Tufts boasts 97 master’s programs, one of which is the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice Leadership program. Darwin Conner, a 2022 graduate of the program, is now the chief diversity, equity & inclusion officer for the U.S. branch of the law firm Eversheds Sutherland. Conner shared how he arrived at Tufts, what he learned from the DEIJ-L program, what his current work entails and how people in his field can educate others on DEI, which is currently a contentious topic in the United States.
Conner was involved in DEI work at his law firm before enrolling in the Tufts program. It was a desire to expand his expertise that led Conner to pursue his master’s at the School of Arts and Sciences.
“I was building the DEI program at the firm I had lateralled into for those five years, as well as trying to maintain my own practice, and found that I really enjoyed doing the diversity work more than the regular work, so I started looking around at master’s programs,” Conner said.
Conner enrolled virtually in the program in 2020. He wanted to take advantage of the interdisciplinary nature of the DEIJ-L program. He looked forward to taking classes in a wide variety of subject areas upon entering the program. The program includes classes taught by professors from across many Tufts departments.
“I think my favorite class was feminist philosophy,” Conner said. “I really, really loved it.”
The program requires that students take a core seminar course, classes in several focus areas, an elective course and a capstone course. Students can complete the program either online or in person.
In addition to learning from the classes themselves, Conner emphasized that the nature of the program enabled robust discussions.
“I learned as much from my classmates and … the wealth of knowledge they brought to the classes based on all of their different social identities and all their different interests and all the different industries which they come from [as I did from the readings and the professors],” he said.
Conner also discussed what his role at Eversheds Sutherland law firm involves. Eversheds Sutherland has over 3,000 lawyers and offices in nearly 40 countries — it’s a “big law” firm.
His team does everything from education, policy creation and programming to making sure systems like hiring are equitable. Recently, he’s worked on policy changes to improve their parental leave policy.
“We just kind of changed our parental leave policy to make sure it is more helpful for parents, and it isn’t tied to gender,” Conner said.
He highlighted that all of this work is important because it improves support for employees and can better the outcomes for the firm in general.
Conner pointed to studies that show how diversity directly correlates to organizations’ productivity and success. In particular, he mentioned a study conducted in 2023 by management consulting firm McKinsey which found that diverse leadership teams are associated with higher financial returns.
Conner explained how the DEI field has changed over time as well.
“I think the field has evolved away from just making sure that people from underrepresented backgrounds get a little bit of access here or [that] we’re ‘building numbers’ … to focusing on eliminating social identity-based barriers at firms,” he said.
One way Conner has worked to eliminate social identity barriers is by expanding the interview pool of candidates at firms beyond the Northeast and other elite schools.
He also shared that combating misconceptions and misinformation of DEI work has become another important element of his job.
“[I am] trying to educate people on what the work actually consists of, as opposed to how it’s being conflated with things like affirmative action,” Conner said.
Diversity, equity and inclusion remain essential in properly supporting employees, but that message can get lost due to misunderstanding, both intentional and unintentional.
Conner’s work, as well as the work of many others in his field, may now be in danger. On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump issued an executive order ending DEI programs in the federal government, which was followed up by a memo threatening to pull federal funding from institutions that do not end DEI initiatives.
While many universities have started to adjust their DEI programs, or even slash them altogether, Tufts remains committed to being an inclusive institution and has made no changes to its programs thus far.
“We are monitoring the administration’s orders and ongoing court challenges to them. As guidance becomes clearer, we will take steps to ensure our programs and practices support our mission and comply with the law,” Monroe France, vice provost for institutional inclusive excellence, wrote in a statement to the Daily. “We remain committed to our work of educating all backgrounds and identities in an environment that encourages open dialogue across many different perspectives.”
In the current political climate of the U.S., Conner believes that it’s important, now more than ever, for people within DEI-related fields to stay educated in both what DEI means and the laws that may impact it.
“You have to seize those opportunities to make sure that people understand what the work consists of,” Conner said. “[You have to make] sure that you’re up on everything [so] you can talk intelligently on the issues.”
