NCID-1976
Kimberly Otchere
Director of Inclusion and Talent Development for University Housing
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Education/Degree:
1 Human Resource Development (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
About
Driven by service, generative reflection, and collective participation, Kimberly Otchere has been a student affairs professional for the past eight years. With poise and competence, she has been committed to engaging students, faculty, and staff in inclusive and transformational experiences. Her work at top tier public research universities has been to develop skills and competencies for institutional members to engage across difference and in inclusive settings. Her academic training is as a generalist and macro social worker, as well as in human resource development. She has coupled her social work interpersonal counseling skills and organizational development to aide in providing constructive critique and addressing issues of diversity through policy development and facilitation of inclusive practices.
Current Work
Chief diversity officers of color exist in a racial microcosm of society, where racial implications shape their workplace experiences. While advocating and working to shift institutional climates to be more inclusive, they too are plagued with experiencing the same ills they strive to obliterate. Racial discrimination, both implicit and explicit, impacts their social, physical, emotional, and psychological beings. Repeated experiences of marginalization magnify these effects and yield an added responsibility of learning how to navigate such tumultuous terrain. More specifically, women of color who serve in as chief diversity officers are also incited to determine how to respond and cope with these racially and gender based acts of bias and intolerance, however subtle they may be.Both, the experiences of racial microaggressions (RMA) and racial battle fatigue (RBF) are important narratives to be aware of, as well as how coping with said experiences occurs. This knowledge can critically inform the continued educational development of higher education practitioners and researchers. This phenomenological project aims to gain a deeper understanding of coping for women of color chief diversity officers who are experiencing RMA and RBF in their work spaces.
Research Area Keyword(s)
employee resource groups, inclusive organizational development, intergroup dialogue, talent development