Inclusive Excellence by Design
The Office of Inclusive Learning, Engagement and Leadership works to bring the University of Arizona's core value of inclusion into practice by offering various learning and development programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion. The learning opportunities help build awareness, strengthen skills and develop new skills that contribute to a just and equitable campus community. We are committed to a deep, collective understanding that an institutional and personal commitment will help us navigate a more culturally and linguistically diverse world.
Take the Next Steps
We invite the campus community to explore the diversity and inclusion learning, engagement and leadership opportunities below. You will find a mixture of self-paced and team learning options that strive to connect, empower, and transform those who engage with our office.
Self-paced Learning
The Office of Diversity and Inclusion has curated a list of self-paced courses from LinkedIn Learning to break down time, place, and pace barriers. These on-demand learning opportunities allow you to complete a workshop at a time and pace that is convenient for you. In addition, these courses provide a practical framework for understanding diversity, equity, and inclusion issues in your work. Experience plus reflection equals learning that lasts, so each course ends with a reflection activity for you to contextualize the new knowledge and its applicability to your work.
Stacey Gordon is a diversity, inclusion, and career strategist. In this video, she teaches you to recognize and acknowledge your biases when making decisions, engaging with colleagues, and working effectively in today's organizations. Stacey reveals the most common forms of unconscious bias and teaches you the skills to address them effectively.
Discussions about cultural differences can be uncomfortable. They take courage. In this course, Duke University professor Dr. Daisy Lovelace shares principles and strategies to help you have more productive, meaningful conversations on diversity-related topics. She also outlines several techniques to help you navigate these difficult conversations.
In this course, instructor Lori Nishiura Mackenzie shows you how to create and hold space for others using gender-inclusive language at work. Language shapes how we understand ourselves, our world, and our relationships. The words we use can create a sense of belonging. Still, they can also be exclusionary without our realizing it, particularly when they touch on elements of our unique identities such as gender, race and ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, and more.
In this course, Toni Lowe, a sought-after speaker and senior HR leader specializing in diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging, teaches you how to identify and address everyday, subtle, intentional and unintentional actions or behaviors that perpetuate bias toward marginalized groups in the workplace.
Find the greater meaning, well-being, and productivity by learning how to interact with others across differences. Continue your Thrive journey and discover how to create inclusive environments where everyone can thrive. In this course, Arianna Huffington and Verna Myers discuss the impact of our cultural lens on our daily relations and how to counter bias in our words and actions.
IDEA in Action Workshops
IDEA is an acronym for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access. These intercultural professional development workshops enhance teaching and learning by raising awareness and building skills and competencies related to diversity, equity and inclusion. Each workshop uses interactive modalities such as storytelling, small group discussions, and case studies to apply knowledge toward actionable outcomes. The workshops examine one's understanding of cultural identity, biases, and prejudices and how we may use this awareness towards meaningful relationship building.
Check out the IDEA in Action workshops listed below. These workshops are intended for pre-existing groups and departments on campus. If none of these educational offerings fit your unit's needs, complete the form, and a staff member from the office will follow up to discuss available tailored options. Submit a workshop request form.
In this workshop, we learn with Stacy Gorden some of the most common forms of bias and how to recognize the harmful effects of discrimination in your environment by uncovering bias in decision-making processes. After viewing Stacey Gordon’s Unconscious Bias LinkedIn Learning course, you will have an opportunity to process with your colleagues in this workshop. We invite you to apply the concepts from the course to your real-life examples. We’ll also provide you with strategies to confront unconscious bias in your daily life and an opportunity to craft a personalized plan using the Three C’s: raise consciousness, act with compassion, and be courageous to confront bias in the future.
After watching Lovelace's Communicating about Culturally Sensitive Issues, you will have an opportunity to apply Daisy's lessons to your work and personal contexts in this workshop. In this workshop, we will invite you to apply Lovelace's ground rules for effective communication, her steps to an effective apology, and finally, her recommended strategy for confronting someone who has offended you. You'll emerge from this workshop with skills and tools to help you to prioritize impact over intent and improve your ability to communicate effectively about culturally sensitive issues.
Small unintentional acts of bias in the workplace may lead to an unhealthy work environment. First, participants will watch Toni Howard Lowe's "Dealing with Microaggressions at Work" from LinkedIn Learning. Then, we will have an opportunity to process Daisy's insights about microaggressions at work, learn more about your colleagues' experiences in the workplace and identify effective strategies for dealing with microaggressions in higher education. Finally, we will use Derald Sue and colleagues' most recent research on microinterventions to devise ways that we can build support systems against microaggression.
In this workshop, we will digest and process the concepts and insights of Lori Nishiura MacKenzie's LinkedIn Learning course, "Using Gender Inclusive Language." Next, we will dive deeper into how language is gendered and how gender language may impact people negatively. Then, we'll apply lessons learned to our context and make a personalized plan to communicate more inclusively and contribute to a culture of belonging for people of any gender identity. Our goal is to adopt more inclusive language practices in our work environments.
Are you familiar with bias, microaggression, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and want to know how to operationalize your insights to make a difference? After watching Verna Myers’ LinkedIn Learning course, we will process Verna’s insights, contextualize them within specific higher ed contexts, and devise a plan to confront bias and oppression in four dimensions: institutional, ideological, interpersonal, and internalized. This workshop will be interactive and reflective, and we encourage participants to come prepared to participate fully.
Engagement & Dialogues
STUDENT WORKSHOPS
The Office of Diversity and Inclusion is committed to educating students about the importance of diversity and inclusion to make our campus community better for all students. There are various learning opportunities to engage with issues most important to you. Through facilitated dialogue, we become fluent in understanding and respecting everyone's individual perspectives toward creating a more inclusive environment in and out of the classroom. We currently only offer workshops as part of classes, so instructors should complete the form. We also work with the requestor to produce workshops specific to their needs.
INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE
The Inclusive Leadership Institute (ILI) provides faculty, staff and graduate students with an opportunity to explore community building, cultural humanity, identity development, intercultural competencies, change leadership, antiracism and allyship and apply these concepts to policies, programs and practices within their departments. These crucial conversations around improving organizational learning and an inclusive campus community help our Inclusive Fellows support and advance the university's commitment to inclusive excellence.
DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION SYMPOSIUM
The Diversity and Inclusion Symposium is an opportunity for employees to engage in critical and thought-provoking dialogues around various ways to enact diversity and inclusion on campus. Through interactive workshops, plenary speakers, and other learning modalities, the Symposium infuses deep self-reflection and relationship-building with opportunities to collaborate with colleagues on new or existing projects. In addition, participants will discuss critical issues impacting our work in higher education, such as bias, student success for marginalized students, intersectionality and unlearning harmful actions.
Consulting and Coaching
Creating an inclusive campus environment can be challenging, so we offer formal and informal consultations to the University of Arizona academic and administrative units. Our team aims to support campus partners define and achieve their equity and inclusion goals and objectives. These sessions may involve discussing a new initiative your office or group is looking for feedback on or talking through a challenge you are facing related to equity or identity, embedding equity in curriculum, workshop development, strategic planning, and recruitment and retention strategies. This service is free to any University of Arizona employee or student. Some of the typical consulting topics are workplace cultural changes, strategic planning, and building more equitable spaces. If you are looking for support with individual challenges or growth plans.
Our coaching and consulting sessions are structured, non-judgmental, and motivational, allowing individuals to work one-on-one with a trained team member. Together, we set personal goals, synthesize information, and problem-solve specific issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Request a consulting & coaching session.
Disclaimer: Consulting & coaching sessions are about supporting and empowering you and your unit. It is not a counseling or therapy session.