Inclusive Excellence Awards & Recognition

There are numerous folks in our community who, with or without recognition and in large and small ways, work to move us closer to inclusive excellence. For several years, a couple of students were recognized by the college with the Class of 1986 Award and the Mohammed “Nasir” Khan Award, both of which were established to acknowledge students who made a significant contribution to diversity.

Back in spring of 2022, as I was nearing the end of my first year as Whitman’s Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion, I had the honor of recognizing a number of faculty, staff and students for their service and contributions to diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism. In that first year, we showed appreciation to the folks who served on the Whitman Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (WIDE) committee, which was transitioning to the reimagined Inclusive Excellence Council. We expressed gratitude to the students who served on search committees to help round out the staff in the Division of Inclusive Excellence. We also publicly acknowledged a number of student leaders for their work related to sexual violence prevention, advancing accessibility awareness and contributing to a sense of belonging for members of our queer community and the Indigenous community on campus. 

The Inclusive Excellence Awards were formally established the following year, with the first recipient being Antonia Keithan, former Associate Director of Academic Resources and vocal advocate for disabled students. We developed formal awards for Inclusive Excellence in Service, Leadership and Teaching. Since only faculty are eligible for the Inclusive Excellence in Teaching award, we exclude faculty from consideration for the Inclusive Excellence Leadership award and recognize a student, a staff member and a student organization. Inclusive Excellence Service awards are given to a faculty member, a staff member and a student. 

Inclusive Excellence Awards are designed with our principles of inclusive excellence in mind. As an example, the award for Inclusive Excellence in Teaching is intended for: “an educator who strives to make their classroom a Third Space where those most often marginalized are centered; who builds community across student differences; who seeks to remedy the absence of BIPOC scholars in the broader curriculum and among the faculty body; whose scholarly work is addressing issues of social injustice, and who inspires students to challenge systems of oppression that have real material consequences on the lives of marginalized communities. Inclusive excellence in teaching is understood as a faculty member who is regarded by students as safe, holistically supportive, responsive to community needs for healing, and approaches teaching as a liberatory act.” 

Previous recipients of the Inclusive Excellence Teaching award include: Kaitlyn Patia, Assistant Professor of Rhetoric, Writing and Public Discourse; Lisa Uddin, Associate Professor of Art History and Visual Culture Studies and Paul Garrett Fellow; and Meiver De la Cruz, Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Gender Studies. 

Thanks to a number of different donors and champions of inclusive excellence who have generously supported the college’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, we have been able to include a small honorarium with the inclusive excellence awards and organize an annual recognition ceremony. We believe it is important to acknowledge, encourage and reinforce these efforts on campus since diversity, equity and inclusion are among our core values. This year’s program is a lunchtime banquet and is scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday, April 3, at noon in the Reid Campus Center Young Ballroom. All are welcome to attend (RSVP here), and we invite you to join us in recognizing and celebrating individuals who help make Whitman a more welcoming and inclusive community through their teaching, leadership and service.

I want to note that when the Inclusive Excellence Awards were established, we included a clause that made the staff in the Division of Inclusive Excellence ineligible to receive the award. While they are prohibited from receiving these awards, I want to applaud and lift up each of the members of the team in Inclusive Excellence for their continuing leadership and service in advancing diversity, equity and inclusion at Whitman. Special shout out to Cassandre Beccai, Natasha Blake, Tebraie Banda-Johns, Adam Kirtley, Shelby Hearn and Dr. Jace Saplan for all their hard work. Adam and Cassandre, along with Ricky Gonzalez and Mónica Hernández Williams, also serve on the Inclusive Excellence Council Grants and Awards Subcommittee responsible for reviewing nominations and coordinating tomorrow’s recognition event. Please join me in thanking them for their contribution to our community.

Go Blues!