DEI Advisory Council

What do we do?

The Psychology Department’s standing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Advisory Council is charged to guide a transparent process of inquiry into Department policies and practices. We aim to identify and make recommendations for specific action steps regarding barriers and facilitators that impact recruitment, retention, and advancement of the Department’s faculty, students, and staff of diverse backgrounds, as well as department-level policies and trends that may negatively impact an inclusive culture. As part of this work, we review curriculum offerings and make recommendations to infuse DEI principles into classroom and research settings, as well as other departmental spaces (e.g., meetings, colloquia). We also develop and share DEI resources across the Department. The DEI Council seeks to act as a change agent by challenging the status quo and championing DEI principles and practices as we recommend policies and practices to be reviewed and adopted by the Department.

How do we work?

The DEI Council consists of a small group of representatives elected by their peers. We meet regularly as an organizing committee to oversee DEI work. However, our work regularly involves many more people across the department and college. Each semester, we launch focused task forces that meet regularly to make progress on specific initiatives consistent with the department’s ongoing needs. Any member of the department is welcome to join any task force, as long as they are able to consistently contribute to that task force’s particular initiative. Finally, we hold an open departmental town hall each semester. These town halls consist of brief updates about task force progress, as well as open discussion about departmental DEI initiatives. 

Elections for representatives to the DEI Advisory Council are held each spring semester. We are always looking for individuals to self-nominate for every position on the Council–including representatives for undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff, and alumni–so please do keep an eye out for those calls for nominations after the winter break.

Who are we?

The DEI Council consists of departmental faculty, staff, alumni, and undergraduate and graduate students elected by their peers.

Current council representatives include: 

Elizabeth Raposa (chair)

Elise Bragard

Leah Camp

Jodi Casabianca

Danielle Favarolo

Grace Gagliardi

Nia King

Dean McKay

Mégane Nacier

Mia Peros

Zahara Shidad

Maggie Xiong

Julia Yermash