The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force is a collaboration between students, staff, and faculty working to evaluate the state of social justice within Pratt Institute Libraries, and to develop initiatives that support the Libraries’ mission to provide a safe, welcoming, and productive space for everyone in our community. As library practitioners within the higher education landscape, we seek to elaborate how our support of specialized practices of knowledge production can work unwittingly with or productively against the status quo power dynamics that animate the world at large. We aim to foster critical perspectives on our work as library workers, to interrogate the complex histories of the library as an institution, and to question the assumptions underlying library practice in the present, utilizing communal study to inform meaningful recommendations to our leadership for changes to our Libraries’ practices and policies.
Ongoing Goals
To develop a community of practice that maintains an ongoing critical dialogue around the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Libraries.
To support diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in all corners of the Libraries.
To work with external offices and stakeholders to support the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion across the Pratt campus.
To make informed recommendations to our leadership regarding our Libraries’ practices and policies.
Task Force Steering Committee
Romel Espinel, Critical and Inclusive Pedagogy Librarian, Associate Professor
Jess Saldaña, Visual & Multimedia Resources Manager
Hanna Sheehan, Graduate Assistant
Morgan Võ, Critical and Inclusive Pedagogy Librarian, Assistant Professor
Task Force Members
Alex Austin, Student Success + Assessment Librarian, Assistant Professor
Johanna Bauman, Associate Director for Collections Management
Elizabeth Berg, Associate Director for Access Services
Missy Brown, Cataloging & Metadata Librarian, Associate Professor
Brendan Enright, Virginia Thoren & Institute Archivist
Hannah Fountain, User Experience & Web Services Librarian, Assistant Professor
Kristopher Hudson, Program Coordinator of HEOP
Chris Jacobs, Evening & Weekend Library Manager
Cindy Li, Associate Director of Library Technology & Innovation
Josephine Rosario, Circulation Supervisor
Harsh Taggar, Access Services Manager
Jon Tan, Serials and Electronic Resources Technician
Christina Thurston, Assistant to the Chairperson, Fashion Design
Holly Wilson, Liaison Librarian, Design & Architecture, Associate Professor