The work of diversity officers at colleges and universities has become even more stressful, as the nation continues to grapple with the dueling pandemics of COVID-19 and racial injustice.
And yet many of these diversity experts and practitioners push forward, often with little resources and support, to make their campuses more equitable and inclusive. The day-to-day work, however, leaves far too many of them physically drained.
“How many of you feel like you’re on the front lines?” asked Dr. Anneliese A. Singh, at a session titled “Self-Care and Healing Practices for Senior Diversity Officers in the Time of COVID-19 and Liberation Movements,” held at this year’s National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education 16th annual conference.
Paulette Granberry Russell
“How many feel exhausted at work? How many of you feel exhausted after work?” asked Singh, associate provost for diversity and faculty development and chief diversity officer at Tulane University, who led a crowded room of chief diversity officers through a series of body exercises to help reduce stress.
Singh shared a historical photo unearthed by Dr. Stephanie Y. Evans, a historian at Georgia State University, showing Rosa Parks—affectionately known as the mother of the modern civil rights movement—doing yoga.
Parks, who refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, sparked a massive boycott of the public transportation system and catapulted a relatively obscure Black Baptist preacher named Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. into the national headlines.
