Inclusive Excellence

About Darden

About Darden - Inclusive Excellence

Inclusive Excellence

Living our values as a diverse, equitable and inclusive global community.

What We Mean by Inclusive Excellence at Darden

As part of our commitment to pre-eminence as a global business school, we aspire to build a culture of inclusion as an essential means of delivering on our mission to better business and society. Our inclusive excellence framework helps us infuse diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging into every aspect of our operation and culture. As a global business school that engages millions of learners in person and online, we appreciate and value difference. We acknowledge the various forms of human experience, perspectives and backgrounds that shape individuals and our social and cultural world. Inclusive excellence is a core value of the mission, which enables Darden's global, diverse members to collaborate and excel.

Martin Davidson

"In our global world, leaders must have the capacity to engage, lead and manage across differences. We believe that business education must excel at developing this competency in tomorrow's leaders. Our approach at Darden is unique as we examine and fine-tune three phases of stakeholder engagement with the School. Our goal is to be as thoughtful as we can be at every touchpoint.”

Martin Davidson, Johnson and Higgins Professor of Business Administration, Senior Associate Dean and Global Chief Diversity Officer and thought leader on ‘Leveraging Difference

Our Framework for Action

Darden has initiated a series of commitments and actions to live, guide and advance our value for an inclusive community. The actions focus on three main points of engagement:

  1. Entry as a prospective learner

  2. Experience as a community member

  3. Engagement as alumni and lifelong learners

Guiding these actions is a School-wide Darden Initiative for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The initiative sparks conversation through town halls and community dialogues and engagement with groups and initiatives such as:

While we have more work to do to advance inclusive excellence, we’re investing to move the School and global business forward.

I aspire for students, faculty and staff to achieve their full potential, unencumbered by discrimination or bias based on race, ethnicity, gender, nationality, disability, military status, religion, generation, sexual orientation, socioeconomic position or views. I believe education can be a great equalizer in our society, and that inclusive excellence is critical for Darden's long-term success.

Scott Beardsley
Dean and Charles C. Abbott Professor of Business Administration

Entry

Getting to Know Darden

Darden actively recruits and fosters a diverse learning community, with the goal to enrich the experience of students, learners, faculty and staff who choose Darden as their business school of choice.

Office of Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Office of Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Sets the strategy and executes key initiatives to ensure diversity at Darden — publishing a blog by the same name.

Darden Center for Global Initiatives

Darden Center for Global Initiatives

Strengthens and expands Darden’s global community through educational opportunities and partnerships. Publishes Global Voices of Darden.

Women at Darden Initiative

Women@Darden Initiative

Aims to position Darden as the business school of choice for women interested in management education. Hosts an annual women's leadership summit.

New Faculty at Darden 2022

New Faculty Join Darden

World-class teachers and researchers, Darden’s globally diverse faculty members are student-centric guides, conveners and catalysts.

Degree Programs

Degree Programs

The four formats of the MBA (Full-Time, Executive, Global Executive and Part-Time) and the MSBA collaborate with an array of diversity partners.

  • Darden’s Admissions Committee includes several Admissions officers dedicated to global and DEI recruiting.
  • Darden has a robust scholarship program. Two new Darden School Foundation scholarships — Breakthrough Scholars focused on asset management and Impact Fellows — aim to foster a new generation of diverse leaders across industries. 
  • Darden has powerful partnerships with groups like Management Leadership for Tomorrow, Admit.me and ROMBA.
Non-Degree Programs

Non-degree Programs

Darden Executive Education & Lifelong Learning, delivered by the Darden School Foundation, offers an array of custom and open programs focused on DEI.

Darden's Diversity Dashboard

Below, you will find an interactive dashboard that outlines the compositional diversity of our student body across programs. Our hope is that the dashboard will provide a transparent and forthright picture of the community here at Darden, and will help us track our progress over time. We also invite you to explore the larger University's demographic data, and to reach out to diversity@darden.virginia.edu should you have any questions.


Experience

Students Leading From the Front

Darden has over 50 student-run organizations that enhance and integrate students’ academic, social, cultural and professional lives. See the Full-Time MBA clubs and Executive MBA Clubs. Here are a few highlights:

Research & Thought Leadership

Darden faculty and experts offer actionable insights related to DEI on Darden Ideas to Action, including:

Darden Global Chief Diversity Officer on How ‘Difficult Times’ Have ‘Spawned an Openness to Change’

"How Difficult Times Have Spawned an Openness to Change"

Global Chief Diversity Officer Martin Davidson addresses the first annual Darden Executive MBA Celebration of Global Diversity Awareness. He reflects on history, specifically the events of the tragic Unite the Right Rally in August 2017 in Charlottesville, the present and the future. 

Elevating the Conversation 

Darden and its faculty regularly appear in the media on diversity-related topics.

Partnerships

Darden partners with a variety of organizations that support diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, including:

Forte Foundation
The Consortium
P3 Impact Awards with Concordia and the U.S. Department of State's Office of Global Partnerships
 Building Goodness Foundation
Resilience Education
PhD Project 
Management Leadership for Tomorrow


Engagement

Making a Difference as Alumni and Lifelong Learners

Darden alumni are the greatest ambassadors for Darden's culture of inclusive excellence. Meet a few of Darden's 18,000 alumni across the globe.

Willard McCloud

Willard McCloud

(MBA '04), Cargill

Kimberly Diaz

(MBA '19), oneTILT

Jarrett Walker

(MBA '18), J.P. Morgan

Caroline Schoenecker

Caroline Schoenecker

(MBA '11), Deloitte

Cynthia Soledad

Cynthia Soledad

(MBA '02), Egon Zehnder

Daniele Wilson

(MBA '02), Google

Fundraising

Honor those who are powered by purpose. 

Support Diversity Equity and Inclusion Initiatives

Support Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiatives

Make a gift to the Darden Annual Fund designated to fuel critical work creating diversity, equity and inclusion at Darden and throughout its community.

Make A Gift

Center of Excellence for Inclusive Leadership

Committed to Creating a Center of Excellence for Inclusive Leadership

Darden seeks philanthropic support to launch a Center of Excellence for Inclusive Leadership, Equity and Leveraging Difference.

How You Can Help


Meet the Team

Martin Davidson

Martin Davidson

Johnson and Higgins Professor of Business Administration Senior Associate Dean and Global Chief Diversity Officer

Christie Julien

Christie Julien

Assistant Dean for Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Scott Beardsley

Scott Beardsley

Dean and Charles C. Abbott Professor of Business Administration

Juliet Daum

Juliet Daum

Chief Marketing and Communications Officer

Gregory B. Fairchild

Gregory B. Fairchild

Isidore Horween Research Professor of Business Administration Associate Dean for Washington, D.C., Area Initiatives and Academic Director of Public Policy and Entrepreneurship Dean and CEO of UVA | Northern Virginia

Mary Margaret Frank

Mary Margaret Frank

Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development; Samuel A. Lewis Sr. Faculty Fellow; John Tyler Professor of Business Administration; Institute for Business in Society Academic Director

Yael Grushka-Cockayne

Yael Grushka-Cockayne

Professor of Business Administration Altec Styslinger Foundation Bicentennial Chair in Business Administration Senior Associate Dean for Professional Degree Programs

Jen Oliver

Director of Alumni Engagement

Rena Pacheco

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Engagement Associate Director

Thomas Steenburgh

Thomas Steenburgh

Richard S. Reynolds Professor of Business Administration Senior Associate Dean for the Residential MBA Program

Melissa Thomas-Hunt

Melissa Thomas-Hunt

John D. Forbes Distinguished Professor of Business Administration, Special Advisor

Sankaran Venkataraman

Sankaran Venkataraman

MasterCard Professor of Business Administration Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research

Christian West

Christian West

Senior Director of Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Recruiting

Michael Woodfolk

Michael Woodfolk

President, Darden School Foundation

UVA Division for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Interested in learning more about what UVA is doing in the realm of diversity, equity and inclusion? Check out the division website for more information.