In order to foster organizational change and create equal access to opportunities for educational and professional growth and advancement, Dean Maryam Alavi has formed the Georgia Tech Scheller College Diversity & Inclusion Council. The Council is comprised of various Scheller community members including undergraduate, MBA, and PhD students, along with faculty and staff members.
The purpose of the D&I Council is to raise awareness of, identify, and work on diversity and inclusion issues of importance in order to help Scheller make progress towards the College’s Strategic Plan Goal 4. The Strategic Plan Goal 4 is to foster a diverse, inclusive, vibrant, and innovative community of students, faculty, staff, and alumni.
Based on applications and nominations of program offices, the D&I Council acts in an advisory capacity to the Dean and sets its agenda in consultation and coordination with program offices, faculty leadership, and the College's administration. Ursula Reynolds, Associate Director of the PhD program, and Michael Oxman, Professor of the Practice in Sustainability, serve as the Council’s co-chairs.
“I am excited to join the Diversity & Inclusion Council with so many accomplished leaders within Scheller. The students, staff, and faculty that serve on the Council all share the same goal of fostering real organizational change. This is a pivotal moment in our history, and I believe it is important that we continue to cultivate an environment that attracts the best talent, values diversity of life experiences and perspectives, and ensures equal access to opportunities for professional growth and advancement. We are confident this can be achieved with the help of the Scheller community,” said Reynolds.
As a business school, Scheller has a unique opportunity to set the precedent of how diversity-oriented behaviors should be modeled in the business world. “I am grateful for the opportunity to serve on Scheller College’s Diversity & Inclusion Council, because I believe that business schools have an opportunity to model diversity-oriented behaviors and to facilitate a mindset of inclusion for students advancing their careers,” said Oxman. “We can contribute to solutions that address systemic racism and we can help to help lift up diversity and inclusion more broadly as a feature of competitive advantage in the business world.”
Co-Chairs
- Michael Oxman, Professor of the Practice, Sustainability
- Ursula Reynolds, Associate Director, PhD Program
Members
- Ben Barnett, Undergraduate student, Scheller Ambassador
- Annick Coulibaly, Evening MBA student, Net Impact
- Nik Dragovic, Evening MBA student, Scheller Pride
- Devika Dutt, Undergraduate student, Stamp’s President Scholar, Scheller Ambassador
- Alai Fernandez, Full-time MBA student
- Chris Green, PhD student, Operations Management
- Amanda Grupp, Full-time MBA student, Women in Business
- Marcus Harmon, Full-time MBA student, Veterans’ Club
- Brandon Lay, Academic Advisor, Undergraduate Program
- Noah Mammen, Undergraduate student, Scheller Ambassador
- Denzel McCollum, Full-time MBA student, Blacks in Business
- Kerri Nauth, Recruiting Manager, MBA Program
- Onyinyechi Okwandu, Evening MBA student
- Kara Pomerantz, Undergraduate student, Diversity in Business President
- Adrian Williams, HR Consultant, Staff Professional Development & Engagement Committee Chair
- DJ Wu, Ernest Scheller Jr Chair, Professor, IT Management
Ex-Officio Members
- Terry Blum, ADVANCE Professor
- Maria Misbach, Director of Marketing and Communications
- Chris Shalley, Faculty Advisor to Women in Business and former ADVANCE Professor
- Priyansh Srivastava, Graduate Business Council Representative
Staff Support
- Madolyn Penuel, Executive Assistant to the Dean