Panel remembers history, looks to future of race, diversity, and inclusion in Arizona

“The past informs the present.” While many people might expect to hear that reminder from a history professor or an elder, it is a less common adage in the business world. A W. P. Carey inclusive teaching workshop series is trying to change that.

“The past informs the present.” While many people might expect to hear that reminder from a history professor or an elder, it is a less common adage in the business world. A W. P. Carey inclusive teaching workshop series is trying to change that. The program, in partnership with the ASU Center for the Study of Race and Democracy (CSRD), aims to broaden understanding of how the past can inform our understanding of the prerogatives that we bring to thinking about race, diversity, inclusion, and business here in Arizona, in the southwest, and across the United States.

“We are really looking at how we can better incorporate inclusive teaching practices into W. P. Carey classrooms. Better knowing the history of race and business can help us achieve that,” Dan Gruber, associate dean of teaching and learning innovation and co-chair of the inclusive teaching committee (along with Supply Chain Management Chair Mohan Gopalakrishnan), explains. “The partnership with the CSRD allows all of us at W. P. Carey to gain important insights that can both inform classroom material and practices.”

The next workshop will focus on “Identifying and Anticipating Opportunities to Address Race, Diversity, Inclusion, and Business” and will take place virtually on March 22 at 11:30 a.m. W. P. Carey employees, students, and alumni are invited to register at bit.ly/WPCinclusiveteaching.

The workshop series most recent event took place via Zoom on Monday, Feb. 15, President’s Day, and included 100 students, staff, faculty and alumni. Lois Brown, director of the CSRD and keynote speaker, explained some of the significance of that date. “It's worth noting that our first President George Washington, by the time he was 18 actually, enslaved 18 individuals and was in possession of their labor and their futures, their dreams and their aspirations, and so it's a very sobering day when we begin to think about the implications of nationhood, aspiration, business, race, diversity, and the promise of inclusion.”

Professor Brown went on to discuss the history of race and business specifically in Arizona, sharing the testimony of Lincoln Ragsdale, a former Tuskegee Airman who moved to Phoenix and became an entrepreneur and civil rights leader. He is actually who introduced Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he spoke at ASU in 1964. Ragsdale said that Phoenix “was just like Mississippi. People were just as bigoted… They had signs in many places ‘Mexicans and Negroes not welcome.’” Brown explained how often, perhaps because Arizona is a newer state, we don’t fully grapple with histories of race here. She says, “When we think about our ASU charter, we must remember that charter sits on Arizona land rooted in this particular perspective, of Japanese internment camps, the genocide of Native Americans, segregated schools. That historical reality gives us a way to calibrate the importance of what it is that we aspire to do together in the future.”

Several other speakers joined the conversation and shared their perspectives, including a welcome from Tiffany López, vice provost for inclusion and community engagement at ASU, and panelists Ken Shropshire, founding CEO of the Global Sport Institute at ASU and professor of Management and Entrepreneurship, Corey D. Woods, mayor of Tempe, Jacob Moore, assistant vice president of Tribal Relations at ASU (and a W. P. Carey alum), and Austyn Lee, an undergraduate studying marketing and president of the Black Business Student Association. Each speaker discussed their hopes for making Arizona, ASU, and W. P. Carey places where students can thrive no matter their background.

“I am a junior, and this is the first year I’ve had an African American professor within W. P. Carey,” shares Lee. “It’s been great, and I really appreciate some of the mentorship I have received at W. P. Carey. But it would be nice to expand those opportunities for Black students.”

Gruber hopes the inclusive teaching efforts underway are one part of the solution. “We’re focused on starting to have these important conversations, and then backing them up with action. What we learn through this workshop series should leave W. P. Carey teaching faculty with more inclusive practices to integrate into the classroom.” The Inclusive Teaching Committee is part of a school-wide diversity, equity and inclusion initiative supported by Amy Ostrom, interim dean and PetSmart Chair in Services Leadership, and led by Kay Faris, senior associate dean for students, and Jeffrey Wilson, professor of economics, and aligned with work being done across ASU.

The next workshop will focus on “Identifying and Anticipating Opportunities to Address Race, Diversity, Inclusion and Business” and will take place March 22. Speakers for this event include Professor Brown, Malissia R. Clinton, senior vice president, general counsel, and secretary at Aerospace Corporation, and Monica Villalobos, president & CEO of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber. W. P. Carey employees, students, and alumni are invited to register at bit.ly/WPCinclusiveteaching.