At a time when colleges and universities are faced with a plethora of challenges associated with modeling a complex campus community that mirrors the faces of the social and cultural demographics of our respective states and society, many university executive leaders such as presidents and chancellors look to key individuals to lead diversity, equity and inclusion efforts from a cabinet level, titled leadership position.
This cabinet level, titled leadership position is often referred to as a chief diversity officer. We recognize the use of the term chief diversity officer is problematic in a variety of spaces, so for the purposes of this article, and with intentionality, we use senior diversity officer.
In a 2020 report in the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, R.L. Worthington, C.A. Stanley and D.G. Smith state that “whereas many professions begin with specialized training through educational credentials at the graduate level, the history and nature of the work of diversity in higher education resulted in a wide-ranging set of pathways to the role of diversity officers as cabinet-level campus leaders. The types of expertise and professional backgrounds of diversity officers were so widely varied across time that the field itself struggled to form a conceptual framework about the focus and boundaries of the work, much less achieve legitimacy, recognition and respect as a profession in higher education settings.”
Over the years, the need and work of the senior diversity officer have evolved to encompass the development of standards of professional practice that clearly illustrate “the broad range of knowledge and practices reflected in the work across institutional contexts,” write Worthington, Stanley and Smith. Additionally, executive search firms, who are paid by colleges and universities to fill these positions, are not always aware of the history of the field, including the mission-driven goals and values of institutions used to drive the expectation that senior diversity officers are the change agents for diversity, equity and inclusion in colleges and universities.
Given that this is the current nature of the field in which senior diversity officers work, why aren’t we paying attention to how we support individuals to maintain professional skills and credentials? How do senior diversity officers practice self-care? What are the appropriate venues to accomplish professional development? Is it a conference? Is it a boot camp? These critical questions have surfaced, for example, in conversations during the annual conference of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE).
From our experience and conversations, many senior diversity officers have likened their leadership experience to “missionary work,” “working in a battlefield,” “swimming upstream” and “being on the front lines.” These experiences are not to be taken lightly, as each of them describes the working climate for leading diversity, equity and inclusion at colleges and universities. The experience can be isolating and takes a toll, especially when there is resistance and the tendency to maintain an organizational culture and campus climate comfortable with the status quo.
So, what are the answers to these critical questions?
