Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Heather Moore Roberson (Photo courtesy of Allegheny College)

Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Heather Moore Roberson was honored this past month as one of City and State Pennsylvania’s 2024 Black Trailblazers. The list recognizes the achievements of African American business owners, politicians, academics and other professionals. Other notable names on the list include Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and Larry Hailsham, ’15, current deputy chief of staff for Gov. Josh Shapiro and Pennsylvania political director for President Joe Biden’s successful 2020 campaign.
Roberson’s recognition comes after years of hard work at Allegheny in numerous positions; she began teaching Black and education studies in 2015, before ascending to the senior officer for diversity, equity, and inclusion seven years later in 2022.
“What that means is that senior diversity officers are individuals who ensure that the institution is remaining committed to diversity, equity and inclusion all across campus,” Roberson explained. “I am a part of a team of several folks who have different jobs at the college, so I work closely with a lot of folks who work with students.”
Not one to take the spotlight, Roberson spoke fervently about those who help her accomplish her mission. The team that Roberson works with, which includes the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access, and Social Justice — or IDEAS — center and student organizations, hosts a variety of programming based on the needs of students. This takes many different forms throughout the academic year. Roberson mentioned her work with the IDEAS Center, emphasizing the importance of working closely with students to support them.
“The work that Natalie Brown is doing as director of the IDEAS center is fantastic,” Roberson said. “She’s working with folks in Wellness to do more initiatives to support wellness and mental health for students, which I think is fantastic.
“I’ll also shout out Dom Turner, who is my associate dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and he’s been leading our retention intervention team,” Roberson added. “He has study times with students, where a couple of times throughout the semester he’ll have study sessions where he’ll get food and students will get academic support. ”
Turner, who began his work at Allegheny last August, works closely with students from historically underrepresented backgrounds.
“It’s inspiring to watch Dr. Roberson go about her work and to see the work that’s being done here at Allegheny being celebrated on a broader scale,” Turner said.
He also lauded Brown’s work up in the campus center.
“I think the IDEAS Center and the work that the IDEAS Center does is an important part of how we go about our work in the office of diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Turner said. “It’s the student’s facing arm, but it’s even bigger than that. It helps us to provide programming for the larger campus community about cultural identities, as well as how we make this place vibrant and inclusive for folks of all different types of backgrounds.”
In recent news, the necessity of DEI has been called into question by varying publications and politicians, citing concerns over why programs to further diversity are needed in our day and age. When asked about the work that they do at Allegheny, both Roberson and Turner stressed the importance of maintaining these initiatives and a message to anyone pursuing work in this field.
“A lot of the misunderstanding is just that; a lack of understanding about the intent of DEI work,” Turner said. “So, there’s oftentimes this hyper fixation on things like CRT, or critical race theory, which is not really the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion. A lot of the work we do is to embrace the differences that we all bring to the campus community. My word of encouragement is that everyone has different perspectives and intersecting identities that make up who you are and it’s important for us to learn more about each other. Because those differences, we will find, are very minimal.”
In terms of the future, Roberson is optimistic about what she and everyone who works with her will do to further the reach of diversity, equity and inclusion.
“Work is what’s next,” she said. “I’m finishing up a diversity, equity and inclusion audit of the entire campus. That will be finished by the end of this calendar year, so we hope to have the report out to the public by December.”
Roberson also hopes to include the city of Meadville in this reach by working with community organizations.
“I’m currently leading a series for the Meadville Medical Center where I’m talking with their diversity, equity and inclusion committee on ways they can infuse DEI into the medical center,” Roberson said. “We’re on the cusp of creating a new cohort program in the office for DEI for historically-underrepresented students this fall. There’s a lot on the horizon.
“I don’t do anything in isolation. I’m an extension of great people who are doing great work across campus.” Roberson added.