Meet the Westchester Education Services Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee
Rosemary Dannin, Project Manager:
Our work is incredibly important. As a Project Manager I do not impact content but am always curious about the student who is reading the book, receiving the material on their computer, taking that test. Being on the DEI committee is my way of contributing to the common good of Educational Publishing.
I bring to the DEI committee a desire to see all students succeed.
Roger Market, Senior Project Manager:
As a child, I legitimately thought gay people existed only in a couple of movies and TV shows I had seen—and usually not as anything positive. It wasn’t until my first day of junior high that I learned the truth, that being gay was not a fantasy. It wasn’t until I was 22 years old, during an internship before my last year of undergrad, that I began to accept the truth about myself, although I wasn’t sure I knew the word to describe it; by then, I knew there were others, including “bisexual,” “trans,” and “queer” (the nuanced definition vs. the cruel one). And it wasn’t until January 1, 2010, after spending New Year’s Eve with my younger sister and her friends while on winter break from grad school, that I actually said it aloud to someone else, with tears but with confidence: “I’m gay.” I was six weeks into a relationship with my second boyfriend, the person I’m with to this very day.
I’m on this committee because no child should ever grow up thinking he/she/they are not real.
India Brown, Project Coordinator:
Joining the DEI committee for me is a chance to put years of experience and knowledge to use in transformative ways for myself, for those around me, and those it will ripple out and impact. This is important to me as an advocate for literacy, literacy that is not limited to letter and number recognition, but envelops humanity as well if we are to have healthy connections to one another, if we are to continue growing.
Although I am new to Westchester Education Services, being invited to have a voice about something I am very passionate about has helped me feel even more connected to my new community. It is also extra special to me, a native Daytonian to have found this hub of change in my own city after returning home a few years post-undergraduate for my seminary education. It feels like I’m not just connecting to my new job and co-workers but to my city, and doing it well despite a pandemic that seems like it should distance us instead. These connections, meaningful ones with meaningful conversations from many stories, these are important to my purpose in choosing publishing out of a love of literacy and affecting access on behalf of those who have been disconnected and underrepresented.
David Bailis, Senior Director of Operations:
As we know, ALL people bring a wide variety of abilities, backgrounds, and talents to whatever they do. It has always been very important to me that EVERYONE feel included.
All people benefit from this conversation, and in education, the most important agent of change the human species has ever created, we can be a leader in helping move the process of including people of diverse backgrounds and showing the importance of equity in the educational content that is delivered to the students.
To effect the necessary changes that we want to see in the future, we need to focus on the content we create and guide our clients to see what needs to be done.
Nilofer Ali, Resources Manager:
As a hybrid – half white, half brown – Muslim girl growing up poor in a suburb of Chicago, I found myself always on the outside. Home life was a mix of beautiful and terrible, and I fit in with neither my Euro-descendant classmates and neighbors nor the fully Indian/Pakistani kids at the mosque we attended. All of that was fine though, because I lived in the stories I constantly read of people with fantastic lives completely unlike my own. Later I did make friends who were more like me, but it wasn’t until I hit some severe trials of adulthood that I landed with a hard crash into reality, and the disparity between my experiences and the experiences of others began to clarify for me. I have spent all of my adult years blazing my own trail and later trying to be there for others like me, because there is no literature, no movie, no music that speaks to anything like our experiences.
There are so many stories which remain untold, and to have a story that is unlike those you see around you is a very lonely place for any human. I’m fortunate and blessed to be in this position where I can play a part in shining the light on the human stories that haven’t been sufficiently shared, so that young folks know they are not alone, and that their stories and experiences are worthy of recognition.
Samantha Tucker, Senior Editor, Culturally Responsive Education:
Where I grew up, joining the military was more of a guarantee than attending college. In fact, the former was often the only way for folks to achieve the latter. It’s easy to get stuck in a cycle of enlistment: repetitive exposure to violence and trauma inevitably leads to more violence and more trauma. Post-war my family has struggled through mental health issues, drug addiction, immigration, racism, abject poverty, early death. I was lucky to have teachers who nurtured my early anger at these injustices, who directed my restless energy toward books and art and writing and education. Education was my hope. Curiosity was my way out. I want to pay that nurturing forward. I want to help create space for children where they can see themselves as they learn, where they can connect their curiosities to their communities, and discover ways to transform their singular experience of the world into what is good, kind, and hopeful for all.
Visit our DEI Resources page that is regularly updated with articles, studies, and associations who are helping to advance the principles of a diverse, equitable and inclusive society.
