2024-2025 Institutional Diversity Mission Grant Awards
In the 2024-2025 academic year, Institutional Diversity awarded 9 Mission Grant Awards.
2024 Fall Choral Concert: When That Storm Comes
Program support for Shohei Kobayashi
“When that storm comes” is a powerful and socially engaged concert held in the fall of 2024, exploring themes of climate justice, collective resilience, and global interconnectedness. Featuring the west coast premiere of Shruthi Rajasekar’s Whose Names Are Unknown and the world premiere of Portland-based African American composer and educator, Judy A. Rose’s Ode to the Wind, the program highlighted works by composers of color that speak to environmental crisis, worker solidarity, and community care. The event included a week-long residency by Rajasekar with class visits and a public Q&A, deepening student engagement. Through strategic campus and community outreach, the project fostered interdisciplinary collaboration and inspired dialogue at the intersection of art, justice, and identity.
Improving Equity and Inclusion in Intro Bio Through the Learning Assistant Program
Kendra Walters and Crystal Chaw
In the Fall of 2022, the Reed biology Lecturer and Lab Coordinators (LLCs), with the support of the Biology department faculty, Science Outreach, Institutional Diversity, Student Life, Academic Support, the Dean of Faculty, and the Office of the President, began a three-year pilot Learning Assistant program. This program was incorporated into both lab and lecture elements of Topics in Biology. Results have been positive, offering extended resources to enrolled students (such as peer-teaching in labs/lectures and study sessions led by Learning Assistants), and professional development and pedagogy experience for learning assistants. Furthermore, the learning assistants provide faculty with the support to more easily incorporate pedagogical theory (e.g., active learning strategies, trying new labs, etc.) into practice. As the pilot program entered its final year, the biology department is thinking about how to sustain the program long-term. The Institutional Diversity Mission Grant supported two Biology department lab & lecturer coordinators, Crystal Chaw and Kendra Walters’s attendance at the 2024 International Learning Assistant Conference. This was an opportunity to advance the Biology department’s Learning Assistant program. Chaw and Walters used this opportunity to explore similar programs at other institutions, engage in pedagogical techniques to engage introductory science students, and learn strategies for recruitment, training, and mentorship of learning assistants.
Black Composers Concert
Program support for Mark Burford
Friday@4 concerts are a popular and longstanding fixture on the Reed campus and consistently attract students, staff, faculty, and members of the neighborhood community. A special Friday@4 concert held during Black History Month, featured works exclusively by Black composers and performed by Reed’s private music instruction faculty. Unlike typical Friday@4 performances by students, this program highlighted challenging and historically underrepresented repertoire, requiring the expertise of professional musicians. By showcasing the rich contributions of Black composers and amplifying their work, the event elevated diverse perspectives to foster inclusive cultural engagement.
Learning Shabbat Dinner
Programming support for Chauncey Diego Francisco Handy
The “Learning Shabbat Dinner” is an embodied learning experience for students in the Spring 2024 Introduction to Judaism course. In partnership with community members Sonya Sanford, a Reed graduate and culinary educator, and Alicia Jo Rabins, a specialist in music, Torah, and Jewish liturgical practices—students prepared and shared a Shabbat meal while learning about Jewish ritual, music, and tradition in a respectful, immersive setting. The dinner replaced a traditional midterm assignment to deepen engagement through experiential learning and foster cultural understanding at a time of rising antisemitism.
Financial Support for LGBTQ+ Students to Attend 2024 oSTEM Conference
Program development opportunity for students in Reed's oSTEM chapter
Project proposal by Kayla Johnston
Students from Reed’s chapter of Out in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (oSTEM) attended the 14th Annual Out in STEM Conference, the nation’s largest gathering of LGBTQ+ scientists. Held locally, the conference provided a timely and cost-effective opportunity for expanded student involvement, particularly as Reed’s chapter enters its second year and builds capacity. The conference offered critical networking, mentorship, and professional development opportunities, empowering LGBTQ+ students to connect with others who share their lived experiences in STEM. This initiative built upon the Institutional Mission Grant Award from last year, which helped catalyze the formation of Reed’s nationally recognized oSTEM chapter.
CRES Colloquium
Program support for the Comparative Race & Ethnicity Studies (CRES) Committee, chaired by Radhika Natarajan
The CRES Colloquium Series is a vital academic and community-building initiative that provide opportunities for staff, faculty, and students to come together to engage with the study of race and ethnicity and to build community. This year, the Institutional Diversity Grant supported two events in this series. The first event, A Song in Movement, featured a documentary screening, performance, and conversation with Asian American artist-activists Quyên Nguyen-Le, Nobuko Miyamoto, and Derek Nakamoto. The documentary connects themes of identity, representation, Asian American and Black Power movement, mixed race/interracial family, and community building. The second event was a public-facing book talk with Shani Evans, former Consortium for Faculty Diversity Fellow at Reed College, and author of We Belong Here. The book explores the experiences of Black Portlandians in the wake of gentrification of historically black neighborhoods.
Sex, Gender and Sexuality Symposium
Program support for the Sex, Gender and Sexuality (SGS) Studies Committee, chaired by Mariela Daby
The 2025 Sex, Gender, and Sexuality (SGS) Studies Symposium is a signature event advancing critical conversations about gender, race, and power. The Institutional Diversity Mission Grant supported a public lecture by Professor Kelly Dittmar of Rutgers University, addressing gender and race in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. The lecture included an interactive workshop for faculty, staff, and students to engage deeply with her research on women’s political power. With broad community participation, the project fostered interdisciplinary learning and supported initiatives that enhance campus dialogue on social justice and representation.
A Global Perspective on Music Theory
Programming support for Bora Yoon
This interactive lecture demonstration featured internationally renowned Carnatic flautist, Shashank Subramanyam and percussionist, Parupalli S. Phalgun. Held in April 2025, the event explored the structures of Indian classical music in conversation with Western music theory, enriching the curriculum of MUS210 and MUS205. Designed to broaden students’ musical understanding and cultural fluency, The event amplified global musical traditions and highlighted diverse ways of knowing, while fostering inclusive collaboration across campus and with the broader Portland music community.
Teaching and Curriculum Development for Holocaust and Antisemitism Studies
Professional Development Opportunity for Mariela Daby
Mariela Daby’s participation in the Alan Cornell U.S. Campus Faculty Seminar at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem provided an immersive opportunity to deepen understanding of Holocaust history and contemporary antisemitism, with a focus on their relevance to U.S. college campuses. Her engagement with this program was an opportunity to inform her teaching and curriculum development, including plans to enhance existing courses and design new offerings addressing Holocaust and antisemitism studies. The seminar was also an opportunity for her to strengthen faculty and student conversations on these critical topics. The program was fully subsidized by Yad Vashem, with Mission Grant funding covering additional travel and living expenses.