Dr. Damon Williams and Inclusive Excellence: A Road to Excellence for Everyone
Dr. Damon Williams, former head of the UW-Madison DDEEA, addresses the UW-Madison Diversity Forum in November 2024
by Jonathan Gramling
Dr. Damon A. Williams founded the UW-Madison Division for Diversity, Equity and Educational Achievement (DDEEA) in 2009 and moved on to become a senior vice-president for the Boys & Girls Club of America in 2013 where he remained until he left in 2017 to pursue his interests in inclusive excellence, consulting with private and public sector organizations including universities across the country. He also founded The Center for Strategic Diversity Leadership & Social Impact to teach people about inclusive excellence.
Williams philosophy and approach to inclusive excellence seems to be one where it seeks to take everyone to a higher level where everyone’s skills and talents are valued and nurtured. It seeks to bring people together for a common purpose even in times of adversity.
While Williams recognizes that DEI and perhaps inclusive excellence are in difficult times, he still seeks to make progress.
“There are always going to be moments in time that you face a little more headwinds, a little more challenge than others,” Williams said. “There are going to be times where the winds are at your back and you feel you are making incredible progress. But what I found is through those difficult moments and through those emboldening moments, you always have to stay true north towards the issues that matter most. And you have to stay focused on really trying to expand opportunity for folks across the board. You really have to focus on those who are vulnerable and are facing the most difficult of challenges. You have to have a lot of empathy. You have to regulate your emotions and not get too high, not get angry, not get low. You have to have the ability to maintain or steady a progression forward to expand access, to expand opportunity, to expand leadership, to expand belonging, to expand hope, to expand diversity, to expand community. You have to keep going forward. Even when it gets tough, you have to keep going forward.”
And as strong as those headwinds seem to be, there have been times in history where they have been far stronger.
“Irrespective of whatever type of headwinds we face today, the communities that believe in the work the way I believe in the work are communities who face forwards and we have faced far greater challenges,” Williams said.
“We have to stay calibrated and understand that this is a moment of time where we have to continue to do the work, continue to do the stuff. But there are times when it has been far worse. And if this is my onus, my weight to carry today, then I willingly accept that.”
As an academic, Williams is always analyzing the root causes that have contributed to today’s headwinds and he has found that a lot has to do with divisiveness and the conditions that allow that to happen.
“You have to ask the question, ‘What is broken that is not aligned for the type of collaborative solution making, the type of dialogue, the type of openness to other’s perspective,’” Williams said. “You have to ask who is in this model that we call diversity. Who is not in that model? How do we continue to expand the conversation? And last, but definitely not least, as things get really tough, you have to continue to innovate and you have to fight. And I don’t mean fight with your neighbor. It means you continue to press forward towards the greater good and what really matters. You have to keep going forward no matter what. We have to stay calibrated to understand that this is the moment. We have to continue to be gritty and resilient and innovative, even in this moment and stay focused on the greater good and what matters.”
It is during the most difficult times that one must take it to a higher level and seek the solutions to the circumstances that led to the present situation.
“Things will get better, but we are headed towards — and we are in — a storm,” Williams emphasized. “And it’s going to be important for us to continue to expand our thinking and look to build new bridges. I mean that truly. I found that when we are just in the tales of a conversation, whether that is the tale of a conversation to dismantle the work of diversity, equity and inclusion or in a conversation to progressively advance the cause of social justice and equity and anti-racism, whether we are in any of those tales of progressiveness, what I found is often times we are speaking beyond each other. I know what I believe in my heart. And I know where my values skew. But when I move beyond my own myopic sense of my values and what I believe and I start really looking into what is my true purpose, which is how we are going to expand this thing broadly, how are we going to help those who don’t just think the way that I think or want to do the way that I would love to do, but expand the total that we have to do things that are going to connect with more folks in the middle. We have to find the pathway to a creative, embracing pluralism. We’ve got to find the way to continue to be equity-minded. We’ve got to find the way to really be focused on how do we really elevate the condition of those who are most vulnerable, those who are on the margin and we have to find the way to connect with those who are hyper-alienated right now. We have to ask the question, ‘How do we truly, truly get to a higher ground?’ And you can’t do that if you are only looking at the world through your perspective.”
On some levels, Williams’ approach is like an update of the nonviolent approach of Dr. Martin Luther king Jr.
“Dr. King’s words are more prophetic for me in 2024 trending towards 2025 than they were in 1964,” Williams reflected. “I have never felt more connected to the non-violence, communal philosophies that were put forward by the Civil Rights Movement. The need to be passionate about the mission of opportunity and civil rights and opportunity and access and all of those things, but also be very serious about the business of negotiation, very serious about the business of coming to the table, very serious about the business of finding the pathway forward through strength and resilience, but also compromise. It can’t just be the yelling at each other. It can’t just be the protesting. It also has to be the seriousness of sitting down at the table. It’s coming together and seriously looking at the business of how we get into a groove together. It is about being serious about the work. You have to roll up your sleeves in this diverse, pluralistic society that we are in.”
There is a saying that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Now that the movement knows what it is up against, a very strong headwind, it is time to continue to move forward.
