Jacqueline N. Font-Guzmán, executive director of diversity, equity and inclusion, offers a first-person perspective of why she was drawn to 91����Ƶ in the September 2021 education-themed issue of .

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On a wall in my childhood home in Puerto Rico hung a framed quote by the Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore. Today the same quote is pinned on the bulletin board in my office at 91����Ƶ:

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and — behold! — service was joy.

This quote embodies a guiding principle for me: I am called to serve others by including all voices and speaking truth to power.

This Christian imperative shapes my role at 91����Ƶ as executive director for diversity, equity and inclusion — the first person to hold this new position.

I am passionate about advancing DEI at 91����Ƶ because of its potential to break down barriers so that people can be their authentic selves and celebrate their shared humanity.

This Christian imperative shapes my role at 91����Ƶ as executive director for diversity, equity and inclusion — the first person to hold this new position.

I am passionate about advancing DEI at 91����Ƶ because of its potential to break down barriers so that people can be their authentic selves and celebrate their shared humanity.

I hope to guide the campus community to live more fully into its identity as a faith-informed peace and justice university and its commitment to cultivating a robust and inclusive community of learners.

In March, my husband and I relocated from Omaha, Neb., where I worked at Creighton University, to the stunning Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

I was drawn to 91����Ƶ’s Anabaptist tradition to “follow Jesus’ call to bear witness to truth, serve with compassion and walk boldly in the way of nonviolence and peace.”

Similar institutional values attracted me to Creighton 15 years ago. Creighton is affiliated with the Jesuits, a Catholic order also known as the Society of Jesus. (Pope Francis is a Jesuit.) Jesuits are known for their passion for social justice, service rooted in justice and love, using one’s gifts to serve others, and commitment to education.

I see a strong connection between Jesuit and Anabaptist approaches to education. Both aim to make a more inclusive and just world, to respect every person and to see all aspects of life as opportunities to realize our God-given gifts. Both understand that serving others is for a higher purpose: the glory of God.

After four months at 91����Ƶ, I can affirm that my intuition about the university was accurate. 91����Ƶ is serious about becoming a more just and inclusive campus. The community is genuinely working to decenter privilege and whiteness as we live in a more diverse nation. 

Given what Anabaptist education stands for, those who know me are not surprised by my eagerness to join the 91����Ƶ community. My career choices have been motivated by my belief that we have a Christian duty to serve others. This belief moved me to work in health care, the justice system and academia.

As a lawyer, I partnered with my clients in their quest for justice and ­equity. Those who had lived in slum-like apartments could secure new housing and compensation. Those unlawfully dismissed from their jobs due to their political affiliation or gender identity were reinstated. Those in prison were guaranteed high-quality medical treatment.

I treasured these relationships with clients. What a blessing it was to be in their space of desperation and see them slowly move out of it!

As I moved from litigation to conflict engagement, I discovered that advocating on someone’s behalf was gratifying, but creating a safe space for people to advocate for themselves was exhilarating.

The power to co-create a space that allows people to be heard and seen, and to transform their relationships, energizes my work with conflict engagement and peacebuilding. I entered academia intending to teach others how to co-create these brave spaces so that together we could build just, inclusive and equitable communities.

How can we advance DEI at 91����Ƶ?

— By expanding our moral imagination: getting better at connecting with each other and simply becoming curious about each other.

— By engaging in relationships of respect and empathy with those who are different.

— By raising awareness and naming how we may unintentionally sustain inequity, racism, misogyny and exclusion.

Initiatives this year include: 

— Delivering implicit-bias training to faculty who will serve on faculty search committees;

— Developing and launching inclusive excellence grants seeking proposals from the 91����Ƶ community to advance DEI priorities; and

— Holding a workshop that introduces cabinet members to a relational approach to DEI.

I hope to inspire a culture in which we connect with our deeper selves, deepen our compassion for one another and celebrate our shared humanity, modeled after the teachings and actions of Jesus. I envision a community where we promote social justice, gender equity, religious diversity, racial justice, community service and peace.

Not a week after beginning in her new role as 91����Ƶ’s first executive director of diversity, equity, and inclusion, Jacqueline N. Font-Guzmán made her first public appearance during a Facebook Live interview for Lov91����Ƶ Day. Her time slot coincided with the launching of a special DEI Initiative Fund. 

In that interview,  Font-Guzmán gave a hint of the vision she had for 91����Ƶ as “the most welcoming university in the world.” 

91����Ƶ’s draw, she said,  was its “institutional values and mission rooted in Christian faith, selflessness, compassion, empathy, solidarity, social justice, and community.” She also noted the university’s strong commitment to advancing DEI initiatives and its missional focus on educating students in their development of “a moral compass that is essential in today’s globalized world and the critical historical moment the nation faces.”

Within the day, more than $82,750 had been raised in support of both her new leadership and the importance of this collective work at 91����Ƶ. The ongoing total is $111,263 in current and pledged donor support. One of Font-Guzmán’s tasks in the coming weeks and months is to determine the best focus for this fund — and for the excitement and commitment symbolized in the investment.

In a March announcement, President Susan Schultz Huxman identified Font-Guzmán’s new role as providing “guidance to our campus community to live more fully into its identity as a faith-informed peace and justice university … [she will be ]a dynamic ambassador, catalyst and facilitator in mobilizing our campus community around DEI goals.” 

Formerly professor of law and conflict studies and director of the Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Program at Creighton University, Font-Guzmán came to the 91����Ƶ role with experience developing and implementing DEI and social justice curricula into graduate degree programs, as well as collaborating with a colleague on a  popular dialogue series that explored experiences and built relationships across diverse groups at the university.  

An accomplished teacher, scholar and administrator, she holds a PhD in conflict analysis and resolution from Nova Southeastern University; a law degree summa cum laude from the Interamericana University of Puerto Rico; a Masters in Health Care Administration degree from Saint Louis University; and a BA degree from Coe College.  An active practitioner in conflict studies, she has led trainings, workshops and seminars in mediation and facilitation in the United States and international settings. 

Since arriving at 91����Ƶ April 1, Font-Guzmán has met with various groups, including leaders of 14 student organizations and faculty, staff, and administrators across disciplines and campuses and within various centers. Listening to and gathering those perspectives, she says, has affirmed “that 91����Ƶ is an extraordinary student-centered community, wanting and willing to do the hard work to advance DEI.”

Among the main themes, she has heard “a passion for making 91����Ƶ a campus where everyone feels that they belong and can be their authentic selves; an unwavering commitment to bringing our vision to life and opening new pathways of access and achievement for all students; the challenges that many members of our community face, especially those belonging to a minoritized or underrepresented group; and some big ideas on how we can make changes to move forward together.”

As she continues to gather information through the summer and fall, Font-Guzmán says relationship-building is the core action through which learning, healing, and growth can happen. 

“We must dream big and act small, and one way of doing this is by nurturing quality relationships with each other and expanding our networks within and beyond campus. Relationship building is at the core of my vision because it can disrupt unhealthy patterns of interactions, neutralize relationships of exploitation and exclusion, and create a healthier 91����Ƶ community that moves us all towards a welcoming campus.”

This article was first published in the Spring/Summer 2021 issue of Crossroads magazine.

On Tuesday evening, just a short time after the verdict was announced, I sent a message  to our campus community. I named the value of a cathartic, collective exhale on the swift verdict, and our shared witness around a faith-informed justice on the occasion of this historic moment. Indeed, the trial was a long-awaited step towards repair in our country’s long and awful legacy of racialized violence. 

I also expressed support of deep listening and bold collaborative action: We especially surround our BIPOC students, faculty and staff tonight with care and compassion. We commit ourselves to continuing to hear their voices, to stand with them, and to do the hard and necessary work to extend the movement to expand racial justice and equity in our nation, our community, and on our own campus. We will work together to make our community of learners more and more fair and equitable inside and outside the classroom. 

The Black Lives Matter movement has taught me many things. Saying the names of our black citizens senselessly killed or injured at a shockingly disproportionate rate at the hands of law enforcement is a powerful reminder of my own white privilege. And so again I say his name: George Perry Floyd Junior, to remind myself this is not an ending at all.

As educators, we still have much work to do. Here is a brief summary of some tangible steps our university has taken recently on issues of racial and social justice, with special attention to diversity, equity and inclusion at all levels of our community of learning:

• Diversity objectives are featured in the President’s Annual Report and 91����Ƶ’s 2020-25 Strategic Plan.
• A new fund to support DEI training and related initiatives benefited from nearly $93,763 in current and pledged donor support this spring.
•  91����Ƶ’s Board of Trustees is led by Manuel A. Nuñez, professor and faculty director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Villanova Business School. The board remains deeply committed in specific ways to diversity, equity and inclusion outcomes in learning objectives, campus climate, and representation.  
• More than 10 newly established endowed scholarships and direct grants to increase access and opportunities for BIPOC undergraduate and graduate students have been cultivated just this year.
• We continue supporting, building relationships, listening to and learning from leaders of our student organizations, including Black Student Alliance, Latino Student Alliance, International Student Organization, SafeSpace, and the newly established Asian Pacific Islander Student Association.

And finally, we are delighted with an important addition to our team: Dr. Jacqueline N. Font-Guzmán. She started as our executive director of diversity, equity and inclusion just a few weeks ago, and has already made connections with our Committee for Diversity and Inclusion, and among our student groups and their leaders. We look forward to her leadership as we make our actions toward racial and social justice more concrete. 

Below, Dr. Font-Guzmán shares a short reflection on the verdict. Continue on to read reflections from our student leaders, and leaders of Eastern Mennonite Seminary and the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. 

No one person can enact the kind of dramatic change our schools, communities, and country needs. We must listen together and lead together. Each member of our university has a contribution to make. We welcome your support and your prayers on the journey ahead.

From Dr. Jacqueline N. Font-Guzmán, executive director of diversity, equity, and inclusion

The murder conviction in the case of Mr. George Perry Floyd Jr. has been unprecedented in many ways. It is a rare event in the history of the United States that a White policeman is found guilty of murdering a Black man. 

At the personal level, I have mixed feelings about the verdict. Although I felt encouraged by it because it held the perpetrator accountable, justice did not triumph. True justice requires giving each person their due. Mr. Floyd should be alive today. 

And yet, I do not despair. I am hopeful that this verdict can move us to take the needed crucial steps towards transforming – and when necessary – dismantling the systems that allow for this violence to continue. There is no better act of subversion than building relationships and communities. This verdict was possible thanks to all the organizers, peaceful protesters, students, and people willing to – as John Lewis said– “Get in trouble, good trouble.”

Here at 91����Ƶ, we are committed to peace, social justice, and community. We will continue to work together with love and compassion to create an environment where everyone can be their true selves, belong, and be safe. 

A joint statement from two leaders of the Student Government and Black Student Alliance

Ma’Khia could have been any of us. In the span of two hours, our collective conversation had shifted from a tense relief that Derek Chauvin had been found guilty in the murder of George Floyd, to the overwhelming grief and anger that we know so intimately. 

After George Floyd’s murder this summer, the Student Government Association sent an email affirming protests and demonstrations being carried out in the name of justice. We also named that many of our clubs that serve as affinity groups for marginalized voices unfairly bear the burden of providing programming aimed at educating our broader campus community. Weeks later, the Black Student Alliance presented a list of demands, calling our campus community to live more fully into our self-proclaimed values of justice and peace. 

Now, after the verdict has been read, we as student leaders continue to commit ourselves to standing alongside those who fiercely speak truth to power, uprooting systems which cause harm, including those within our university. We will rage until LGBTQ+ communities feel safe, until ICE is abolished and the prison industrial complex is destroyed, until families are no longer torn apart on the border, and the ongoing Indigenous genocide is stopped.

We know that there is much work to be done. We envision a community that rejects notions of scarcity,  where justice is abundant and freedom is genuine. This is a vision that 91����Ƶ says it shares, and so we call 91����Ƶ to answer, to act: 

To create and hold spaces for BIPOC students, faculty and staff. To offer tangible support through meals and offer extensions on deadlines. To compensate the unpaid labor of those who have consistently borne the brunt of liberation work within 91����Ƶ. To show up for your students in the classroom, at our events, in this nation and this world. Show up for your marginalized  students in the ways we’ve been asking of you. This is how we live into our mission. 

Anisa Leonard, co-president of Student Government Association; Maya Dula, secretary and past co-president of Black Student Alliance

Eastern Mennonite Seminary

In the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition, we believe that the mutual flourishing of relationships is essential for faith. We belong to one another as members of the human family. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the body of Christ, “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it” (1 Cor 12:26). When one person, family and community suffers injustice, the harm impacts us all. 

A verdict from our national justice system may provide some clarity, but that alone cannot restore human dignity and wholeness. We commit fully and collectively to this restorative work: to practicing justice in compassionate relationships as a learning community and in the communities in which we participate throughout the world.

Learning how, within our own faith communities and our university community, we can truly resist the systemic racism made so visible in this moment impels us to deeper prayer and richer action. We thank God for leaders in many communities of color in the United States, and some of our own community members, who have long modeled the discipleship of work for justice.

Dr. Sue Cockley, dean; Dr. Nancy Heisey, associate dean; Rev. Dr. Sarah Bixler, incoming associate dean.

The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding

The United States was built on a mixed message – all men are created equal and only white men who own property count as full citizens. The territory of the United States was created through displacement, genocide, and war against indigenous peoples and a neighboring country, Mexico. Wealth was amassed by white men who exploited enslaved peoples from Africa and violently suppressed attempts to organize for labor rights. As a country, we have struggled with these tensions since our founding. Our history cannot be ignored in our move toward a different future.

Rooting out and transforming the original sin built into the United States is a long, hard, slow process and once again we are being challenged. Do we settle for order masquerading as peace or do we demand justice that supports authentic peace, healing, and equity? As the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, we have answered that question. Now, we must actualize it in our current context. As a predominantly white institution, this work is deeply personal for each of us and for CJP and 91����Ƶ as organizations. Thankfully, the jury in Minnesota has held Derek Chauvin accountable for his actions. Let us continue our work to grow justice with humility and integrity. That means listening to and following leaders who have experienced the violence and injustices of our current systems.  

Dr. Jayne Docherty, executive director