RE LOG Fall 2024

36 Ransom Everglades LOG FALL 2024 By James G. Weaver Jr. ’90 Ransom Everglades Board of Trustees, Chair of the DEI Committee; former President of the RE Alumni Board; mentor for students at Ransom Everglades; Co-founder (with Agustin “Konky” Arelleno ’90 ) of Class of 1990 Equitable Experience Endowment; President & CEO of J5 Equities Ventures Group, LLC During the summer of 2020, Fortune 500 companies pledged millions of dollars to support their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Universities opened DEI offices and schools appointed DEI officers. Now, in less than four years, the work associated with diversity, equity and inclusion in public spaces has been sullied by negativity. Some have gone so far as to refer to this effort as “indoctrination.” Governors have forced states’ universities to close their DEI offices and fire personnel. Duly elected Black officials like the Mayor of Baltimore have been mocked as “DEI hires.” As chair of the DEI Committee of the RE Board of Trustees, I work with distinguished members Stephanie Dua P’27 ’24 ’22, David Duckenfield P’20 ’22, Susan Lampen ’71, P’99 , Jon Madorsky ’91 , Elana Oberstein-Harris ’93, P’27 ’24 ’23 and Ricky Stokes ’94, P’28 ’26 . The racial and ethnic make-up of the committee is purposefully multicultural. As an institution, one goal is to have a board whose committees, student body, faculty and leadership team are a reasonable cultural reflection of Miami-Dade County. Ransom Everglades is led by Head of School Rachel Rodriguez and Chief Operating Officer David Clark ’86 , an increasingly diverse board of trustees, a strong leadership team whose diverse make-up is exemplary, plus a faculty and student body that each year becomes more reflective of Miami-Dade County. We are benchmarking ourselves for continued national leadership. One of the DEI Committee’s first decisions was to ensure that our work was rooted in thoughtful methodology, qualitative data gathering and formalized processes. We began by first seeking to get some sense of the community by simply reaching out. We interviewed current students, alumni from various generations, current and past parents, senior faculty and staff, current and former trustees, and other stakeholders. As we conducted our initial inquiries, it became clear some believed DEI to be beneficial only to certain groups at the exclusion of others. Others believed DEI served as a metaphor for hiring, admitting and otherwise benefiting unqualified individuals. Both perspectives are a gross misunderstanding of this work. McKinsey & Company defines diversity, equity and inclusion as three closely linked values held by many organizations that are working to be supportive of different groups of individuals, including people of different races, ethnicities, religions, abilities, genders and sexual orientations. That definition provided the James G. Weaver Jr. ’90 Supporting All Students Ransom Everglades aspires to build an inclusive community for everyone Upper school students celebrated Diwali with an impromptu dance session on the Lewis Family Auditorium stage