Carina Buzo Tipton shows us how.
Carina Buzo Tipton came to Oregon State in 2013 as a graduate student in the college student services administration program, where she earned a Master of Education with a concentration in intersecting identities at predominantly white institutions. She has worked in a variety of capacities and departments across campus while completing a Ph.D. in women, gender and sexuality studies. She joined the Office of Institutional Diversity in 2022.
Could you describe your role as assistant director of diversity, equity and inclusion education?
My role is to support and facilitate the creation and distribution of DEI curriculum. I work with individuals and teams across the entire OSU enterprise including the offices of Faculty Affairs and Academic Affairs, the Center for Teaching and Learning, University Human Resources, the Division of Student Affairs, the Division of Extension and Engagement and other university entities. One of my ongoing roles includes leading the Dialogue Facilitation Lab, a cohort-based applied learning experience for faculty, staff and graduate employees who work in teaching, research, leadership or service. This experience helps participants gain confidence in leading intellectually and emotionally complex conversations, modeling courage and vulnerability, creating space for multiple perspectives, guiding others in expressing their point of view and more.
How did your path lead you to Oregon State, as both a student and an educator? How have your experiences and interests shaped your career in DEI work?
My path toward my career in DEI education is decades long. My passion for DEI work is rooted in my family’s experience with racial injustice throughout the 1930s to the 1960s during Mexican repatriation and racial segregation/desegregation. I grew up hearing stories about injustice from a very young age. My parents and grandparents always thought that they were age-appropriate conversations to have, because they were children when they faced racial oppression and state violence. I have had a language and desire for social justice my entire life.
Could you describe your work as a Ph.D. candidate in women, gender and sexuality studies? How do you incorporate this knowledge into your current position at OID?
I completed my Ph.D. in women, gender and sexuality studies with a concentration in feminist institutional change in May 2023. My dissertation, Curandera Feminism: Tracing the Possibilities of Healing Institutional Harm, develops a framework for Curandera feminism that is deeply connected to my family’s Curandera practices.
Curanderas practice Curanderisma. Curanderisma comes from the Spanish word Cura which means to heal. I come from a lineage of Curanderas, and I have learned many things about what Curanderisma witnesses as harm or what we call sustos. Sustos translates directly to scare or fright, so as Curanderas cure sustos, they really work to address trauma and soul sickness.
My research makes connections to the idea that Curanderisma gives new insight for analyzing institutional harm and new insight on the possibilities for institutional healing. I posit that if harm exists, so must healing, and if institutions cause trauma, so must they become locations of accountability with less harm and more healing.
I use my knowledge and research gathered from my Ph.D. in so many ways. As someone who works in OID, I am often at the table of conversations about diversity-related issues. I use my knowledge to share new or creative ways of looking at problems and solutions. I approach all social justice or DEI work through the lens of healing — meaning that I want to engage in this work in a way that leaves individuals safer and more whole.
In the trainings and workshops you facilitate at Oregon State, what are some of the main takeaways you hope attendees apply to their daily lives?
I facilitate all kinds of different topics within DEI. Some common content areas include identity-specific advocacy, navigating bias and dialogue skills for conflict. But across all the content under the DEI umbrella, I think there are two key takeaways that I hope people can apply to their daily lives.
First, I hope people understand that DEI work can be done from any place that you already inhabit. Meaning, in your life on or off campus, no matter what your role is, you can help in efforts of DEI work. You do not have to make huge changes to your context or content to be a part of DEI commitments.
Second, I hope people feel that DEI is accessible and applicable to their values. I believe that progress toward DEI goals does not need everyone to care and act on everything, but we do need people to feel confident and competent to act on the things they do care about. And while there might be things that you do not center in your own DEI education and engagement, I hope that you can be thoughtful and reflective about things that aren’t on your radar. I truly believe that to be our best selves — best supervisor, teammate, mentor, student, researcher, faculty, administrator — we need to have some element of DEI literacy within our tool belt of resources.
Discover more about OSU’s DEI education programs at diversity.oregonstate.edu/diversity-education. Choose Request a Consult at the bottom of the page to schedule a meeting with Carina.