Spotlight on Rhonda K. Lewis, PhD
You were responsible for putting together the first Fairmount College DEI committee. What needs were you trying to address with that committee?
Fairmount College is the largest college in the university and the most diverse, in terms of disciplines. I wanted to focus on faculty and staff issues and also address what students need. If students do not see diverse faculty and staff who look like them we cannot retain them. So I wanted to establish a DEI council for the college. At the time, I was part of the President's Diversity Council at the university level and I had served on diversity committees in the community and for the College of Health Professions under Dean Peter Cohen in the 1990s.
What were some of the committee’s goals?
We had two goals. One was to ensure we had clear tenure and promotion policies for faculty. We also collected data, from sources such as climate surveys. We needed to show faculty and staff our low numbers illustrating how few underrepresented minorities we have in our college and in the university as a whole; how few sexual and gender minorities are in key positions; how few women are STEM chairs; and how people with disabilities are treated on our campus. We have to communicate what our problems are to the faculty and staff using data.
What DEI-related accomplishments have you noted in the college?
In addition to reviewing tenure and promotion guidelines, we promoted a change in hiring searches to include having applicants submit a written diversity statement, similar to a teaching and research statement.
What work remains?
There is work to do with department chairs on DEI, and sharing more data with the college from the climate survey and how dissatisfied underrepresented minority faculty are. This includes highlighting micro aggressions felt by marginalized groups, “invisible duties” experienced by female faculty, and lack of clarity in some department promotion policies. Diversity is more than curriculum.
Based on your expertise, what is the single most important DEI-related issue facing the college?
We must create a culture that respects DEI issues and becomes inclusive.
Tell us about your own DEI work in your teaching, research, and service.
I include DEI aspects in my classes. I am intentional by having diverse perspectives in speakers I bring in, and the readings I assign. My research focuses on creating inclusive and culturally responsive interventions that are community based and participatory. In my service at local, regional and national levels, I elevate equity-deserving voices so that they may be heard. I was recently the co-editor for the Journal of Community Psychology where we highlighted COVID-19’s impact on vulnerable populations, many of them people of color, older adults and equity-deserving populations. I was also the co-editor for the American Journal of Community Psychology where we highlighted Racial Reckoning (demonstrations against systemic racism) and we emphasized social justice and diversity, equity and inclusion issues.
What would you like others to know about you as a person?
I am loyal and I am direct, but I am friendly and extremely positive. I love working with people. I love mentoring students and junior faculty especially women, people of color and any equity-deserving group.