The new DEI office will start off with four critical staff roles.
Tyrone Russell, is the chief executive officer of FACES International, a Lehigh Valley marketing agency that specializes in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training for businesses and other organizations.
“They created a communications arm to help tell the story, and help to construct information that is going out to the masses about what’s happening in the D-E-I space,” Russell says.
There’s still work to be done on many state-wide issues including the continuing political divide, Russell says.
“You gotta consider that close to half of the state was voting for a man that said diversity was divisive. So if we’re going to create an office called diversity, equity and inclusion there's an understanding that half of the people in this state can think we’ve created something that’s divisive,” Russell says.
He hopes this new statewide office fulfills its purpose and that there’s accountability.
“I think it's critically important that it isn’t a side office. And my fear that right now is like many universities, they create a diversity office and the rest of the institution forgets that it has a responsibility to do the work” he says.
Russell says some state-wide issues he’d like to see addressed are funding and resources for school districts, job access, and poverty.
FACES International is currently engaged in DEI training for WLVR and its parent, Lehigh Valley Public Media.
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