Diversity & Inclusion

AHEAD’s Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

AHEAD values a multiplicity of perspectives and worldviews and believes that increased diversity enhances our professional organization. AHEAD is committed to equity, inclusion, and access, and works intentionally to represent diversity across the organization and support professional development and practice that is congruent with these values.

AHEAD strives to create inclusive and accessible experiences across the organization, including governance, events, and activities. To this end, we commit to:

  • Designing accessible and inclusive events, fully accessible web-based materials, and accessible online courses
  • Inviting and working to include diverse perspectives on all leadership groups and committees
  • Providing resources and professional development opportunities to increase the capacity of our membership to design inclusive environments and services, disrupt ableism and create more socially justice campus environments
  • Providing gender-inclusive restrooms and offering the opportunity for participants to select and include preferred pronouns on name badges at the annual conference
  • Presenting the Excellence in Diversity & Inclusion Award annually to members who have promoted diversity and inclusion within our profession and/or their workplace
  • Supporting both formal meetings and informal social gatherings for identity-based groups
  • Continuing to expand our understanding of what it means to be a diverse and inclusive organization

Get Involved

Want to help create a more diverse and inclusive organization and profession? Here are some ways you can get involved.

  • Join the Diversity and Inclusion Stakeholder Group and be a part of the conversation about diversity and inclusion in our organization and on our campuses.
  • Join a KPC (Knowledge & Practice Community). Several of AHEAD’s KPCs—such as the Racial and Ethnic Diversity and Disability (REDD) the LGBTQA, and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing KPCs—focus on inclusion of and offer opportunities for connection among people of specific identities. Explore these and other KPCs on AHEAD’s KPCs page.
  • Share your experiences and ideas. We are an organization that values learning and wants to continue to improve in terms of creating an inclusive organization and inclusive opportunities. If you have suggestions for how we can improve in these efforts, feel free to post them in the Diversity and Inclusion Community or share them privately by email with Zebadiah Hall, Equity Officer, Cornell University, zebadiah.hall@cornell.edu, chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Stakeholder Group. You are also invited to share your concerns and ideas with members of the AHEAD Board of Directors.

Official Statements Regarding Diversity and Inclusion

Resources

Books:

  • The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander
  • Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson
  • White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, Robin DiAngelo
  • Me and White Supremacy, Layla Saad
  • How to Be an Anti-Racist, Ibram X. Kendi
  • Unspeakable: The Story of Junius Wilson, Hannah Joyner and Susan Burch
  • Blackness and disability: Critical examinations and cultural interventions, Christopher Bell
  • Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates

Movies:

  • 13th (Netflix)
  • American Son (Netflix)
  • Dear White People (Netflix)
  • If Beale Street Could Talk (Hulu)
  • King in the Wilderness (HBO)
  • See You Yesterday (Netflix)
  • The Hate You Give (Cinemax)
  • When They See us (Netflix)

Podcasts:

(Items on this list will be checked for accessibility soon and edited accordingly. Our apologies if any have been shared that are not accessible.)

  • “1619” (New York Times)
  • “About Race”
  • “Code Switch” (NPR)
  • “Intersectionality Matters” (hosted by Kimberlee Crenshaw)
  • “Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast”
  • “Pod For the Cause”
  • “Pod Save the People”
  • “Seeing White”
  • “Uncivil”

Web Resources:

(Items on this list will be checked for accessibility soon and edited accordingly. Our apologies if any have been shared that are not accessible.)

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