A Conversation with Spartan Athletics’ Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer

Dr. Ashley Baker is chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer for Spartan Athletics. She joins Spartans Athletic Director Bill Beekman on this edition of MSU Today.

Show Notes

“I've worked in college athletics ever since I was an undergraduate student,” Baker says. “And much of my experience has been working directly with student athletes and coaches and being with the academic support side. As I navigated my career, I understood very early on the importance of working with people in our industry and what our environment and the culture of our department meant for people navigating that space.

“Over the course of my career, opportunities like this didn't exist in college athletics. This is something that at least from a formal standpoint, focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion, is something that is more recent in terms of creating these formal roles and embedding these efforts into our overall department goals. Michigan State as a university and as an athletics department is in a unique space right now in that there's so much potential for the direction that we can move in terms of being a leader in college athletics.”

Baker talks about Big Ten and NCAA initiatives in DEI, and she describes the roadmap she’s preparing for Spartan Athletics.

“An important part of my work is looking at our current culture, looking at our traditions, looking at the current social climate, and identifying where we need to make change and create some strategy or planning around the things that we're doing so that we can enhance the experience of our staff, our students, our stakeholders, and our campus as a whole.”

Baker describes her five areas of impact that guide her development of the roadmap: Culture building, assessment and evaluation, education and awareness, recruitment, retention and advancement, and social responsibility and supplier diversity.

“There are specific goals and objectives that fall into those areas that encompass things like creating this DEI plan, reviewing our policies and procedures through an equity lens, tracking our progress as it relates to DEI goals, making sure that our staff feels valued and respected and that we have perspectives that are represented from a variety of different backgrounds and areas, thinking about who we hire as a staff and how we retain our staff and even thinking about how we're serving historically underserved communities that surround our campus and throughout our state.”

Baker’s advice for educating ourselves on DEI issues and initiatives, particularly in the workplace, requires that we be lifelong learners.

“Being learners and educating ourselves and then coming together collectively and being partners in learning is key. And the way that we do that is by informing ourselves and then holding one another accountable. Reading books and listening to podcasts is great, but it also is about diversifying the group of people that we surround ourselves with. It's inviting other perspectives and experiences into our spaces and learning from them and listening and not being the first to be dismissive or say, ‘Well, that doesn't apply to me,’ but really being open to understanding what's happening around us and educating ourselves on it.

“I think it's important not only for us to identify those things for ourselves, but then to come back into our workspaces and share that with one another. So I'm an avid reader. I love to read. I read journal articles. I read books. I'm a researcher at heart, so I love to educate myself and inform myself. But the reality is no one person will know everything. And that is why that shared learning and understanding is so important and that we carry the weight of this work together and we show up in spaces where we are willing to contribute and share authentically who we are and know that that space is going to accept us for who we are. But then also know that we're here to be open minded and listen to one another and take into account different perspectives that will certainly and ultimately help make our space more diverse and more representative of what our world looks like.”

MSU Today airs Sunday mornings at 9:00 on 105.1 FM and AM 870 and streams at WKAR.org. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

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Host

Russ White

I host and produce MSU Today for News/Talk 760 @wjrradio and @MichiganStateU's @NPR affiliate @WKAR News/Talk 102.3 FM and AM 870.

What is MSU Today with Russ White?

MSU Today is a lively look at Michigan State University-related people, places, events and attitudes put into focus by Russ White. The show airs Saturdays at 5 P.M. and Sundays at 5 A.M. on 102.3 FM and AM 870 WKAR, and 8 P.M. on AM 760 WJR.

Unknown Speaker 0:00
Hello, this is Bill Beekman, Vice President and Director of intercollegiate athletics here at Michigan State University. And we're delighted to be joined on the program today by Dr. Ashley Baker. Dr. Baker is the recent addition to our wonderful athletics family as our Director of inclusion and equity. And, and Dr. Baker, I'm probably not getting that title. Exactly right. So why don't you share with us why you came to Michigan State you you've been with us since about the first of the year. And, or I guess in the fall and share with us why you came to Michigan State and what excites you about being here? Maybe a little bit about what you've learned, and, and you're in your new role?

Unknown Speaker 0:53
Sure. Well, thanks for having me on the show. This is exciting to get a chance to sit and chat and share more about myself and more about the work that I do for Spartan athletics. So yes, my title is it's kind of a mouthful, its Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion officer. And this role in particular, I'm sure we'll talk a little bit more about what I specifically do. But why Michigan State and why this role was of interest to me. I'm originally from the state of Michigan, I grew up over on the east side of the state in Pontiac, just north of Detroit. And I've worked in college athletics ever since I was an undergrad student. And much of my experience has been working directly with student athletes working with coaches, and being on the academic support side. So as I navigated that part of my career, I understood very early on the importance of working with people in our industry, and what our environment and the culture of our department meant for people navigating that space. And so, over the course of my career, opportunities, like this didn't exist in college athletics. This is something that at least from a formal standpoint, focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion is something that is more recent, in terms of creating these formal roles and embedding these efforts into our overall department goals. And so when Michigan State posted this position, you know, initially I said Do I want to go back to the cold would I even consider this who would want to leave the the warm weather of the South to come back to the snow and, and cold of the North, but you know, Michigan State, as a university, and as athletics department, we're in a unique space right now in that we are, there's so much potential for the direction that we can move in terms of being a leader in college athletics. We have, you know, an enormous amount of support from the community from the university, and making sure that this department is one that allows our staff to thrive and show up as their best to make sure that we are meeting our goals, and are providing a space for our student athletes to learn and grow and be at their best. This was a great time to do that. Obviously, there's a significant amount of social unrest that I think was very influential in pushing for us to have positions like this, particularly within college athletics, but this time is very important. And it's critical to you know, how we operate as a department and how the staff and students show up and navigate our space. So when I saw it, I said I have to, I have to put my name in, I have to, you know, learn more about what direction Michigan State athletics is going in and how I can be a part of helping to create positive change and and help us tell our story of who we are as an athletics department.

Unknown Speaker 4:07
So is part of your role. You You do a lot of work internal to the university. But then there are also critical relationships external to the university. And you know, for for a, an institution like Michigan State athletics, those those include the NCAA, as well as our big 10 conference, both of which have created in each in their own flavor have their own variety of initiatives around diversity over the last over the last short while. So tell us a little bit about the in the NC double double a capacity. You serve as the the athletics diversity and inclusion designee for Michigan State and and then at the conference level. We have a a committee of folks that Commissioner Warren has pulled together to think through and work about work, work on diversity questions to share, share with us a little bit about what's going on at the NCAA level on the conference level, and how that informs what we do here at Michigan State.

Unknown Speaker 5:20
Sure. So last year, we saw the NCAA pass legislate legislation that would require athletic departments to appoint a person that would serve in this role of the athletics diversity and inclusion designee. So the the acronym, right, we call it a DI D. That's, that's pretty common for us in this industry. So that role, really has become a critical component to the work that athletic departments are doing. As of August of 2020. That was when each department was charged with identifying who this designee was. And the purpose of that role was to have that person serve as a primary contact for diversity and inclusion related information that was funneling between conference offices, campuses, athletic departments, and then with the NCAA as our as our national governing body. And the point of that was to create more open dialogue to share information that was happening, whether regionally or nationally. And also to think about the emerging diversity issues and equity initiatives that needed to be shared within our spaces. And so that position, most who are appointed in that position, are tied to the athletic department directly or have very close relationships with the department. And they help link us to, you know, national trends on various issues, make sure that our athletic directors and our senior administrators are informed about what may be going on. And those individuals are also included in sharing their ideas or their suggestions around best practices as it relates to diversity and inclusion initiatives and maybe any other topics that might be important. So that at the national level, I think was critical for us on college campuses and within athletic departments to create space to say one, diversity, equity and inclusion is extremely important in the space of college athletics. This position is important. And these initiatives that we're doing help kind of cultivate this space, where we're making college athletics better, while also holding ourselves accountable to areas where we may see inequities or any quality as it relates to whether it's gender, or any other of the of the diversity spaces. And so this position was critical to create a national standard. Within our conference, specifically, the big 10 has cultivated space, we have the equality coalition, which Commissioner Warren charges this group with with a number of different things as it relates to diversity, equity and inclusion. In addition to that group, we also have a what I call kind of the meeting of the minds, all of the ad IDs within the big 10. We have a monthly meeting with Omar Brown. That is he's he's, I believe actually was just promoted to executive vice president or vice president of culture for the big 10. Omar leads that group and we talk about various initiatives that we have going on on our campuses, best practices, we also are helping to inform and guide the direction of Omar's areas, specifically for the big 10. Because as individual institutions, right, we have uniqueness to what we may be navigating on our individual campuses, whether it's in our state in our regions, but then collectively, we're also tasked with taking on some of these larger projects, that helps to promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Conference wide. And it's been really great to have that kind of coalition of people to get together and share ideas and brainstorm and also make recommendations to the conference office for things that we know will impact us individually and collectively.

Unknown Speaker 9:23
So in that, within that framework of the NCAA, the big 10 our own dei initiatives here across campus, you've been working to create a dei roadmap for MSU athletics. So tell us a little bit about that roadmap, and, and what at this point are your key areas of focus?

Unknown Speaker 9:50
Sure. Well, really quickly. Before I do that, I want to make sure that I clarify a little bit about the distinction between a chief diversity officer and And the ad ID because I think it leads into how and why a person in my role would even create strategy around diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. So the ad ID designation, what we know is, this is a position that is a designee. So many of these individuals have other roles and responsibilities within the athletics department, maybe a full time role in student development or marketing or any of these other areas. The uniqueness about my position is that it is a standalone Diversity, Equity and Inclusion position. And the focus of this position was about helping athletics shift culture. And an important part of that work is looking at our current culture, looking at our traditions, looking at the current social climate, and identifying where we need to make change, maybe create some strategy or planning around the things that we're doing so that we can enhance the experience of our staff, our students, our stakeholders, and then of course, our campus as a whole. So me having 100% of my responsibilities being rooted in this, I actually use the last six, seven months of my time here to be a learner and observer to get a better understanding of what our current climate is in our department what our culture is. And my role is really to bring together a sustainable approach that will balance the programmatic efforts that we do right trainings and discussions with long term structural impact and investments. So the long term impact is to create a dei roadmap that not only addresses short term needs, but also impacts us in the long term and creates a sustainable plan for us to continue these efforts. So that plan, I have five areas of impact, culture building, assessment, and evaluation is another area, education and awareness, the fourth areas recruitment, retention, and advancement. And then the last area is looking at social responsibility and our supplier diversity. And so those areas, there's specific goals and objectives that fall into those areas that encompass, you know, things like creating this dei plan, reviewing our policies and procedures through an equity lens, tracking our progress, as it relates to dei goals, it making sure that our staff feels valued and respected, and that we have perspectives that are represented from a variety of different backgrounds and areas, thinking about who we hire as a staff and how we retain our staff, and even thinking about how we're serving historically underserved communities that surround our campus and throughout our state.

Unknown Speaker 12:57
Tell us about your, your your plans for the coming year, you know, we're we're sort of in this in this very unique period during the summer, where, you know, we've been we're sort of crawling out of the pandemic, we hope with students back on campus, for the university in late August, early September, for us here in athletics really beginning fairly soon. So what are you? What are you thinking about for the for the fall? And what are your key priorities?

Unknown Speaker 13:32
Sure, well, one of the first things, I will continue to kind of be a listener and an observer. That's one of the things I'm I'm really excited that the potential for us to have more face to face interaction. During this spring, I wasn't able to connect and interact with our student athletes as much, I wanted to make sure one that we were being respectful of the safety protocols and things that we had on campus, and also being respectful of the responsibilities that our student athletes had with navigating being students. Many of them were still competing, and practicing, and so I didn't get as much time to spend with them. So that's one thing I'm looking forward to is getting to spend a lot more time with our student athletes, hearing about their experiences, learning more about how we can create a space for them, that they're thriving in the other piece, which will be extremely important as actually rolling out this dei roadmap and sharing it internally with our staff and our students, but also having an outward facing component where there is an external communication of this plan, so that as we identify partners in this work, they're very clear on this is what our focus is and this is where our goals lie as it relates to these efforts, getting more involved with our coaches and staff around programming and trainings. That will be an important part being continual learners is I think, critical to us moving forward. And understanding how we work with one another, the people, we work with the various issues that may be going on that impact our community as as you know, athletics department, and even as a campus. So being able to do some programming and training, and creating that what I call is like our education plan around dei topics. The other big piece that I'm really excited about it many, many know, next summer, so the summer of 2322, I'm sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself 22 in June, will be the 50th anniversary of Title Nine legislation passing, I am heading up a committee that is focused on the planning of commemorating that anniversary in a meaningful way. And touching kind of every area of in our in our department. So I'm super excited about that. And what will come of this planning and thinking about not only how we celebrate the accomplishments and commemorate the history of Title Nine legislation, but also how this can impact us moving forward in supporting our student athletes, in supporting our coaches, and even our administrators in these efforts around celebrating the women in our department.

Unknown Speaker 16:25
That's that that I think is very, very exciting. And, you know, it's so interesting, when one looks back on historical events, it to think that it was 50 years ago that the title nine legislation was passed, on the one hand, 50 years seems like sort of forever ago. On the other hand, it feels as though in some in some ways, there's still so much to do. So it's a, I think that that commemoration will serve not only as a celebration of what of what's been accomplished, but also sort of as a, as a reminder of where where we need to be. And so, yeah, I know, I'm personally excited to see that, that anniversary and the the celebratory events and, and speakers and other things that we'll be doing on campus to, to not only honor the the passage of that time video of 50 years, but to to use that as an opportunity to continue to educate and learn and grow and, and work together. So thank you, thank you so much for for raising that you've got this, this, this really unique sort of juxtaposition of a role, where on the one hand, you're leading dei strategy and initiatives and, and educating others about social issues, while simultaneously navigating the way that those that those impact our society, how do you? How do you think through that, that complicated space?

Unknown Speaker 18:09
Yeah, the I mean, this is this is something that's really important for, for me as an individual and as a person, you know, I think in in college athletics as a whole, we often have to be reminded that, like, we're a human focused industry, and we are working with people. And for me, many of the things that I show up to discuss with our staff or with our student athletes, they're issues that I myself am dealing with, when you think about social and justices that are being highlighted in the media, that impact the black community, or other people of color, or women, you know, those are identities that I connect with. And I'm personally impacted by the things that I see going on in society. So as a black woman, I'm consistently thinking about how I may be stereotyped or marginalized. And I'm challenging and disrupting those same systems that were built to work against me. And so I'm not exempt from those experiences just because of my role or because of my title or even because of my education. So when things are happening publicly, I have to be able to process my own thoughts and my own experiences, and then still show up to do the work. Because we have members of our own department in our community that are being impacted as well. So in a role like this, I say it often I never really get to turn it off. I'm always hyper aware of what's going on around me, how it impacts me, and how it impacts others. You know, I am a mom. I'm a mom who is always thinking about the safety and protection of my son. You know, he's navigating a world that may unfairly judge him, they may stereotype him, you know, they may treat him a certain way, just when he shows up two spaces before he is he even able to share who he is or what he is or anything about himself. And so I think about that. He's, he's very transparent about my family, you know, he's a 15 year old, he's getting ready to start driving and all the things that go through my head as a parent, but then also as a black Mother of what this means for having my son on the road and driving and all the interactions he may have. It's a challenge. But the reality is, is that the work has to be done for our spaces to be better for everyone. And that's what I tell myself when I show up every day to do the work, someone has to do it. And why not me, and why not use myself as you know, a thought partner and a strategist. And as as you know what, I guess the industry will call an expert in this area to help us navigate and do this work while having that personal impact on myself.

Unknown Speaker 20:59
Well, and Ashley, I think that although that, I'm sure presents its challenges I it. Yeah, it, it makes you so well suited for what you're doing. And you know, and I can say that in the short time you've been, you're with us in athletics, you've made a huge impact already. So, so thank you for that. Thank you. I appreciate that. What so So what advice would you have for your for how we can educate ourselves on Dei, and particularly in the workplace?

Unknown Speaker 21:38
Yeah, I so I think I've probably said it so many times. But being learners and educating ourselves, excuse me, educating ourselves, individually, and then coming together collectively and being partners in learning, I think being advocates for one another. Being allies. And and what what I mean by that, like there's so much right, we can completely unpack what it means to be an advocate and be an ally. There's something that I have in the signature of my email. And it says Speak up, even if your voice shakes. And then that's a quote is not it's not my original quote. But I think it's really important for us to, once we've educated ourselves, and we've become more aware of how things how we're navigating the workspace and how each individual person may be impacted by that workspace, we have an obligation to speak up. And we have an obligation to challenge the norms, and challenge the way we've always done things. And the way that we do that is by informing ourselves, and then holding one another accountable. So this may look like you know, reading books or listening to podcasts. Certainly, those are important ways. But it also is about diversifying the group of people that we surround ourselves with, it's inviting other perspectives and experiences into our spaces, and learning from them and listening to it. And not being you know, not being the first to be dismissive. Or say, Well, that doesn't apply to me. But really being open to understanding what's happening around us and, and educating ourselves on it. And I think it's, it's important not only for us to identify those things for ourselves, but then to come back into our workspaces, and share that with one another. So I am I'm an avid reader, I love to read, I read journal articles, I read books, you know, I'm a researcher at heart. So I love to, to educate myself and inform myself but the reality is, is like no one person will know everything. And that is why that shared learning and understanding is so important that we carry the weight of this work together. And we show up in spaces where we are willing to contribute and share authentically who we are, and know that that space is going to accept us for who we are, but then also know that we're here to be open minded and listen to one another and take into account different perspectives that will certainly and ultimately help make our space more diverse, and more representative of what our world looks like.

Unknown Speaker 24:30
In that's so much of what a what a university is about being not only an active listener, but a proactive learner. And, and with those two things, you coaches when he has his summer basketball camps, pounds into the kids heads. Yeah, listen, to learn and learn to listen. And I think I've probably heard him say that 1000 times and in some ways that is a is a synopsis of kind of what's at the core of what we need to be doing so, so thank you. So we, we always wrap up our conversations with a few sort of more creative questions that, that maybe get a little more to the heart of, of your personality. And, and let us learn a little bit more about you. So, you mentioned that you're an IR an avid reader, what's your, what's your favorite book? Oh,

Unknown Speaker 25:31
oh, that's a good one. So right now, the the most recent, actually, let's see, the most recent book that I read, I'm actually I'm reading it right now lead from the outside by Stacey Abrams. I've just started reading that that book. But this summer, I would say one of the most impactful books I read, actually, and I listened to it on as an auto audio book. But it was john Thompson's book. And it was absolutely incredible to hear about his experiences, and how he navigated being a basketball coach, obviously a very well known and, and deep in tradition, and very successful Georgetown basketball program. But that was one this summer, I have told myself there, there are a few books that I committed to I'm going to read again or listen to again, that's one that I absolutely will I really enjoyed it.

Unknown Speaker 26:27
That's great. And other than reading, what do you do for fun? Um, well, as

Unknown Speaker 26:35
I said, I mean, I'm a mom. So this this summer is fun was spending a lot of time at the baseball field. So my son plays travel baseball. And I've actually, like, this never was something that I would say was like my go to for fun, but I recognize having a teenager and knowing that I only have so many more years where he's gonna be living in my home and, and be kind of under my care and maybe have these experiences. So my fun this summer was actually these road trips, traveling to various baseball fields throughout the state of Michigan, we went out of state for one tournament, well, two tournaments, so spending time with him and with my family, and it really tied in, like traveling is important for me going and experiencing other spaces. And coming off of this last year, it was really difficult, right, we couldn't travel in the same ways that we wanted to. And, you know, we had to think about our safety and think about the safety of others. But travel is my other thing. So I've appreciated being able to get back to doing a little bit of that not quite maybe where we we would be under previous circumstances but spending time with him. Travel and and I'm I'm a huge sports fan. So anytime I can go hang out at an arena or a field or wherever it is. That's a big part of what I really enjoy doing also.

Unknown Speaker 28:01
Well, I, for my part, I can't think of two better things to combine than then than spending time with your children and traveling. Those are. That's that's at the sweet spot of what I've enjoyed doing over the years and, and as my children have gotten older, it's it certainly becomes more challenging. So take it take advantage of it while you can. So I I want to thank you Dr. Ashley Baker, Michigan State University athletics, Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion officer for joining us today on MSU today, and we very much appreciate your time, your wisdom, and your passion for making Michigan State a better place. Thank you, Bill. I appreciate it. And I'm looking forward to this upcoming year.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai