WHAT LED YOU TO NIU?

“A long path, but ultimately it’s about coming home. What I find interesting is ‘home’ has all these different kinds of connotations or meanings for people. I left my birth home state of Texas. This feels like a full circle moment of coming back to where I lived as a child, where I learned how to be a young woman and a woman. Coming home was one of the critical things, but it was really the work that was being done here at NIU and it was remarkable, and I wanted to be able to be a part of helping to move it to the next place.” 

HOW HAS YOUR EXPERIENCE AT NIU BEEN SO FAR?

“Amazing! This is a community where people find a connection and enjoy that connection, and then want to reinvest what they got back into the space for those that are to come. We got to go to a picnic in the city with some of the Black alumni, and then we got to hang out with the opening of the cultural centers. We got to participate in a Week of Welcome, and we had some fun there with karaoke and skating. You have to have those relational connections, because when it gets into the hard work, you lean on those relationships for understanding and that’s what everyone’s experience should be like here.” 

WHAT HAS BEEN YOU EXPERIENCE WITH DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION

“It’s been incredibly powerful as well. I think one of the things that I recognize is that most of the team have been here for a while. There’s Luis (Santos-Rivas), who’s over at the Latino Resource Center – has been here for years. Molly (Holmes) has been here for a few years, Sandy (López) has built an entire work around the way we support our undocumented students. Marlon (Millner), who’s the newest director, is coming in with all of this experience and background as we’re looking to amplify the work. They’re all personally invested, and it’s really amazing to be a part of it. So, I think my perspective adds to what’s there and I look forward to what’s building.”

WHAT HAS BEEN DONE WITH DEI AT NIU, AND WHERE DO YOU SEE NEEDED IMPROVEMENTS?

“For me, it is not just looking at a single race or identity. The centers for the academic areas for the works that we’ve done, we’ve talked about race unabashedly, like we have not been ashamed to talk about the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion as priorities at the institution; they are non-negotiables. What I’ve asked us to do is to layer that, not to say, ‘let’s look at black identity or gender identity or sexual orientation or Hispanic or Latino or any of the other identities as a sole thing.’ When we do that, we amplify the work within the division to look at how we are a part of the retention work at the institution. So we’re not outside of the institution, we are in the center, and not just the division, but the work itself.”

WHAT CHANGES DO YOU PLAN TO MAKE DURING YOUR TIME AT NIU?

“Well, initially, I think we’re just trying to center the work in the centers, more and understanding how we work more closely with the academic partners. We need to ensure that our work is viewed as core to the academic mission. So if there was anything I’m looking to do is how do we continue to strengthen the recognition that diversity, equity and inclusion, work, and belonging are not separate from or outside of what you do in the course of pursuing your degree – it is all happening at the same time.

“I was unlike anybody else that had ever been there, for many reasons, not simply because I was the first African American female. But because I was the first African American female, I had a different sense of connection to the way that I approached things. I will say this, I was never asked to be different. I was never in a position where I felt like I had to say something differently, while saying that, we are always mindful in this work of how we say and do things, because here’s the truth. Regardless of your role, you only have one time to say something to someone, for them to experience, whatever it is you’re saying. And so as you’re trying to bring truth to power, as you’re trying to speak to individuals about perspectives that may not align with theirs. I’m a black woman who bleaches her hair completely blonde and you know, does not ascribe to any of the other predictors that might be what they look for. Because guess what, there’s never been one like me before.