UCLA Extension Dean Eric A. Bullard appointed Kimberly Baker-Flowers as the first associate dean for inclusive excellence and chief people officer just over one year ago. Through her role, she leads the development of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) practices with the aim of increasing accessibility to higher education. During her time in office, she has hired a director of student resilience, a director of equity and culture and a director of people operations. She has also supported and overseen the establishment of Bruin REACH, a mental health services program for Extension students. Below, she shares details on her first year in office and what she hopes to achieve next.

This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

The first part of the diversity, equity and inclusion equation is to serve primarily as a chief diversity officer – someone who looks at culture, climate and the ways in which we create an inclusive environment. It's a big goal, and my job is to try to figure out ways in which we can support our managers, supervisors and leadership members so that they can try to manage those kinds of priorities within their teams.

The chief people officer part of my role feeds into that as well. It primarily focuses on how we function in terms of employee relations: creating standard operating procedures, enforcement of policy, compliance and thinking about staff specifically. I have three units. I have Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging; People Operations; and Student Resilience. All three of those units work together as a team.

Part of the way that we do business as a team is aspirationally thinking about how we can create more inclusive environments. We also focus on how we can strive for psychological safety and how we can coach and support our leadership through inclusive leadership. I have oversight over the three units, and within my role as the lead, I try to ensure that we're moving toward a more inclusive UCLA Extension.

I've gotten to know the way this organization operates and have a better sense of the historical context that informs that. We've been able to create a great team among the three units that I oversee, and I feel really good about the folks working here. They're just phenomenal in the way that they interact with each other and the ways in which they're trying to show up and model behaviors that I'm asking of everyone. They have shown commitment to UCLA Extension’s mission, and they've thrown themselves wholeheartedly into modeling the behavior of trying to be as inclusive as possible.

I spent a lot of my first year learning where there were gaps and challenges, understanding where we are already successful, and then trying to identify ways in which we could remedy where we were falling short. One thing we focused on was putting in the pieces to try to create an ecosystem where folks will have access to understandable compliance guidelines, cultural team building and community building. Putting those pieces in place has very much been, and still is, a work in progress.

I think this position both externally and internally signals that we are completely committed to what it means to live in this particular context, be it Los Angeles or in the United States, that recognizes all lived experiences. All humans in whatever way they show up to learn and work. We see them, we value them and we welcome them as part of our community. And we want to support them and their success as either staff or students.

The Department of Equity, People and Culture is a unique kind of composition, because it doesn't exist in most places, but I feel really fortunate that I get to sit in a position where I'm able to touch all of those different aspects in a way that feels like we can truly achieve equality across all of UCLA Extension.

It's especially important right now to have it front-of-mind to ensure that there's no encroachment on anyone's civil rights, and that folks feel safe to come to work as themselves and as they truly are, whatever lived experience that is.

I cannot express how truly important it is for us in this moment to think analytically and critically. How do we create spaces and environments where we stand true to UCLA’s mission and values and those that are articulated by UCLA Extension, what the law dictates, and how we uphold them in a way that creates equality for all? Now that the majority of my team is in place, we are able to shift to interpersonal actions.

People Operations will be focusing on people-centered customer response and service.

Student Resilience is focused on our student's equitable success through supporting wellbeing and resilience of all students. They have established Bruin Reach and are working on a peer support structure as well.

Equity and Culture will be focused on creating professional development opportunities for students, staff and instructors and focusing on a more inclusive culture of learning and living.

All my teams work collaboratively to support each other and work across their units with the shared goal of how we can listen to our Extension community and create initiatives and programming that respond to their needs.