Dr. Donald “DJ” Mitchell, Jr., Bellarmine’s chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer, has announced that three Bellarmine professors have been selected as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Faculty Fellows for 2021-2022 academic year. Drs. Martha Carlson Mazur, Jakia Marie, and Caitlin Murphy will serve as the inaugural fellows during the pilot year of this program.
 
Each DEI Faculty Fellow submitted an application to Mitchell’s office outlining a project they would like to pursue dedicated to advancing DEI at Bellarmine. Each project relates to specific objectives of Strategic Priority 4 of Bellarmine’s Strategic Plan.
 
The projects are as follows:
  • Dr. Martha Carlson Mazur, an associate professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Studies, will be conducting multicultural curriculum audits for faculty, departments, and schools.
  • Dr. Jakia Marie, an assistant professor of Sociology, will be enriching Bellarmine’s community service initiatives through her involvement with the Butterfly Project and Black Market Grocery in Louisville’s West End.
  • Dr. Caitlin Murphy, an assistant professor of Graduate Studies in Adolescent Literacy, will be working to design a university-wide DEI faculty retreat to make courses more inclusive. 
After the completion of these projects, each Faculty Fellow will submit a final report that assesses the extent to which the goals and objectives of each project were accomplished. 
 
Mitchell said that he participated in a similar program at his previous institution, and that DEI faculty fellow programs have been successful at various institutions. Bellarmine’s president, Dr. Susan M. Donovan, had the idea to bring this kind of program to Bellarmine, and, together, Mitchell, Donovan, and Dr. Paul Gore, vice president for academic affairs and provost, developed the program to increase the DEI visibility at Bellarmine, which is a focal point for further growth. 
 
“I expect our DEI Faculty Fellows will be role models and resources for all faculty, staff and students across the institution,” said Mitchell. “The program provides them time to enhance our DEI initiatives to move us forward, and I look forward to seeing what they accomplish in the upcoming year.”
 
Dr. Martha Carlson Mazur (she/her/hers) is a tenured associate professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Studies. She has master’s and doctoral degrees in Natural Resource Management from the University of Michigan. Prior to Bellarmine, she served as a research scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey Great Lakes Science Center in Ann Arbor, MI, studying coastal ecosystems of the Great Lakes, and was a visiting assistant professor at Boston College in Boston, MA. 
 
In her work, Carlson Mazur pushes for lasting change in terms of equity and justice through environmental responsibility and the overall improvement of the natural world.
 
Dr. Jakia Marie (she/her/hers) is an assistant professor of Sociology, primarily teaching courses in anthropology and African and African American Diaspora studies. She holds a B.A. in liberal studies, a M.Ed. in Higher Education with an emphasis in college student affairs leadership, a M.A. in anthropology, and a Ph.D. in Pan-African studies. 
 
Marie’s work theoretically and empirically explores race, gender, ethnicity, and identity intersections within social and educational constructs in Africa and across the African Diaspora. She is passionate about experiential learning through international education.
 
Dr. Caitlin Murphy (she/her/hers) is an assistant professor of Graduate Studies in Adolescent Literacy. Prior to higher education, Murphy taught high school English for 8 years. She received her Ph.D. in Teaching and Learning from the Ohio State University.
 
Her research interests focus on the intersections of race, literacies, and love in English classrooms as well as Young Adult Literature, particularly texts exploring issues of identity and marginalized youth.