Marlina Duncan shares her perspective

Putting diversity, equity and inclusion into practice

Marlina Duncan, EdD, wants to normalize diversity, equity and inclusion practices. Incorporating them into policies and programs would become second nature, in her ideal, not viewed as something separate and optional.

Dr. Duncan joined UMass Medical School at the end of 2020 as the vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion. As a member of the senior leadership team, Duncan oversees the Diversity and Inclusion Office and partners with diversity leaders across the three schools, business units, and academic and administrative departments to ensure that the goals outlined in the IMPACT 2025 Strategic Plan are met and that diversity, equity and inclusion remain at the forefront.

She said when she arrived at UMass Medical School, she was encouraged to see so much diversity and inclusion activity going on. The missing link, to make those efforts more powerful, was bringing them together.

“Everyone is doing great things in their silos, but how do we bring that together and bring awareness to the community that we have individuals who are working hard to improve the culture of the institution?” Duncan said.

And improving the culture means changing how people think of diversity, inclusion and equity— to normalize it.

“The more you normalize things, it becomes a standard of what we talk about in our budget, a standard of what we all incorporate in our personal and professional development,” Duncan said. She compared diversity work to how we think about technology. “No one blinks an eye when you put in the budget that you need this amount of money for technology resources. If we could think about diversity, equity and inclusion in the same manner, it’s just what you do. And it’s an ongoing, evolving process.”

Duncan, who is Black, described her professional journey as winding. Her role as vice chancellor is the culmination of previous experiences in teaching, program development and higher education administration, largely in the field of science.

Both of Duncan’s grandmothers were nurses, and as a child in Springfield, Massachusetts, she envisioned that she would become a doctor. She majored in biology and minored in chemistry at Westfield State University. She participated in a pipeline program at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, where she shadowed a doctor and discovered that working with sick people wasn’t for her.

Instead of medical school, Duncan decided to take a position after college teaching science at Doherty High School in Worcester. Teachers in the STEM fields—science, technology, engineering and math— were in high demand and were hired by schools even without formal teacher education training. Duncan soon wanted to learn more about the art and skill of teaching and dug into educational philosophy and best practices.

Amidst her exploration of education, Duncan’s experiences as a student and as a teacher revealed another prevalent message: There was a misconception of who belonged and who didn’t.

Duncan was one of only two Black women in her undergraduate major department, biology. She said the two became friends and supported each other, but there was always a sense of questioning why she was there and whether being identified as different was worth it.

“As I became a teacher, I thought it would be enough that I would be in front of the classroom to really motivate students. And it wasn’t enough, because you’re not going to change the system just by being there,” she said.

Duncan added that even though she didn’t have role models who looked like her, she had mentors who weren’t people of color who encouraged her along the way. She said, “I think there’s a gap, that we’re not telling enough of those stories where it doesn’t have to be someone who looks exactly like you. But you do need to be a champion for different types of groups and different identities.”

Duncan decided to pursue a doctorate in science education at UMass Amherst after several years of teaching in Massachusetts and Connecticut because, she said, “There has to be a way to do more around who is in these spaces and why. And I wanted to approach it from the teacher’s lens.”

Her graduate focus on underrepresented populations working on PhDs in STEM fields, and the reward of developing practices leading to more students embarking on this path, ignited Duncan’s passion. She committed to working with diversity and inclusion, particularly in STEM education. She was driven by the question, “How do I create spaces that are going to allow folks from marginalized communities to thrive?”

After earning her doctorate, Duncan became an assistant professor of science education at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina, a historically Black university. She wanted to be part of a community that supported people of color, she said.

But Duncan also missed New England and yearned for opportunities to work in administrative as well as academic roles. So, she and her husband moved back to Massachusetts and she became director of diversity initiatives, education and outreach at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. There, she worked with pipeline programs involving high school students and undergraduate summer research interns.

Duncan’s work at the Broad Institute led to her most recent positions as assistant vice president of academic diversity in Brown University’s Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity and associate dean of diversity initiatives in the Graduate School at Brown.

“All these places had such unique cultures and such an innovative way of approaching education,” said Duncan. “If I didn’t have these different experiences, I wouldn’t have the perspective I have now.”

Duncan’s immediate focus is to unify diversity and inclusion activities with creation of concrete, coordinated goals. And that entails being clear about what diversity, equity and inclusion mean for the institution as a whole, not just for different units or departments.

“How do we hold ourselves accountable?” she asked. “It’s one thing to have good intentions and another to be intentional.”

Once everyone feels like they’re working toward a common goal, Duncan continued, that will make the work easier. As part of that, enhancing communication around diversity and inclusion will become even more important to keep everyone up to speed on what others are doing.

Another major focus for Duncan is looking at the impact of diversity and inclusion work. People are looking for direction, she said. Making initiatives more data-driven could guide decisions on whether to continue certain initiatives or not.

“I think we get stuck in doing what we’ve done in the past, but not looking at impact,” Duncan said. “I hope to encourage leadership and the institution to look at the impact of our work. Our work can’t just be transactional; it has to be transformational.”

Duncan said she saw opportunities for UMass Medical School to attract more diverse representation among faculty, staff and students—another focus on her to-do list—by making the institution a resource in training and professional development and fostering greater relationships with other communities.

The biggest challenge for Duncan as she addresses diversity issues and changing institutional culture is time. Time to pause and reflect. Time to be creative.

“When we’re under pressure, we’re not going to be creative and take risks in the ways that we need to move,” she said. “That’s why I really do encourage departments to make space for this, give people time to ask questions, build knowledge and then take action. So often we’re just reacting to an event or something we’ve seen in the news.”

Duncan, her husband, their 7-year old son and aging cat live in the Whitinsville village of Northbridge. ■