Adelphi Receives 2023 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award

Garden City, NY (10/11/2023) — For the sixth consecutive year, INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine has recognized Adelphi University with its annual Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award. This highly competitive national honor recognizes U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB). Adelphi, along with 108 other recipients, will be featured in the November/December 2023 issue of INSIGHT Into Diversity.

"We are very proud to receive the HEED Award recognition," said Sentwali Bakari, vice president of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging at Adelphi. "This recognition underscores Adelphi University's unwavering commitment to sustaining an inclusive, welcoming and equitable campus environment."

Some notable initiatives that helped Adelphi earn the 2023 HEED Award:

Programs supporting the University's commitment to DEIB through its strategic plan, Momentum 2, included increasing efforts to recruit and retain students from underrepresented communities, expanding multilingual engagements with students and their families, improving the diversity of Adelphi's curriculum, expanding DEIB programming, increasing the hiring, support and retention of diverse faculty and staff and developing new affinity groups.

In Spring 2023, David Machlis, PhD, an associate professor of finance and economics at Adelphi's Robert B. Willumstad School of Business, launched the Two Museums Program, an innovative and inspiring project to unite Black and Jewish students in combating prejudice and hatred. A group of 20 students traveled to Washington, D.C., to visit the National Museum of African American History & Culture and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to explore the root causes and consequences of hate, antisemitism, racism and intolerance.

Edmund J.Y. Pajarillo, PhD, a professor in Adelphi's College of Nursing and Public Health, launched an Equitable, Targeted and Structured (ETS) Onboarding Program for graduate students entering the Healthcare Informatics master's program. Students enter the program with different backgrounds and levels of experience, and many need help adjusting to the demands of graduate-level work. The ETS program provides guidance, training on technology and software, help with writing and research skills and an overview of the resources available to professionals in the field.

Adelphi's Multicultural Center, opened in Fall 2022, provides a safe space for students from underrepresented groups. It hosts events for groups and events, including the Women's Leadership Conference, the First-Generation Advice Panel, the Multicultural Affinity Alumni Group, and the Found Family holiday party for members of Adelphi's LGBTQIA+ community.

"We appreciate this Award from HEED and congratulate our colleagues from other institutions," said Chotsani Williams West, assistant vice president of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging at Adelphi. "This recognition honors Adelphi's strategic commitment to diversity and our collective work to advance initiatives to uplift our community. We are deeply committed to this work and will continue to elevate our efforts toward belonging."

For more information about the 2023 HEED Award, visit insightintodiversity.com. Learn more about DEIB efforts at Adelphi.

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For the sixth consecutive year, INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine has recognized Adelphi University with its annual Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award.