REAC Subcommittee: Education

Overview

The Education Subcommittee is charged with examining how the institution engages in racial equity work through the academic curriculum and related instruction for students, and how we support units and departments to improve climate through broad educational opportunities for staff and faculty. This subcommittee is focused on the broad educational opportunities that exist for faculty and staff, and on the curriculum and classroom engagement for students. These areas are inextricably linked, yet distinct in ways that we track, evaluate and support. This subcommittee also considers all aspects of educational engagement, development, and resourcing related to racial equity in their purview, beginning with auditing the various educational opportunities across Duke and identifying existing gaps and points of synergy.

Initial Priorities

  • Perform a “mapping” project or audit of institution-wide/health system-wide education and training efforts around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; specifically focused on racial equity opportunities.
  • Determine how best to assess the curricula for racial equity efforts, pedagogy, and framing.
  • Engage each school in an intentional effort to advance racial equity in their curriculum.
  • Develop a report of findings and progress for dissemination to schools and units.

  • Seek and support a diverse community of staff through robust workforce development and pipeline programs for underrepresented populations.
  • Incorporate anti-racism into our curricula and programs across the university, requiring that every Duke student in undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs learns of the nature of structural racism and inequity, with a special focus on our own regional and institutional legacies.
  • Assess and remediate systemic biases in the design of our curricula.
  • Establish and support duke as a global educational and research leader in anti-racism.
  • Require anti-racism and anti-bias training for every member of our faculty, student body, and staff in an effort to foster a more inclusive environment for all members of the Duke community.
  • Deepen our engagement with North Carolina Central University and Durham Technical Community College, as well as Johnson C. Smith University, with whom we share a historic relationship through the Duke Endowment.
  • Reach out with educational programs for our alumni on racial inequities and injustices.

Year 1 Update

The Education subcommittee is focused on understanding and improving the ways we engage and integrate racial equity in educational opportunities offered to learners (staff, faculty, and students) across Duke. In the early stages of the Subcommittee work, members focused on relationship building and sharing expertise that would eventually lead to the development of our strategic priorities. A primary priority emerged for determining what opportunities are available for learning about issues of racial equity, anti-racism, and racial liberation. With this knowledge, the subcommittee expects to better understand how these opportunities might inform our continued racial equity work across the enterprise. We also expect this mapping exercise to illuminate how we might grow and differently support existing opportunities while developing needed opportunities and streamlining duplicative offerings.

Read more about the work of the Education Subcommittee.

The following items reflect our focal points for the Subcommittee’s work in Year 2:

  • Develop a tool for soliciting information from units (summer 2022)
  • Develop a database of educational activities Duke-wide focused on racial equity and anti-racism (spring 2023)
  • Explore strategies for engaging each school to reimagine its curriculum with regard to racial equity, anti-racism, and racial liberation (in planning)

Membership

Co-chaired by Leigh-Anne Royster, Assistant Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, OIE , and Charmaine Royal, Professor of African & African American Studies.

  • Judy Seidenstein, Associate Dean of Diversity and Inclusion, SOM
  • Patara Williams, Program Manager, DUHS
  • Jane Boswick-Caffrey, Assistant Vice President, DUHS *
  • Keisha Williams, Assistant Vice President, HR
  • Karis Boyd-Sinkler, Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Pratt
  • Johnna Frierson, Assistant Dean, Graduate and Postdoctoral Diversity & Inclusion
  • Ashleigh Rosette, Senior Associate Dean and Professor of Management, Fuqua
  • Shruti Desai, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs for Campus Life
  • Sara Legrand, Associate Research Professor, Global Health Institute, SOM
  • Jackie Looney, Senior Associate Dean, TGS
  • David Goatley, Research Professor of Theology and Black Church Studies, Divinity
  • Brigit Carter, Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion, DUSON
  • Kelyce Allen Undergraduate Student, Public Policy, Trinity
  • Dawna Jones, Director of the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture
  • Spenser Darden, Dean of Diversity, Sanford
  • Troy Austin, Deputy Director/Competitive, Athletics Department
  • Luke Powery, Dean, Duke University Chapel and associate professor, homiletics, Divinity School
  • Gary Bennett, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education
  • John Brown, Vice Provost for the Arts
  • Martin Smith, Dean of Academic Affairs, Trinity
  • Grainne Fitzsimons, Professor of Management and Organizations, Fuqua
  • Nicolette Cagle, Lecturer in Environmental Science and Policy, Nicholas
  • Eileen Chow, Associate Professor of the Practice of Chinese and Japanese Cultural Studies, Trinity
  • Shawn Miller, Director, Learning Innovation
  • Rebecca Rich, Clinical Professor of Law
  • Val Howard, Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, DUSON
  • Maureen Cullins, Co-Director, Multicultural Resource Center, SOM
  • Melyssa Minto, PhD Student Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
  • Angela Chung, Undergraduate Student, International Comparative Studies
  • Nadine Barrett, Assistant Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health, SOM