diversity

​​​LaTanya N. Buck, most recently director of the Cross Cultural Center at Saint Louis University, has been appointed director of the newly created Center for Diversity and Inclusion at Washington University in St. Louis. Holden Thorp, PhD, university provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, and Sharon Stahl, vice chancellor for students, made the announcement.

The number of women and minorities on corporate boards has remained static in the last 10 years, despite an increasing amount of data supporting the argument that board diversity is related to good business outcomes. “Businesses have a significant opportunity to improve performance through increasing the diversity – in many forms – of their board,” said Hillary Sale, JD, corporate governance expert and professor of law and management at Washington University in St. Louis. Sale offers thoughts for both corporations and potential board candidates.

Diversity and Inclusion Grants totaling nearly $112,000 were awarded to 10 projects designed to strengthen and promote diversity on campus.

The Mosaic Project announces a number of important updates as part of its efforts toward improving diversity and inclusion for students at WUSTL. Because of the hard work and leadership of a dedicated group of students, faculty and staff, the Bias Report and Support System is live and the Center for Diversity and Inclusion is under development to open in 2014. In addition, a campus climate survey will be sent to all Danforth campus students on Feb. 16 and a new stand-alone community values program for undergraduate student orientation will launch this fall.

Health-care disparities will be among the topics discussed at the Midwest region’s Student National Medical Association (SNMA) annual conference this weekend on the Washington University Medical Campus. School of Medicine students Lawrence Benjamin and Lauren Martin, the university’s SNMA co-presidents, were leaders in organizing the conference for medical and premedical students.

Washington University has received a $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to foster student diversity in its PhD training program in the biomedical sciences. Pictured are inaugural scholars from the program.

Devoted to strengthening campus experience for all students, the Mosaic Project is developing a center for diversity and inclusion. The first of two town hall meetings takes place at 8 p.m. tonight, Sept. 25 in Wilson Hall.

Washington University faculty and administrators with ideas for improving the campus environment for women, members of underrepresented minority groups, and other diverse groups are encouraged to apply for a Diversity and Inclusion Grant. The deadline is Oct. 29. Professor Gerald Early (right) speaks at a discussion on the “Delmar Divide,” one of the winning Diversity and Inclusion Grant proposals last year.

Washington University is offering a training session,”Reducing Cultural Distance in the New Workplace for Managers and Supervisors,” from 8:30 a.m. to noon Sept. 10 in the Human Resources Learning & Development Center at West Campus (Training Room B, Lower Level, 7509 Forsyth Blvd).

An internship program to encourage people of diverse backgrounds to work in technology was a success, and now leaders are working to carry it forward. Denise Hirschbeck, assistant vice chancellor of Information Services & Technology, said her department’s internship program showed that people without a previous background in technology could succeed if given the chance and appropriate training.