of first-year, transfer, and dual-enrollment students this fall and IDEI’s creation of Diversity and Inclusion Education and Training earlier this year to lead a broad range of education and training focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion for the campus community.

"The HEED Award process consists of a comprehensive and rigorous application that includes questions relating to the recruitment and retention of students and employees — and best practices for both — continued leadership support for diversity, and other aspects of campus diversity and inclusion," said Lenore Pearlstein, co-publisher of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine. "As we continue to see a record number of HEED Award applicants each year, nearly every school tells us they use the application itself as a tool to create new programs and to benchmark their accomplishments across campus. The process allows them to reflect on their successes and also determine where more work needs to be done. We also continue to raise the standards in selecting HEED institutions."

To learn more and for a full listing of 2020 HEED Award recipients, visit https://www.insightintodiversity.com/about-the-heed-award/2020-recipients/.

The regulations mandate how colleges and universities receiving federal funding must investigate and adjudicate sexual misconduct cases under Title IX, the federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities, including employment.

At USG institutions, sexual misconduct is addressed under Policy 6.7 in the Board of Regents Policy Manual. Much of the policy remains the same and Georgia Tech will continue to address incidents of sexual misconduct brought to its attention. One notable change will be in the hearing process for Title IX cases — institutions will now be required to provide an advisor to either party who does not have one. The advisor will have the right to cross-examine, in contrast to the previous Title IX process, where all questions during a hearing were submitted to and asked by a hearing panel. 

Georgia Tech’s Title IX office will host information sessions in the coming academic year to provide opportunities for the campus community to learn more.

Student support and services at Georgia Tech remain the same. Confidential victim-survivor support, prevention and education resources, and other services are available through VOICE, Georgia Tech’s sexual violence prevention program. Support is also available through the Counseling Center; Center for Assessment, Referral, and Education; and the Title IX office. Employees also have access to confidential resources through the Employee Assistance Program and health care providers.

Panelists and advisors are a vital part of the hearing process, and faculty and staff volunteers are needed to serve in these roles. Annual training is provided, and panelists and advisors serve on a rotating basis, usually one to two times per academic year.

To learn more, contact Marcia Bull Stadeker, Title IX Coordinator, at marcia.stadeker@gatech.edu or 404.385.5583.

Starting with the 2021 admission cycle, first-year applicants can select one of three admission plans: Early Action 1, Early Action 2, and Regular Decision.

Early Action 1 is reserved specifically for Georgia students, including Georgia residents attending high school out of state. These students who apply during Early Action 1 will be given priority consideration and receive their admission decision in December. The deadline to apply for Early Action 1 will be October 15.

Giving Georgia students the ability to apply earlier allows the admission team to prioritize their review of in-state applications.

“We are confident this change will benefit all of our applicants and future students,” said Rick Clark, director of Undergraduate Admission. “As a public institution, our primary responsibility is to our state. Providing an application plan specifically for Georgians reflects that commitment.”

“We know our in-state applicants are phenomenally talented and have a lot of great options for college,” continued Clark. “This change allows us to admit Georgia students a month earlier than in years past and begin conversations with them about why they should choose Tech.”

Students who are not Georgia residents and attend a high school out of state are eligible to apply for Early Action 2, with a deadline of November 2. This new deadline for out-of-state students is more in line with school start dates in other parts of the country and provides those students additional time to complete their applications. Early Action 2 decisions will be released in mid-January.

“Many high schools around the country and the world do not begin until after Labor Day,” Clark said. “We’ve heard from counselors and school leaders that November 2 is a more helpful deadline for their students. Listening, refining, and creating policies that are beneficial to students and families is always our goal. Establishing an Early Action 2 deadline accomplishes that.”

The Regular Decision deadline remains the same for all students. This year it will be January 4, 2021, with decisions released in mid-March.

The application for first-year admission is available starting August 1, 2020.

More information: https://admission.gatech.edu/first-year/deadlines-fees

“A lot of people would like to talk about race, racial inequality, and the impact of racism, but don’t know where to start,” said Tiffiny Hughes-Troutman, licensed psychologist and director of the Center for Assessment, Referral, and Education (CARE) at Georgia Tech. “Some worry that others won’t understand their points of view or fear that what they say might be offensive to others. Also, individuals may be confused about how to be an ally and supporter and how to make an impact in a positive, meaningful way.”

That’s the position Steve McLaughlin found himself in until a few years ago. McLaughlin, dean and Southern Company Chair of the College of Engineering, said that he is like many white people when it comes to talking about race: cautious because he doesn’t want to say the wrong thing.

“There are your intentions, and then there’s how it’s received,” he said. “The fear of saying the wrong thing is so strong. It’s such a block to making a difference and to being able to work on the things you feel strongly about.”

McLaughlin said that throughout his adult life he has considered himself an ally of groups that sometimes feel marginalized or misunderstood. He thought it was enough to see himself as nonracist. His thinking changed when the son he and his wife adopted from Guatemala as a baby entered his teen years.

“I started to see how the world treated him and processed him and, quite honestly, didn’t process him because they didn’t see him. Or didn’t want to see him,” McLaughlin said. “He was raised as we would have raised any other child. Then all of a sudden the world starts to just process him differently. I became more attuned to some of the things that African Americans and Latinos experience — everyday microaggressions and racism. I became more passionate. And, I decided I need to speak up.” 

McLaughlin said he is still trying to find his voice in terms of race. He posts on social media about his journey, and he shared his experiences with Transformative Narratives, a digital story library curated by the Office of Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (IDEI).

“I did it rather quietly at first,” he said. “I was the chair of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, then came into this role as dean and realized I have a platform. I can pick the things I think are important to talk about, and this is one of them.”

Where to Begin?

When trying to start a conversation about race, Hughes-Troutman suggests starting small.

“There is great potential in intergroup dialogue that leverages diversity and creates opportunity for connection among large groups,” she said, “but I would suggest starting on an individual level and creating a safe space with friends, colleagues, or co-workers you genuinely care about and whose lives and experiences you are sincerely interested in learning about.”

Stephanie Ray agrees.

“I want you to call me because you really care about me. Don’t call just because you think you should join the conversation about race,” said Ray, associate dean of students and director of Student Diversity Programs in the Division of Student Life.

Ray added that people should not expect their Black colleagues to be the only ones talking about or even leading the conversation. “Everyone has a responsibility to do some heavy lifting,” she said.

McLaughlin is determined to do his part.

“I have African American colleagues with whom I have close enough relationships to initiate the race talk and feel uninhibited in both directions,” he said. “I haven’t had many, but a few, that I could really have a direct conversation about race and not feel worried. I want to get more and more comfortable talking about it.”

Current Climate and What’s Next

Ongoing political protests against police brutality and systemic racism, combined with the anxiety of dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, are having a significant impact on students, according to Hughes-Troutman.

“Students share feelings of anger, frustration, sadness, and grief as they process these complex emotions and focus on other milestones, experiences, and events,” she said. “The Covid-19 pandemic is incredibly stressful, and many students are grieving many losses — losses of lives through death, and the loss of their former lifestyle.”

Even when looking at the intersection of racism and Covid-19, Hughes-Troutman is optimistic because of the nature of the conversations taking place.

“I certainly hope it’s a turning point,” she said. “This is a time for racial healing, and these conversations are more important than ever. Dialogue, affirmation and connectedness, and a sense of purpose and agency are ways to move us forward.”

McLaughlin wants to keep the conversation going, and make the most of it. He said the College of Engineering has been talking with student groups and will be collaborating with IDEI to prioritize what can be done within the College to improve the climate in a short time.

“These moments seem to come and go, and people move on to something else,” McLaughlin said. “I’m determined to not let this moment pass.” 

Ray suggests that applying Georgia Tech’s spirit of “We can do that” is the approach to take when addressing race-related issues.

“Look at all of the research Georgia Tech does. If we are willing to put in the hard work for STEM, we should be willing to work hard to improve the human condition — which is part of our new mission statement,” Ray said. “Let’s put these great minds together to do the work needed, not only for Georgia Tech, but for the world.”

With support from Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the ADVANCE Program, the program brings together campus community members who individually and collectively advance their action, research, or teaching objectives while improving inclusivity on campus.

“The Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program provided me an opportunity to work on projects to raise awareness around topics of personal interest and of community and global importance,” said Stephanie Merrick, a senior Administrative Professional for the College of Design’s Center for Spatial Planning Analytics and Visualization and fellow in last year’s program. “I am thankful I had the opportunity to work with a collaborative team where we worked together and exchanged diverse ideas.”

The program will run from August 15, 2020 to April 15, 2021. During this time, fellows are expected to complete an individual or group action, teaching, or research objective to share with the campus community.

“As a grassroots effort to seed great ideas that have the potential to transform culture around diversity and inclusion on campus, this program has exceeded all our expectations,” said Magnus Egerstedt, co-director of the program and Steve W. Chaddick School Chair and professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

“We have seen a number of really impactful projects go from vague ideas to crisp programs,” added Beril Toktay, Brady Family Chair and faculty director for the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business and co-director of the Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program. “We are really excited to see what the next round of fellows will bring to the table.”

Interested applicants should submit an issue area or project idea to focus on as a potential Diversity and Inclusion fellow. The program is seeking participants who have been immersed in the topics of diversity and inclusion, as well as those interested in connecting these topics to different fields and perspectives.

All Georgia Tech faculty, post-doctoral fellows, staff, and graduate and undergraduate students are welcome to apply.

The application deadline is May 15, 2020 at 5 p.m. To read the application instructions, visit diversity.gatech.edu/DIFellowsProgramApplicationInstructions, and to apply, visit https://forms.gle/X74fh8nqNGbnwitU7.

To learn more about the Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program, visit diversity.gatech.edu/DIFellowsProgram.

Working with partners across the Institute, Resilience – one of six ERG’s offered to campus staffers by Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’s Staff Diversity, Inclusion, and Engagement unit – has provided experiences to help participants increase resilience and strength, and proactively mitigate the impact of routine stress, crisis, and change. Program activities have included workshops, leadership panels, educational experiences, facilitated dialogues, mentoring, and peer support.

“Today, this work is more important than ever,” said Sonia Alvarez-Robinson, executive director of Georgia Tech Strategic Consulting and principal empowerment officer of the Resilience ERG. And that is why Resilience, together with the University System of Georgia Employee Assistance Program (EAP) partner KEPRO, is hosting a webinar called Building Resiliency and Coping with Change.

This online workshop will be offered to Georgia Tech students, faculty, and staff on three dates: April 20, 28, and May 1, from 1 to 2 p.m. Interested participants can register for one of the sessions here.

In other efforts to increase resilience awareness across the Tech community, the first Building Personal and Organizational Resilience “mini-mester” course – 1 credit hour, five-week class introducing students to nontraditional classroom material – was delivered to Georgia Tech students earlier this spring. The course will be offered again in early and late Summer semester and during all three Fall mini-mester terms. 

The class is designed to help students build skills to survive and thrive through chronic stresses and acute crises, and offers a variety of techniques for students to build resilience. Registration is now open and available on OSCAR.

To learn more about the Resilience ERG, workshop presentations, videos, resources, and information, visit sdie.gatech.edu/resilience-employee-resource-group. 

This fund has been established to support Tech students who have a demonstrated financial need related to the COVID-19 crisis and campus closures. Funding is available to all enrolled Georgia Tech students and can be used to alleviate financial challenges resulting from the current public health crisis, including travel assistance, housing assistance, medical expenses, moving costs, financial support, food insecurity, and much more. 

Students in need of financial assistance should complete the application form, and the Office of the Vice President and Dean of Students will contact them to coordinate the assistance through the Office of Financial Aid. The maximum amount of each grant is $1,000.

Funds are limited but are currently being raised. Parents looking to support this fund can make a gift through the Georgia Tech Parents Fund. Alumni can make a gift through Roll Call. And faculty and staff can make a gift by visiting the Office of Development website, clicking on Give Now, and entering Student Relief Fund in the space for "other designation."

Fox researches the role and influence of gender in scientific occupations and organizations, and she is considered one of the leaders in the field. She has received numerous honors in her career, including:

• Section Star in Science, Knowledge and Technology from the American Sociological Association, 2015
• Gender Equity Award from the Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016
• Ivan Allen College Distinguished Research Award, 2017
• Faculty of the Year Award from the Georgia Tech Undergraduate Student Government Association, 2017
• Elected AAAS Fellow for “distinguished research on women and men in scientific organizations and occupations, and leadership on issues related to diversity, equity, and excellence in science,” 2018

As part of the ADVANCE Program, which has a professor in each of Georgia Tech's six colleges and is supported by the Institute Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office, Fox works to support and build a community of women in science and academia.

Fox's term begins on Feb. 17, at the conclusion of the AAAS's Annual Meeting.

Georgia Tech has received the 2019 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, one of the oldest and largest diversity-focused publications in higher education. As a recipient of the annual HEED Award — a national honor recognizing U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion — Georgia Tech will be featured along with 93 other recipients in the magazine's November 2019 issue.

This is the sixth consecutive year the Institute has been named a HEED Award recipient.

“Georgia Tech continues to be an influential thought leader in the areas of diversity and inclusion,” said Archie. W. Ervin, vice president for Institute Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. “Receiving the HEED Award for a sixth year in a row signifies the Institute’s commitment to creating an inclusive and welcoming campus community for all as we continue on our path forward, together, as ‘One Georgia Tech.’”

Open to all colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada, the award measures an institution’s level of achievement and intensity of commitment in regard to broadening diversity and inclusion on campus through initiatives, programs, and outreach; student recruitment, retention, and completion; and hiring practices for faculty and staff.

The award announcement comes on the heels of Georgia Tech welcoming one of its most diverse class of incoming students last month and amid the expansion of campus diversity and inclusion programs and initiatives such as the Challenge program for incoming students; one-on-one leadership coaching for staff members; and added implicit bias workshops and trainings for faculty.

“The HEED Award process consists of a comprehensive and rigorous application that includes questions relating to the recruitment and retention of students and employees — and best practices for both — continued leadership support for diversity, and other aspects of campus diversity and inclusion,” said Lenore Pearlstein, publisher of INSIGHT Into Diversity. “We take a detailed approach to reviewing each application in deciding who will be named a HEED Award recipient. Our standards are high, and we look for institutions where diversity and inclusion are woven into the work being done every day across their campus.”

For a full listing of 2019 HEED Award recipients and to learn more, visit insightintodiversity.com/about-the-heed-award/.

Gift to Tech funds come from over 6,000 Student Alumni Association (SAA) members, with $5 of every yearly membership contribution going toward Gift to Tech. The Georgia Tech student body chooses the top three project submissions, and the SAA members select the final Gift to Tech project winner. Gift to Tech is facilitated by the Georgia Tech Student Foundation.

The Center for the Study of Women, Science, and Technology (WST) is partnering with students involved in the Cultural Diversity and Affairs Committee (CDAC) of the Student Government Association (SGA) to establish the program.

“We were all very excited when we found out we won,” said Carol Colatrella, professor and associate dean for graduate studies, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts and co-director of WST. “It really was a collaborative effort between WST and CDAC. The CDAC students were the intellectual architects of this project, with WST graduate partners leading the publicity.”

The program began to take shape when Niveda Shanmugam, William Harrer, and Alex Casado, co-chairs of CDAC and vice president of Student Life, heard from people who menstruate saying that they had trouble affording menstrual hygiene products. The three said they realized the problem was rooted in unfair gender inequality, so they decided to make a difference in this space. In turn, they led the development of the strategy, funding, execution, and logistics for the initiative to provide sustainable, biodegradable, easily accessible, and free menstrual products for the campus community.

In creating a plan, the organizers worked with a number of campus departments including Health Initiatives on a survey to gauge the need; Facilities Management regarding advice on installations, refilling, and inventory; and with Student Life and building managers to determine where to place the dispensers of menstrual products and how many are needed. CDAC identified certain buildings as likely locations for the dispensers — the Scheller College of Business, the Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons, Klaus Computing Building, the Student Center, and the Instructional Center.

CDAC also established a relationship with Aunt Flow, an organization that provides tampons and pads that are organic cotton, biodegradable, comfortable, and free for students on campuses across the country.

The Gift to Tech funds will cover most, if not all, of the overhead costs of the program for one year.

“At the end of this one year, we hope to have data to reflect the success of this pilot, community support, and momentum with this initiative so we can work with facilities, administration, and building managers across campus to see if we can add these products as a line item on the yearly budget,” said Shanmugam. “This is the process in most other universities that have a similar program in place, so we aim to accomplish the same at Georgia Tech!”

Aside from refining the logistical details, the organizers also hope to inspire other colleges across the Southeast as well as Tech’s peer universities to provide the same support to their students.

“We would love to serve as collaborators or mentors to such efforts, and hope to receive constructive feedback to have this program reach its full potential,” Shanmugam said.  

Getting the Word Out

WST graduate partners Katherine Bennett, Danielle Schechter, and Monica Marks collaborated with CDAC leaders Shanmugam, Harrer, and Casado to design and distribute publicity materials to help create awareness of the program among students voting on the Gift to Tech nominees.

“We integrated data and graphics from the Free the Tampons Foundation and tailored this information from the national campaign to fit the Menstrual Product Program that CDAC initiated specifically for the Tech campus,” said Bennett, who led the design team. “I worked closely with Niveda, Alex, and William to make sure that the language and graphics on our posters, flyers, monitor images, and stickers represented CDAC’s vision to bring free and sustainable menstrual products to gender-inclusive restrooms at Tech. I’m happy that our designs are truly collaborative, with equal involvement from both partners in the project,” Bennett said.

Members of WST and CDAC used the publicity materials to reach student voters through the use of social media, physical locations around campus, and tabling events before and on Giving Day.

The Gift to Tech award will be presented during a ceremony on Tuesday, April 16, at 11 a.m. in the Student Center’s Peachtree Room.

Previous Gift to Tech winners are: The LGBTQIA Resource Center, Tech Ends Suicide Together, Excel at Georgia Tech, Student Mental Health, Klemis Kitchen, GT Band, Dean Dull Endowment, and the Office of Solid Waste and Recycling.

Through its ADVANCE program, Georgia Tech is working to increase representation and advancement of women in academic, science and engineering careers. Tech’s ADVANCE program features six professors—one representing each college—who are not only exceptional researchers and teachers, but also serve as role models and advocates for women and minorities on campus.

These six women are accomplished faculty members and experts in their fields, and through the ADVANCE program are also giving back by helping to increase the representation and participation of women and minorities at the Institute. We asked these ADVANCE professors to talk about their experiences in academia and the work they do to create more equity, diversity and inclusion for those following in their footsteps.

What exactly do you do in your role as an ADVANCE professor?

Beril Toktay: I see the ADVANCE Professorship as a mixture of advocate, change agent, adviser and cheerleader. As an advocate, it is my job to surface issues and bring them to the attention of the administration. As a change agent, I collaborate both laterally and with the administration to make progress on those same issues. As an adviser to the administration, it is my role to share my thoughts honestly and constructively. And as a cheerleader, I elevate and celebrate individual and collective achievements.

Kim Cobb: I serve as liaison between the faculty and the administration as an advocate for equity, diversity and inclusion. At the same time, I work closely with members of the administration —from the president’s office to school chairs—to advise, coordinate and raise awareness of various initiatives. One of the most rewarding and fulfilling aspects of my role is to work alongside five other amazing ADVANCE Professors as we share best practices and build capacity and momentum for Institute-wide efforts.

Pinar Keskinocak: I listen via one-on-one and small group meetings to get a pulse from College of Engineering women, particularly faculty and graduate students, regarding their concerns on issues such as equity, work-life balance and leadership opportunities. I also gather and analyze data to better understand Georgia Tech’s current state and areas for improvement, and advocate for potential changes in policy or practices. One of the data-gathering activities we did as a team was to look at faculty hiring data, starting from applications, to interviews on campus, to offers, and then accept/reject decisions. We wanted to better understand this pipeline, especially considering the percentage of women and minorities at each stage.

Can you give an example of how you've advocated for or advanced the work of female and minority students, staff and faculty and what impact that has had?

Mary Frank Fox: One of my goals has been clarifying the evaluation process. I’ve done this by leading a team assessing Ivan Allen College school handbooks for clarity and continuity in guidelines and policies, as well as developing a document with the organizational factors (based on research) that support clarity and equity of evaluation. I participate in the dean’s workshops on reappointment, tenure and promotion, and have developed a set of practices that clarify criteria for promotion to full professor. These have been important because evaluation is the “lever for advancement.”

Dana Randall: It is exceptional and noteworthy that women on the faculty of the College of Computing are represented across all areas of the discipline. However, this is less true of the student body, and we continue to see certain sub-disciplines with far more gender balance than others. We have hosted various events to create a forum for women in less balanced areas in the College of Computing to be able to speak up and create a community, and give them access to women faculty and students in other areas with whom they can discuss opportunities and challenges.

Toktay: A good example is the Diversity and Inclusion Fellows program, which offers a one-year fellowship to approximately 20 faculty, staff and students who propose initiatives that contribute to diversity and inclusion on campus. This program fills the need for bottom-up diversity and inclusion initiatives that draw on the unique experiences and talents of the campus community. As co-director and co-founder of the program, I consult with each fellow in shaping their project, connect projects to areas of the Institute that would benefit from them and champion their adoption.

Women's issues have come to the forefront in today's cultural landscape: sexual harassment and abuse, gender wage gap, discrimination in STEM fields, and more. What issues do you feel are most pressing? What should we be focused on addressing first?

Catherine Ross: Not just one, but many issues are pressing. Thomson Reuters Foundation asked about 100 people in Britain, Italy, the United States, Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal, India, Thailand, Brazil and Colombia what they saw as the biggest challenge for women. The overwhelming response was, “the world would be a better place for women if they had access to more and better quality jobs.” Of course, we know that access to higher quality education leads to a better quality job, which brings us back to the role of the Georgia Institute of Technology and other institutions of higher learning.

Fox: Key here are the subtlety and complexity of systemic discrimination that creates inequitable outcomes in salaries, positions and advancement. This is complex because it involves organizational climates, patterns of who is valued (and why), practices of evaluation and forms of inclusion or exclusion. These are pressing issues because so much of people’s lives occur in these organizational settings and the features of organizations shape outcomes for all.

Keskinocak: This is a tough one, and they are all somewhat related to each other. Women are less likely to stay or advance in the workforce, or seek leadership positons, especially if there is harassment, inadequate family support or discrimination. I think bias, whether it is implicit or overt, is still a big issue. This is true for women, and for underrepresented minorities as well. My perception is that while women are more easily accepted in junior-level roles, bias and other barriers become bigger, and more pronounced, as women advance in their careers.

Randall: Sexual harassment and unsafe work environments for women and various underrepresented groups are by far the biggest societal concerns across fields. None of these other issues around gender and identity can be addressed until we create an environment where everyone feels safe to speak up, contribute and be fully valued.

What in your opinion is the greatest challenge facing women on college campuses today? And what do you think can be done to meet and overcome that challenge?

Fox: A big challenge is the prevalence of the “pipeline model.” From this perspective, the issue becomes keeping women and other under-represented groups “in the pipeline” so that they emerge into careers in an “orderly and expected” progression. This view—introduced in the early 1980s—has governed many practices, policies and initiatives, with less than positive outcomes, despite good intentions. A more realistic and effective model is the “pathway” approach, which involves considerations of institutional influences like marriage and family, relations of power that favor or disfavor some groups, and organizational arrangements that create advantages and disadvantages in interactions, evaluation and rewards.

Randall: What often holds women back in certain academic disciplines is not their inability to “lean in” but rather the unwillingness of some men to “lean out.” The nature of many STEM fields, in particular, can be more challenging for certain women as everyone is struggling to make their own voice heard. This is compounded by implicit bias—unconscious stereotypes or assumptions about groups of people—which is now well-documented in job acquisition, letters of recommendation, teaching evaluations and so forth. While some of these biases undoubtedly can hinder careers, the wave of discussions around this topic has made many more people aware of these tendencies, and it has made others vigilant about countering such behavior in others.

Cobb: As a mother to four, I am particularly sensitive to the challenges related to childbirth, especially in the face of federal parental leave policies that lag those of all other developed nations. However, bias represents a more universal, and often more subtle, threat to the well-being of women. And it’s not just women—racial and ethnic minorities, members of the LGBT+ community, as well as the disabled face a range of biases, sometimes multiple biases at once. While it is important to continue our collective work as an institution to raise awareness about sources of bias and design policies to mitigate its effects, it is equally important to build a community where personal experiences are shared and valued, and where everyone sees themselves as an active participant in the solutions to these challenges.

Toktay: There are no silver bullet solutions, but it’s very important that those in leadership positions make it a priority to try to understand how people experience life on campus, and make a conscious effort to model inclusive behavior.

What obstacles have you personally faced as a woman in your field? Do you think conditions have improved over the years for younger women who are following your career path?

Ross: For me, this is a particularly potent question being both African American and a woman. The struggle to obtain a college education was a tedious and precarious one which was made more difficult because of limited family resources and persistent barriers of racism. In many instances, I was not selected, invited, referenced or acknowledged simply because of who I am and how I look. However, I took advantage of every opportunity that came my way, including volunteering at professional agencies, accessing scholarship and work-study opportunities, visiting universities and deciding that I would identify people who were supportive and with whom I could learn. While there are fewer obstacles today, we need only to look at the status of women (especially African-American women) to know we have much further to go.

Randall: Being a woman in mathematics and computer science creates challenges, but it also creates opportunities. I have personally experienced just about every possible type of discrimination at various stages of my career, but I’ve also had more access to leadership and scientific roles than I might have otherwise due to systemic efforts to achieve greater gender balance. These additional experiences helped ameliorate the unfortunate reality that other people made themselves less accessible, and certain opportunities may have been less readily available to me as a woman. To thrive, you have to learn to distinguish these experiences and maximize the settings that are supportive and inspiring. I believe that overall, recent progress by diversity-promoting programs (like ADVANCE) has been helping to increase access and support for younger women entering academia.

Cobb: I have faced my share of challenges, big and small, that left me feeling extremely isolated. But as a tenured, white professor, I also came to realize that I had the capacity and privilege to advocate for the kind of structural changes that could ease the path for women and other under-represented minorities. I’m thrilled to have a formal appointment as ADVANCE Professor, wherein I can engage for real-world change as part of a team of accomplished, hard-charging, like-minded women. It is a steep hill to climb, but the process of climbing towards equity and inclusion every single day is one of the most rewarding aspects of my professional life. The dozens of amazing young women I have mentored in my lab, in addition to my own three daughters, remind me that while our work will never be done, small wins accumulate through time to open doors for them that might have been closed for me, and that keeps me going.

How has Georgia Tech best supported the ADVANCE program efforts on campus?

Ross: Georgia Tech has supported the work of ADVANCE Professors beginning with our launch of the Equity, Diversity, and Excellence Initiative. Our work seeks to support each academic unit’s attempt to become a place that promotes gender equity, bias awareness, open communication on Institute climate and culture, and more significant interaction with higher administrators, while convening programs such as the Annual Diversity Symposium. The Institute has also supported our requests for data to better understand the hiring, interviewing and employment practices across colleges.

Keskinocak: We are grateful for the support from the highest levels, including our president, Institute Diversity, college deans, and beyond. For example, the Strategic Planning Advisory Group proposal, which was written with the leadership of ADVANCE professors along with others, had strong support from Institute Diversity as well as the colleges, and led to three new initiatives: the Diversity and Inclusion Councils, the Fellows/Ambassadors Program and the Personal Narrative Library.

Fox: Georgia Tech has taken values of equity and diversity and made them integral to the fabric of the Institution. This has occurred through bias awareness workshops, accountability of data collection, the amplified voices of previously marginalized groups and respect for ADVANCE goals.

This story was originally published in the Fall 2018 Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine (Vol. 94 No. 3)

Information about GEMS is available at http://www.wst.gatech.edu/girls-excelling-math-and-science-gems