2022 Thayer Investiture

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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee is comprised of faculty, staff, and students working towards creating a more equitable, diverse, and welcoming place to learn and work.

On This Page

Mission & Goals

Mission: A Thayer that embodies openness, accessibility, collaboration, and human-centered innovation, that elevates the voices of those from historically marginalized backgrounds, and continually works towards a community that comes together across differences as we respond to the challenges in our world.

"Our goal is to build a community that reflects the rich diversity of the global workforce, and create a culture in which our individual identities and contributions are valued and treated with respect. It's critical that each student, faculty, and staff feel welcome and included to ensure we teach, learn, and discover to our full potential."

—Alexis Abramson, Dean

Goals

As part of the larger Dartmouth Action Plan for Inclusive Excellence, the engineering community at Dartmouth aims to:

  1. Invest in the initiatives that prioritize equity and access by giving deliberate attention to the recruitment, retention, or training hurdles that limit the participation of individuals from historically marginalized groups.
  2. Improve the health and well-being of our community through organizing resources and programming that meet the specific needs of diverse groups and create a culture where skill-sharing, storytelling, and acts of caretaking and wellness are uplifted.
  3. Imagine and create a more equitable future in which we listen to and learn from the stories, struggles, and successes of those most impacted by a history of inequities, using them as roadmarkers towards the solutions we practice as a community.

Initiatives

The DEI Committee, in collaboration with members of the Dartmouth engineering community, will focus on the following areas:

Mentorship and Support for BIPOC Students

Develop mentorship programs and support networks for students who are members of the Black and Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) community.

Inclusion in the Classroom

Listen to what students are experiencing in courses now, understand what has worked at Thayer and at other schools, and help instructors adopt more best practices.

Community Engagement

Provide more opportunities for community members to come together by organizing events and programming that address traumas and divides while cultivating trust and deepening relationships.

Climate and Culture

Support evidence-based change to policies, norms, and interactions that lead to Thayer being a place where ALL students, staff, and faculty are able to thrive.

Mental Health and Wellness

Focus on ways to support all members of the Thayer community through wellness activities and initiatives, identifying resources, engaging in open and honest dialogue, and making long-term plans.

DEI Committee Members

Petra Bonfert-Taylor, Chair
Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion

Alexis Abramson
Dean

Bhavyadisha Awashthy
MEM Graduate Student

Dominic Carrese
MS Graduate Student

Teja Chatty
PhD Innovation Fellow

Uyen Dang
Diversity Fellow

Faith Goodness
Director of Human Resources

Britt Goods
Assistant Professor of Engineering

Jessica Kinzie
Staff Advisor to Student Groups

Eugene Korsunskiy
Associate Professor of Engineering

Vicki May
Professor of Engineering

Colin Meyer
Professor of Engineering

Padmashri Ramesh
MEM Graduate Student

Laura Ray
Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development

Tricia Spellman
Chief Financial and Administrative Officer

Rafe Steinhauer
Assistant Professor of Engineering

Holly Wilkinson
Assistant Dean for Student and Academic Affairs

Humans of Thayer Project

Humans of Thayer (HofT) is a project designed to foster connection, acceptance, and a sense of belonging by sharing the faces and stories of our students, faculty, and staff.

Help us build community by sharing what you love to do, what sustains your curiosity, your biggest influence, or something else about yourself!
Fill out the HofT Submission Form for a chance to be featured.

Annual Reports

The DEI Committee provides ongoing documentation of practices, plans, accomplishments, and challenges relevant to their goal of building a more welcoming, equitable place to learn and work, and to creating campus-wide partnerships towards implementing meaningful change.