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Renewing Thunderbird’s Commitment to Creating Equitable and Sustainable Prosperity WORLDWIDE
By Co-facilitators of Thunderbird’s Global JEDIS Task Force: Bronwyn Beabeau, Chief Operating Officer; Tomás Bilbao, Executive Director of Branding and Communications; Prof. Landry Signé, Director of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Globalization 4.0 Center and co-director of the Washington, DC Regional Center of Excellence
In June of last year, Thunderbird Director General and Dean, Dr. Sanjeev Khagram, issued a letter to Thunderbird’s global community in light of the calls for social justice in the United States over the summer of 2020, renewing the School’s commitment to building inclusive, diverse, and sustainable globalism in the 21st century.
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In that message, Dean Khagram committed the School to accelerating and expanding its curriculum, dedicating more resources to our ongoing efforts at forging transformative collaborations across sectors around the world, exploring and inventing new mechanisms to ensure that all students, faculty, and staff are fully supported and empowered; and to further leverage the experience of Thunderbird for Good and Thunderbird’s new Masrin Center for Entrepreneurship and Family Business in support of inclusive entrepreneurship and innovation in underserved communities. He also emphasized how vital it is that we all make this a globally focused effort, recognizing that issues of justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and sustainability are pervasive around the globe and that Thunderbird is uniquely positioned to help address these challenges.
Shortly after making this commitment, Dean Khagram directed the creation of Thunderbird School of Global Management’s Task Force on Global Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Sustainability (Global JEDIS) composed of representatives from across our global community. The task force was based on the following principles:
- We will prioritize direct empowerment through equity and inclusion at the global and the local level.
- We will seek to make a profound and lasting impact that is systematic and transformative, doing so with all deliberate speed. n We will partner with organizations, globally and locally, that can help expand our knowledge and understanding as well as our impact around the world.
- We will pay special attention to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals, aimed at leaving no one behind.
Since its creation, the Global JEDIS Task Force has been hard at work harnessing the knowledge and passion of our global community to develop recommendations for actions that advance the principles outlined by Dean Khagram. We were honored to be asked to serve as cofacilitators of this effort, which includes more than 25 members of our global community representing faculty, staff, students, and alumni.
Over the course of the last five months, we have worked across three agile teams: A) Thought Leadership and Academics, B) Student and Staff Success, and C) Partnerships and Initiatives. We have strived to make this an inclusive process that draws on the talent and passion of our community. This work will result in concrete and actionable recommendations that will help the School continue to play a role in solving some of the world’s greatest challenges by bringing together leaders from across the globe who are committed to advancing equitable and sustainable prosperity worldwide.
- Thunderbird Oath of Honor
