Diversity is not a Luxury or a Rallying Cry...

Statement of Philosophy
Diversity is not a luxury or a rallying cry from a disenfranchised few. Instead it is the urgent and imperative call for survival that resounds throughout nations, corporations, municipalities, villages, institutions and families.
Diversity requires reaching out and pulling in. It forces flexibility upon frozen collective muscles. It reveals our fears and mirrors them back to us. It laughs at our denial. It is asking us to be better than we are.
Diversity is about the demand for talent in our schools and workforce and about meeting the needs and wants of a whole new world. US demographics have shifted and as the white majority ages, the next and future generations increasingly are comprised of women, people of color and immigrants whose homelands are far away.
Diversity demands inclusivity and forces us to build supportive, open, and embracing environments. We will end up doing it, not because it is the 'right thing' to do as humans, but because we have an imperative to do so. This imperative demands deliberate efforts to increase inclusion on all levels of education, organization and business and will grow only if nourished with accountability and steadfastness.
Diversity begins with connection and contact and asks us to step into our discomfort zones to learn to make them comfortable. It urges us to take baby steps a dozen times a day so that we can leap in a year. It asks us to keep our eyes on the prize and hold each other accountable. Connection, development and retention are the means to grow our students and retain them.
The goal of diversity must be held greatly by the powerful and the mighty along with the marginalized and the powerless. It will not take one without the other and it must be engrained into our culture. Diversity must become who we are.
Diversity and inclusion are everyone’s responsibilities and must include diversity in all of its forms—race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age, physical challenges, vision and ideas- and it must always about excellence.
The alchemy created from diverse experiences and points of views will produce the imaginative ideas that our schools need to survive and serve their communities. I believe that as an educator and individual I must work to prepare our students for lives of leadership and service in a pluralistic society and changing world. It is my responsibility to assist in awakening each member of the community to understanding the benefits, discords, controversies, and crossroads that are inherent in diversity.
Ultimately, diversity is a fundamental human value I acquired from my homeland of Trinidad, West Indies. From childhood on, diversity has been the currency of my survival and success.