The Inclusive Excellence Action Plan is evolving to ensure a fully inclusive Gillings School.
Since its inception in 2019, our Inclusive Excellence Action Plan has guided the Gillings School in its focus on reducing inequities and fostering inclusion, both within the school and in our work with partners. As with any plan, evolving goals and metrics have created an opportunity to update the plan in order to envision, without limitations, a fully inclusive Gillings School.
With input from faculty, staff, students and alumni, the inclusive excellence team, led by Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence Kim Ramsey-White, PhD, MPH, is working to review and update the Inclusive Excellence Action Plan that centers community and collaboration for 2024 and beyond.
Additional highlights from their work this year:
- Worked with Advancement to recruit and engage three new members of the Inclusive Excellence Alumni Board. Mr. Brian Ellerby, Dr. Leandris Liburd and Ms. Makayla Cunningham have all agreed to serve on the board.
- Met with department heads and respective equity and inclusion chairs to assess equity initiatives across the School and established a monthly Equity Co-Chairs Meeting in which all departmental co-chairs doing equity work and affiliated students can discuss initiatives from their own departments and build a community of sharing resources, ideas, and funds across departments and the School at large.
- Resumed Community Conversations after a hiatus from Spring 2021 to Fall 2022.
- Conducted the Fourth Annual Inclusive Excellence Summer Symposium, titled “TAR Heel Approach: Training, Access and Respect to Improve Accessibility in Veteran, International and Disabled Communities.” The training’s goal was to shed light on accessibility issues for underrepresented groups at the School and utilize the units and resources we have at UNC via resource sharing.
- Worked with human resources to build in inclusive training requirements that are tied to HR competencies so that the requirements are more relevant to individual faculty or staff jobs. This allows for people who are at varying levels in their inclusive excellence journey to focus on trainings that are specific to their learning and familiarity with inclusive practices.
