The University of Maryland’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion has narrowed its search for a new Bias Incident Support Services director to four final candidates, Diversity and Inclusion Vice President Georgina Dodge announced in an email Wednesday.
Faculty, staff and students will be able to meet each candidate and ask questions in a series of Zoom sessions this week and next.
Each prospective candidate will give a 30-minute presentation, and university community members will have 20 minutes to ask them questions. Attendees will be sent a form to evaluate the candidate after each session, Dodge wrote.
[UMD to fill Bias Incident Support Services program director position amid hiring freeze]
The Bias Incident Support Services office, which includes the university’s hate bias response team, has been without a director since its former leader, Neijma Celestine-Donnor, left the position at the end of July. Brian Medina, project manager for BISS, has taken on the director’s responsibilities since her departure.
The following month, the diversity and inclusion office was cleared to search for her replacement amid a school-wide hiring freeze instituted to counter the university’s economic losses during the coronavirus pandemic.
To participate in each candidate’s session, community members must register in advance with a university email. Each session will be held from 3 to 4 p.m., with the first two on Thursday and Friday and the last two on Dec. 10 and 11.
This story has been updated.
