Committee Task Force - Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion


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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Jennifer Ulrich, Eastern Mennonite University, Chair 

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

• Jennifer Ulrich, Eastern Mennonite University
• Elli Cucksey, Trinity Lutheran Seminary at Capital University
• Karla Grafton, Hartford International University for Religion 

and Peace
• Stephen Sweeney, St. John Vianney Seminary 
• Suzanne Taylor, Mount St. Mary’s University

YEAR IN REVIEW

The DEI committee met monthly via Zoom.  We enjoyed an in-per-
son meeting in Tucson, AZ in the fall where we discussed the schol-
arship, programming at the annual conference, and transitions for 
this next year.  

One blog post was published in Oct. 2023 by Elli Cucksey, en-
titled “I Was Wrong: A Personal Reflection.”  The committee hopes 
to post more consistently in the next year. 

Scholarship work takes up much of the time for this commit-
tee.  This year the committee presented a proposal to increase the 
amount of the scholarship.  We presented our recommendation to 
Membership and Engagement in June.

The 2024 Scholarship recipient is Colton Douglas Whelpton, an 
MLIS student at the University of Alberta. 

Elli Cucksey and Suzanne Taylor presented at Atla Annual 2024 
in Long Beach, CA.  Their presentation was entitled “The Pronoun 
Puzzle: A Beginner’s Guide to Creating a Trans-Friendly Library.”

Several of the committee members enrolled in the “Critical 
Information Literacy” class through the Library Juice Academy 
in July 2024. They hope to bring the information learned to their 
work in the committee.