Diversity: I have a life-long commitment to diversity and to opposing racism and discrimination in all its forms and have assisted with the work of several diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives over the years..
Accessibility: Throughout most of my career in higher education, associations and currently in the museum cultural space (for the last 7 years), I have worked closely with accessibility committees. At the Chicago History Museum, where I serve as the Vice President of External Relations, we are concerned about all forms of accessibility in order to foster diversity, equity and inclusion. In this regard, I have worked closely with ASL interpreters to provide accessibility to the hearing impaired. I have worked with the Chicago Park District’s Office of Disability to provide accessible mats for disabled persons to more easily access the green areas of the park by wheelchair at our summer Chicago Hot Dog Festival that serves 35,000 attendees annually. I have worked on a variety of capital projects to ensure that there are accessible elevators and that walking inclines meet standards for degrees of elevation. Our museum serves many seniors, so we continually make sure that font sizes in written materials are accessible for those with limited vision. And I have worked closely with copywriters to insure bi-lingual copy for Spanish and English accessibility. Our museum has also been involved in an innovative project to use Google translate technology throughout our museum to enable translation between English to basically all languages. I have advocated for listening devices to assist the hearing impaired. And I continually encourage all participants in large meetings to use a microphone/speaker or to have the leader repeat any questions for those in the room who may have limited hearing.