​Our Commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

The Brown School holds social justice and equity as guiding principles in our work, and these values direct our community’s efforts around diversity and inclusion. Leading in this area is a central feature of the Brown School’s history and mission, and we have achieved significant gains in cultivating a more diverse and inclusive environment.

• Dean McKay has assembled a diverse administrative team of assistant and associate deans, including 31 percent people of color, 19 percent LGBTQ people, and 75 percent women.
• Among our faculty, 30 percent belong to underrepresented minority groups.
• 25 percent of our students, including masters and PhD candidates, belong to underrepresented minority groups.
• Yearly staff evaluations now include reflections on each employee's individual efforts to create a diverse and inclusive environment.
• In partnership with Crossroads Antiracism Organizing and Training and the city of St. Louis, we have trained more than 50 of our staff and faculty in a deeper analysis of institutional racism and what we can do to address it within our School.
• We formally recognize the second Monday in October as
  Indigenous Peoples' Day and we promote spoken Native Land Acknowledgement at the beginning of Brown School events.
• Vetta L. Sanders Thompson, E. Desmond Lee Professor of Racial and Ethnic Diversity, leads efforts to:
• Provide communications and resources that raise awareness of the complex equity, diversity and inclusion issues that confront the School and its community partners.
  
• Promote education and trainings that build the Brown School capacity to achieve social justice and equity goals.

Yet our work is ongoing. We know there is more to be done. Led by the faculty, staff and students elected to the Brown School Committee for Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, we are pursuing a number of goals and initiatives to make our School a model for effective diversity and inclusion policies and practices.

We recognize that our work to respect diversity and to include all in our community has roots in a history that has privileged certain groups while excluding and oppressing others. As a community, we work to address the detrimental effects of this history through our teaching, practice, research and service. Moreover, we are vigilant to advance the voices and needs of the marginalized, given the existing power differentials within our community and in the larger society.

To learn more about the many diversity-related programs, events and resources at Washington University, please visit diversity.wustl.edu.