MISSION

The NOSS EAI Network is a beloved professional community dedicated to elevating unheard voices, advocating for diverse perspectives, and promoting an openness to growth for educational practitioners and the communities we serve. 

Who are we? 

We are practitioners, learners, and visionaries engaged in reshaping our educational institutions to better serve diverse communities of students and educational professionals.

Who are the members of our community?

Our professional roles include the NOSS Equity Access and Inclusion Network, NOSS Leaders, developmental educators, adult educators, postsecondary educators, postsecondary learning support educators, and K-16 administrators, faculty, staff, and students.

What do we do? 

We seek to create a beloved professional community in which members:

• Advance justice and equity-oriented principles and policies within our organization and our educational institutions

• Provide resources and opportunities for conversation and work centering equity and inclusion at our members’ institutions 

• Promote leadership reflective of the diversity of our students, communities, and collegial community 

• Explore opportunities for increasing EAI in our field 

• Serve as a resource (conduit) to help members meet the NADE Guiding Principles for Cultural Competency  

• Agitate through vital conversations around Equity/Access/Inclusion  

• Collaborate among educators, institutions, and other stakeholders to enhance EAI 

• Critically engage in our practice and our assumptions about how our practice within various institutional contexts can honor our students and their goals  

• Transform our academic communities into spaces where all will thrive and grow as they recognize each person’s value in an ever-changing global community

• Establish a platform for culturally-based discussion, policy critique and review, and networking opportunities amongst our beloved professional community

• Embrace and lean into the discomfort that often accompanies discussions of race, equity, access, and inclusion

Why do we do it? 

We believe it is imperative that educators no longer remain silent in response to direct and covert forms of exclusion within our organization and institutions. To that end, we are committed to providing resources and connections that enable practitioners to create equitable, diverse, and inclusive educational environments, including our professional organization. We engage in this work because we are committed to facilitating difficult conversations in order to enact meaningful and sustained change.

For whom do we do it? 

We engage in this work by humbly acknowledging our own growth edges and potential for positive transformation in: 

• Our students and stakeholders 

• Our profession, communities of practice, and institutions

• Our organization and its past, present, and future leaders, change makers, and innovators