July 2023 DEI Committee Blog

Building on the Momentum of the 2023 WGR DEI Summit

In the WGR DEI Committee July 18 committee meeting, members discussed the June 2023 WGR DEI Summit, not just to recap the event, but to explore how WGR can leverage the Summit’s energy and learnings so that the DEI Committee can continue to grow WGR members’ ability to advance inclusive policy within complex environments. 

WGR’s Fourth Annual DEI Summit was more than a milestone. This year’s Summit spotlighted WGR and the profession’s DEI journey to date, and illuminated what programming the Committee can create to support more inclusive and equitable policy, advocacy, and organizational practices.  

During July and August, DEI Leaders will be crafting the committee’s strategic framework.  They are grateful to the Summit and July meeting participants who provided the following feedback on Committee and Summit programming, summarized here:

Future DEI Summit Planning

• Future summits should feature specific policy panels like the environmental and education policy panels in the 2023 Summit.  Summit participants praised these sessions, which focused on the implications of DEI on policy issues and issue advocacy, and were designed for all participants, not just subject matter experts.

Potential Committee Meeting Topics

• Monthly meetings could focus on specific, timely topics within broader issues such as climate change. This could include discussions about the impact of climate change on specific communities, implications for policy, and hyperlocal differences in the impact of issues such as air quality. 

• Additional topics the committee may explore include nutrition equity and food systems, a deeper examination of policy implications for people living with disabilities, and inclusive access to workplaces, public spaces, virtual and physical spaces, and opportunity. 

• Coverage of topics with broad implications such as the recent Supreme Court decisions: Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Administration v. University of North Carolina.  Both of these decisions will have implications for public policy and organizations practices well beyond educational institutions. 

Internal Learnings for WGR

• The committee will continue to offer leadership and professional development opportunities and is exploring special working group(s) to focus on DEI metrics within WGR, in order to better understand DEI opportunities within our own association.

If you have resources, expertise or interest in any of these topics, please reach out to DEI Committee Leaders at dei.wgr@gmail.com. 

The DEI Committee also is seeking candidates to fill an open Corresponding Secretary position.  Please email the Committee leads at dei.wgr@gmail.com if you are interested or have questions 

We welcome all WGR members to join DEI Committee Meetings on the third Tuesday of each month. Register here for the next meeting on August 15th from 11:30 - 1:00 pm Eastern Time.

DEI Committee Member Sylvia Aguilera authored this month’s blog.