Louis Macias, CALS associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion, joined the college in January 2022 as the college’s first chief diversity officer. In this role, Macias is charged with developing and leading the college’s new Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and related strategic initiatives.

In this Q&A, Macias reflects on his first few months at CALS, describes his vision for the college’s new DEI office, and explains how members of the CALS community can support these efforts.

What have you been up to since joining CALS?

One of the things that I’ve tried to be really intentional about is the people work. This is an inherently people-centric job. While I tend to be a very outcomes-oriented person, over the course of my career I’ve learned to really invest heavily in the people stuff, and so I’ve been meeting with all kinds of different stakeholders – from faculty to staff to students. I’m still not done. I want people to know me and trust me to be able to carry some of this really important work. I’m working to build that trust.

How would you say things are going so far?

Based on what I’ve seen so far, I think we have the bones for doing something really special as a college around DEI and the way we innovate around DEI. While this doesn’t guarantee that we’ll [reach that goal], I do believe there is a path here.

I’ve been really impressed by a number of things. One of the biggest is the energy around DEI. It surprised me coming in through the door. And it’s really spread out, it’s permeated through all of our groups – from faculty to staff to students. There are a lot of formal and informal groups having [DEI] conversations, and they’ve welcomed me in, and asked a lot of great questions. That’s super energizing.

Pre-George Floyd, so much of my work was spent on cultivating the why and building energy around why [DEI is valuable]. That can be exhausting as a person of color, who feels like the why should be obvious. Now, post-George Floyd, the why is a lot clearer for a lot of people, so we’re at this other stage of the how – how do we do this? The energy around the how has been really encouraging. My role will involve organizing that energy and targeting it toward specific areas that require the most change, from a strategic standpoint.

What is your vision for the DEI office?

I envision the office having two tracks. The first is a qualitative track, and I’m currently hiring somebody to lead in this area who I expect to be in place by the end of June. This role is going to focus on three core functions, the first and biggest being creating a learning resource hub around DEI.

I think a big problem with DEI as a discipline is that everyone wants to recreate the wheel. And while this person will help create some high-quality content, a big part of this person’s role is going to be content curation, so really bringing in existing resources, vetting those materials, and making sure that they are timely and relevant to the needs and interests of our community from a DEI perspective.

The second piece is the relationships. Engaging with different stakeholders across CALS, doing some of the needs assessment work around DEI learning. This emphasis and expectation will apply to anyone on our DEI office staff.

The third piece of the position is going to be about consulting. People have reached out to me, saying “Hey, I’m putting together this survey,” or “Hey, I’m putting together this course and I’d like to get your perspective on some things.” So I’d like [consulting] to be a formal service that this office provides that can be expanded as we build out our staff.

And the other track?

The second track will be a quantitative track, including the development of a DEI dashboard for CALS. It’s funny, I’m a qualitative researcher by training, but with DEI work, I think we don’t talk about quantitative enough in terms of identifying target goals that drive strategy and keep us focused. So I’m a big believer in making sure that we figure out how to define and measure success, and [once we start] measuring and tracking success, how do we hold ourselves accountable?

This track will involve the collection of data that we don’t currently collect, and also, in some cases, centralizing data that we already do collect and then making sure this information is effectively shared with our community within CALS. It’ll also involve helping to inform and develop policy when there are needs that we recognize. Then the last piece is compliance, including [helping with] civil rights audits through USDA.

As we build out what this office is going to look like, it’s important to me to build something that’s going to be sustainable, that whoever comes after me won’t have to rebuild a foundation. That’s something that is very much on my mind.

What is the value of a DEI dashboard?

We live in a complex world. I think data helps structure that complexity. The DEI dashboard is a tool that will enable us to have conversations where, at the very least, we can all talk about [the same] real data, information that we know is true. Then we have a chance to actually make a difference that has an impact, instead of being sidetracked by the many distractions that are out there.

And we need an DEI dashboard not only at CALS, but as an institution. It’s important for those conceptions to be aligned. We might have different ideas [across units] of moving the meter on things – and that’s fine. That’s another layer of the work. But if we’re starting from a place where we’re aiming at different targets, I think that’s where we miss. I think that’s where the emotion, the frustration, the lack of trust can come from, particularly between stakeholder groups who are more prone to seeing things differently.

I want CALS to be innovative in this area and help lead the conversation on campus around what [to measure]. Being on a larger campus like this, there’s a sense of responsibility to contribute to the broader efforts to move this work forward.

How can people support your efforts or get involved?

The biggest thing is, I want to talk to folks. The first person I spoke with gave me one puzzle piece, and little by little I’ve added puzzle pieces. The more of those I can collect – plus establishing ongoing engagement with people – the better.

I want to say that folks have been really open and candid, in a way that seems to stem from a place of care, and a place of wanting to see CALS be better, and do better, and I’ve just really appreciated that. We can never have enough champions in this work, so I’m excited to partner with anyone who is invested in moving these shared goals forward.