At a time when there is a backlash against DEI efforts, along with the resignation of Claudine Gay, the first black woman to serve as president of Harvard University, we felt it was time to have a discussion about how those of us who are DEI proponents continue moving DEI forward. 

I don’t think we take the time to define, what success looks like for DEI, and acknowledge practically and realistically what we discuss in our conversation as the backlash that history tells us we can expect, and how we emerge from this current backlash with a stronger movement and a stronger society. 

In this conversation with Joi Chaney, founder of principal of J.O.I. Strategies, and Jessica Paige, social scientist with the RAND Corporation, two Harvard graduates, we hear their perspectives on what DEI means, how Black women can succeed despite the challenges, and what’s next for the future of DEI post Claudine Gay’s resignation.