Cultivating Innovation for Equity and Diversity

Sponsors:
Kris Lockhart, Office for Equity and Diversity
Eric Schnell, Office for Equity and Diversity

Overview of the Project

The Office for Equity and Diversity (OED) understands the critical need to partner with units across the University to move equity and diversity work into the core of the University’s teaching, research, and outreach. We all share the responsibility for and benefits from equity and diversity.

To advance that vision, OED has decided to implement processes to bring the University’s best ideas about advancing equity and diversity into a system where they can be evaluated for alignment with strategic goals and viability, improved through experimentation and collaborations, and implemented with sufficient resources. The PEL team is partnering with OED to explore how innovation management models can help them reach this goal.

The PEL team is developing a model and conversation aids that will introduce the concept of innovation management to OED administration, and how it can be incorporated into their process of idea generation and project implementation. The inclusiveness of this model provides opportunities for employees at all levels throughout OED and the University to participate in strategic visioning and innovation.

Project Team

Team Members

Jennifer Bentrim
IT Manager
Office of Human Resources
612-669-9315
bentr001@umn.edu
Mentor: Joel Maturi

Rod Devriendt
Human Resources Specialist
College of Veterinary Medicine
612-624-3087
devri025@umn.edu
Mentor: Patricia Franklin

Susan Geller
Director of Special Projects
School of Social Work
612-624-7581
sgeller@umn.edu
Mentor: Tom Fisher

Jean McElvain
Assistant Curator
Goldstein Museum of Design
612-625-2737
jmcelvai@umn.edu
Mentor: Linda DeBeau-Melting

Rebecca Noran
Assistant Director for Web Communications
Academic Health Center
612-624-7119
ran@umn.edu
Mentor: Ann Freeman