Team Next Step comprises a racially diverse group of faculty, staff, and administrators committed to organizing and implementing institutional transformation for the benefit of all members of the Oakton community.
Mission Statement
Team Next Step's mission statement mirrors that of the College:
We are the Community's College
- We are an inclusive, anti-racist, multicultural educational institution that recognizes the destructive effects of racism on all members of our community.
- We commit to restoring full participation and shared power of the entire community and being accountable to the people and communities we serve.
We are a Community of Learners
- We reject all forms of bias.
- We are dedicated to teaching an anti-racist, anti-bias curriculum.
- We implement anti-racist, anti-bias structures, policies, and practices that maximize the potential of our constituents.
We are a Changing Community
- We imagine a future without systemic racism that empowers all members of our community to use their creativity in an inclusive, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive environment.
Oakton's Anti-Racism Statement
Initiatives
Team Next Step's initiatives include:
- Shaping awareness of systemic racism within the institution and analyzing the specific barriers to change;
- Fostering a College-wide commitment to dismantle institutional racism and establish an anti-racist purpose;
- Developing an action plan for dismantling the structures that perpetuate racism within the institution;
- Developing cultural identities within the institution based on an anti-racist understanding;
- Building new organizational structures that share decision-making powers.
Team Members
- Marc Battista, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs
- Donovan Braud, Chair, Distinguished Professor of English
- Michelle James, Distinguished Professor of Psychology
- Gloria Liu, Grants Manager of STEAM-H and Special Projects
- Ileo Lott, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
- Keith Morgan-Dunham, Coordinator of Counseling Services
- Katherine Schuster, Co-Chair, Anthropology, College Studies, Education, Psychology, Social Science and Sociology Department & Coordinator, Distinguished Professor, Education
- Suzanne Ziegenhorn, Distinguished Professor of Biology
Team Next Step works with Chicago Regional Organizing for Antiracism (CROAR) to host regional workshops and train Oakton's institutional transformational teams.
For more information, please email teamnextstep@oakton.edu or contact a team member.
