Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at Desautels

Overview

The Desautels EDI First Responders program provides a clear place for students, faculty and staff to go if they experience or are aware of harassment, discrimination or other equity issues based on membership within an under-represented group (including race, ethnicity, Indigenous identity, gender, sexual orientation or identity, disability, religion, or other) at Desautels.

Desautels EDI First Responders are:

• local members of the Desautels community who you can approach regarding equity-based experiences or observations;
• trained to provide accurate information about University policies and processes;
• able to refer you to support services and University personnel who lead reporting, mediation and investigation actions.

Please note EDI First Responders are not mediators, investigators, counsellors, or mental health professionals and cannot lodge formal reports. Disclosing incidents to a first responder does not put the University on notice of the issue.

Communications with first responders are confidential. Appropriate and discrete disclosure may occur in individual cases if permission is granted by the claimant, the First Responder is compelled by law, or the First Responder identifies serious risk to health and safety of either the claimant or others.

If you have experienced sexual harassment or assault, gender-based or intimate partner violence, or cyberviolence on or off campus, please visit the Office for Sexual Violence Response, Support and Education for information or visit McGill University’s How to Report page.

Contact a First Responder

As a Desautels student, faculty member or administrator you can reach out to a Desautels EDI First Responder most closely affiliated to your program or unit, or to any responder identified below. You can also contact us anonymously. Typically, initial follow up will occur within 24–48 hours.

Contact one of the following Desautels EDI First Responders:

kelly.cassidy [at] mcgill.ca (subject: EDI%20First%20Responders%20program) (Kelly Cassidy) Student Advisor, Masters Program

Lisa.cohen2 [at] mcgill.ca (subject: EDI%20First%20Responders%20program) (Lisa Cohen) Associate Professor and Director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Heather.mccombie [at] mcgill.ca (subject: EDI%20First%20Responders%20program) (Heather McCombie) Associate Director of Student Affairs, BCom Program

Yvonne.ng [at] mcgill.ca (subject: EDI%20First%20Responders%20program) (Yvonne Ng) Human Resources Advisor

patrick.ritchie [at] mcgill.ca (subject: EDI%20First%20Responders%20program) (Patrick Ritchie) Student Advising Consultant, BCom Program

jordana.saada [at] mcgill.ca (subject: EDI%20First%20Responders%20program) (Jordana Saada) Associate Director, Masters Programs

EDI Contact Form

You are invited to complete this form if you have experienced or witnessed equity issues at Desautels — based on, for example, race, Indigeneity, gender, sexual orientation or identity, disability, or religion. You can use this form if you are not comfortable disclosing your name or if you prefer using it to sending an email directly to an individual.

Complete form >

Access support

If you’ve experienced an issue, here are some steps you can take for help:

Report incidents within Desautels

Speak with a local Equity, Diversity and Inclusion First Responder – see above for more information.

Seek guidance

If you have experienced harassment or discrimination and would like to reach out to someone outside of Desautels, you can sinead.hunt [at] mcgill.ca (contact )McGill's Senior Equity and Inclusion Advisor Sinead Hunt to discuss options including mediation and pursuing a formal investigation. Please know that all conversations are strictly confidential. For information on the process of reporting harassment, discrimination and sexual violence, please visit McGill University’s How to Report page.

Reach out to the Ombudsperson for Students

As the Ombudsperson for Students, Professor Patricia Faison Hewlin provides an independent, impartial and confidential service through which students may seek the just, fair and equitable resolution of any University-related concern. Get in touch.

Visit the Student Wellness Hub

As a student at Desautels, your Local Wellness Advisor Samara Yesovitch is available for consultation through the Student Wellness Hub. If you require additional mental health and wellness support during this time, please book an appointment.

Access Employee and Family Assistance Program (EFAP)

We all face problems, and sometimes these problems become too difficult for us to manage on our own. Employees may need assistance, advice, or just someone who will listen. Whatever personal, family, or work-related difficulties may be adversely affecting your life, your Employee and Family Assistance Program (EFAP) is there to provide support. Learn more.

Share ideas

Your opinion matters. We would love to hear from you if you have any ideas or feedback on how Desautels can become more equitable, diverse and inclusive. Please contact Professor Lisa Cohen at edi.mgmt [at] mcgill.ca.

Explore resources

Explore a comprehensive list of McGill's support services and resources for students, staff, and faculty:

Equity, diversity and inclusion at McGill University

• Equity at McGill
• Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion at McGill

Offices at McGill University

• The Office for Sexual Violence Response, Support and Education
• The Office of the Dean of Students
• Social Accountability and Community Engagement Office

Teaching resources

• COVID-19 Best Practices for Equitable and Inclusive Student-Centred Learning
• Penn State University Diversity Checklist
• Harvard University Inclusive Teaching Strategies: Reflecting on your Practice
• University of Michigan Inclusive Teaching Principles for In-Person, Hybrid, and Remote Teaching

Teaching

Daphne Demetry
Assistant Professor, Strategy & Organization

Course instructor: Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship (MGPO 362)

In my Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship course, I share with students the diversity of experiences of real-life entrepreneurs, countering the media’s often-limited stereotype of who can become an entrepreneur. To do this, I discuss my research on alternative pathways to venture creation, like part-time entrepreneurs. In the classroom, I discuss the challenges that women and underrepresented minorities, such as black entrepreneurs, face in their startups and brainstorms ways to bring more diversity and inclusion to the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Lindsay Holmgren
Associate Professor (Teaching), Strategy & Organization

Course coordinator: Expressive Analysis for Management (BUSA 250)
Course instructor: Global Leadership (MGCR 629) and Social Context for Business (MGCR 360)

Crucial to my instruction is the encouragement of dialogue, including first-person accounts of experience and the capacity to receive those accounts with open minds, suspended judgement, and acknowledgement of one's own biases. With these conditions in mind, I work to cultivate a safe space for students to share their experiences of difference, whether those differences pertain to gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, national identity, or degree of privilege. Moreover, I equip students with the vocabularies necessary for clear communications and encourage them to consider how their audiences will receive their language. In my view, this creates a learning environment in which difference can be understood, respected, and celebrated, thus contributing to socially conscious advancements in our myriad global economies.

Paola Perez-Aleman
Associate Professor, Strategy & Organization

Course instructor: Business-Government Relations (MGPO 365); Strategies for Developing Countries (MGPO 475); Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation (MGPO 438); Strategic Management: Developing Countries (MGPO 651); International Business and Government (MGPO 707)

Understanding the experience of diverse people, groups, and places around the world is crucial for learning, knowledge building, innovation, and problem-solving. Drawing on my field-based research, my six Strategy and Organization courses recognize the benefits of valuing different experiences and diverse knowledge. Gaining an understanding of excluded and marginalized peoples fosters better citizens, worldly managers, and inclusive communities.

Research

John-Paul Ferguson
Associate Professor, Organizational Behaviour

My research interests include large-scale studies of employment-segregation patterns and the effectiveness of various diversity programs. My work on large American workplaces has shown for example that racial segregation between workplaces has grown over the last generation, even as segregation between jobs in those workplaces has fallen. I have also published research on the difficulties of inferring diversity-program performance from the results in voluntarily complying firms.

Patricia Faison Hewlin
Associate Professor, Organizational Behaviour; Ombudsperson for Students at McGill

The overriding objective of my research is to shed light on factors that facilitate and hinder inclusion in workplaces and society. With the support of a $2.5 million partnership grant from Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, I am collaborating with Ryerson University’s Diversity Institute and a team of scholars, community leaders, and industry partners to examine the barriers that women and diverse groups encounter within Canada’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. The partnership seeks to generate solutions to strengthen this ecosystem.

Michelle Y. Lu
Assistant Professor, Marketing

In a recent working paper, my collaborator and I study inequality issues on a business level. In response to the economic downturn with historically high unemployment rates during the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act to mitigate the effect of the pandemic on the U.S. economy. Among all programs in the CARES Act, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is designed for small businesses that meet the size criteria of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). However, contrary to the original intent of the PPP, news media revealed that it is mostly large companies (including around 180 public companies), not small ones, dominating the applications for PPP loans. Accusing banks of prioritizing their most significant customers, small businesses have sued four of the largest U.S. banks. Reports show that small businesses, especially those owned by underrepresented groups or operate in disadvantaged areas, face more severe financial distress. Motivated by the unintended consequence of aggravated inequality in the fund distribution, the goal of this research investigates the causes and solutions.

Elena Obukhova
Assistant Professor, Strategy & Organization

I use a network lens to explore how connections, gender, and class shape people's experiences of looking for a job. My current project shows that while searching for a job, women network more than men do, especially with other women, in part because they try to find employers where they will have the best chance of professional success. I have also published numerous papers showing how job seekers benefit from connections.

Desmond Tsang
Associate Professor, Accounting

My research focuses on firms' financial reporting and corporate governance issues as related to earnings management and financial fraud. In a recently published paper, my coauthors and I look at board of director turnover during periods when frauds are being committed at firms, to look for clues on whether the board of directors are aware of the deceit. We show that women were more likely to resign their directorships than men, reinforcing existing scholarship that has demonstrated that female directors are more risk-averse and have a tendency to focus more rigorously on ethical standards.