DURHAM, N.C. – Twenty-three students have been selected to take in the Nicholas School of the Environment’s Rising TIDE (Training for Inclusion and Diversity in the Environment) leadership program.

The 20-hour training module, now in its second year, provides students with insights into how hidden biases in themselves and others can influence work behavior and workplace decisions – such as hiring, promotions and project assignments – and ultimately hinder an environmental organization’s success.

This year’s participants include 21 Master of Environmental Management (MEM) andMaster of Forestry (MF) students, one PhD student, and one concurrent MEM/MBA student.

Training, which began this month, uses environmental case studies, interactive exercises and discussions with leading environmental professionals to explore a wide range of inclusion and diversity issues, including race and ethnicity; age and generational differences; sexual orientations; and socioeconomic and cultural differences.  

As a capstone project, students learn how to develop workplace diversity action plans to help organizations identify potential biases and address or avoid them.

The program will conclude December 3 with a recognition ceremony, a keynote address by Dean Alan Townsend, and the presentation of certificates of completion.

“An overwhelming majority of conservation employers who hire our graduates consider inclusion and diversity training to be essential for preparing the next generation of environmental leaders, and Dean Townsend has identified it as being critical to our school’s continued success,” says Glenda Lee, associate director of the Nicholas School’s Career & Professional Development Center. “This program is designed to help our students acquire these highly sought skills.”

Lee developed Rising TIDE as an outgrowth of her participation in the 2012 Duke Leadership Academy.

Students participating in Rising TIDE this fall are: Mariano Gonzalez (PhD); Sidney McLaurin (MEM/MBA); and Audrey Archer, Julia Chen, Zoie Diana, Alyssa Dyman, Marianne Ferguson, Lauren Fety, Jennifer Finley, Yiling Fu, Ben Green, Amy Havens, Connie Hernandez, Rachel Karasik, Charles Marx, Leif Olson, Stephanie Panlasigui, Martin Ramirez, Corrine Schrall, Darius Stanton, Jocelyn Tsai, Tianyu Wang and Mike Younis, all of whom are MEMs and MFs.

For more information about Rising Tide, contact Lee at gslee@duke.edu.

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