Dear Students,
Friends and family who know me well and hence, know what I teach, have asked me lately, “How is your diversity and inclusion class going?” Understandably they are curious (concerned?) about how the class is progressing given all the recent news about DEI in the media. I have consistently responded, “We are a small but mighty bunch.”
And we are. The class is less lecture and more seminar-style. We have lots of conversations about the academic readings, the relevant current events, as well as each student’s individual experiences of DEI at work and at home. My students come to class prepared; they are engaged in the material; they share generously with each other, and they ask compelling questions that enrich everyone’s learning, mine included. I often think they are brave – brave to take up this topic in such tumultuous times, brave to share their personal and professional experiences around sensitive issues, and brave to lean in to thinking critically about the research and practice of a field of study that is under attack. I try each week to meet their standard of preparedness, commitment and enthusiasm. They inspire me.
This week I arrived in our classroom feeling quite harried. My head was swirling with too much intake of current events and not enough sleep due to the switch to daylight’s savings time. My heart was pounding and I felt stressed. Moments before going to class I had read a story about Fulbright funding being halted and I was worried about one of our alums who is on a Fulbright in Italy and also about my niece who is on a Fulbright in Lithuania. Shifting my attention to our DEI class felt hard.
As always, we started class by looking at our Working Agreements and having a few students share which ones they thought we needed to focus on for that particular class session. One student chose, “Be present.” She said, “There is so much going on these days and so many of us are stressed about what is going on in the world. But we can’t do anything about that right now. We should be present here in class and focus on our work here together. We should just be present.”
I immediately felt my heart rate slow to normal, my head clear of its noisy swirling thoughts, my anxiety disappear and my mood lift. I thought, “Yes, let’s be present together. I can do that.” (Thank you, Namrata Natarajan.)
I hope each of you can find ways to be truly present with one another this month (and for the rest of the semester) in our shared work. We are learning, teaching, investigating and practicing important things in Social-Organizational Psychology and our work is needed now more than ever. You are all a mighty bunch. You are all brave. You are inspiring.
From all my faculty and staff colleagues and from me too – Happy Spring Break! See you soon.
Warmly,
Current Student Profile
Kara is a second-year, part-time master’s student in the Social-Organizational Psychology program at Teachers College, Columbia University. After obtaining her B.S. in Human Resource Management from Florida State University, Kara has spent over a decade practicing human resources at the global consulting firm, McKinsey & Company. Combining her academic pursuits with her professional experience, she is interested in enhancing team effectiveness and driving organizational change that focuses on developing inclusive, people-centered workplaces.
While pursuing her degree at Teachers College, Kara continues to work full-time at McKinsey as the Manager of Human Resources for their offices in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. In this role, Kara leads a team of HR Generalists that provide support to approximately 3,000 colleagues. Prior to her current role, Kara held several other HR roles at McKinsey, with responsibilities including overseeing labor compliance regulations, spearheading key initiatives related to diversity, pay equity, and mental health support, leading large-scale change management efforts in the people space, and developing well-defined HR processes and policies.
Through her learnings at Teachers College, Kara has been able to deepen her understanding of organizational psychology’s theoretical frameworks and aims to use that knowledge to enhance workplace practices that create positive and development-oriented environments. She has also been able to develop skills in diagnosing group dynamics challenges and leveraging these insights to improve team effectiveness by implementing sound interventions that help to improve organizational health.
Outside of school and work, Kara spends time in Central Park with her labradoodle, Rudy, reading historical non-fiction, spending time with family and friends, cheering on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tampa Bay Lightning, or watching The Real Housewives.
Please feel free to connect with Kara on LinkedIn.
Alumni Profile
Rewa currently works in Spencer Stuart’s Leadership Advisory Services practice based in New York City. She brings experience in executive assessments and development, succession planning and recruitment services. Having lived and worked in India and Singapore, she leverages her extensive global experience and educational background in social-organizational psychology to help organizations evaluate and cultivate their key talent.
Before joining Spencer Stuart, Rewa was a Senior Consultant in Korn Ferry’s Assessment and Succession Planning practice where she led assessments for the purposes of selecting and developing executives and provided coaching for mid-level leaders across fortune 500 companies. She also supported global C-suite and CEO assessments and benchmarking projects for large organizations.
Earlier in her career, Rewa spent time at a recruitment agency based in Singapore where she focused on acquiring key talent for clients in the investment banking and technology industries in Southeast Asia. She is a proponent of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace and has assessed executives at organizations to develop Inclusive Leadership.
Rewa is an alum of the Master’s program in Social-Organizational Psychology from Teachers College and received a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from the Management Development Institute of Singapore, with a concentration in mass communications.
Outside of her professional life, Rewa enjoys spending time with her husband and their rescue dog. She often travels to India to visit her large family.
Rewa currently works in Spencer Stuart’s Leadership Advisory Services practice based in New York City. She brings experience in executive assessments and development, succession planning and recruitment services. Having lived and worked in India and Singapore, she leverages her extensive global experience and educational background in social-organizational psychology to help organizations evaluate and cultivate their key talent.
Before joining Spencer Stuart, Rewa was a Senior Consultant in Korn Ferry’s Assessment and Succession Planning practice where she led assessments for the purposes of selecting and developing executives and provided coaching for mid-level leaders across fortune 500 companies. She also supported global C-suite and CEO assessments and benchmarking projects for large organizations.
Earlier in her career, Rewa spent time at a recruitment agency based in Singapore where she focused on acquiring key talent for clients in the investment banking and technology industries in Southeast Asia. She is a proponent of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace and has assessed executives at organizations to develop Inclusive Leadership.
Rewa is an alum of the Master’s program in Social-Organizational Psychology from Teachers College and received a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from the Management Development Institute of Singapore, with a concentration in mass communications.
Outside of her professional life, Rewa enjoys spending time with her husband and their rescue dog. She often travels to India to visit her large family.
Recommended Readings
In this Forbes article previous S-OP professor Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic takes an evidence-based approach to address the backlash against DEI initiatives and calls for meritocracy.
Check out this podcast series (also available on Spotify) hosted by two Hofstra I/O Psychology recent alumni. The conversation series includes interviews with organizational psychologists on a broad range of topics including consulting, people analytics, and career development.