Ranya Brooks Named Director of Rebranded Kennedy School Diversity Office

thecrimson ^

[algore]

Ranya Brooks will serve as the inaugural director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Office of Belonging, Community, and Connection, Dean Jeremy M. Weinstein announced Friday afternoon in an email to students, faculty, and staff.

Brooks, who most recently served as director of workforce engagement for Harvard University Campus Services, will begin her new role on Jan. 26.

The appointment follows a six-month search launched after the departure of Robbin Chapman, who previously led the school’s diversity office. Chapman left during the broader rebranding of the Kennedy School’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts into what is now the OBCC.

During the interim period, the office was led by Counselor to the Dean Sarah Wald and OBCC Associate Director Harrison Nekoroski.

In the email, Weinstein praised Brooks’ “wealth of experience” across public, private, and nonprofit education sectors.

Brooks — who earned a master’s at the Harvard Graduate School of Education — previously worked with Boston Plan for Excellence, a nonprofit that supports professional development within Boston Public Schools. She then moved to Harvard’s Campus Services, where she oversaw workforce engagement initiatives.

Weinstein wrote that Brooks will lead OBCC in “serving students, faculty, and staff and helping HKS continue to build a welcoming community in which all can thrive.” He outlined three core priorities for the office: promoting belonging, fostering community, and facilitating connection.

Under the first, Weinstein wrote, OBCC will work to ensure “that people of all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives have access to and can participate fully in what HKS has to offer.”

He added that under the second and third pillars, the office will focus on “promoting shared values, including openness and pluralism” and on “building skills and supporting candid, meaningful, and productive engagement across difference, both on- and off-campus.”

---

TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS:

[algore]

DEI has been rebranded BCC

[Honorary Serb]

Another excess administrator to make Harvard more expensive!

We (I’m an alumnus) need faculty and their research and teaching, not more administrators!

[cgbg]

It is anti-white hate.

They can put all the ear-rings they want on that pig.

It is still a pig.

[MikelTackNailer]

After becoming adept at blowing smoke up butts are these ‘Didn’t Earn It”s capable of learning anything actually useful for society?

[catnipman]

“DEI has been rebranded BCC:”

cool ... now cut off all Fed funding ...