The IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI looks to improve recruitment of underrepresented minorities and first-generation students with two recent hires.
The school hired Marshawm Wolley as director of community engagement and strategic initiatives and Tamra Wright as the new director of diversity, equity and inclusion.
Wolley graduated from IU, where he earned his MPA from SPEA and his MBA from the Kelley School of Business. Wolley previously worked for VisitIndy as director of partner relations. Prior to that, he teamed up with the 2012 Indianapolis Super Bowl Host Committee to agent the NFL’s Emerging Business Program.
The program worked closely with minority and women-owned businesses to teach them about Super Bowl vendor procurement opportunities.
Wolley will help SPEA launch new and foster old relationships with the community’s core leaders.
“The community engagement position was created to engage the community with a concern for going out and getting resources such as scholarship dollars and internship opportunities,” Wolley said.
His engagement with these crucial community partners will amplify community engagement and diversity initiatives.
“I want to make sure that our students are prepared to work,” Wolley said. “I want to make sure that we are providing everything they need and leveraging the community to help with that process.”
Wright earned an MPA in policy management and a master’s degree in criminal justice. Now, Wright returns to IUPUI where she formerly worked as the assistant director of Upward Bound. While there, Wright helped initiate a federal program that benefits underprivileged high school students.
In her new role, Wright will focus on recruitment and retention of underrepresented students. She said she hopes to continue to speak with the K-12 educators she has been in conversation with throughout her career. In doing so, Wright said she wants to make sure the needs of incoming underrepresented and minority students are put in the forefront for her and her colleagues.
“Everyone has different needs, and we need to make sure that we have the resources to satisfy the needs of the very different students that we are getting here on campus,” Wright said.
Wright said she wants to start new conversations with students who feel IUPUI lacks diversity so she can hone in on the change they would like to see on campus.
Economics and support are two primary factors significantly lacking in the lives of underrepresented minorities and first-generation student’s that make recruitment difficult, Wright said.
“A lot of times when you see underrepresented students dropping out or leaving it’s not because they aren’t academically capable its because all of the other life factors are happening and those support services are not in place,” Wright said.
Students who are academically equipped but can’t afford a four-year college education often enroll in community college, Wright said.
“We need to prepare students to leave here and be able to work and thrive in an environment that’s diverse,” Wright said. “Diversity in the world is what makes it great.”
In Bloomington, construction of the Paul H. O’Neil graduate center in SPEA is underway.
Although it is not a direct recruitment project, the new space has high expectations like those of the recent hires at IUPUI.
“I see the new graduate center serving very instrumental purposes, in that we will have classrooms and offices,” Dean Michael McGuire of SPEA said. “But I also think it is going to foster community for all populations here.”
