In marketing, equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) is an integral part of understanding who your customers are. I apply it to everything that I do, not only with my own lived experience of being a woman of colour but in recognizing that there are different equity-deserving groups that may not be represented.

At the height of the pandemic, I was concerned about silos going up in the School of Continuing Education (SCE). I could see that some people did not have equitable access to computers or the internet, and that students in English as an Additional Language were having trouble communicating when courses moved online. We were all facing a lot of challenges at a higher intensity than we had before. 

So I suggested the idea of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee in SCE to discuss marketing and business operations, and equity, diversity and inclusion topics. 

Over the last two years, the committee has evolved. We saw that people were interested in learning about equity, diversity and inclusion not only at a business or professional level but on a personal one. So this idea to stay connected with colleagues evolved into a way for us to build foundational knowledge and move forward in diversity and inclusion.

We've had passionate discussions about privilege, intersectional feminism, pronouns, the model minority myth and more. Staff volunteer to present topics and I help facilitate their ideas and the activities we do. The topics tend to be really deep and meaningful and so we use group work to bring people together. There's a revelation or an epiphany that happens in almost every session.

EDI teaches us that there are barriers for students and to consider what we can do as an academic institution to help remove those barriers. Instead of thinking of solving problems operationally, financially or administratively, EDI is about putting people back into the picture.

— Linh Pham, marketing manager, School of Continuing Education. Pham is being recognized as one of this year's Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (I.D.E.A.) Leaders. The I.D.E.A. Leaders Award recognizes alumni, students, staff and faculty for advancing and promoting equity, inclusion and human rights on campus or in the community.