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

<p>“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.</p><p>“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.”</p><p>Baker talks about Big Ten and NCAA initiatives in DEI, and she describes the roadmap she’s preparing for Spartan Athletics.</p><p>“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.”</p><p>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.</p><p>“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 perspectiv