Team Next Step

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

  • Michelle Arnold, Coordinator for the Center for Research, Innovation and Creative Engagement (RICE)
  • Marc Battista, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs
  • Donovan Braud, Chair, Distinguished Professor of English
  • Mary Hope Griffin, Dean of Liberal Arts Division
  • Gloria Liu, Grants Manager of STEAM-H and Special Projects
  • Ileo Lott, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
  • Kanchana Mendes, Dean of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment
  • Keith Morgan-Dunham, Coordinator of Counseling Services
  • Nathan Norman, Senior Director of Workforce Development
  • Katherine Schuster, Co-Chair, Anthropology, College Studies, Education, Psychology, Social Science and Sociology Department and Coordinator and Distinguished Professor of Education
  • Keith Simonds, Assistant Professor, Political Science
  • 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.