Diversity, Equity + Inclusion

Lauren Davis (she/her/hers), is the SEAS Director of Diversity, Equity, and Community. Lauren has over 13+ years of higher education experience at the University of Michigan. She has worked collaboratively alongside students, staff, and faculty to advance the School’s DEI and anti-racism goals. She is responsible for the coordination and implementation of the School's DEI strategic plan, executing annual DEI assessments, supervising student staff, and creating DEI initiatives.

Prior to this role, she worked in the U-M School of Social Work’s Office of Student Services, where she was involved with admissions, recruitment, advising, academic support, and helping students navigate wellness concerns. The inclusive work of this office was recognized by the University, where her team was honored with a Distinguished Diversity Leaders Award. As a first-generation college graduate, she enjoys helping students to navigate educational spaces, connecting them to resources, providing mentorship, and increasing access for historically underrepresented communities.

Lauren has taught courses on Diversity and Social Justice, Racial Equity, and generalist social work practice. She became a field instructor, teaching students, focusing on macro-level skills, including community engagement, evaluation, advancing DEI and anti-racist approaches in a higher education setting, and learning to practically apply theories and competencies.

Lauren is a proud Michigan Wolverine, receiving her BA in Psychology and Sociology and her MSW from the University of Michigan. She has been a member of teams that work for strong inclusion and equity, including the U-M Voices of the Staff Advancing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team, and was the School of Social Work’s Undoing Racism Group, and co-leading a workgroup through the Council on Social Work Education’s Anti-Racism Task Force.

She is passionate about creating inclusive and transparent environments where everyone can thrive and be successful. She is inspired by the contributions and activism of students who have called for change and for the University to live up to its social justice values. She believes that DEI is central to the mission of every organization and is an essential part of everyone’s role. She looks forward to making connections with the students, staff, and faculty of SEAS, and being able to contribute to the School’s DEI mission. In her free time, Lauren enjoys reading, traveling, and exploring hole-in-the-wall restaurants.

Kristen Surla (she/her/siya) is excited to join the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan as the DEI Training Specialist focused on faculty and staff development. Kris is transitioning into the University of Michigan from her previous role as the Course Coordinator for Student Leadership Training within the Department of Educational Administration at Michigan State University (MSU). During her 3 years in the position, Kris revamped a teaching apprenticeship program for first-time graduate and professional educators to prioritize culturally-informed curriculum and evaluation, racial justice, and digital access and literacy in leadership studies. Throughout her time at MSU, Kris was widely involved across campus through her appointments as an assessment consultant for the Council of Racial and Ethnic Minorities summit and a fellow at the Hub for Innovation and Educational Technology. She is currently finishing her PhD in the Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education Program at MSU and received her B.A. in English and Sociology and her M.Ed. from Loyola University Chicago. Her dissertation research interrogates the navigation of academic socialization, funding structures, and identity capitalism by BIPOC graduate students in science fields.

Kris brings 8+ years of experience working in higher education including her role as Assistant Director of the Multicultural Resource Center at Oberlin College and Conservatory, the Center of Urban Research and Learning at Loyola University Chicago, and the Center for Minority Serving Institutions at the University of Pennsylvania. Across all of her prior roles, Kris demonstrated a commitment to increasing access and full participation of BIPOC, immigrant, first-generation, low-income, and LGBTQIA+ communities. Kris has collaboratively published on many topics related to her interests including Asian Americans, Affirmative Action, and the Political Economy of Racism: A Multidimensional Model of Raceclass Frames in the Harvard Educational Review and the forthcoming Towards ‘Decolonizing’ Curriculum and Pedagogy (DCP) across Disciplines and Global Higher Education Contexts: A Critical synthesis in the Review of Educational Research. In addition, she is a co-founder of the Chosen Collective which provides DEI organizational change, assessment, and strategic planning to leaders in education, nonprofit, and corporate sectors. 

As a complement to her academic work, Kris uses art as a way to connect with her local and global communities around topics of social justice, equity, and access. She created a digital ethnographic archive entitled Academic Ate: Real Talk from Pinay Scholars about Life, Work, and Identity in Academia, which was presented at McGill University in 2019. She has enjoyed her time in Michigan through her involvement in the Greater Lansing community as a facilitator for the Queer Poetry of Color group via The Thought Club and as an affiliate of Queering Medicine. 

She can be reached at ksurla@umich.edu

Vanesa Jackson (she/her/hers) is a first-generation graduate from Grand Rapids, Michigan. She has helped push forward DEI efforts throughout her educational career at a variety of institutions. She was previously the Intercultural Affairs Coordinator & Smooth Transitions Program Director at Albion in Albion, MI, where she managed the overall leadership, administration, program development, event planning, hiring of staff, and created program evaluations and reporting methods. She has created and deployed several workshops and speaker series to create and sustain a sense of community and provide opportunities for discussions regarding social justice issues, advocacy work/projects, and educating our community on how to socially navigate through society today. Her training workshops include implicit bias and microaggressions across cultural identities and practices among young professionals. She strongly believes that that equity should be accessible and the standard for all. Looking ahead, she intends to use her training, skills, and position to ensure excellence and increase equity and diversity in all roles she assumes and in society. She is inspired by the tenacity and honesty of students who overcame many obstacles and maintain deep commitments to social justice and their communities.

Vanesa is a Bi-Lingual Experienced Educational Mentoring Program Coordinator with over several years of experience working with underserved populations. She thrives in situations that call for relationship building, communication, development, and optimizing resources. She is a highly motivated, versatile, and resourceful educational coordinator. She poses excellent communication skills and is comfortable interacting with students and teachers. Vanesa is well versed in securing resources, conducting research, and assessments to help students learn key skills, and has successfully written and managed grants. In addition, she is an experienced program manager, with data management, and survey development/ research and measurement skills. She has been actively practicing fundraising and development skills along with supervisory and program budget management skills. Vanesa studied English and Spanish with a Higher Education Concentration during her undergraduate studies. She holds a Master of Arts in Educational Leadership from DePaul University, Chicago with a Higher Education emphasis

In her free time, Vanesa enjoys hiking, yoga, and cooking. She is very passionate about cooking and celebrating her mother and grandmother's Caribbean recipes. Vanesa became passionate about DEI as she experienced the displacement of her childhood community. No longer being able to visit her grandmother's home or her childhood elementary schools, she saw firsthand the power of advocating for equitable access to resources. Vanesa hopes to be able to advocate for students and staff in her new role and further the mission of DEI at SEAS. Vanesa is a mother and has a passion for creating a more equitable and accessible educational experience for students. Her motto for DEI work is to level out the playing field to expand opportunities for disenfranchised people. 

She can be reached at vanesaj@umich.edu 

Cecilia Garibay (she/her/hers) is a first-generation dual Master's Student of Environmental Justice and Public Policy at the University of Michigan. As a U of M Rackham Masters Award recipient, she has worked on DEI research in the Vision for a Sustainable Environmental Future Lab as a research assistant. To continue DEI-related efforts, she ran for the VP of Diversity position in the SEAS student government. In that position, she helped advocate the importance of DEI in all aspects of higher education resulting in the addition of new personnel for the SEAS DEI office. As part of the SEAS DEI committee, she successfully advocated for underrepresented students expressing the difficulty in obtaining GSI positions due to a hiring process that did not include criteria around knowledge of DEI. The DEI committee transformed the hiring process by adding questions regarding applicants' ability to promote and integrate DEI in their teaching practices. As part of the committee that advocated for overall increased funding for student support, she was part of a two-person team that created the new SEAS Diversity Champion Award selection criteria.

Cecilia's interest in DEI grew into a passion while at Michigan when she had the experience to serve as an advocate for DEI, collaborating with her peers and uplifting shared experiences. The position helped formulate skills necessary for her summer fellowship with the Environmental Fellows Program. As an Environmental Fellow at the Moving Forward Network, she works on researching the decision-making institutions surrounding air quality in the ports of the Midwest. Her research aims to bring about equitable access to information for impacted communities

She can be reached at: garibayc@umich.edu