Since 2008, The Forum’s Diversity Awards Program has recognized individuals or organizations showcasing exemplary insight and fortitude in the area of workplace diversity. Nominations are submitted for individuals, organizations, or a group within an organization such as an Employee Resource Group or Diversity Council.
2023 winners will be honored in a Diversity Awards Ceremony at the Annual Conference in March
Nominations will open again in Fall 2023 for the 2024 Annual Conference
Since 2008, The Forum’s Diversity Awards Program has recognized individuals or organizations showcasing exemplary insight and fortitude in the area of workplace diversity. Nominations are submitted for individuals, organizations, or a group within an organization such as an Employee Resource Group or Diversity Council.
The Power the Future Award goes to an individual new or emerging leader who:
Effectively leads from their current position by consistently demonstrating innovative, future forward, visionary thinking
Rallies, engages and inspires others around imagining and investing in future state possibilities
Leads by example demonstrating a commitment to bold exploration, risk taking, and learning from both failure and success
Seeks new challenges and challenges others to continually work toward making a difference in the work/life experiences of present and future generations
The Chinese classic, I-Ching (Book of Changes), describes the 64 conditions of man within nature. Thousands of years later, modern science has quantified the existence of DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) as a sequence of 64 combinations.
Sara A. Bates, MS., MA., of the National Institute of Health, states: “The DNA from any two people is 99.9% identical, with that shared blueprint guiding our development and forming a common thread across the world. The differing 0.1% contains variations that influence our uniqueness, which, when combined with our environmental and social contexts, give us our abilities, health, and behavior.”
To speak to this 0.1%, I have made the awards with the four sacred colors (black, white, red, and yellow) of the Native American, combined with the archetypal forms of the circle, square, and triangle.
Learn more about Robert K Tom here.
The Power the Future Award goes to an individual who:
Effectively leads from their current position by consistently demonstrating innovative, future forward, visionary thinking
Rallies, engages and inspires others around imagining and investing in future state possibilities
Leads by example demonstrating a commitment to bold exploration, risk taking, and learning from both failure and success
Seeks new challenges and challenges others to continually work toward making a difference in the work/life experiences of present and future generations
The Winds of Change Award goes to an individual, organization, or group that:
Has demonstrated sustained support for advancing diversity and inclusion in the workplace
Has raised awareness of workplace diversity and inclusion issues
Has been a catalyst for change regarding workplace diversity and inclusion and/or has impacted change within an industry, organization or local community
Nominated and awarded by The Forum’s Program Committee, The Friend of the Forum Award goes to an individual who:
Has demonstrated sustained support of The Forum.
Has made significant contributions to The Forum in time, talent, leadership, content, vision or financial support
Has increased visibility or helped expand The Forum within the local community or throughout the United States
Has expanded the focus of The Forum as a nationally recognized premier diversity conference
Eric J. Jolly, Ph.D., is the President and CEO of the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation – an organization working to create an equitable, just, and vibrant Minnesota where all communities and people thrive. With roots in Saint Paul since 1940 and partners across the state, the Foundation is Minnesota’s largest community foundation, stewarding $2 billion in charitable assets.
As a lifelong educator and scientist, Eric’s signature leadership style has been to listen deeply to those in the community. As a result, he has focused the Foundation on three distinct strategies: inspiring generosity, advancing equity, and investing in community-led solutions.
Widely recognized for his work with communities and policy makers, Eric has published articles and books and has lectured around the world. He is also a frequent contributor to articles, opinion editorials, and global conversations and convenings about equity, inclusion, and community-building.
All this has led him to serve in many capacities, including with the arts and museums, educational development, community development, diverse populations, and higher education. It is as a member of the Board of Regents for Augsburg University that he and The Forum intersect. Eric was instrumental in advising Augsburg’s leadership about the alignment of the University’s and The Forum’s missions, the importance of bringing us together, and the feasibility of doing so. And through a grant, the Foundation he runs helped fund the move and transition.
This year, The Forum is celebrating its 35th anniversary and its fourth as a part of Augsburg University, thanks in part to Eric’s belief in the importance of combining our forces.
For his vision, sage advice, and financial assistance in creating a new home at Augsburg for The Forum, we are pleased to present our 2023 Jordan M. Roberge Friend of The Forum award to Eric Jolly.
Dr. Menah Pratt serves as Vice President for Strategic Affairs and Diversity and Professor of Education at Virginia Tech. In these roles, she leads the Office for Inclusion and Diversity and the Office for Strategic Affairs.
Her DEI duties include overseeing an education and engagement team that offers extensive programming to more than 5,000 faculty and staff members, including campus wide summits, diversity touchpoint events, community and cultural center programming, multiple webinars, and online education certificates. As the Chief Strategy Officer, she leads the integration of diversity, equity, and inclusion as a core strategic priority of the university.
Menah conceptualized, developed, and oversees InclusiveVT, a diversity and equity framework focusing on four pillars: sustainable institutional transformation; representational diversity of faculty, staff, and students; a welcoming, affirming, safe, and accessible campus climate; and integrating issues of identity and equity into the culture and curriculum.
Menah’s efforts in recruitment and retention of diverse faculty and staff are significant. She created the Faculty Diversity Committee, championing recruitment efforts resulting in almost doubling minority faculty representation to nearly 30%. Retention work includes programs for early career faculty, faculty of color, and women faculty, and the White Allies as Transformational Leaders program for senior academic leaders, helping them understand and advocate for DEI best practices.
Additionally, she advanced hiring chief diversity officers in all 8 colleges, championed the creation of community cultural centers, and envisioned and stewarded three mandatory diversity curricular requirements: a Diversity 101 pre-enrollment course for entering students, an academic course on critical analysis of equity and identity in the U.S. for undergraduates, and a course on diversity for all graduate programs. She also supports ten faculty and staff caucuses (similar to Employee Resource Groups) through funding, programming, and strategic engagement.
Menah is a nationally recognized and respected DEI leader and scholar in higher education. She is frequently invited to participate in conferences, including those hosted by the White House, Insight into Diversity, and the National Association for Diversity Officers in Higher Education, and extensively blogs on DEI issues. She is the author of four books on social justice for women and people of color, and received the 2018 American Educational Studies Association Critics’ Choice Award for scholarship deemed outstanding in its field.
Menah is the founder of the Faculty Women of Color in the Academy National Conference, is deeply committed to developing new strategic engagements with HBCUs, Hispanic-serving institutions, and Virginia Native American tribal communities, and founded the Black College Institute, bringing together almost 500 academically curious, high achieving high school students for a week-long experience focused around a social justice project.
These programs represent just a few of the initiatives which Menah has created, led, developed, or implemented over the past five years impacting Virginia Tech faculty, staff, students, and the greater community.
It is for all these reasons that the Forum’s awards committee is proud to present Dr. Menah Pratt with the 2023 Individual Winds of Change Award.
