Strategic Initiative: DEI Champions

Update: May 2023

Goal 3: An aligned community

In 2022-2023, Olin convened an inaugural cohort of 13 Olin employees to served as “DEI Champions,” working to bring the tenets and practices of racial equity work to Olin.

The group engaged in a cycle of learning, action and accountability by:  

• engaging with external experts and collaborators through Leading for Change Racial Equity and Justice Institute (REJI) to become educated in and committed to racial equity goals,  
• developing and beginning to work towards institutional racial equity goals, and  
• charting plans for future work.  

Over the year, DEI Champions engaged with REJI through readings, trainings, and workshops. These interactions helped the group establish a shared language and framework for identifying institutional racial equity gaps, and develop a list of data-driven, racial equity minded institutional goals.  

The work was broken into three subgroups, Student Experience, Employee Experience, and Data. Each group identified action steps and has begun working towards those goals, with plans to continue next year.  

The Student Experience group focused on assessing equitable implementation of high impact practices, increasing advisor cultural competence and bringing a Diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) lens to the curriculum. 

The Employee Experience group focused on increasing employee capacity for and recognition of DEIA work and enhancing community belonging.  

The Data group’s work included assembling and analyzing existing data sets with a focus on developing a data-informed understanding of institutional equity gaps. This year’s findings will inform future data collection and additional institutional equity goals. 

In the 2023/2024 academic year and beyond, the DEI Champions and relevant subgroups will continue working towards racial equity goals, and each subgroup will chart next steps for the 2023/2024 academic year and future years. Ongoing themes include leveraging existing structures and resources to move towards the systemic and systematic implementation of best practices in equity and inclusion. For future years, DEI Champions hopes to retain some members and engage new members each year to expand the experience across the employee body.