Area Report for Board of Trustees

The Equity, Diversity, and Transformation (EDT) Division is charged with embedding equity in everything we do at Highline College. Below are updates of the ongoing work.

Core Theme 1: ACCESS, Reduce Barriers and close equity gaps to access for all community members

• The journey to becoming a federally designated Hispanic-serving Institution continues at Highline College. The new learning community for Latinx-identified incoming students, Juntos, which is scheduled for its first cohort Fall of 2024 is quickly filling up. The hard work of the Moving Toward Serving team has been instrumental in making this happen. Summer plans are underway to connect with incoming students and their families.

• Dr. Jimenez and Director Krystal Welch are meeting every Wednesday morning with the  Gates Foundation Horizon grant partners as we have begun the implementation planning of the grant. 

Core Theme 2: STUDENT LEARNING, Increase educational success, collaborate to improve

• Director Krystal Welch her team, Gaby Osorio, Sudon DeSuze and Keith Moore have partnered with High School Programs for the Standing on Business admissions workshops at Federal Way and Highline Public Schools. 
• Gaby Osorio, Latinx Student Success Program Manager and Salma Silva-Lincon, Faculty member, partnered to create a day-long event for Latinx-identified seniors from the Federal Way School District. We had over 70 seniors from Todd Beamer, Decatur, Federal Way, and Thomas Jefferson participate to learn more about enrolling at Highline.

Core Theme 3: COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS, Create a more inclusive working environment and a more valued, visible relationship with communities we serve

• The Equity, Diversity and Transformation Division team was present at the 10th Annual Y.E.L.L Summit

Core Theme 4: CULTURE & CAPACITY: Promote a campus culture which fosters equity and inclusivity supporting employee growth and development, and institutional capacity for transformation.

• The Office of Equity, Diversity, and Transformation partnered with the Equity Task Force to execute another successful 6th Annual Equity Development Day on May 3, 2024. The feedback from the Highline community was very positive and agreed that they learned something new and something they can immediately apply to their work. 
• Under the leadership of EDT Student Ambassador, Lizeth Favela Lopez, the final Latinx-centered event, Banderas y Bunelos was a success with over 50 participants. 

Division Highlights

• Dra. Jimenez was elected to serve on the incoming executive team of the Washington State Diversity Equity Officers Commission (DEOC) starting July 1, 2024
• The Office of EDT would like to recognize Lizeth Favela Lopez, the inaugural student ambassador of the Office of EDT. She has worked extremely hard this year in planning all of the Conchas con la Comunidad events every quarter, she has served as an integral voice on the Moving Toward Serving team of the college, and has co-created and led the student advisory team for this work. She will be student teaching full time starting this August and will no longer be able to serve in her current role. She is completing her Bachelors in Teaching here at Highline College.

Report submitted by Vice President of Equity, Diversity and Transformation Dra. Maribel Jimenez