We thrive on diversity. That is one of the nine values that makes Georgia Tech unique. It was one of the things that attracted me here last year and I believe it is the value that will be the source of our strength in the future. When we are exposed to different ideas and different ways of thinking we grow and expand our abilities. Bringing diverse voices into a conversation makes ideas richer. It provides participants access to wider knowledge, and the resulting solutions are more resilient because they have been developed from multiple viewpoints.

These are great concepts, but they only work if we actually have diverse people on our teams. You cannot create diverse teams by hiring the same type of individual over and over again. You actually have to go out and find a variety of unique individuals from different backgrounds. One of the things that the pandemic has taught us is that we can no longer be passive; we have to be intentional in making connections and working together. This means that we need to be intentional when we are building and growing our teams. We have to actively engage with talent from all backgrounds and we need to grow talent through mentoring, internships, and apprenticeships to ensure that we always have unlimited opportunity for success.

Over the next year, IT will engage the greater Atlanta community to do just that. We will be working with students from diverse communities to expose them to the work that we do and to encourage them to consider IT as a career path. I also welcome opportunities to partner across Tech to create as many pathways for diverse IT talent as possible because, ultimately, IT is up to us.

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OIT was thrilled to contribute content for the Institute’s Making Black History featured webpage this month. If you have not already, please take a few moments to watch our video "Representation in IT", which highlights black leaders from the IT community and their perspectives on how sponsorship, mentorship, and representation shape a healthy IT organization.