DEIL Team

Dear Friends,
It is with passion, commitment, and humility that we introduce ourselves to you as the DEIL team at St. Hilda’s & St. Hugh’s. Standing for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leadership, the DEIL team is dedicated to helping faculty foster an authentically multicultural school community for the benefit of all students and families. In line with the founding mission of Mother Ruth, the DEIL team works together and with the broader school community with an explicit focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, and multicultural fluency and support.

DEIL is committed to serving the school’s mission of fostering an authentic and equitable community by working with faculty and parents to cohesively support the development of each child’s identity.

For the 2022-2023 school year, DEIL has welcomed three new members to the DEI Team who will assist in accomplishing our goals for the year: Nolan Warthen, Director of Annual Giving, Olivia Gardner, physical education teacher and athletics coach, and Peng Zeng, lower division Mandarin teacher. All three of our new members attended theInstitute for Teaching Diversity and Social Justice this past summer, a week-long intensive professional development opportunity that teaches how to build inclusive and affirming learning environments that foster social justice for their students and the broader community (https://idsj.us/). We are excited to welcome all of these new members to our DEI Team, and we look forward to a thoughtful and productive year.

Examples of the DEIL team's ongoing work with faculty and administrators includes:

• Collaborating with faculty and administrators to examine the ways in which their cultural practices, values, and beliefs impact their teaching practices, curriculum choices, and relationships with students
• Assisting faculty in crafting curriculum, lessons, and assessments though a multicultural lens
• Helping the faculty continue to develop a deep understanding of cross-cultural communication and interpersonal styles, in service of positive classroom experiences for children of all identities and backgrounds
• Providing and sharing with faculty professional development opportunities and curricular resources that focus on social justice, identity, equity, and diversity
• Facilitating Faculty SEED groups (See: National SEED Project)
• Facilitation of Faculty and Student Affinity Groups and Learning Spaces

Examples of the DEIL team’s ongoing work with parents includes: 

• Parent SEED groups
• Training and assistance to the Parents' Association as they facilitate Family Affinity Groups
• Bringing together various members of the diverse community to challenge and expand their view of what equity means through parent-sponsored events, book groups, and speaker series 

In Solidarity,
The DEIL Team