About Darden
About Darden - Inclusive Excellence
Inclusive Excellence
Living our values as a diverse, equitable and inclusive global community.
What We Mean by Inclusive Excellence at Darden
As part of our commitment to pre-eminence as a global business school, we aspire to build a culture of inclusion as an essential means of delivering on our mission to better business and society. Our inclusive excellence framework helps us infuse diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging into every aspect of our operation and culture. As a global business school that engages millions of learners in person and online, we appreciate and value difference. We acknowledge the various forms of human experience, perspectives and backgrounds that shape individuals and our social and cultural world. Inclusive excellence is a core value of the mission, which enables Darden's global, diverse members to collaborate and excel.
"In our global world, leaders must have the capacity to engage, lead and manage across differences. We believe that business education must excel at developing this competency in tomorrow's leaders. Our approach at Darden is unique as we examine and fine-tune three phases of stakeholder engagement with the School. Our goal is to be as thoughtful as we can be at every touchpoint.”
— Martin Davidson, Johnson and Higgins Professor of Business Administration, Senior Associate Dean and Global Chief Diversity Officer and thought leader on ‘Leveraging Difference’
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Entry as a prospective learner
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Experience as a community member
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Engagement as alumni and lifelong learners
Guiding these actions is a School-wide Darden Initiative for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The initiative sparks conversation through town halls and community dialogues and engagement with groups and initiatives such as:
- Dean’s Diversity Advisory Council
- Racial Equity and Inclusion Working Group
- Women@Darden Initiative
- Global Alumni Council
While we have more work to do to advance inclusive excellence, we’re investing to move the School and global business forward.
I aspire for students, faculty and staff to achieve their full potential, unencumbered by discrimination or bias based on race, ethnicity, gender, nationality, disability, military status, religion, generation, sexual orientation, socioeconomic position or views. I believe education can be a great equalizer in our society, and that inclusive excellence is critical for Darden's long-term success.
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Getting to Know Darden
Darden actively recruits and fosters a diverse learning community, with the goal to enrich the experience of students, learners, faculty and staff who choose Darden as their business school of choice.
Office of Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Sets the strategy and executes key initiatives to ensure diversity at Darden — publishing a blog by the same name.
Darden Center for Global Initiatives
Strengthens and expands Darden’s global community through educational opportunities and partnerships. Publishes Global Voices of Darden.
Women@Darden Initiative
Aims to position Darden as the business school of choice for women interested in management education. Hosts an annual women's leadership summit.
New Faculty Join Darden
World-class teachers and researchers, Darden’s globally diverse faculty members are student-centric guides, conveners and catalysts.
Degree Programs
The three formats of the MBA (Full-Time, Executive (with a global option) and Part-Time) and the MSBA collaborate with an array of diversity partners.
- Darden’s Admissions Committee includes several Admissions officers dedicated to global and DEI recruiting.
- Darden has a robust scholarship program. Two new Darden School Foundation scholarships — Breakthrough Scholars focused on asset management and Impact Fellows — aim to foster a new generation of diverse leaders across industries.
- Darden has powerful partnerships with groups like Management Leadership for Tomorrow, Admit.me and ROMBA.
Non-degree Programs
Darden Executive Education & Lifelong Learning, delivered by the Darden School Foundation, offers an array of custom and open programs focused on DEI.
- Women in Leadership open program
- Foundations of Diversity and Inclusion at Work TeachOut offered on Coursera teaches best practices on DEI and organizational change
- Leading Diversity, a first-of-its kind immersive program designed to support Chief Diversity Officers and those leading diversity initiatives.
- National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC) Executive Leadership Program, an 11-year partnership with Darden.
Darden's Diversity Dashboard
Below, you will find an interactive dashboard that outlines the compositional diversity of our student body across programs. Our hope is that the dashboard will provide a transparent and forthright picture of the community here at Darden, and will help us track our progress over time. We also invite you to explore the larger University's demographic data, and to reach out to diversity@darden.virginia.edu should you have any questions.
Experience
Students Leading From the Front
Darden has over 50 student-run organizations that enhance and integrate students’ academic, social, cultural and professional lives. See the Full-Time MBA clubs and Executive MBA Clubs. Here are a few highlights:
Research & Thought Leadership
Darden faculty and experts offer actionable insights related to DEI on Darden Ideas to Action, including:
"How Difficult Times Have Spawned an Openness to Change"
Global Chief Diversity Officer Martin Davidson addresses the first annual Darden Executive MBA Celebration of Global Diversity Awareness. He reflects on history, specifically the events of the tragic Unite the Right Rally in August 2017 in Charlottesville, the present and the future.
Elevating the Conversation
Darden and its faculty regularly appear in the media on diversity-related topics.
- “U.S. Businesses Must Take Meaningful Action Against Racism” by Darden Professor Laura Morgan Roberts and Ella F. Washington for Harvard Business Review
- “New Darden Scholarship Initiative Aimed at Attracting Diverse Candidates to PE, VC & Hedge Fund Jobs” by Poets & Quants
- “UVA Darden Welcomes Former Airbnb Global Head of Diversity and Belonging Back to Faculty, Announces Fund for Global Connection and Belonging,” featuring Darden Professor Melissa Thomas-Hunt
Partnerships
Darden partners with a variety of organizations that support diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, including:
Forté Foundation
The Consortium
P3 Impact Awards with Concordia and the U.S. Department of State's Office of Global Partnerships
Building Goodness Foundation
Resilience Education
PhD Project
Management Leadership for Tomorrow
Engagement
Making a Difference as Alumni and Lifelong Learners
Darden alumni are the greatest ambassadors for Darden's culture of inclusive excellence. Meet a few of Darden's 18,000 alumni across the globe.
Willard McCloud
(MBA '04), Cargill
Kimberly Diaz
(MBA '19), oneTILT
Jarrett Walker
(MBA '18), J.P. Morgan
Caroline Schoenecker
(MBA '11), Deloitte
Cynthia Soledad
(MBA '02), Egon Zehnder
Daniele Wilson
(MBA '02), Google
Fundraising
Honor those who are powered by purpose.
Support Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiatives
Make a gift to the Darden Annual Fund designated to fuel critical work creating diversity, equity and inclusion at Darden and throughout its community.
Scholarships for Inclusive Excellence
Each year, the Darden School Foundation awards highly selective scholarships that range from partial tuition stipends to full tuition and fees.
Meet the Team
Martin Davidson
Johnson and Higgins Professor of Business Administration Senior Associate Dean and Global Chief Diversity Officer
Christie Julien
Assistant Dean for Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Scott Beardsley
Dean and Charles C. Abbott Professor of Business Administration
Juliet Daum
Chief Marketing and Communications Officer
Gregory B. Fairchild
Isidore Horween Research Professor of Business Administration Associate Dean for Washington, D.C., Area Initiatives and Academic Director of Public Policy and Entrepreneurship Dean and CEO of UVA | Northern Virginia
Mary Margaret Frank
Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development; Samuel A. Lewis Sr. Faculty Fellow; John Tyler Professor of Business Administration; Institute for Business in Society Academic Director
Yael Grushka-Cockayne
Professor of Business Administration Altec Styslinger Foundation Bicentennial Chair in Business Administration Senior Associate Dean for Professional Degree Programs
Jen Oliver
Director of Alumni Engagement
Rena Pacheco
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Engagement Associate Director
Thomas Steenburgh
Richard S. Reynolds Professor of Business Administration Senior Associate Dean for the Residential MBA Program
Melissa Thomas-Hunt
John D. Forbes Distinguished Professor of Business Administration, Special Advisor
Sankaran Venkataraman
MasterCard Professor of Business Administration Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research
Christian West
Senior Director of Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Recruiting
UVA Division for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Interested in learning more about what UVA is doing in the realm of diversity, equity and inclusion? Check out the division website for more information.