UAA’s chief diversity officer talks about how equity creates better institutions

Diversity and equity have become the much-needed and long-overdue topic of public discourse, sparked by the May 2020 killing of George Floyd and resulting protests. And it’s a conversation UAA Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) Jennifer Booz is prepared to have.

As CDO, Booz is responsible for implementing UAA’s Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP) and overseeing all of its initiatives, one of which includes the hiring of her very position.

Adopted in 2017 and led by Multicultural Center Director Dr. Andre Thorne, psychology Professor Dr. Robert Boeckmann and Alaska Native Studies Director Dr. Maria Williams, the DIAP provides a roadmap for UAA to meet the needs of all students, faculty and staff by using best practices concerning the issues of diversity, equity and inclusion.

“Not only is it the right thing to do and is what society is demanding, but it improves us as an institution,” said Booz. “Research shows that institutions that are diverse have better outcomes. So we do better in class, we do better research, we have better faculty teaching evaluations and we have better financial outcomes. We’re more creative and better problem solvers when we have diversity within our populations and are not stuck in repetitive groupthink.”

Coming off of her one-month anniversary at UAA, Booz has spent her time learning about Alaska’s distinct history and heritage. Additionally, she has wasted no time in virtually meeting and coordinating with the various student, faculty and administrative groups that are key to furthering the university’s inclusive atmosphere.

Booz is no stranger to equity work or student support, having spent 20 years in higher education. Prior to joining UAA, she served in a similar capacity at the University of Toledo as director in the Office for Diversity and Inclusion where she worked closely with administrators, faculty, staff and students to implement their Strategic Diversity Plan.

In the near term, Booz’s primary goal is for UAA’s students, faculty and staff to more accurately resemble Alaska’s unique makeup via more inclusive recruitment and retaining methods.

“We have a really unique opportunity in Alaska,” said Booz. “UAA serves a very diverse community. We have people that come from all over the country and all over the world through the military bases, we have richly diverse indigenous groups on whose lands we sit and we have thriving immigrant populations. So it’s crucial that our university — which is so important to our state in terms of the resources, jobs and graduates it provides — represent our students, so they can belong, persist, graduate and provide benefits back to their communities and the state.”

With a more inclusive university population, Booz hopes to better establish UAA’s diversity and equity programs in the long term with more clearly defined initiatives and success metrics. The dream scenario would consist of students of all backgrounds enrolling at UAA, fully confident that they are welcome on campus and greeted with the support they need to thrive. 

Even with a clear blueprint for success, Booz notes that the work is never done, pointing to history’s past hard-fought victories and ongoing discourse, such as the fight for marriage equality, the #MeToo movement and the current Black Lives Matter protests.

“Diversity and inclusion is always a moving target because what society thinks is important around being equitable changes, and we can see that right now in what’s going on in society,” said Booz. “If we did get to a point where we felt, ‘We did it!’ we’re already behind because we’re not paying attention to what the changing needs and interests of society are. So my goal is to always be forward-thinking and refresh what our best practices are and understand what students, faculty and staff need.”

 

Written by Matt Jardin, UAA Office of University Advancement