Every Hoya brings different experiences, backgrounds, and identities to the Georgetown community. As a community in diversity, we share a set of values that has been refined over five hundred years of Jesuit tradition. Central to Georgetown’s mission as a Catholic and Jesuit institution and guided by our founding as a university for students of all faiths, Georgetown promotes interreligious understanding and dialogue among community members of all religious and nonreligious backgrounds. We affirm and promote a rich and growing diversity of faith traditions; racial, ethnic, and gender identities; and cultural heritages represented by our students, faculty, and staff. We are deeply committed to fostering a safe, welcoming, and inclusive community that respects the inherent dignity and shared humanity of each Hoya, promotes the free expression of ideas, and enables every member of our community to thrive.
The Defining Moments of Belonging
Fostering belonging and inclusion is a big undertaking for any organization, but much of it has to do with small moments.
Belonging and inclusion come from the extra effort a professor makes to pronounce an international student’s name properly. They’re in the outreach a staff member does to recruit from a traditionally underserved pool of students. They happen when underrepresented minority students feel comfortable speaking up in class and volunteering for leadership roles.
Often, these moments happen because of work at a grassroots level. Dedicated faculty, staff, and students see a need, then fill it. But since 2020, Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business has worked more intentionally to live out its Jesuit values as a community in diversity, to learn from best practices, and to adapt when problems arise.
The 2023–2024 academic year found the school diving deeper in two major areas. “After assessing where we were, and listening, we developed a couple of big goals we wanted to focus on,” says Rebecca Hamilton, vice dean of faculty and professor of marketing. “One was inclusive pedagogy, and the other was the student experience.”
The school established two working committees to lead the charge, with Hamilton co-chairing the committee on inclusive pedagogy and Prashant Malaviya, vice dean of programs and professor of marketing, co-chairing another on the student experience. Both shared duties with Ella Washington, professor of the practice in management and senior advisor on diversity initiatives.
Each committee includes representatives from across the school’s many disciplines, initiatives, and centers. “Everybody has had their own way of doing things, largely because they serve different types of students,” Malaviya says. “We want to be able to assess best practices and share what works with everyone.”
In this report, you’ll read more about these efforts: everything from teaching tools that help both longtime and newer faculty better serve an expanding population of students to policies designed to minimize bias in the student club selection process. Each committee is iterating on these efforts, collecting data, and planning for what comes next — all in the service of those small moments that make the centurieslong Jesuit tradition of community in diversity a reality.
Diversity
BY THE NUMBERS
FACULTY
The following provides a transparent snapshot of the past five academic years of data at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business, based on available information.
Nonresident Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
or More Races
Executive MBA D.C. (Total, 2023–2024: 114)
American Indian or Alaskan Native
2019–2020
2020–2021
2021–2022
2022–2023 2023–2024
or African American
Nonresident
of undergraduate first-year or transfer students were firstgeneration in fall 2023.
2019–2020
2020–2021
2021–2022
2022–2023
2023–2024
2019–2020
2020–2021
2021–2022
2022–2023
2023–2024
STUDENTS BY GENDER
Georgetown McDonough strives to move toward greater gender diversity through increased recruitment and retention efforts. Below is a look at the gender breakdown of students over the past five academic years.
Women in McDonough’s specialized master’s programs increased from 32% to 40% in the past five years.
More than 50% of Georgetown Entrepreneurship Leonsis Venture Lab member companies have been led by women or minority entrepreneurs.
Leading Through Inclusion
There are many stakeholders involved in life at a university, but certain groups play an especially fundamental role: students and the faculty and staff who serve them. In taking stock of the status of belonging and inclusion efforts, McDonough paid special attention to both the student experience and students’ relationships with faculty and staff.
Both Rebecca Hamilton, co-chair of the Committee on Inclusive Pedagogy, and Prashant Malaviya, co-chair of the Committee on Student Experience, come from the world of marketing. So perhaps unsurprisingly, they’re both keen to better know their audiences — and how best to serve them.
INCLUSIVE PEDAGOGY
Through listening to both faculty and students, as well as looking at best practices more broadly, Hamilton’s committee learned what some of the unknowns or common challenges are. For instance, an increasing share of Georgetown’s students are international. Such international diversity comes with major positives, including differing perspectives on the world of business. But there are new challenges, too. A student with English as a second language may not process classroom information at the same pace as native speakers, for instance.
“Most faculty would like to make their teaching more inclusive. They just don’t necessarily know how. So we are working to give them the tools and make them easier to implement.”
Rebecca Hamilton Co-chair of the Committee on Inclusive Pedagogy
McDonough has created a series of faculty workshops to address such challenges, along with best practices for overcoming them. For instance, simple changes such as turning on captions for videos played in the classroom (or via Zoom for remote learners) aid in processing information. And techniques such as “check for comprehension,” in which a faculty member takes the extra time to make sure everyone is following and understanding, improve academic performance.
Workshops also cover inclusive curriculum. “We’ve had faculty start to choose more international case studies, or look at topics like how to remedy bias in portfolio services, or using machine learning to look at employee attrition based on factors such as race and gender,” says Hamilton. She adds that diversifying the curriculum is a best practice that leads to a more engaged student base.
Such workshops are just one part of a much larger ongoing effort. Hamilton notes that a question about making teaching more inclusive is now built directly into the faculty merit review process. And to help faculty make sure they can answer that question positively, the school has expanded its Inclusive Teaching Resources, a digital repository of resources and tools dedicated to inclusive teaching and curriculum.
Hamilton says the school will assess what works best each year to better respond to faculty needs, and then adjust those tools and workshops accordingly.
STUDENT EXPERIENCE
Malaviya echoes Hamilton’s sentiments about the need for yearly iteration and revision. “Doing something once is never enough for creating inclusion during the student journey,” Malaviya says. The statement applies to everything from programming to data collection.
For Malaviya and the Committee on Student Experience, the past academic year was largely about taking inventory of the many existing belonging and inclusion programs across the school to find what works best. For instance, undergraduates have access to programs such as Smart Start and Georgetown Business Undergraduates Invested in Leadership Development (BUILD) to help them become better acquainted not only with college life but also with business terminology and practices — a useful transition tool for underrepresented minorities. Likewise, the MBA program has an ever-expanding list of efforts focused on student inclusion issues.
“Step one with this inventory was to identify best practices, and share what works well for any program,” Malaviya says. “Step two is identifying where we still need work.”
One global best practice is to ensure inclusivity within undergraduate student clubs. In the past, club membership criteria often were left strictly to the judgment of student club leaders. Undergraduate administrators had learned that students of color, and women in particular, often felt left out of certain clubs — not just at the leadership level but out of membership entirely.
“There had been a sense in some clubs where they’re picking, ‘Who is best suited to represent the university?’” Malaviya says. “But those kinds of assessments can be fraught with biases.”
The school’s Undergraduate Program Office had pushed for policy change to make student club enrollment a more open, transparent process. They also redesigned the training module for student club leaders to cover topics such as implicit bias and communication. The ultimate goals are to create a more inclusive club environment for all students and also to help leaders become better mentors to a wider set of individuals, a skill they’ll benefit from in the business world. That’s the kind of policy change the committee wants to follow and track — to learn how much of an impact it has over time.
To that end, the committee also added student inclusion questions to a dean’s survey that will go to all students each year. “We wanted more consistency in the annual survey we developed, which all students will respond to,” Malaviya says. “This will allow us to assess the student experience, how it changes, and how it differs across various demographic groups.”
A BASELINE for BELONGING
The Committee on Student Experience’s inclusion survey was designed to gauge students’ overall sense of belonging at McDonough, as well as areas where improvement is needed. Key findings from the inaugural survey include:
• Students across the board largely feel their peers respect and value their contributions, with only a very small statistical difference between white/European students and students of color.
• Students of color are significantly more likely to feel marginalized or excluded due to aspects of their identity or background compared with white/European students.
• Women are more likely than men to feel marginalized or excluded due to aspects of their identity or background.
• Military-affiliated students feel more comfortable discussing challenging topics in the classroom compared to civilian students.
• LGBTQ+ students are significantly more likely to observe or be aware of peers being marginalized or excluded compared with heterosexual/straight students.
This first year of data provides a baseline — and information for the committee to seek improvements. In addition to adjusting and planning for yearly surveys to establish longitudinal data, the committee is planning possible follow-up actions such as focus groups to dive deeper into this initial data set.
Work in Progress
Community in diversity is more than just a movement in the world of education and business. In fact, the fundamental principles are built into Georgetown’s Jesuit values, including a core focus on cura personalis, or care for the whole person. Below is an overview of the McDonough School of Business’ many efforts to live up to its values during the 2023–2024 academic year.
INCLUSIVE PEDAGOGY
Equipping faculty for success: Georgetown McDonough created the Committee on Inclusive Pedagogy, co-chaired by Ella Washington and Rebecca Hamilton. The committee focuses on everything from teaching tools and techniques for faculty to ways to increase curricular diversity.
Working it out: Hamilton and the committee expanded on several inclusive pedagogy efforts in 2023–2024. Notably, the school held workshops for faculty on topics such as diversifying curriculum and ways to better communicate with international students. The school partnered with experts in Georgetown’s Center
for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship and joined the university’s LEAP program to develop a new credential in Inclusive Teaching Development. Tools and techniques: The school also expanded and enhanced its Inclusive Teaching Resources, a central, digital repository of teaching resources and tools all faculty can access. This internal site shares information on key belonging and inclusion terms and concepts, ideas on incorporating a community in diversity mindset into coursework, and best practices for everything from building teams in the classroom to fostering inclusive participation.
Growing the Network
To address the gender gap in finance, McDonough’s M.S. in Finance (MSF) program launched the Women’s Network to connect female students and alumni. Led by senior staff, this network aims to support the unique challenges many women face in the field. Members of the Women’s Network have access to guest speakers, opportunities to build strong networks for support during the academic program and career pursuits, and the ability to connect with leaders in the broader finance industry.
The MSF program also created the Veterans’ Network to provide resources and information to help those transitioning from active duty to civilian life or for those who have already transitioned and want to leverage their military service. With an understanding that veterans’ needs are different from many of their classmates, the network provides opportunities for veterans to connect with each other during group meetings, as well as tailored, personal advising focused on translating service experience to the civilian world.
STUDENT EXPERIENCE
A deeper focus: Georgetown McDonough created the Committee on Student Experience, co-chaired by Ella Washington and Prashant Malaviya. In addition to taking inventory of belonging and inclusion work across academic programs, the committee recommended policy changes and crafted data-gathering methods to assess the tangible results of programming.
An intro to business: The undergraduate Smart Start program, now in its 14th year, consists of events, workshops, and tools for first- and secondyear underrepresented minority students. The goal is to introduce students to common business terminology and practices and set them up for future success, and the program is sponsored by PwC.
Expanded support: The BUILD program continues to support first-year underrepresented minority students with mentoring and early exposure to business concepts and the business community around Georgetown before orientation. This program is complemented by the Business Scholars Program, an extension of the university’s Community Scholars Program, and designed for a multicultural cohort, many of whom are first-generation college students.
Outreach and partnerships: MBA staff and faculty have greatly expanded outreach and partner programs to recruit and support an increasingly diverse group of students. For example, the school is a member of The Consortium, an organization dedicated to increasing African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans in graduate programs and in the ranks of management. The MBA program also partners with FIDERH, a trust that finances education for Mexican students, and Forté, a nonprofit dedicated to women in business education and careers, among other organizations. The MBA office has expanded recruiting through groups such as ROMBA, which focuses on
outreach to the LQTBQ+ MBA community. The MBA program also has worked to increase scholarships for diverse students, including the Patrick Sheridan Endowed MBA Scholarship Fund, the Dealy Scholarship, and the DEI MBA Scholarship Fund.
Affinity and representation: Affinity groups for students and other stakeholders are growing in number at McDonough. Available groups include the Asian Business Student Alliance, Black MBA Association, European Business Association, Georgetown Africa Business Alliance, Georgetown Christians in Business, Georgetown Korea Association, Georgetown Partners and Families, Greater China Business Association, Graduate Women in Business, Japan Society, Jewish Business Alliance, Latin American Business Association, McDonough Military Association, Middle East Business Association, Out@MSB, and South Asian Business Alliance.
GAMBLE pays off: Georgetown Aspiring Minority Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs (GAMBLE) continues to create pathways for future business leaders and like-minded corporations to connect and create value. The student-founded organization focuses on career planning and employment opportunities for underrepresented undergraduates.
Matters of Representation
For a testament to the value of representation and affinity groups, look no further than MBA graduate Nishant Makhijani (MBA’24).
When Makhijani made his first visit to Georgetown in 2020, he already knew it would be a great place to pursue his interest in service-oriented business. But deep conversations with Dan McMahon (MBA’21) — then an MBA student and president of the LGTBQ+ affinity group Out@MSB — made him feel like it was also a place where he could be himself as a gay man.
“If I have the opportunity to give my voice to something that’s important, this should be it.”
The COVID pandemic would take Makhijani home to his native India for a couple of years of work with his family’s business, but his impression of McDonough remained. When it was time for him to pursue his degree, he chose the school. He had aspirations beyond just coursework, too. He wanted to revitalize and expand Out@MSB.
“It was small to begin with,” Makhijani says, noting that LGTBQ+ representation in MBA programs tends to be low, “but COVID really broke down a lot of club participation. We worked to build it all back.”
For instance, Makhijani and fellow members were keen to bring back the “Identity Stories” annual event, in which students candidly share both their struggles and their joys with each other. Those well-attended storytelling sessions were complemented by other community events and a club trip to the Reaching Out MBA (ROMBA) conference, dedicated to networking and career opportunities for the LGTBQ+ community. That ROMBA connection is especially important to
Makhijani. He has helped spur the relationship between admissions and the organization to increase recruiting within the community, and he has served as a ROMBA conference representative himself. Makhijani also received the Rich Chicotel LGBTQ+ Leadership Award during the 2024 ROMBA conference to recognize his commitment to the community, service, and mentorship. On top of that, he was recruited early for his new management consulting job at EY-Parthenon at ROMBA.
“Networking and representation matter,” Makhijani says. “Now I just have to go ace the job.”
It’s safe to say Makhijani aced the job as a leader for Out@MSB. He’s perhaps most proud of helping to gather that community of students early in his academic career at McDonough, and then making sure there were enough programs and resources to keep them close and active. It’s been a way for him to put his assertive, problem-solving nature to work.
ACROSS THE SCHOOL
New look, new focus: A redesigned Georgetown McDonough website features additional prominent information about the school’s focus on community in diversity, paired with ongoing communication. The site was expanded during the 2023–2024 academic year to increase visibility.
The company focus: Career services teams across McDonough highlight companies recognized by employees and outside groups for supporting a diverse workforce, specifically those rated highly for individuals with disabilities, veterans, women, Black and Latinx employees, and LGBTQ+ employees. Efforts this past academic year included additional recruitment via groups such as ROMBA.
Making a pivot: The Georgetown Pivot Program serves formerly incarcerated individuals with empowerment through education. The certificate program in business and entrepreneurship has a heavy emphasis on practicality and advocacy for second-chance hiring. The program celebrated its sixth cohort of graduates in 2024.
Starting at the pipeline: Georgetown Reach is a free five-year program that supports underrepresented minority students and their parents from eighth grade through the college application process with expertise and resources, with a focus on the Greater Washington area. The program’s first cohort of students is now in the 12th grade. Students in Reach also receive mentorship and support throughout the year from undergraduate and MBA students in GAMBLE and the Black MBA Association.
Ongoing celebrations: Several different academic offices and departments mark heritage months and other cultural celebrations throughout the year. The Office of Marketing and Communications has an ongoing content series designed to celebrate heritage months on the McDonough website with accompanying content on social media featuring members of the community. In addition to celebrating heritage months, the MBA office hosts a global festival every fall that represents all nationalities at the school.
Sharing best practices: Georgetown McDonough and diversity leaders at other business schools — specifically signatories to the CEO Action pledge, such as the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, University of Michigan Ross School of Business, and New York University Stern School of Business — developed a collaborative group for sharing best practices and coordinating with Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) in 2022. Subsequently, the school also has included additional strategy and information on belonging and inclusion efforts in its reports to AACSB.
Global entrepreneurship: Georgetown Entrepreneurship has supported more than 200 entrepreneurs in specialty programs focused on unique populations such as returning citizens, wounded veterans, minority business owners, and women entrepreneurs from the Middle East and North Africa region.
A big WIn: The Office of Executive Education has expanded its work in the Middle East and North Africa through the Women Innovators (WIn) fellowship program. In its second year in 2023–2024, the program expanded from one to three cohorts, including representation from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates. 86 rising women innovators and leaders made up each group of fellows.
A Sense of Belonging
As assistant dean for MBA programs since 2022, Juliana Olm has worked to incorporate two things into everything an MBA student experiences: an inclusive perspective and fun.
The two merge in her work developing initiatives and experiences for students outside the classroom. “I like to say that when our students are having fun, our team is usually involved,” Olm says. That includes supporting the student organizations, recruiting a broad array of expert speakers to come to campus, and creating global celebrations that recognize what a truly multicultural group Georgetown MBA students are.
In addition to many specific heritage month programs the office celebrates, it also hosts an annual global festival in the fall. “The festival represents over 40 nationalities of the McDonough MBA community,” Olm says. “We do a potluck where students cook and bring all different kinds of foods. We have a fashion show. We have a talent show, and students play music from all over the world to celebrate this global university.”
That’s not to say all belonging and inclusion work is pure fun. As someone who was once an international student herself, Olm recognizes the unique challenges
“It’s a very intentional place we create for people. They can educate themselves. They can connect with each other, and they can feel that they belong.”
facing many MBA students. Minorities often still struggle to feel at home if they don’t see themselves represented in the faces of others at a school, for example, and international students face language barriers and cultural differences.
So another major initiative under Olm’s domain is Safe Bubble Conversations, which are held in conjunction with the school’s numerous affinity groups — but not exclusive to them. “It’s a place for students whether they are part of the affinity group or not,” Olm says. “Some want to become allies or they’re already allies.”
Safe Bubble Conversations are meant to be open and free of judgment. They’re also paired with celebrations, such as those heritage month celebrations. For instance, during Hispanic Latinx Heritage Month, the school held such a conversation where participants discussed the contributions, challenges, and stereotypes of the community.
Pilot Takes Off
Starting in fall 2024, 40 students are the first participants in an ambitious pilot program designed to improve the student experience for women at Georgetown McDonough.
The Kosoy Women in Business program, funded by Georgetown parents Brian and Andrea Kosoy (P’25), will involve career workshops, guest speakers, company site visits, and more — all designed to tackle the specific challenges women face in business education and in their careers.
Below, Ginny Randall, assistant director for undergraduate career programs, offers an overview of the program’s goals, and why it matters.
How did you become involved with Georgetown McDonough?
I was brought in specifically to help launch this new program — and to build out support for the undergraduate side of the McDonough Career Center. Most recently, prior to joining Georgetown, I had started my own career coaching business. Why is a program like Kosoy Women in Business important?
Part of it is that there are less female students at McDonough, at least compared with other parts of the university, and we consistently hear about the experience of being the only woman in a group project or going out into your first internship, and you may be one of the only women working in a team of all men. We’ve noticed there is just a disparate experience between being a male-identified student and being a female-identified student.
Over the course of the last year or so, we were lucky enough to receive funding for a three-year pilot program, wherein we work with a cohort of students to build very tangible, actionable programming about building confidence and leadership skills both in and out of the classroom. A lot of leadership development programs focus on soft skills. This program is focused on how we can actually measure — from the beginning of the program to the end of the program — the ways in which students are actively growing in their leadership skills. They are volunteering to lead more projects. They are speaking out, speaking up, really making an impact in their classrooms and their workplaces.
What challenges do women face that are different from what men face?
I held a couple of listening sessions with groups of students early in my time here to get a sense of how to shape the scope of this program. What I heard consistently from our undergrads is that
“This program is focused on how we can actually measure — from the beginning of the program to the end of the program — the ways in which students are actively growing in their leadership skills.”
there are primarily male professors. Many of them have made intentional strides to be more inclusive in their language, but I heard an example from one student that a professor didn’t know what business attire to recommend to female students.
These things are probably not intentional. But there are biases that are experienced by female students in the classroom that aren’t experienced by male students in the classroom. And on the social side, there is this idea that there’s a boy’s club. Female students will consistently score well in class, but they’re the ones who are not raising their hands to contribute to group discussions, because when they do raise their hands they’re being cut off by other students. Walk us through the details of the new program. We opened up applications this past spring and selected our first cohort of 40 students, which is way bigger than we expected because of the interest that we’ve had.
We’ll have a kick-off workshop at the beginning of the fall semester where students will get to know each other. And there will be a group project component where they get to work together to really shape the future of this program moving forward. The idea is, we’ll have rising sophomores, rising juniors, and rising seniors in this 40-person cohort. We’ll split them up into different groups, so they get the chance to really build those peer and mentor relationships.
We’ll also be hosting a number of speakers and workshops throughout the year, based on needs we’ve identified in listening sessions. We’ll have one on building your personal brand and how to talk about yourself effectively. We’ll have one on personal finance, which is something I heard repeatedly requested by students. We are still in the process of booking some of our workshop speakers, but we are going to have a balance of leadership, personal development, and skill building — and some exposure to different industries and different job opportunities.
What part of the program excites you the most?
The community-building piece — specifically for those people who feel like, “I’m the only one in the room that experiences this. I’m the only one that’s asked to take meeting notes when I’m on the group project. I’m the only one that is responsible for formatting the PowerPoint instead of being able to present the ideas that I contributed to a group project.”
It’s realizing you’re not alone in it. That is the biggest differentiator for students to be able to build confidence and be able to speak up for themselves because they recognize, “I’m not the only woman experiencing discrimination or disadvantage in this particular context.” And if I realize that I’m not the only one, that actually gives me a little bit more incentive to speak up and make a change.
DIVERSITY COMMITTEES 2023–2024
COMMITTEE ON STUDENT ENGAGEMENT
Co-Chairs
• Ella Washington, Senior Advisor on Diversity Initiatives; Professor of the Practice of Management
• Prashant Malaviya, Vice Dean of Programs; Professor of Marketing
Members
• David Ammerman, Director of Academic Operations, M.S. in Finance Program; Assistant Teaching Professor of Finance
• Kirsten Anderson, Teaching Professor of Accounting
• Jasmina Chauvin, Assistant Professor of Strategy, Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy
• Shiliang (John) Cui, Professor of Operations and Analytics
• Karthik Easwar, Faculty Director, Business Scholars Program; Teaching Professor of Marketing
• Kenneth Sawka, Associate Teaching Professor of Strategy, Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy
• Justin Smith, Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives, Undergraduate Program
COMMITTEE ON INCLUSIVE PEDAGOGY
Co-Chairs
• Ella Washington, Senior Advisor on Diversity Initiatives; Professor of the Practice in Management
• Rebecca Hamilton, Vice Dean of Faculty and Michael G. and Robin Psaros Chair of Business Administration
Members
• Shye Gilad, Professor of the Practice of Management
• Victor Jose, Professor of Operations and Analytics
• Suh Yeon Kim, Assistant Professor of Marketing
• Karen Kitching, Teaching Professor of Accounting
• Faisal Mahmud, Assistant Dean for Faculty Affairs
• Vladimir Mukharlyamov, Assistant Professor of Finance
• Mario Ramirez, Managing Director of the Dikran Izmirlian Program in Business and Global Affairs; Professor of the Practice of Strategy, Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy
• Evelyn Williams, Academic Director, M.S. in Management; Distinguished Teaching Professor of Management
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
Contact
To learn more about community in diversity efforts at Georgetown McDonough, or to offer feedback or resources, visit msb.georgetown.edu/about/community-in-diversity.
Support
The McDonough Success Fund was established to ensure that all students have the opportunity to take advantage of the resources McDonough has to offer. The fund, which has supported over 700 student requests since it was founded in April 2019, is intended to provide support in the following areas: academics (e.g. school supplies and textbooks); global opportunities (e.g. study abroad and related expenses); professional development opportunities (e.g. conferences and related expenses); and emergency or miscellaneous funding (e.g. personal health emergencies or other requests not listed within the outlined categories). Support the McDonough Success Fund and learn more at msb.georgetown.edu/about/ community-in-diversity
Learn
Read Georgetown McDonough’s ongoing community in diversity stories and review additional data at msb.georgetown. edu/about/community-in-diversity.
