For the first time, Northern Illinois University has a diversity officer to help foster community and campus relations.
Vernese Edghill-Walden has experience; her dedication to the inclusion of students of diverse backgrounds makes her job an important one.
“I would like to make sure that the work that we’re doing with diversity inclusion aligns with the overall strategic plan,” she said.
Edghill-Walden says her job is to hear all the concerns and help create the desired outcome.
“So it has to do with academics, hiring faculty, retaining faculty, making sure our courses are reflective of diversity and multiculturalism. Making sure that students that come from various domestic as well as international backgrounds feel welcomed here. And then also making sure that the support systems that we have are supportive of all students -- not just students of color, but all students of all diversities.”
She spends most of her days right now meeting with department heads and staff members.
“Just listening to a lot of different people and a lot of different stakeholders, and then making some decisions based on those meetings, initially. But then convening everyone and then work with various constituents not just me by myself, to develop a plan that feeds into strategic plan, that helps support student success that helps to make the faculty and the colleges a more richer place.”
Edghill-Walden says she believes in the NIU leadership, which is what brought her here in the first place. The future looks bright, she says, and she looks forward to helping that happen.