Given the current state of affairs with the COVID-19 pandemic, Juliana Mosley, PhD, believes we are at a place in society where the public agenda and discussion is focused on racial and socioeconomic health disparities.
“My thought was that this is a perfect time for me to work in healthcare education and have the opportunity to help further the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) agenda for Salus University, given that it’s a premiere healthcare institution,” she said.
Dr. Mosley will have that opportunity Nov. 1, 2020, when she joins the University as its inaugural special assistant to the president for DEI.
With 20-plus years of experience in education, she most recently served as the Chief Diversity, Inclusion and Community Relations officer at Chestnut Hill College. She previously held several positions as vice president for Student Affairs at Lincoln University, Edward Waters College, Marygrove College, and Philander Smith College; the director of Multicultural Affairs at John Carroll University; the executive assistant to the president at Kentucky State University; and a high school business teacher in the Houston Independent School District.
Dr. Mosley earned her PhD in Educational Leadership and her MA in Curriculum and Teacher Leadership from Miami University of Ohio, and BS in Business Education from Ball State University.
Dr. Mosley and the University are not strangers. She was the DEI presenter for Orientation Week in August 2019 and was invited to return as the featured speaker for the virtual Orientation Week for new students in August 2020 on the topic, “Making the Unconscious Conscious . . . Through Cultural Humility.”
She said because people were already in a heightened state of sensitivity as a result of the pandemic, the racial injustice events earlier in the year that included the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, Breonna Taylor in Kentucky and George Floyd in Minnesota, caused people to say enough is enough.
“People’s emotions were definitely much more in tune to who they are as individuals that I think it opened up and created a platform for people to consider what was happening to others, even if others wasn't their story, or couldn’t personally relate,” said Dr. Mosley. “I think that it’s not a storm that anybody wanted, but it’s the storm we got. And, in every storm, there is opportunity for growth.”
Once she gets to the University, Dr. Mosley hopes to help Salus advance its DEI identity on both a regional and national level.
“I bring a passion for diversity, equity and inclusion that stems beyond my formal education to my life experiences. These areas have always been not only of interest to me, but have been my life,” said Dr. Mosley. “We have to have hope for change, hope for being better, hope for true inclusion, and hope for equity to finally come and take its rightful place. I want to elevate Salus to be known as a best-practice model that other institutions can look to as an example.”
