The Kelley School has long been a champion of diversity in education and in business. Our efforts have resulted in more than 100 initiatives that have led to significant improvements in recruitment and retention of diverse students. Nevertheless, the Black Lives Matter movement has shown us that we have not done enough to address systemic racism, prejudice, and privilege, or to prepare our students to be anti-racist business leaders. The Kelley School resolves to do more and do better. We have established committees to examine our systems, structures, and curricula, and to ensure a continuous dialogue with our students, faculty, and staff. Soon, we will be announcing initiatives to address our shortcomings. Only through difficult conversations will we truly begin to achieve our goals of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. The moment is now.
See where we’ve been and where we’re going.
KIMWA
The Kelley Indianapolis MBA Women’s Association is a community of students, alumnae, faculty and staff supporting and promoting women in the Kelley MBA program to achieve their personal and professional goals. Through women-led networking events and workshop opportunities, students develop supportive connections among their peers, who often become mentors as well as lifelong friends and colleagues.
“There’s never been a question in my mind at any point during the MBA as to whether I fit in here at Kelley. Faculty and staff are huge supporters of KIMWA, and do anything they can to help us succeed. KIMWA provides women with an outlet to talk to other women who are all working and going to school to share learnings, opportunities, advice and friendship.”
–Briana Bauer, BS’11, MBA’20
Center for Leadership Development (CLD)
The Kelley School of Business helped developed the Center for Leadership Development in the 1970s to foster the advancement of minority youth in Central Indiana as future professional, business and community leaders. In 1975, Kelley School Dean Jack Wentworth helped create a feasibility study on the potential to improve the quality and quantity of minorities in business and industry, which ultimately led to the development of the CLD. Former Kelley Dean Schuyler F Otteson became the first chairman of the CLD Board of Directors, and the school continues to support CLD’s Business Orientation Program on the IUPUI campus.
Women in Business Club
The Women in Business Club (WIB) at the Kelley School is a professional development group providing support and educational opportunities to undergraduate business students. WIB hosts professional women as guest speakers to discuss their career experiences and also business recruiters to talk about interviewing and resume best practices.
“Women should not have to be held back from being their best selves simply because of gender discrimination. I love the opportunities WIB can provide women by giving them information, resources and stories from other women in leadership. It is great to be part of something that is bigger than just a club, and Women in Business is definitely a family.”
–Lauryn Groce, BS’21 | WIB President
PhD Project
The Kelley School is a long-time supporter of the PhD Project, an organization working to increase workplace diversity and minorities in leadership positions by increasing the diversity of business school faculty who encourage, mentor, support and enhance the preparation of tomorrow’s leaders. Kelley faculty remain involved in the PhD project and our school promotes all open PhD positions through the PhD Project.
IU Indianapolis Partnerships
The Kelley School of Business is a campus leader in supporting collaborative efforts with the wider IU Indianapolis campus to foster diversity and celebrate various cultures. This includes sponsorship of important dinners hosted by the Multicultural Center, such as dinners to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez and Harvey Milk. Our Evening MBA is also a proud annual sponsor of Soul, Salsa and Sushi, a signature event of the National Black MBA Association, Prospanica, and Indianapolis’ Asian American Alliance. Each year we celebrate the success of our graduating minority students through special events such as the Celebration of Black Graduates and Latin@ Graduation.
The Kelley School also supports the IU Indianapolis Office of Community Engagement as they work with Indianapolis Public Schools to build a pipeline for students interested in the school of business. This includes an entrepreneurship camp for high schoolers. BOSS Summer Camp, hosted at George Washington High School, fosters an interest in business and provides high school students with life skills they can use in college or trade school.
Grant to Increase Women in Business
Two Kelley faculty members are working to advance women in the workplace. Through a year-long series of workshops funded by a grant, M. Kim Saxton and Charlotte Westerhaus-Renfrow are leading a program to understand barriers a cohort of women face, and then provide skills training to increase their advancement potential. The program provides skills training at no cost to a cohort of Linking Indy Women, a group of more than 2,000 professional women in central Indiana seeking to increase their advancement potential. Through this project, Saxton and Westerhaus-Renfrow hope to better understand the barriers women face when trying to advance their careers, and then use that knowledge to provide specific training with measurable results.
“Women’s advancement in the workplace is stuck. The needle isn’t moving. If women aren’t advancing in central Indiana, the wage gap won’t move either. Indianapolis needs to be a place where the best talent wants to come and stay – and that includes women. Frankly, it’s not just about promoting women because we believe they deserve it, it’s because they DO deserve it.”
–Charlotte Westerhaus Renfrow, clinical assistant professor of business law and management
Herman B Wells
Before becoming Indiana University’s progressive and longest serving president, Herman B Wells earned a degree from what is today the Kelley School of Business, which he also led as dean from 1935 to 1937. During his visionary tenure as IU president, he worked to desegregate the campus, community, and intercollegiate athletics prior to the civil rights era.
“Our victory can have little meaning or significance unless we proclaim our belief in the brotherhood of all men, men of all races, classes, and nations, and personally practice our belief by extending the cordial hand of fellowship to all men.”
–Herman B Wells, March 5, 1944
IU Indianapolis and IU Bloomington: Excellence in Diversity
IU Indianapolis and IU Bloomington, IU’s core campuses, earned the 2023 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award from Insight Into Diversity magazine, the largest, oldest and most respected national diversity and inclusion magazine in higher education.
This is the 12th year IU Indianapolis has been honored with the HEED award and the ninth time for IU Bloomington. In addition, IU Bloomington received the Diversity Champion honor, given only to the top universities in the country, for the seventh consecutive year.
The HEED Award is open to universities and colleges in the US and Canada. The publication says it “measures an institution’s level of achievement and intensity of commitment in regard to broadening diversity and inclusion on campus through initiatives, programs, and outreach; student recruitment, retention, and completion; and hiring practices for faculty and staff.”
Ash Soni, Dean, The SungKyunKwan Professor, Professor of Operations & Decision Technologies Business is better when there is diversity of thought and experience at the table. Good leaders know that, and good companies know that. Our hiring companies invest in programming at Kelley that promotes inclusivity and respect for diversity in all forms.
Inclusive Community
Indianapolis is among the largest cities in the country and is home to a unique combination of cultures across the metro area. Explore diverse cultural offerings through the Indiana Black Expo, Indy Pride, the Heartland International Film Festival, and the Circle City Classic.