A global scholar: Fulbright recipient tackling health disparities in Africa | Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

For more than a decade, Yolaine Civil, M.D., had been helping patients and families throughout the state through her role with the Ambulatory Pediatric Clinic at Michigan Medicine.

But in 2010 — following a transformative experience volunteering in Haiti after a devastating earthquake struck the nation — her ambitions grew.

“While I had always had a deep affection toward helping people in need, including lower income individuals, single-parent households and immigrant families from all over the globe, I knew that it was time to do more after my life-changing volunteer experience,” said Civil, who decided to leave her position at Michigan Medicine and pursue a role with Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

From 2012-14, Civil completed four missions with MSF, working in both west and central Africa to improve the lives of neonatal patients and their mothers.

Addressing health disparities at home

Civil returned to Michigan Medicine in 2015, with the goal of addressing health inequities in the area through clinical duties at the Ypsilanti Health Center and her role as a clinical instructor in the Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases.

“As a clinical instructor, one of my primary goals has always been to foster diversity, equity and inclusion at Michigan Medicine through scholarship, mentorship and teaching,” said Civil. That ambition fits perfectly with the mission of the Office for Health Equity and Inclusion (OHEI), which has provided Civil with a number of volunteering opportunities with which she can make an impact.

“I have served as a volunteer faculty mentor with programs such as the Michigan Health Summer Undergraduate Research (MHSURA) program and their Career Development Academy (CDA),” Civil said. “This allows me to offer students meaningful assistance as they pursue careers in the health sciences.”

But her dream always remained to make a difference in Africa, through research and health care initiatives.

Expanding her work

In 2017, Civil decided to take the next step in pursuing her dream of spearheading a global health initiative in Africa by applying for a Diversity Fund grant through OHEI.

The Diversity Fund aims to increase faculty diversity at Michigan Medicine and support the development of clinical, educational and research-based programs that elevate diversity, equity and inclusion. The standard award is $20,000 a year for three years and can be used for recruitment as loan repayment or for research and scholarly activity.

Civil received a grant — and is using it to fund a vital research project in Ghana.

“The primary goal of my project is to establish a system for providing routine, outpatient preventative care visits for premature and low birth weight infants at more frequent levels,” Civil said. “Severe malnutrition is a significant underlying cause of death in hospitalized preterm infants in low-resource countries. Therefore, this project is a cost-effective way to obtain vital information that can be used to improve neonatal care by providing early parent education and reinforcement of breastfeeding, while also keeping track of infant growth on a regular basis.”

Through the Diversity Fund, Civil is able to spend up to three weeks per year in Kumasi, Ghana over the three-year course of the project — while still performing her everyday tasks at Michigan Medicine. And her work is gaining acclaim from across the academic spectrum — just last month, Civil was awarded a 2018-19 Fulbright U.S. Scholar grant, allowing for even more growth within her work.

“The path to achieving the Fulbright Scholar grant was extremely challenging — it took a lot of prayer, patience, determination and perseverance to finally arrive at this point,” said Civil. “Although my background was primarily clinical when I first conceived of the idea for this project, I was successfully able to translate my clinical goals into scholarly activity to help others.

“Ultimately, we are working to defeat health inequities, so this mission has been incredibly meaningful and I’m excited to see where it goes. I know that I’m on the right path.”

This story was originally published by the University of Michigan Medical School.

Clara Stanton Jones, an alumna of the University of Michigan School of Information (UMSI), will be inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in the historical category for her groundbreaking leadership as the first woman and first African American to serve as director of a major library system in the United States: Detroit. She was also the first African American president of the American Library Association.

The inclusion was announced today by Michigan Women Forward, which oversees the Michigan Women’s Historical Center and Hall of Fame in Okemos, Michigan. Jones will be formally inducted at a ceremony on October 18.

The announcement brought enthusiastic and proud responses from her alma mater and her family.

“We are delighted by the selection of our distinguished alumna, Clara Stanton Jones, to the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame,” said Thomas A. Finholt, UMSI Dean. “Clara’s career of impactful leadership at both the Detroit Public Library and the American Library Association exemplifies our aspiration to prepare graduates who will change the world.

“We are grateful to Clara’s family for their generous support of the School of Information in memory of their mother, Clara, and their father Albert D. Jones.”

Jones’s son, Kenneth Jones, lives in Baltimore and serves on the UMSI External Advisory Board. Upon learning that his mother was receiving this honor, he said, “We are pleased and proud that our mother is being recognized as the pioneering leader and complete woman that she was.”

Jones’s children Stanton Jones, Vinetta Jones (BSEd ’63) and Kenneth Jones (BSNE ’69) are maintaining the Albert D. and Clara Stanton Jones Scholarship fund they established in 2007 to provide scholarship assistance for UMSI master’s students, especially those interested in urban librarianship.

Jones (ABLS ’38) is one of two inductees this year in the historical category. The other is Agatha Biddle, a Native American chief who in 1855 helped negotiate the 1855 Treaty of Detroit. Three other inductees are contemporary.

Clara Stanton Jones passed away at age 99 in 2012, leaving behind a barrier-breaking legacy in the world of public libraries.

In 1970, she became the first woman and first African American to serve as director of a major library system in the U.S., the then-105-year-old Detroit Public Library (DPL). In 1977, she became the first African American president of the American Library Association (ALA). She was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science and served from 1978 to 1982.

During her 34-year career at DPL, she persuaded a reluctant ALA to pass the “Resolution on Racism and Sexism Awareness” in 1977. Her work to desegregate libraries, library services and overall library culture led to recognition as the first recipient of the Distinguished Service to Librarianship Award by the ALA’s Black Caucus in 1970 and the Trailblazer Award from the same group in 1990.

In Ann Arbor, Jones was chosen in 1971 to be an alumna-in-residence of U-M’s School of Library Science – now UMSI. In 1975, she was honored by the university with the Alumni Athena Award for “excellence in her profession, altruistic and humanitarian accomplishments, and public and community service.”

Clara Stanton Jones was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on May 14, 1913. She earned her bachelor’s degree in 1934 in English and history from Spelman College, a historically black liberal arts college for women in Atlanta, Georgia. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Library Science at U-M in 1938.

She joined the staff at the Detroit Public Library’s main branch on Woodward Avenue in Detroit in 1944. Her 1970 appointment as Director came after a contentious vote during which more than 80 white Library Commission members walked out in protest. The headline following her election read “Negro Elected to Head Library System After Bitter Fight.”

Stanton Jones rose above this acrimony, and soon “won over many skeptics and asserted herself as a forceful leader,” according to a 1971 Detroit News article.

As impressive as her rise above racial barriers was, Jones also had extraordinary vision. Her innovative leadership changed libraries from simple book depositories into the information, resource and educational meccas they are today.

She first began these changes in 1973, when she told the ALA in a speech that most people didn’t use libraries, and that “public libraries can no longer depend on reading guidance as the only major adult activity.” Life was more complicated and people needed more than card catalogues, “namely, information and referral.”

Stanton Jones instituted a new service, The Information Place – “TIP” for short – in Detroit. This service answered the need, as Jones described it, for “guidance through the maze of social, legal, governmental and other agencies, regardless of socio-economic class.”

This was a tall order, and, as Jones adroitly stated, and “it is directed to librarians because we are the only ones who can do it right.”

After an enormous amount of work to set up the TIP service, DPL soon was fielding thousands of requests for information – everything from help with taxes to G.E.D. preparation, to advice on leader dogs for the blind, foster care, weed control, gambling addiction, and so on.

The TIP service was a model for public libraries everywhere, and remains active today at DPL.

For those who knew her and who know of her career, Stanton Jones always will epitomize librarianship. Despite the racism of her early career, she craved neither recognition nor revenge. Rather, she always cared about the institution itself.

As she said back in 1970: “I very strongly believe that libraries are at the heart of a civilization.”

This story was originally published by the School the Information.

A lawsuit filed by the advocacy group Speech First alleges that the University of Michigan’s policy against harassment and bullying and its Bias Response Team infringe on the First Amendment rights of students. The U.S. Department of Justice recently issued a statement in support of this suit.

June 21, 2018, Ann Arbor, MI — Creating college campuses and classroom experiences that accurately reflect the country’s diversity is a challenge for higher education, and one that the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts is leading the charge to change. Through an ambitious hiring initiative, LSA is recruiting postdoctoral fellows who excel in their fields and whose research, teaching, or service will foster diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in higher education.

LSA announced today a new cohort of LSA Collegiate Fellows, part of a five-year pilot program to recruit 50 exceptional early career scholars whose scholarship, instructional approach, service, and other related efforts will contribute to long-term transformational change on campus. Through a partnership with the National Center of Institutional Diversity (NCID), academic departments select fellows first and foremost on excellence in their disciplines, and also upon the strength of their experience in DEI research/scholarship, teaching/mentoring, or service/engagement.

“Students want classroom experiences and campus culture which reflect the diversity of the world at large,” said Andrew Martin, dean of the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. “This is a challenge for higher education, but one we’re working to address head on through programs such as the LSA Collegiate Fellows. Recruiting faculty who are at the top of their fields and who offer an array of viewpoints and perspectives is essential to meet the needs of today’s increasingly diverse student population and enhance the overall educational experience.”

The 2018 LSA Collegiate Fellows cohort consists of nine of the top liberal arts scholars from across the country with expertise in the social sciences, the natural sciences, and the humanities. In the fall the fellows will start a two-year postdoctoral appointment during which they will conduct independent research, gain classroom instruction experience, and prepare for possible tenure-track appointments in LSA.

“The LSA Collegiate Fellows program is a key initiative of our DEI strategic plan,” said Fiona Lee, associate dean for diversity, equity, inclusion, and professional development at LSA. “It’s a great tool to recruit highly sought-after postdoctoral candidates who are at the top of their fields and who have undertaken innovative research or teaching techniques proven to foster diversity on campus. These scholars bring academic excellence, unique backgrounds, and extensive work in the DEI space to U-M and LSA. We’re excited about what they will contribute to the community.”

This year’s cohort was chosen from more than 900 applicants. Some scholars advance DEI goals through research, such as gender history or media representation of people of color, while others advance them through their teaching and/or engagement efforts, such as increasing interest in STEM and access to STEM pathways for people from underserved groups or by building inclusive curricula in the classroom.

“Research shows that exposure to diverse perspectives benefits student learning and innovation, and students also want faculty who can effectively teach and mentor students from a variety of backgrounds,” said Tabbye Chavous, director of the NCID and professor of education and psychology. “We need to recognize and effectively incorporate evaluation of these attributes, skills, and competencies into the faculty search process, and LSA is leading the way with this program. In doing so, the selected fellows’ research, teaching techniques, or experiences will contribute intellectual richness and promote greater diversity, equity, and inclusion on campus for all students. We’re proud to welcome these new colleagues to our campus this fall.”

It is protocol at SMTD’s Collage Concerts for the audience to hold their applause until the end of the performance. This practice ensures that one act morphs seamlessly into the next while maintaining the concert’s trademark element of surprise: early music followed by big band jazz followed by a scene from Shakespeare followed by a saxophone quartet, and so on.

But every once in a while, audience members can’t contain themselves, and spontaneous applause erupts.

That was the case at the 2018 Collage, at the conclusion of “Through Our Eyes,” the only dance work on the program. Featuring an African American and Latinx cast, the piece was choreographed by sophomore Johanna Kepler in collaboration with dancers Kiara Williams, Kandis Terry, Sarah Morgan, Mariah Stevens, Le’Elle Davis, Benjamin Marshall, and Craig White.

This work of art for social justice was created in response to the spate of racist incidents that have wracked the city of Ann Arbor and the U-M campus in the last two years.

The work’s sound score was an edited four-minute recording compiled from 50 interviews about racism at Michigan, which Kepler conducted with students of color from across campus. It was interspersed with lines from Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise,” a paean to resilience in the face of racism, which was recited live on stage by voice students Zion Jackson and Jaime Sharp, along with their own vocalizations.

The recording was powerful: “Being a student of color on this campus, it feels like we have a constant target on our backs” … “I’ve never read a single novel by a Latinx author in any of my classes” … “I feel very sad, and very disadvantaged, and very disheartened as a black female on this campus” … “I was the student who had the ‘N-word’ written on his doortag—I felt overwhelmed and I felt the pressure again of, you know, I’m not welcome here.”

“There was initial hesitation about the language—the unflinching testimonials,” said Professor Amy Chavasse, who acted as a faculty advisor to Kepler and the dancers. “There was a sense that the themes inherent in ‘Through Our Eyes’ were not compatible with the spirit and history of Collage. Johanna was committed, however, to staying true to the message, idea, and purpose of her work, and to the students whose voices she was sourcing. I felt an enormous sense of gratitude and awe that she was boldly and directly taking this topic on.”

Johanna Kepler (BFA ’20, dance)

Though the student voices were dire, Angelou’s words offered hope: “You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise.”

Kepler, a native of Guatemala who was adopted and raised in a primarily white and well-to-do area of Massachusetts, has had a difficult time adapting to life at U-M due to the racism that she and many students of color see as pervasive. A Latino Studies minor, she is a member of the Latinx Alliance for Community Action, Support, and Advocacy (La Casa) and was appointed by SMTD’s chief diversity and inclusion officer, Freyja Harris, as a SMTD Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) student ambassador, representing dance. With other dance students, Kepler started a departmental group, “Arts and Color,” to encourage faculty and students of all levels to come together to discuss racial injustices within the community. But the blatant stream of racially charged episodes on campus motivated her to do more.

“Every time some incident happens, it gets addressed with an email from administration, but nothing seems to change; it was getting really frustrating,” said Kepler. “So I thought, ‘Why not use my art to create a piece?’ I want people to start talking about this; I want white students who aren’t exposed to racism to hear our stories.”

That goal was achieved: Kepler said that several white students approached her and the cast after the Collage performance to say, “Wow, do you guys really feel like that? I had no idea,” which Kepler sees as a good starting point. “Through Our Eyes” has since had multiple performances at a variety of campus events, and Kepler is planning to adapt it for a screendance that can reach an expansive online audience.

Student-driven efforts like this complement U-M’s goal of creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive campus environment. Michigan’s recommitment to DEI, under the leadership of President Mark Schlissel, has resulted in a detailed strategic plan, launched in the fall of 2016, to which 50 U-M units contributed. A Year One progress report was released last fall, with significant progress reported across the 34 campus-wide initiatives, with 85 percent of nearly 2,000 action items either completed or underway.

The focus on DEI is also reflected in the dance department, led by its chair, Jessica Fogel. “We have recognized the need to attend to issues of DEI on a daily basis,” said Fogel, “in our interactions with each other, our discussions about curriculum, our course assignments and readings, the choice of our guest artists, our ways of looking at dances, our dancemaking, our hiring, our marketing, and more.”

Fogel says the department is diversifying its technique curriculum in ways they haven’t done before, by broadening their standard ballet, modern dance, Congolese, and improvisation curriculum to now include more diverse genres. In addition, for the past three years, they have offered workshops that address some of the basic tenets of DEI. “Each of these efforts form steps towards a new awareness,” said Fogel, “and the work is ongoing.”

In many ways, said Fogel, the dance students themselves are leading the charge. “We were very proud to have ‘Through Our Eyes’ represent our department at the 2018 Collage concert,” she said. “The dancers were moving and courageous in expressing their feelings about this difficult topic. This is a performance that will long be remembered.”

Chavasse agrees. “I was so moved when I first saw the piece, recognizing that the Department of Dance was in a unique position to support a talented and dedicated undergraduate as she figured out how to confront inequality through her art-making.”

While addressing social justice issues is common in all the performing arts, it is especially prevalent in dance. “With the body as the prime instrument of expression, dance can offer a powerful commentary, raising uncomfortable questions that challenge the status quo,” said Chavasse. “Historically, choreographers have tackled controversial issues through dance in many ways, guided by the underlying belief in the art form’s unique ability to stimulate debate, draw people together, and ultimately initiate changes in outlook and perspective.”

Kepler, who received a U-M MLK Spirit Award for her leadership and advocacy with SMTD students as a DEI ambassador, is now a believer in dance as an instrument of change as well.

“I think art touches people in ways that facts don’t,” she said. “Dance brings people to the theatre, and dance brings people together. So it’s just about figuring out a way to touch people and motivate them into action.”

This article was originally published in the Michigan Muse, the SMTD alumni magazine.

Robert Sellers, vice provost for equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer, has announced the appointment of Carla O’Connor as director of Wolverine Pathways. She will replace the program’s founding director, Robert Jagers, on June 1.

“Carla has been an exceptional leader throughout her career,” Sellers says. “I’m confident that she will thrive in advancing the excellent foundation of Wolverine Pathways.”

Wolverine Pathways is a supplemental educational program for students who live within the Detroit, Ypsilanti and Southfield school districts and are entering seventh and 10th grades. It is part of U-M’s effort to provide opportunities to students in communities that are historically underrepresented on campus.

The program is offered at no cost to students and families. Each student who successfully completes the Wolverine Pathways program, applies to U-M and is admitted will be awarded a full-tuition scholarship for four years.

O’Connor, an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and professor of education, has been a member of the University of Michigan faculty for 21 years. She has also served as the associate dean for academic affairs for the School of Education.

Her disciplinary emphasis is sociology of education with expertise in the areas of African-American achievement, urban education, and ethnographic methods.

O’Connor’s work includes examinations of how black identity is differentially constructed across multiple contexts and influences educational outcomes; how black people’s perceptions of opportunity vary within and across social space and shape academic orientation; how black educational resilience and vulnerability is structured by social, institutional and historical forces; and how the organization and culture of school’s influence students’ social and academic identities and outcomes.

“Carla’s professional expertise is extremely valuable in this role,” says Sellers. “Her focus and commitment to making higher education accessible to everyone will benefit both current and future Wolverine Pathways scholars.”

O’Connor’s work has appeared in the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Researcher, Sociology of Education, Review of Research in Education, Teaching and Teacher Education, and Ethnic and Racial Studies.

She also co-edited the book “Beyond Acting White: Reframing the Debate on Black Student Achievement” and has contributed to multiple handbooks and edited volumes that contend with issues of educational inequality and access.

A founding member of the National Science Foundation-sponsored Center for the Study of Black Youth in Context, O’Connor also has professional affiliations with the American Educational Research Association, American Sociological Association and Association of Black Sociologists.

She has received numerous awards and honors for her work in diversity, mentorship and education, including U-M’s Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award.

O’Connor received a Master of Arts degree and Ph.D. in education from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Wesleyan University.

The balance between promoting free speech and diverse thoughts and ideas while still ensuring the university campus is an inclusive environment is not easy. Just ask the University of Michigan’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Implementation Leads.

The topic was the focus of discussion during a recent luncheon hosted by President Mark M. Schlissel.

Schlissel highlighted the natural tensions that exists among a legal obligation, the constitutional right to free speech and the moral obligation to be an inclusive institution that does not condone hurtful and toxic rhetoric.

“Free speech and inclusion are not mutually exclusive,” he said.

Creating an atmosphere where all students, faculty and staff feel they are welcome and can thrive is critical to the university’s DE&I efforts. However, the intersection of inclusiveness and free-speech is where U-M has generated headlines in the news.

Last year, a representative of controversial activist and white supremacist Richard Spencer sought to rent space for an event on campus. While the request was not denied, Schlissel consistently said the university would only rent a venue if the university’s Division of Public Safety and Security could assure a reasonably safe setting for such an event.

As a public university, refusing to rent space to Spencer could have sparked a lawsuit similar to the one filed at Michigan State University.

Dorceta E. Taylor, James E. Crowfoot Collegiate Professor for Environmental Justice and director of diversity, equity, and inclusion for the School of Environment and Sustainability, directly questioned Schlissel on what she called the university’s “timid” response to Spencer.

“Let’s do like we do in football and basketball,” she said. “Bring it! I think the university underestimated the extent to which people wanted a strong response in saying, ‘go ahead and sue us.”

While Taylor’s sentiment drew cheers of support, Schlissel explained the rather fine line the university has to walk in order to foster a community that is diverse and inclusive but also respects everyone’s right to speak freely.

“The easiest thing for me to do would be to do exactly what you’ve suggested,” he said. “I would have been a hero and they would have had another banquet for me. But, I think it would have been 100 percent wrong.”

He explained that in the current climate, there is almost nothing more important to the work of DE&I than the first amendment, which guarantees the right of free speech.

“Who is it to have their speech rights shouted down when the country feels under threat if we don’t respect the first amendment?” Schlissel asked. “It’s Japanese Americans in internment camps, it’s MLK sitting in jail. There is almost nothing more important to the work we’re doing together than being able to stand up and say, ‘You and I are both free to express our ideas in public. You may hate what I say, I may hate what you say, but you can’t shut me up.’”

Issues of diversity, equity and inclusion permeate all sectors of the institution’s structure: student affairs, academic units and student support. Faculty and college administrators are managing an increasing array of complex issues, that include responding to immigration policy changes that directly impact undocumented students, making tuition more affordable for students from low-income families, meeting the academic needs of first-generation students and addressing student demands for more diverse faculty and academic programs.

In a time of heightened social polarization, the free speech rights of disparate groups of U-M students is center stage. A new lawsuit filed May 8 against the university argues the university’s bias response team has a chilling effect on speech on campus.

While the bias response team was created to enhance the visibility and coordination of ways to report incidents of bias and develop online content to provide the campus community with consistent and accurate information about reporting options and reporting resources, how the lawsuit will plays out is yet to be seen.

Schlissel said, “[The lawsuit] provides the opportunity for the university to standup for its values and explain to the boarder society that an inclusive environment is not inconsistent with celebrating the freedoms that we all share. The glass is half full.”

The best way to make sure you have a fulfilling, successful future is to graduate from a four-year college.

That was the message University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel delivered last week to a group of about 100 students, parents, and community members at Ypsilanti Community High School.

The college hopefuls, identified as some of the most successful students in the district, gathered in the school’s media center to hear from Schlissel and Vice Provost for Enrollment Management Kedra Ishop and ask questions about the college admissions process. A few of the students in attendance had already accepted an admissions offer to the university.

Schlissel shared the myriad benefits that those with a college degree can access throughout their lives, from increased income to less legal trouble to better health and longer life expectancy.

“That’s really what an education is all about,” he said. “It’s to help you be as successful in life as you can possibly be.

“Education buys you freedom.”

State Rep. Ronnie Peterson, D-Ypsilanti, organized the morning meeting to provide local students with access to college administrators and promote college enrollment. Earlier in the morning, Schlissel and Ishop met for a roundtable discussion with a number of local civic and religious leaders.

Despite its close proximity to Ypsilanti, U-M has historically enrolled few students from the working-class community where more than three quarters of students quality for free or reduced-price lunches.

That’s a trend that needs to change, said Schlissel, who pointed to a number of university programs designed to assist students from low-income backgrounds.

He specifically called out Wolverine Pathways – an intensive college readiness program for students in Ypsilanti, Southfield, and Detroit – as well as the statewide Go Blue Guarantee as two examples of the university’s work toward increasing socioeconomic diversity on campus.

The Go Blue Guarantee covers the full cost of tuition for any Michigan resident who is accepted to the university and has a family income less than $65,000.

“We don’t want you to worry about the money part,” Schlissel said. “We just want you to worry about the part where you get yourself ready to learn.”

Ishop echoed the president’s sentiment, saying that “demystifying” the financial aid process has been one of her top priorities over the past few years.

“We want to make it clear to communities that opportunities are available,” she said. “The University of Michigan is in reach.”