And her work is leading to lasting change.
Erika McCalpine came to OSUCascades in 2019 wanting to be “a great business instructor” and “a person trying to make a difference,” she says.
She’s accomplished both. And quickly.
McCalpine started her year-long term as Oregon State’s Faculty Senate president in January, the first Black woman to hold the position as well as the first from OSU-Cascades. At the Bend campus, she is the executive director of strategic diversity initiatives and leads the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Laboratory. She also serves as the Search Advocate Program liaison and teaches classes in business and human resources. Off campus, McCalpine is co-founder of Love Your Neighbor, a grassroots effort to promote social justice and increase visibility for communities of color in Central Oregon.
McCalpine has several goals as Faculty Senate president, including recruiting more faculty and staff of color to Corvallis and Bend, strengthening the onboarding process for all new faculty, building relationships between the Senate and university leadership, and highlighting the strengths of OSU-Cascades’ academic programs.
MAKING EVERYONE FEEL WELCOME
For years, McCalpine was the only Black employee at OSU-Cascades, and she acknowledges “there’s a certain level of pressure that comes with that” to prove her worth. She believes representation is important and wants to demonstrate “that a person of color, a woman, can have success at OSU and OSU-Cascades.”
Two recruiting barriers to overcome are Oregon’s challenging history with race and demographics. “While we can’t change the past, we can certainly broadcast that the past does not control our present,” McCalpine says. She also rejects a common refrain that there’s no diversity in Oregon. “There are people of color who are successful, who are living good lives right here in Oregon,” she says. “We are part of the community, and we want to be included.”
Creating a sense of belonging is essential to onboarding employees, and McCalpine believes the retention process starts as soon as an employee is hired.
“It’s one thing to say that we are welcoming. But people have to feel it,” she says. “That environment, that inclusive place where regardless of what the demographics look like, people feel like their presence here is valued. I think that we could do a little bit better job by making sure that everyone’s voice is heard, and then people feel like they belong here.”
COMMITTING TO SHARED GOVERNANCE, QUALITY EDUCATION
McCalpine says one reason she originally ran for Faculty Senate and then for president was to build better relationships, including a renewed emphasis on shared governance between faculty and OSU administration. “We do better together than we do at odds with each other,” she says.
McCalpine also believes her election and the appointment of Interim President Becky Johnson have raised the profile of OSU-Cascades in Corvallis.
“We do have to be scrappy as a startup institution,” she says. “But we are very committed to quality education. We are very committed to the student experience.” Curriculum decisions made by the Faculty Senate impact academic programs at OSU-Cascades, and McCalpine welcomes more collaboration from colleges and departments in Corvallis with their colleagues in Bend.
PREPARING STUDENTS FOR THE REAL WORLD
McCalpine continues to teach two courses, and her lessons are informed in part by more than 15 years of experience working for companies like AT&T and Fidelity Information Services before earning her master’s from the University of Alabama.
She says students value the industry experience faculty have had that add to what they’ve read or what research might say about a business topic. She’s also found the business community in Bend and Central Oregon is entrepreneurial and eager to work with students on specific projects, giving them practical work experience that sets them up for success.
We are shaping them as professionals, to be people who will go out into the world,” McCalpine says. “That is the part I love.”
MEETING A STRONG DEMAND FOR DEI TRAINING
It was McCalpine’s frequent partnerships with the local business community that led to the creation of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Laboratory at OSU-Cascades in September 2020. She completed several DEI trainings that led to more and more requests for consulting work.
Funded in part by a gift from John Teller and Amy Tykeson, the DEI Lab advises businesses, government agencies and nonprofits on hiring practices, unconscious bias and other issues. McCalpine’s work has since expanded beyond Central Oregon, and the DEI Lab now has clients in Portland and statewide.
McCalpine says she is grateful for the receptive environment she has found in Oregon. “People are thirsty for knowledge around diversity, equity and inclusion,” she says. “People want to do better. It’s not just people like me doing this work. Regular, everyday citizens want to see Oregon be a different and better place, and that’s inspiring.”
HAVING SOMETHING TO OFFER
Although people of color make up about 12% of the population in Central Oregon, McCalpine knew there wouldn’t be many who looked like her when she came to Bend. Her new colleagues at OSU-Cascades were welcoming, but she still felt isolated at times. Having her children make the move with her was both a help and a motivation. She wanted them to see her work hard and accomplish goals. Her daughter, having earned her bachelor’s degree at OSU-Cascades, is now in the Master of Arts in Teaching program, while her son is a junior in high school. “They are my biggest cheerleaders,” McCalpine says.
McCalpine also draws from another source of strength. “I am a woman of faith and believe I’ve been placed in these positions because I have something to offer,” she says. “People trust me to give objective, educational advice on social justice. My faith keeps me grounded and allows me to meet people where they are. It also allows me to keep going when the weight of this work gets heavy. The goal of reaching liberation is something all of us can work toward. I’m a vessel that is used to help lead us there.”