Message From the Director:

As our workforce has become more diverse, it has also become more challenging to manage. However, if the concept of "equal opportunity" is to retain any meaning at all,
it must find some sense of relevancy within our agency that is culturally diverse and inclusive. This means, among other things, learning to work in a collaborative and
non-blaming environment where all employees can reach their full potential. It means examining our own programs and practices to detect the presence of minority and gender bias, however inadvertent, and finding ways to address it. It means fostering greater awareness of and sensitivity to the least of those among us.

Honoring and respecting our differences, whatever form they may take, is essential
for cultural synergy that celebrates those differences based on combined strengths, concepts, and skills. The value of diversity reaches far beyond the conventional measures of merit; it must also be the foundation for how we treat one another within and outside the workplace. Let us all commit ourselves to a new conversation- one that celebrates our unique differences while acknowledging our common purpose- to becoming the best agency that we can be.

—Donald L. McLellan, Ph.D., Director, ODEO