Dr. Sadie Burton-Goss: Welcoming All in D&I

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Did you know that Babson College ranks number one in entrepreneurial education? Sadie Burton-Goss, Ph.D., Babson College’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, takes great pride in this fact, which is largely due to the rich diversity of Babson’s faculty, staff, and students.

“We’re aggressively pursuing diverse faculty and staff in a strategy to do more outreach,” says Dr. Burton-Goss. “Everyone is welcome here.”

With Dr. Burton-Goss’ collaborative leadership, she works with campus leaders designing and crafting diversity and inclusion strategies. More than ever, Babson is reaching out to underrepresented communities and partnering with organizations to further the mission of the college, which is to “educate entrepreneurial leaders who create great economic and social value—everywhere.” She also works closely with student leaders to ensure that resources are leveraged and experiences are shared for diversity-related student organizations.

“We’re not just responsible for training programs,” says Dr. Burton-Goss, “We’re creating a culture and crafting policy to help guide the college. We should have a broad view of the entire landscape to advance diversity and inclusion.”

Early in her Babson tenure, one of the many policies she initiated was to address bias-related incidents—the Bias Incident Response Policy. Today, the college is in a better position to define bias and how to handle it once it occurs. Dr. Burton-Goss works with the college’s leadership to ensure that Babson College is the place where all members of the community have access to opportunities, where they can grow and thrive.

“Diversity and inclusion is about all of the ways we are different,” says Dr. Burton-Goss.

With over twenty years as a leader in the field of diversity and inclusion, Dr. Burton-Goss brings her experience of leading diversity and inclusion initiatives in government, insurance, technology, healthcare, finance, and now higher education.

According to Dr. Burton-Goss, the success of diversity can be measured when everyone in your organization is represented in some way. If you’re not living out the main objective of your organization, she advises going back and revisiting your mission statement

“We are committed to an extreme range of diversity,” she says. “We can’t live out our mission if we are not a diverse and inclusive organization.”