Diversity at AIR: The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council

AIR established the DEI Council in 2015 to further our ongoing progress toward achieving our long-term DEI objectives. The DEI Council is a group of staff who support AIR’s mission and goals as a strategic partner by encouraging, promoting, and celebrating diversity throughout the organization.

Institution leadership relies on the Council to assist in accelerating DEI results, overseeing activities that integrate DEI into AIR’s functions, and monitoring DEI strategy implementation.

Annually, the DEI Council and ERG Leadership gather at the DEI Leaders' Summit to establish priority Action Plans to recommend to AIR leadership for implementation. Recent action plans have focused on ensuring equitable internal practices and accountability for achieving inclusion and equity.

Following completion of AIR’s 2021 equity audit, the DEI Council and DEI Office are collaborating on plans to address barriers that remain within the organization as the next step forward in continuing to strengthen AIR’s equity performance.

AIR recently implemented accountability measures for our five DEI commitments and development of a performance management system that incorporates DEI into staff-wide goals and performance expectations. AIR has moved to further embed DEI in policies and procedures by linking DEI metrics to the annual performance management process and by updating the promotion process to include specific DEI measures and improve transparency.

AIR Leadership’s Five Commitments to DEI 

AIR’s DEI Council works to ensure the organization delivers on these five commitments, made in 2020:

  1. We will link DEI metrics to eligibility for incentives, rewards, and promotion across AIR.
  2. We will examine internal practices and redesign them to lead to defined equitable outcomes.
  3. We will continue to support the professional development and advancement of staff to build a more inclusive and collaborative environment.
  4. We will continue our efforts to build a pipeline of diverse candidates.
  5. We are building and investing in a self-funded research and action agenda around equity.

The DEI Council is an active partner in driving these initiatives and benchmarking their success against expectations and goals.