UMKC Names Two Leaders for ‘Diversity in Action’ InitiativeKANSAS CITY, Mo.
Officials at the University of Missouri-Kansas City have named two individuals to lead the next step of the university’s diversity initiative.
Over the next 12 months, Dr. Joe Seabrooks and Darlene Scott-Scurry will lead the implementation of the university’s Diversity in Action Plan.
Seabrooks, currently UMKC’s director of minority student affairs and chairman of the team that created the plan, will lead the outreach, education and empowerment dimensions of the implementation. Scott-Scurry, currently chief-of-staff to UMKC Provost Steve Ballard, will lead the compliance dimensions.
The intent of the Diversity in Action Plan is to bring to life the university’s core values of diversity, inclusiveness and respect and to produce a campus culture where diversity, access and equity are welcomed, supported and promoted. The plan states: “We create a positive environment by recognizing and acknowledging personal biases and being responsible individually for positive change.”
“I am proud to be associated with the creativity and power of UMKC’s Diversity in Action Plan,” says Chancellor Martha W. Gilliland. “Moreover, Joe Seabrooks and Darlene Scott-Scurry are highly committed and competent individuals who will bring passion, creativity and energy to the implementation of the plan. I could not be more pleased that they accepted the offer to launch this important effort.”
Seabrooks has a decade of experience in education. He earned an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in urban leadership and policy studies and education at UMKC. Seabrooks earlier served UMKC as assistant director of Alumni and Program Services, coordinator of Alumni and Constituent Relations, Athletic Foundation intern and instructor and tutor for Upward Bound and Project First programs. He also has worked to increase the number of first-generation minority students enrolled at UMKC.
Scott-Scurry has a law degree from American University in Washington, D.C., and a certificate in court management from the National Center for State Courts-Institution for Court Management in Williamsburg, Va. Previously, she served as deputy executive officer of Intergovernmental and Legal Affairs for the District of Columbia’s Trial and Appellate Courts; acting general counsel and personal adviser to the president and board of trustees at the University of the District of Columbia; and tax counselor to the Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.
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