Meet Norm Jones, Interim Chief Diversity Officer

Hello, and thank you for taking just a few moments to learn more about the future of diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism work at Haverford College. I am Norm Jones. I use he and his pronouns and I’m really thrilled to serve as Haverford’s Interim Chief Diversity Officer. I come to this community having served in three senior-level diversity roles prior: at Dickinson College, Harvard University, and Amherst College respectively. These roles spanned multiple areas of responsibility from support of cohort based programs such Posse, Philadelphia Futures, Community College Transfer programs, and the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program to oversight of compliance in Title IX, Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity, and Disability Services.

My role as Interim CDO is to help prepare the community for a permanent Chief Diversity Officer who will serve as a thought partner to as many of you as possible in re-imagining the future of our shared work. The work of building communities that are truly diverse, equitable, inclusive, and antiracist in structure and operation. First, I’d like to announce the formal name of my office: the Office of Institutional Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Access. Yes, it’s a mouthful—feel free to use the term I-D-E-A for shorthand. Titles matter and it’s important to name the areas of focus in both the title of the office and the titles of those who will staff the office. I am physically situated within the office of the president and administratively supported by members of the president’s office including Joan Wankmiller, Executive Assistant to the President, Jesse Lytle, Chief of Staff and Franklyn Cantor, Assistant Chief of Staff. I work very closely with Joyce Bylander who continues to oversee the THRIVE program. This program has become a signature initiative for College and is now organized under the office of Institutional Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Access. Over the course of the year we will announce other signature programs that will help anchor the work and provide important opportunities for collaboration and co-sponsorship.

I want to say just a bit about leadership and my leadership philosophy. I have always said and continue to believe that useful DEI work is essentially about leadership. And as someone who also believes that everyone is a leader in one way or another, I truly believe that every member of this community (whether physically on campus or out in the broader community) has a part to play in helping to shape an environment that makes antiracism and DEI work possible and sustainable.

As Interim CDO, I am prioritizing three areas of focus:

I just spoke of the first area—which is to deploy a distributed model of leadership for the work of DEI. This simply means that I will ask all of us to think about our individual proximities to this work, to discern what our distinct contributions and responsibilities are relative to our respective roles at the college. I’m looking for alignment in these areas as a way of making sure the work is organized, properly supported and resourced and, perhaps most importantly, that we are not duplicating efforts while other pieces of work fall through the cracks. I think of campus environments as ecosystems. Each of us experiences space, place, belonging and access as both a consumer and producer. Those distinctions matter, and as we engage in our work, I’d like to better understand how the Haverford experience plays out for each of you. In the spring we will roll out a climate survey that helps answer some of these questions in more precise ways.

The second priority is to build containers for more cross-sectional dialogue. The work of committees, task forces, and working groups is important work and it is, in fact, the way most of our DEI planning and implementation occurs. But these structures also present opportunities for siloing despite our efforts to make sure that diverse stakeholders are represented in each group.

IDEA will soon announce the line-up for a dialogue series I’m calling Thinking Together. This dialogic program will bring outside experts in a variety of areas to talk with us about the present and future work of DEI. Each event will be followed by an opportunity to convene (both in person and virtually) to talk with one another about what this work means at and for Haverford College. Many of these discussions have been happening through the work of THRIVE, our collective work around truth and racial healing, and the day-to-day programming offered through the Dean’s office and the offices of many other critical partners across campus. If you have ideas about intentional ways to build cross-sectional dialogue, please reach out and share your thoughts.

The third priority is about goal-setting. As most of you likely know, we have begun the work of strategic planning and the need to ensure that DEI work is well integrated into that work is more important than ever. I’ve asked every member of the senior staff to develop DEI goals for their respective areas. Each division head will be responsible for ensuring that these goals emerge out of their direct areas of responsibility and are connected to the other strategic priorities of the College. As is the case with the College’s commitments around antiracism work, my office will also report on the progress of each division’s DEI goals. This helps ensure that the work is properly distributed across each area of the college.

There is much more to say as I focus on sustaining this work at the institutional level. I want to thank Linda Strong-Leek and Raquel Esteves-Joyce for their tireless work as Co-CDOs, the IDEA Council for their ongoing thought partnership, faculty, students, staff, and alumni that have contributed to conversations about the future CDO structure and necessary resources for a diversity office with institutional reach.

I will continue monthly communication to keep all of you informed about our collective progress and look forward to your thoughts and feedback. My email address is njones2 [at] haverford.edu and I typically respond to emails within 24-36 hours. I also encourage you to access our website at haverford.edu/diversity. We’ve begun interviews with candidates for student assistant positions and, over time, will identify other necessary positions for the office.

I’ll end by reiterating my excitement about our collective endeavors. Haverford has a history and future that makes possibilities for the work of equity and antiracism robust and promising. I truly look forward to working with as many of you as possible to introduce my successor to a community ready to engage and lead. Thank you all so much for your commitment to Haverford’s future.