The Collective’s

Racial Equity in Workforce Development Series

Institutions of higher education and their workforce development efforts play a powerful role in connecting students to careers, economic mobility, and opportunities to build meaningful lives for themselves and their families.

But these connections do not operate in a vacuum. They take place within a society where longstanding racial inequities in education, housing, wealth accumulation, hiring, professional networks, and more have shaped who has historically been able to access occupations and economic opportunities. These inequities can be carried into and reproduced through the very ways workforce development programs are organized and designed.

For example, structural racism can operate through seemingly race-neutral institutional practices that assume students have equal access to resources and forms of social capital that remain inequitably distributed by race. This includes expectations that students can afford to participate in:

  • unpaid internships (NACE, 2023),

  • draw upon informal professional networks (Pedulla & Pager, 2019),

  • secure faculty or staff recommendations (Deshpande et al., 2024),

  • be equally perceived as “professional” (Suriel, 2026), and

  • accommodate flexible work schedules (Wladis et. al., 2024).*

Pursuing racial equity in workforce development therefore requires us to ask a bigger question: Are we simply trying to help students navigate an unequal labor market? Or are we examining and (re)designing our institutional systems in equity-minded ways that work to counter rather than reproduce structural racism?

*To learn more about the effects of occupational segregation and structural racism on workforce opportunities, read Solomon, Maxwell, and Castro’s (2019) Systemic Inequality and Economic Opportunity.

2026 EMCI Professional Development Tracks

Building capacity for equity-minded practice is an ongoing process, and the EMCI is here to provide sustained, continuous support. As part of membership, EMCI institutions may enroll up to 20 participants annually—10 participants per track across two tracks.

Tracks are offered in the spring, summer, and fall, giving members flexibility in how and when they participate. Institutions may choose to enroll in the same track twice within a single semester or spread participation across terms. Additionally, the same participants may enroll in both tracks, depending on institutional goals and priorities.

The Collective’s high-touch professional development opportunities will help ensure that equity-minded capacity is consistently growing across your campus community. Descriptions for our six 2026 EMCI Professional Development Tracks are shared below.

Equity-Minded Teaching:

Level One

This track provides college instructors with the foundation for data-informed and race-conscious classroom practice. Sessions include:

  1. The Salience of Race in the Classroom

  2. Designing Equity-Minded Syllabi

  3. Making Sense of Disaggregated Instructor-Level Data

  4. Creating Race-Conscious Grade and Attendance Maps

  5. Action Planning: Sustaining Equity-Minded Classroom Practices

Fall 2026 Dates and Times: 

  • Fridays from 9:00am – 11:00am PT 

  • September 18 & 25 and October 2, 9 & 16

Registration deadline: Friday, August 28

Equity-Minded Teaching:

Equity-Minded Student Affairs / Services

The Student Affairs/ Services Track focuses on practical strategies student-facing practitioners can use to address racial inequities. Sessions include:

  • The Salience of Race in Student Services Spaces

  • Equity-Minded Relationship-building & Student Engagement

  • Gathering and Using Close-to-Practice Data Disaggregated by Race/Ethnicity

  • Building Equity-Minded Policies, Processes, & Practices

  • Action Planning: Sustaining Equity-Minded Practices

Fall 2026 Dates and Times: 

  • Mondays from 12:00pm – 2:00pm PT 

  • October 19 & 26 and November 2, 9, & 16

Registration deadline: Friday, September 25

Level Two

A continuation of Equity-Minded Teaching Level One (a prerequisite), this track explores advanced equity-minded classroom facilitation strategies. Sessions include:

  1. Equity-Minded Relationship-Building and Student Engagement

  2. Equity-Minded Classroom Facilitation

  3. Leading Classroom Conversations Examining Power and Privilege

  4. Research Review: Classroom Practices that Support Racial Equity

  5. Sustaining Equity-Minded Classroom Practices

Fall 2026 Dates and Times: 

  • Fridays from 9:00am – 11:00am PT 

  • Oct. 23 & 30 and Nov. 6, 13, & 20

Registration deadline: Friday, September 25

Equity-Minded Leadership

This track is designed for college executives and administrators seeking to institutionalize racial equity across policies, practices, and organizational culture. Sessions include:

  1. The Salience of Race in Higher Education for Students, Instructors, and Practitioners

  2. Equity-Minded Leadership at the Interpersonal Level

  3. Leading the Development of Equity-Minded Policies, Processes, & Practices

  4. Facilitating Campus Conversations Supporting Race-Conscious Practice

  5. Sustaining Equity-Minded Practices

Fall 2026 Dates and Times: 

  • Tuesdays from 12:00pm – 2:00pm PT 

  • October 20 & 27 and November 3, 10, & 17

Registration deadline: Friday, September 25

Equity-Minded Hiring

The Hiring Track prepares practitioners to apply disaggregated data and equity-minded principles to hiring processes and structures. Recommended participants include campus leaders, Human Resources staff, and hiring committee members. Sessions include:

  1. Foundations of Racial Equity in Hiring

  2. Interrogating Bias and Reframing Conceptions of Merit, Fit, and Compliance

  3. Equity-minded Criteria, Rubrics, and Interview Questions

  4. Disrupting Bias in Committee Discussions

  5. Equitable Matriculation and Retention

Fall 2026 Dates and Times: 

  • Mondays from 9:00am – 11:00am PT

  • September 14, 21, & 28 and October 5 & 12

Registration deadline: Friday, August 28

Equity-Minded Data Coaching

Colleges and universities are increasingly utilizing data disaggregated by race and ethnicity. This track is designed for institutional researchers and campus leaders who guide race-conscious data analysis, interpretation, and action planning. Sessions include:

  1. Centering Institutional and Practitioner Agency in Disaggregated Data Discussions

  2. Strategies for Gathering & Presenting Data to Support Racial Equity

  3. Re-framing Common Detours in Disaggregated Data Conversations

  4. Research Review: Practices that Support Racial Equity

  5. Action Planning: Sustaining Equity-Minded Data Coaching Practices

Fall 2026 Dates and Times: 

  • Mondays from 12:00pm – 2:00pm PT 

  • September 14, 21, & 28 and October 5 & 12

Registration deadline: Friday, August 28

“I have better and more words I can call on when having discussions about racial equity. I have the ability to put into words what before has just been vague thoughts.”

— An Institute Participant