Unitec Chief Executive Honoured with Award for Racial Equity

A US International Racial Equity Leadership Award was awarded to Unitec Institute of Technology’s Chief Executive, Dr Rick Ede today.

The award was bestowed at the National Summit for Courageous Conversations About Race in Austin, Texas where Dr Rick Ede and Unitec’s Dr Matthew Farry are presenting on the Aotearoa New Zealand experience to more than 750 educators, administrators and community members from around the world as part of a think tank on addressing racial inequity in higher education.

The International Racial Equity Leadership Award is given only when there is a deserving recipient. It follows Dr Ede’s role in establishing the first Institute for Courageous Conversation, in partnership with the Pacific Education Group, in March 2016 at Unitec. This Institute helps students, teachers, companies and organisations throughout the South Pacific better understand and harness the power of racial and ethnic diversity.

Glenn Singleton, president and founder of the Pacific Educational Group says “having worked in higher education space in the United States and, more recently, Australia for many years, I recognise Dr Ede's courageous racial equity leadership to be unprecedented. He is determined to fortify his bold vision with transformative actions and as a result, the Unitec community, Auckland and eventually all of Aotearoa New Zealand, will become more racially just.”

Dr Ede says the award is testament to leadership and commitment of an increasing number of Unitec staff who find constructive ways to explore the issue of race, and in doing so, create an educational environment that helps overcome systemic barriers to success encountered by many Maori and Pacific learners.

Director of the Institute for Courageous Conversation at Unitec, Dr Matt Farry, says equity transformation needs to be systemic and personal rather than a series of random acts of equity and diversity.

“The Courageous Conversations protocol gives us a way to navigate a conversation about race in our lives and hear others’ perspectives. It provides us with tools for managing these conversations, leaning into our discomfort and staying engaged.”

“Within Unitec, we have been using the Courageous Conversation protocol to learn how to engage our learners and recognise how people of different racial backgrounds understand and interact with each other. The concept is to overcome challenges of structural racism and create an environment enabling equity of success for all.”

ENDS

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