This workshop is intended for faculty, staff, and students engaged in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work within their institution. It will build on participants’ experiences in other collaborative or committee-based work and on experiences with DEI. The goal of the workshop is for attendees to learn, both from the organizers and from one another, key practices for leading effective DEI activities and committees. To facilitate this discussion, the facilitators will provide a list of ten challenges faced by DEI committees: (1) recruiting and motivating contributors, (2) training contributors, (3) narrowly focused committee members, (4) department members who resist DEI, (5) prioritizing DEI activities, (6) discovering problem situations, (7) responding to problem situations, (8) power dynamics, (9) legal and political opposition, and (10) running effective meetings. Participants will be invited to identify other challenges as well.

The facilitators will lead participants in discussing these challenges. The majority of workshop time will be spent in small-group discussions about these challenges with an emphasis on brainstorming solutions to them. Participants will make specific action plans for how to improve DEI work in their committees and departments.