The Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) — A Nearly Impossible Job
Originally written in 2020, updated in 2023. I originally wrote this post in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd. Many Chief Diversity Officer positions were created ion the aftermath of his murder at universities and corporations. In the context of an aggressive assault on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at the local, state, and […]
Freedom, Affirmative Action, and the Black College Institute
I was eleven years old when I learned a new word – Bakke. I wasn’t sure what it was – a person or a disease. My parents angrily hurled the word out of their mouths like a venom: “Bakke, Bakke, Bakke”. They acted as if their world had changed overnight. And perhaps it had. It […]
Formidable Woman Magazine Interview
May 2023 Interview in Formidable Woman Magazine Over the course of an almost 30-year career as a Black woman lawyer, professor, and administrator, I have faced extraordinary and sometimes unfathomable injustice, racism, sexism, inequal pay, lack of promotion, macroaggressions, hyper-invisibility, marginalization, and humiliation. Unfortunately, I believe these challenges and experiences are commonplace for women of […]
On this Day, Black History Happened at Virginia Tech
Today was such a special, once-in-a-lifetime experience for me at Virginia Tech. The African American chair of the Board of Visitors’ Nominating Committee, Greta Harris, on behalf of the committee nominated the first Black rector, Ed Baine, and a Black Vice-Rector, Sharon Brickhouse-Martin. In Greta’s remarks, she acknowledged that last night, there was a dinner […]
What is your lighthouse?
Every now and then, I need to step away and regroup, remember, and recall why I am in the world, what I am supposed to be doing in the world, and why am I doing what I am doing. So, I stepped away for a few days, came down from the mountain, as a wonderful […]
A Commencement Speech: Never Stop Toiling
My daughter, Raebekkah, graduated from the University of Illinois at age 19, in 2018 with a 3.98 GPA, and was top 3% of her graduating class, earning the coveted and exclusive Bronze Tablet. She was selected to deliver the student address for her college. It was so wonderful and inspiring (Yes, I know I’m biased), […]
The New Portrait Of Leadership: Menah Pratt On Which Legacy Ideas About Leadership Need To Be Discarded, And Which New Approaches To Leadership Should Be Embraced
Honored to have an interview on leadership with Karen Mangia at Medium. She wrote: “We are living in the Renaissance of Work. Just like great artists know that an empty canvas can become anything, great leaders know that an entire organization — and the people inside it — can become anything, too. Master Artists and […]
Gender and Race: Intertwined and Inseparable
When it is about gender, it should also be about race As the founder of the Faculty Women of Color in the Academy National Conference, I often reflect on the inseparable and intertwined relationship between race and gender. https://www.inclusive.vt.edu/Programs/FWCA.html This weekend over 600 women of color in the academy, including graduate students, faculty, and administrators, […]
A Letter to Mama
May 14, 2023 A Mama’s Day Letter Dear Mama, I miss you! But, I’m out here in the world doing my thing, hopefully making you proud. It’s been more than 10 years since you transitioned to a new journey in 2012. I’m now the Vice President of Strategic Affairs and Diversity at Virginia Tech, and […]
When a Black Woman Walks Into a Room
Two years ago I wrote a poem, When A Black Woman Walks Into a Room in honor of my mother, Mildred Pratt. It is below: When a Black woman walks into a room, something happens. For how could it not? For when we walk into a room, we bring the ancestral power of generations, […]