Nominations are being accepted until Oct. 17 to fill one vacancy on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Advisory Council.

Vice President Glenda Humiston convened the DEI Advisory Council to support efforts that UC ANR staff and academics have undertaken to improve quality of life for marginalized populations living in California. Diversity is one of our core values and developing an equitable and inclusive society is one of our public values.

Nominate yourself, a colleague, a direct report or other UC ANR staff or academic member. 

Prior to completing the nomination, please confirm the nominee's interest in participating in the council. Review member expectations and the Council's Mission Statement and Vision at https://ucanr.edu/sites/PSU/files/358281.pdf.

Membership criteria:

• Experience and/or interest in advocating for change and moving DEI work forward.  
• Experience and/or interest in navigating/negotiating for organizational change in UC ANR.  
• Membership aims to represent the diversity of the UC ANR community and state of California, specifically including representation of marginalized racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, and ability groups.  
• Membership includes a mix of staff and academics, represents a cross-section of UC ANR offices and programs and geographical distribution (north/south, urban/rural).  

All nominations need to be submitted via email to deiadvcouncil@ucanr.edu with the subject line, “Nomination for DEI Advisory Council.”

For more information, contact Keith Nathaniel at kcnathaniel@ucanr.edu or Jairo Diaz at jdiazr@ucanr.edu.

DEI Advisory Council is working for you

Our DEI Advisory Council celebrates the impact we have had since the finalization of our charter in September 2021. With the charge from Vice President Glenda Humiston, our council set out to prioritize where we could have the greatest impact on improving the working environments within UC ANR based on the feedback from many members within our community. 

The council met numerous times to solidify a list of priorities focused on the hiring process – from job announcements and job descriptions to the actual process of hiring, including support and learning for hiring committees. Working closely with ANR's Human Resources team, many of these recommendations have already been implemented on both the staff and academic sides, leading to gains in mitigating bias, expanding the diversity of our applicants, and creating committees that are more aware and conscious of the perceptions they bring to the process.  

This past spring, we were successful in bringing on board the inaugural Workplace Inclusion and Belonging Director. Working closely with Elizabeth Moon, the council is ramping up council recruitment as some members have moved on from UC ANR. A call for nominations is now open and we hope you consider submitting yourself or a colleague.

Looking forward, we are committed to collaborating with our Employee Resource Groups, Program Teams and others throughout UC ANR to identify key priorities to support UC ANR's vision statement of contributing to a California that is equitable and inclusive and appreciates and celebrates all our diversity. To do this, we are developing a process that will allow us to engage the ANR community in a meaningful and effective way. 

We have created a mailbox as a resource for streamlining opportunities to connect with all members of the council. If you have any questions, you can now email deiadvcouncil@ucanr.edu .

As always, your DEI Advisory Council members are available to reach individually.

Current members:

Keith Nathaniel, kcnathaniel@ucanr.edu

Jairo Diaz, jdiazr@ucanr.edu

Fadzayi Mashiri, fmashiri@ucanr.edu

Esther Mosase, enmosase@ucanr.edu

Joji Muramoto, jmuramoto@ucanr.edu

Katherine Soule, kesoule@ucanr.edu

Rosa Vargas, rivargas@ucanr.edu

Jaki Hsieh Wojan, jhsiehw@ucanr.edu

Mohammad Yaghmour, mayaghmour@ucanr.edu

Ricardo Vela, rvela@ucanr.edu