- PNC is proud to support "Business Forward," where community leaders discuss the issues confronting business in Central Illinois.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to "Business Forward" I'm your host Matt George.

Joining me tonight, Dr. Warren Anderson.

Dr. Anderson is the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Bradley University, welcome.

- Welcome.

Thank you for having me.

- Well, we were talking beforehand and I always like to know where someone's is from, right?

We were talking beforehand, you're from Philly?

- Philly, born and bred.

- [Matt George] Good food.

- Oh, good cheesesteak.

- Good cheesesteak, I could eat one right now.

Yeah, so you just started right?

And you come into town, you come into Peoria and all of a sudden you're in a new spot looking and going, "Man, there's a lot going on here."

What made you pick Peoria?

Because you've got choices.

- Yeah, well, it wasn't so much picking Peoria.

It was I picked Bradley, Bradley picked me.

And it was ironic because Bradley wasn't even the institution I talked to the search firm about.

I called to talk about another position, and they knew me because they had placed me before.

And they said, "Have you ever thought about Bradley?"

And I say, "Yeah I did, but I don't think I have the background they're looking for.

Maybe they're look for someone from private schools, and I come from big public systems."

And he said, "No just give it a try."

Lo and behold very quickly, Bradley was the school that I zeroed in on.

And luckily the feeling was mutual because it was a pretty quick courtship from interview to accepting the position.

And it's one of the best decisions I've made in my career.

- [Matt George] Isn't that cool?

- It is.

- So you're going through that transition I'm guessing of bringing your family down, and your wife and that's always stressful.

But you've got a lot of fun things coming up.

And we're going to get to that in a minute.

Anderson, when I was doing my studying on you, and what you've done, one of the things that really stuck out, and I don't know if you talk about this or anything, that is just really cool is you won the Charles Kennedy Equity Award.

- I did.

Well, we did.

- [Matt George] We did.

- The college.

- [Matt George] That's huge.

- It was huge.

- In this space that's the award.

- That's the award.

So the Charles Kennedy Equity Award is given to the community college and community college system that is recognized as the best in the nation for developing equity, diversity and inclusion.

And much like when I went to Harrisburg Area Community College, which is where we won the award.

It was in inaugural role.

So we built the office from the ground up.

And it took from not having an office of diversity and inclusion, to three years later being awarded best in the nation.

And that took a lot of coordination, a lot of effort, a lot of institutional desire to really make a difference in this work.

And it was a privilege to receive that award.

The year before we were awarded the regional award, but then getting the national award was huge.

- I mean, that's crazy, _ - And we have the same pieces here, to make the same kind of impact in this work on a national level.

So I'm really excited about the opportunity.

- Yeah, and Dr. Stephen Standifird President of Bradley was on the show, and afterwards, some of the initiatives that he has, he's a different college president thinker.

Is that a fair way of putting it?

- Absolutely, one of the things I told him in my interview is you're going to have to slow me down because I'm not coming here to be average.

So everything we're talking about is, how do we become the best in the country?

And he's like, I'm the wrong person to ask that.

He wants to go big.

From raising funds through development for an advancement, for diversity.

It's the first time that's ever happened in my career.

Where that is paramount to where the institution is going.

So I couldn't be happier with the partnership that we're building in a very short amount of time.

We've got a plan in place that I think is going to set Bradley apart nationally.

- [Matt George] Wow.

- I'm excited about that.

- We're going to talk about out.

I just want to tell you welcome.

- [Warren Anderson] Thank you.

- I love having people move to our community, from other areas of the United States.

Because we have so many people.

Recently, I've had so many people on the show.

And I think what will happen is you'll just embrace all that we have to offer here in Middle Illinois.

Is not just Peoria.

- Mm-hmm!

- [Matt George] There are some great communities around here, so welcome.

- [Warren Anderson] Thank you.

- So you come from the University of Wisconsin System, right?

And so that's a big system.

- It's a very big system.

- So you are the Vice Chancellor for Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity.

Tell us what the goals and strategy were there before you got to Bradley.

And then are they similar?

- Absolutely, my role at in the UW system was, I was in the system for a toll of two years.

The first year, what brought me to Wisconsin was the vice chancellor position at UW-Eau Claire.

Which is what you referenced as the Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and Student Affairs.

And then I took a promotion to oversee and develop DEI efforts for the entire University of Wisconsin System.

And that's all 13 universities, 165,000 students and 40 some thousand employees.

So Bradley is a little bit in different in that, instead of trying to focus on building a platform for the entire system with the 13 Chief Diversity Officers across the universities, I get to focus all the efforts and attention here at Bradley University.

So going from 165,000 students to 550,106 students is a little different, but the outcome is still the same.

And that is to build the most culturally competent student body, faculty and staff, community that we possibly can.

So the outcomes of making sure that when a student walks across that stage, they're leaving with more than a diploma, more than a piece of paper that says they completed these courses.

- [Matt George] Mm-hmm!

- Our goal is to make sure that when they leave, that diploma is supported by a series of actions, initiatives, programs and engagements that allow them to be successful and sustainable for career regardless of where they go.

Our workplace is becoming more diverse and global.

And it would be a shame to have students spend all this money to get a degree, and then go into a marketplace, a workplace and they can't handle the job because they can't communicate with someone who's different than them.

Such a shame.

And that would be a hard knock on the university.

- So, man, I've got so many questions.

So.. - We've got time.

- DEI.

- [Dr. Warren] Mm-hmm!

- You hear it all the time, right?

But what does it really mean?

- Absolutely.

Everybody thinks they're doing it well.

- [Matt George] And nobody is, it seem like.

- Nobody.

Because it changes all the time.

So when we say, diversity, equity, and inclusion.

An institution will have a diverse workforce and never say, we do DEI well.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are three very different things.

Diversity here, you have representation.

You may have people that look different than you and they're in the same environment.

Equity is making sure that regardless of where someone comes from whatever spectrum they're on, they have an opportunity to be successful in your organization.

But for all of that to work, whoever's in your organization has to feel truly included in the mission of the institution.

So if you have students that come here, if you have a black student, and they come to Bradley, and they sit in their residence hall room, or they just go to class and nothing else.

They're not truly included in everything that the university has to offer.

Likewise, to bring a faculty or staff member of color to Bradley, and they teach their course or they do their administrative work and then they go home, they're not really included in say the institution or in the community.

Universities are tricky because, and the reason I keep mentioning community is our university doesn't stop at the borders of Bradley University.

- [Matt George] They shouldn't.

- They shouldn't.

Our students are shopping at the local stores and going to the restaurants.

Our faculty and staff live in the community.

So it's incumbent upon us as an university to really build the linkage with the community, with the K-12 school system.

- [Matt George] Mm-hmm!

- So that we can make Bradley not just an institution where people want to go to college or people want to work, but where they truly want to build community in the most culturally competent way.

So that's really important to me that we really get out in the community and talk about how Bradley can make Peoria better, and Peoria can make Bradley better.

So it's a big partnership.

- And it's needed.

- [Dr. Warren] Much needed.

- So I talk about community all the time.

In my profession, I'm in nonprofit work.

- [Dr. Warren] Mm-hmm!

- And we work with a lot of kids, 1700 kids a month.

So, and when you talk about community, I've always said that it's my job, your job, it doesn't matter whose job, to take care of our community.

- Absolutely.

- So that's basically your philosophy.

- Absolutely.

And my wife is a social worker.

So I know the issues and challenges that she sees with the individuals on the caseload.

- [Matt] Okay.

- Not too dissimilar from the issues and challenges of the students that come to Bradley University.

All different shades, all different backgrounds, all different social economic statuses, all coming to Bradley for one goal, which is more than just obtaining a degree, but how do we then take that degree and make a positive impact on our society?

And that big Society big S, has to start with making a difference in the local community.

We've had conversations on a large scale at universities where we talk about the presidential race, and who's running for president nationally.

But I tell people all the time, that the challenge is that true change is gonna happen at the local level.

You have to know what's going on in the community.

And we have to be, as the university, responsive to that.

So we can be better partners with that.

- You led the creation of the Center for Racial and Restorative Justice, what is that?

- Mm-hmm!

So, UW-Eau Claire was a fascinating opportunity.

It's a phenomenal institution.

After the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, we at UW-Eau Claire had a lot of students from Minneapolis.

And universities were putting out statements in support of black students and saying, we care, we really care.

And I said, we're not going to just put out a statement, we're going to put out statement and talk about the actions we're going to take as a university.

So the first step in that was the creation of the Center for Racial and Restorative Justice.

And what that was, was take two competing areas that are not used together.

Racial discrimination, racial strife, and restorative justice which is typically used in state student conduct.

Where you bring the victim of something together with a perpetrator and you talk things out and you figure out a way to move forward if you can.

- [Matt] Okay.

- We don't do that with things around race and racial justice simply because it is such a hot burn topic and people by and large would like to run from that conversation as quickly as they can.

I wanted to develop a center along with the President and our Vice Chancellor for fundraising and the foundation at Kimera Way.

What we did was sit down and say, okay, as an institution, what can we do to really leave an impact on this topic?

So the impetus for the Center for Racial and Restorative Justice was to bring together aspects of student engagement, faculty research, community engagement.

And provide an opportunity for us to really look at race in a way that pushes people to talk about it and not be scared of it.

Pushes people to look at how we can have an impact on this from whatever vantage point you're looking at.

To the foundation and Kimera Way's credit, I wrote the prospectus for it.

And I believe it was within a week, she had raised almost a hundred thousand dollars, because people really, that's with doing nothing.

- [Matt] Yeah - It's literally the piece of paper says, this is what we're going to do.

Because people really recognize the value of cultural competency and making sure that the things that separate us, are nowhere near as large and impactful as the things that are going to bring us together.

Students come to higher education to learn about themselves, to learn more about themselves.

And when they get to the campuses, they're trying to figure out who they are and where they fit in.

We wanted to make race the one thing that we can have, an opportunity to start chiseling away at those things that really divide us there.

So that center, and even after I left, Olga Diaz who was the new vice chancellor there, really took that work.

And they're in the process of hiring the first executive director for the center.

Who's really going to take that vision and make it truly I think still has a capacity to be one of a kind in this country.

- [Matt] Isn't that cool?

- Yeah, it's really fun.

- So Dr. Standifird is adamant that this position is critical to the success of not only Bradley University, maybe putting words in his mouth, but also the community.

- [Dr. Warren] Absolutely.

- But he says, "We are committed to having a more equitable, diverse and inclusive environment and culture on our campus.

Dr. Anderson's experience, passion, innovative thinking and ability to collaborate."

The reason why I read that whole thing, collaborate.

- Love that guy.

- [Matt] Yeah.

- Love that guy.

- [Matt] Or he gave you some props, right?

- That was one of the things that I recognized very early on from the interview process.

This is a lot of work, it's a lot of hard work.

You can't be thin skinned to be a Chief Diversity Officer.

You have to have a team around you, that really is of the same mind that this is critical.

In the interview process, and you referenced this a little bit earlier, if you're a Chief Diversity Officer, you have no shortage of job opportunities today.

- Right.

- You have choices.

I wanted to come to a place where from the top down and from the inside out, the institution recognizes how important this is.

Bradley's strategic plan, creating a diverse and welcoming and inclusive environment is the first pillar of the strategic plan.

That's not academic affairs, which is the mission of the institution and why students, faculty, and staff come to the institution, but it's diversity.

It's making sure that regardless of who you are, what you bring to the table, you feel that this is the place where you belong.

And with his leadership, as I said before, the first thing I told him in my interview is I'm not coming here to be average.

And I hope you're okay with it.

Because we're going to have to invest in this work, which is scary.

And he's all in, this is a new division.

So we are literally creating it from the ground up.

Which is exciting for me.

But we have to invest in this work in a way that I don't think many people understood when they said we wanted a new division of equity, diversity, and inclusion.

And we are taking manual and running with it, because we've got a lot of work to do and a lot of things that starts with making sure everybody understands what we're talking about.

- That's my point, on all of this.

- Mm-hmm!

- Is what are you talking about?

And it's not that this person understands it, and this person may not, they hear it, but.. - [Dr. Warren] Mm-hmm!

- It's really just that education piece that has to be consent.

And you mentioned the schools.

- [Dr. Warren] Mm-hmm!

- That's where it starts, right?

- Absolutely.

One of the things that we talk about at the college level a lot is recruitment.

And when you're talking about college recruitment, you're typically talking about that 11th, 12th grade year.

We really have to start developing pipelines into much earlier grades so that in the third and fourth grade, students understand what differences are.

They understand what their role in society is.

And we have to start doing this at a much earlier age, specifically when it comes to those historically excluded populations, the African-American, Hispanic-American, Indian.

Making sure that from a very early age, they not only see themselves in college, they see their lives and trajectories change because of it.

And that's going to take a lot of work from a lot of different people to actually get this done.

So it's going to take the teachers, and the principals and the superintendents at the K-12 level working with the administrators at the university, to make sure that we're not just trying to make students college ready, but we're making our institutions student ready.

And that's the hard part for people to make that transition.

We expect when a student comes into a college or a university, that they're ready and can do the work of an English 101 course.

Not recognizing that student A may come from a Blue Ribbon School District and student B may come from a school with no certified teachers.

- [Matt] All right.

- But we expect them to be able to do the same thing.

And that education has to start from much earlier than when they walk in the door as a first year student at Bradley University.

- So one of the things that you said when you first made a visit here is that you understood and realized loudly and clearly that the students, faculty, staff, alumni, really want this to be a culturally competent school.

What would make you have that feeling?

- The moment it was announced that I was a finalist for the position, I don't know how many LinkedIn invitations that I got.

I hadn't even stepped foot on the campus to interview.

Student specifically alumni of color were saying, "We didn't have a really good experience at Bradley, but we love the institution."

We know there are challenges.

- [Matt] That's strong, - That's very strong.

They still want to see this institution prosper.

And that says a lot about the institution, both good and bad.

We have worked.

- [Matt] But bad is fine.

- Bad is fine.

It gives us a foundation of which we can build on.

- Right.

- And we know where we have to grow.

The fortunate part about all of this is Bradley has a history, unlike any institution I've been at.

Everybody can talk about Lydia Moss Bradley, why she founded the institution.

And they talk about it today.

We need to do a better job of really living that for every single student at that institution.

For every single faculty and staff member that chooses to work at Bradley University.

Oh and by the way, making sure that when we think about the community we're in, there's a reason that the university is founded here.

There's a reason that the culture is so rich here.

And when I told colleagues across the country that I was interviewing for this position, everybody said, "Oh Peoria is great.

It's two and a half hours from Chicago.

It's in between Indianapolis."

- [Matt] Six hours (indistinct) - Yeah, Milwaukee Peoria is great.

There's a lot here.

There's a lot of richness which we can build with, and it's not until we recognize at an institutional level, and in the community level, that there are some greatness that's still yet untapped.

And until we start coming together with the shared vision of what it truly means not to just being in inclusive, and equitable, and diverse Bradley, but in inclusive and equitable and diverse Peoria and the greater Peoria region.

One of the biggest reasons for me coming, was the emphasis that the new Mayor Rita Ali, put on diversity and inclusion.

Knowing that she hired a new Chief Diversity Officer for the city of Peoria.

Being able to build those linkages with Eureka college and Knox college and.. - [Matt] ICC.

- ICC.

President and I were talking about some big plans in that area that I don't think I can share right now.

But it really is going to take a collective effort.

Simply because not everyone, not every institution is going to devote the kind of resources it takes to build a division of equity, diversity and inclusion.

Salaries are not cheap.

The work to invest to really make the campuses be as representative as you would like them to be is not cheap, nor is it easy.

If this work were easy.

- [Matt] All right.

- You would not need a Chief Diversity Officer.

- [Matt] Right?

- Anybody could do it.

So, really the history of the institution in making sure that we understand what our opportunity is, we understand what our role and our responsibility is, that's what's really going to drive us toward that ultimate goal.

- What can we expect to see in this first year with what you're going to implement?

- Lot of training.

- [Matt] Okay.

- And I think that has to be foundational because the expectations and accountability is going to change.

- [Matt] Okay.

- At the university.

So if we want everyone to begin to behave differently, to think differently, to maneuver differently, we have to make sure that everybody is of the same foundation of what that actually means.

A lot more opportunity for engagement in this space.

There's a lot of work happening, but it's in pockets and dish.

- It's siloed.

- Absolutely, so getting rid of those silos, making sure that everybody understand that, people say, we need to do more work around this at Bradley University, I agree.

But you don't get a lot of people truly understanding of the great work that's already happening.

- Yeah, well, there is a foundation.

- There's a foundation, absolutely.

- It's how you build upon it.

It's how you build upon it.

- Well, let me ask you this.

- Mm-hmm!

- So you come in and you really want to know what the sentiment of the students and faculty.

How do you do that?

Do you surveys?

Do you have focus groups?

What do you do?

- I hate surveys.

- Well, that's right.

I just don't know how you would do this.

Is this just hand to hand, "Hey, let's go grab a cup of coffee."

- It's a lot of it.

- Okay.

- And that's what my first five weeks, today marks the end of my fifth week.

That's what a lot of that has been.

- [Matt] Okay.

- Last night until about 8:30, I had my first student forum over in on campus.

And in the Garrett center, the room was packed.

If I had my phone, I'd show you, I took some pictures.

The room was packed and I started with the students and it was sponsored by the student Senate.

And the first thing I told them was, I'll tell you a little bit about myself, but I don't want this to be about me.

You will hear enough about me and you probably already know more than you ever wanted to know about me.

- [Matt] Right.

- Tell me about your experiences, tell me the good, the bad, tell me what it is that you expect from me as a Chief Diversity Officer.

Oh, and by the way, and this is the part where everybody gave me this look.

"I'm going to tell you what I expect from each of you.

This work is not just us putting out a red carpet for you to enjoy.

You have some accountability in developing this culture as well.

Same thing for faculty, and staff."

I've reached out to individual faculty who people have said are doing really great work.

And I'm like, okay, let's sit down and have a conversation about what you're doing.

How I can support what you're doing?

So that we're not recreating the wheel.

Duplicating services and wasting money.

- [Matt] All right.

- I don't want to do that.

So a lot of it is having conversations.

And really setting and leveling the expectations of what has to happen.

Just because I'm the Chief Diversity Officer doesn't mean I'm the only one responsible for diversity.

- Well, I'm glad you said that.

So Dr. Warren Anderson, thank you for coming on the show.

- Oh, that was it.

That was quick.

It was a quick conversation.

- I want to do this, I want to not only have you back, I want to go deep.

- Absolutely.

- Because I think it needs to happen.

- Absolutely.

- Welcome.

- Thank you, I appreciate it.

- I'm Matt George.

And this is another episode of "Business Forward."

(upbeat music) - Thank you for tuning in to "Business Forward," brought to you by PNC.

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