DEI by Design

DEI by Design at Sequoyah School

In 1958, Sequoyah School’s founders envisioned a progressive school for a better world. Central to that vision was a dedication to a diverse, equitable, and inclusive educational environment.

Today, Sequoyah continues this journey within the planning, operation, and curriculum of the school. This active and ongoing effort is essential to the pursuit and celebration of human dignity. It allows our students to become self-reflective, engaged citizens able to participate in the authentic exchange of ideas and dialogue across differences.

We believe that diversity among students and families, faculty and staff, administration and leadership enriches the learning environment at Sequoyah. A diverse representation of identity, thought, and experience prepares our students to thrive and contribute meaningfully to the larger world.

DEI Pillars of Practice

Our mission compels us to take responsibility for transforming ourselves and our systems with an anti-bias, anti-racist approach. This means that:
> We hold ourselves accountable for honest self-examination about our own explicit and implicit preconceptions and prejudices;
> We acknowledge the systemic nature of discrimination, oppression, and privilege and the way in which institutions, including independent schools like Sequoyah, have perpetuated systemic racism and inequities;
> We seek to disrupt and dismantle these barriers through our ongoing efforts to identify and understand inequities and disparities and by speaking out and taking action against injustice.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are critical for this transformation, and they are essential to our effectiveness as an educational institution. Therefore, we commit to integrate the following pillars of practice throughout our curriculum, strategic priorities, and operational plans:
We believe that diversity among students and families, faculty and staff, administration and leadership enriches the learning environment at Sequoyah. A diverse representation of identity, thought, and experience prepares our students to thrive and contribute meaningfully to the larger world.
Sustain and cultivate the diversity and intersecting identities of the Sequoyah community: students and their families; staff, faculty, and administration; and the Board of Trustees, with an emphasis on meaningful representation of racial/ethnic and socioeconomically diverse populations that have been historically underrepresented in independent schools, including Sequoyah.
Pursue equity within the Sequoyah community, guided by our continuing study and application of the principles and practice of social justice within the larger world. This includes a focus on fair treatment, equal access to opportunity, and advancement for all members of our community as we strive to identify and eliminate barriers that hinder their ability to reach their full potential. Through our institutional actions, we aim to act in service of a more just and equitable society.
Create and practice an inclusive culture through the implementation of policies, practices and habits of mind that enable each person to experience a sense of belonging and relevance, to voice their own perspective and hear the perspectives of others, and to fully participate in the realization of Sequoyah’s mission.

Meet the 2023-24 DEI Team

Marisol Perez

Co-Director of DEI:
Teaching, Learning, and Community

High School Spanish Faculty & Department Chair
As the co-director of DEI for teaching, learning, and community, Marisol Pérez will further the school’s efforts toward developing a shared understanding and fluency in the ways that diversity, equity, and inclusion work intersects in and out of the classroom. Her role will focus on collaborative leadership surrounding curriculum; student, family, and faculty affinity spaces; and community building.
Marisol is a founding faculty member at Sequoyah’s high school and chair of the Spanish department. She earned her master’s degree from UCLA with doctoral studies that focused on the intersection of Latin American Literature, Chicana/o Studies, and Gender Studies. She brings more than 20 years of experience teaching students and creating interdisciplinary curriculum and successful programs, including teaching abroad. At Sequoyah she has found great joy in crafting experiential learning projects and elective courses, stewarding Equity Alliance, and co-leading Leaders in Equity and Diversity. This year she served as the faculty advisor to the First Gen Club and the Latinx Families Connections Group, K-12. When she is not teaching, Marisol enjoys taking long rides on a beach cruiser, planning National Parks trips with her son, and exploring the culinary arts.
RJ Sakai

Co-Director of DEI:
Governance and Systems

High School Director of Social Innovation
RJ Sakai will share his expertise in design thinking as the co-director of DEI for governance and systems. RJ’s role will focus on sharpening the ways data can be purposefully leveraged - from collection and analysis to inspiring new ideas - to inform how the school can remain aware, nimble, and responsive to the needs and lived experiences of our community.
RJ is a Sequoyah K-8 alum and a design researcher who crafts tools and activities to facilitate insightful conversations for governments, nonprofits, startups, and classrooms. After graduating from Hampshire College, where he studied cultural anthropology, graphic design, and Spanish, RJ pursued a variety of interests, such as helping independent bookstores survive in the face of online book buying and mapping the politics of souvenir supply chains. While earning his MFA in Media Design Practices at ArtCenter College of Design, RJ used workshop facilitation, systems thinking, and pinball to create new forms of communication between city governments and residents. He has a goal to visit all the U.S. state capitals (35 down).

Sequoyah School DEI Audit

For Sequoyah School, the question is not whether the school is committed to DEI, but how the school lives up to, and advances, its founding commitment in the 21st century.

Blink’s principal recommendations in the Executive Summary are drawn from comprehensive recommendations to Sequoyah. They focus on building on the school’s existing commitment and coordinating Sequoyah’s design and accountability for DEI from a central institutional vision, framework, and strategic plan that will require collective ownership to implement and advance.

Read the Executive Summary

Principal Recommendations

Recommendation #1

Clarify Sequoyah School’s institutional vision, philosophy, and mission for DEI.

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Recommendation #2

Establish clear responsibilities for DEI in program design and position descriptions.

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Recommendation #3

Articulate expectations for baseline DEI fluency for community members and support ongoing practice and growth.

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Recommendation #4

Build a robust internal system to track vital data about DEI in design and demonstration.

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Principal Recommendation 1

What does diversity, equity, and inclusion mean at Sequoyah?

The recommendation to “clarify Sequoyah School’s institutional vision, philosophy, and mission for DEI” is based on the following summarized feedback, in which you will see overlapping sentiments (noted by asterisks):

1. Clarify Sequoyah’s institutional vision for DEI*
2. Develop a strategic approach to DEI
3. Build a system and culture of restorative justice
4. Clarify institutional DEI priorities
1. Advance DEI in family engagement.
2. Build a system and culture of restorative justice.**
1. Clarify programmatic ownership of institutional vision.
2. Develop the capacity to steward mutual safety, dignity, belonging and thriving, without requiring disclosure.
1. Own DEI as a progressive school.
2. Clarify Sequoyah’s institutional vision and strategy for DEI.*
3. Build a system and culture of restorative justice.**
4. Communicate and educate community to Sequoyah’s business case for DEI. (families)

Looking Ahead

What is Sequoyah’s vision for DEI?
What will be our common language for DEI?
How can we be a more language inclusive school?
What structures should be established within a strategic plan to ensure that equitable access and belonging are intentional and monitored?

Principal Recommendation 2

Why (other than being a progressive school) do we value diversity, equity, and inclusion?

The recommendation to establish “clear responsibilities for DEI in program design and position descriptions” is based on the following summarized feedback, in which you will see overlapping sentiments (noted by asterisks):

1. Articulate and integrate expectations, responsibilities, and evaluation for DEI in position descriptions for employees and volunteers.
1. Include clear responsibilities for DEI in program design and position descriptions.*
2. Share information about diversity, equity, and inclusion in leadership.
3. Establish institutional metrics and benchmarks for equity and inclusion.
4. Learn from and continue evolving Sequoyah’s existing design for equity.
1. Integrate clear, explicit expectations and responsibilities for DEI in program and position descriptions.*
1. Establish clear responsibilities for DEI in program design and position descriptions.*
2. Design for intersectionality. (students)
3. Systematize workplace equity. (employees)
4. Design for socioeconomic DEI to advance the intention of Sequoyah’s indexed tuition model. (families)

Looking Ahead

What do class culture expectations grounded in DEI look like across all grades and ages?
What role does the onboarding process play in the culture of DEI at Sequoyah?
How can equity data monitoring requirements support our goals related to inclusion and belonging?
How can the school schedule and calendar systemically design for diversity, equity, and inclusion?

Principal Recommendation 3

How can we systematize practices to continuously foster a feeling of belonging?

The recommendation to “articulate expectations for baseline DEI fluency for community members and support ongoing practice and growth” is based on the following summarized feedback, in which you will see overlapping sentiments (noted by asterisks):

1 Articulate expectations for baseline DEI fluency for employees, parent / guardian volunteer leaders and students, and supporting their ongoing practice and growth.*
2 Integrate “thinking diversely” as an academic and workplace/leadership skill.**
1. Establish and scaffold employees and volunteers to expectations for baseline DEI fluency and ongoing practice and growth.*
1. Articulate expectations for baseline DEI fluency for employees, parent / guardian volunteer leaders and students, and supporting their ongoing practice and growth.*
2. Focus on classist, homophobic and racist disparities in design and demonstration.
3. Develop the capacity and practice to have essential Sequoyah “courageous conversations” (Singleton & Linton).
4. Integrate “thinking diversely” as an academic and workplace/leadership skill.**

Looking Ahead

What does it mean to think diversely in academic, professional, and social spaces at Sequoyah?
How can we collaboratively build DEI Fluency throughout the community?
What does inclusive centering of voices look like and feel like at Sequoyah?

Principal Recommendation 4

What data will allow us to progress monitor our goals and further accountability?

The recommendation to “build a robust internal system to track vital data about DEI in design and demonstration” is based on the following summarized feedback, in which you will see overlapping sentiments (noted by asterisks):

1. Building a robust internal system to formatively track vital, impactful and actionable DEI data.*
2. Communicating about Sequoyah’s institutional design for DEI.
1. Establish institutional metrics and benchmarks for diversity.
2. Focus on disparities between POC / non-POC, female / male, and first generation / non-first generation identifying employees’, students’ and families’ access, experiences and outcomes.
3. Define goals and metrics for workplace equity and inclusion.*
4. Establish institutional metrics and benchmarks for equity and inclusion.*
5. Understand the role of additional academic support in teaching and learning.
1. Track vital data about DEI in design and demonstration.*
2. Develop the capacity to steward mutual safety, dignity, belonging and thriving, without requiring disclosure.
1. Build a robust internal system to track vital data about DEI in design and demonstration.*
2. Establish institutional metrics and benchmarks for diversity.* (employee)

Looking Ahead

What data is currently within the SIS and readily available to each department?
How can data driven strategic planning design for diversity, equity, and inclusion across programs?
Which metrics can proactively monitor for disparities in equity across identities?

Sequoyah’s Board Diversity Committee

Marc Alongi

High School Director
DuVon Davis

Board Member
Current Parent
Kim Diaz

Assistant Head of School
Current Parent
Laura Gowen

Board President
Current Parent
Nina Hachigian

Board Member
Current Parent
Rebecca Hong

Head of School
Nicole Rabaudi

Alum
Current Parent
RJ Sakai

Alum
Dir. of Social Innovation
Emily Singer

Dir. of Teaching & Learning
Current Parent
Carolina Valle

Alum
Board Member
Joyce Ybarra

Board Member
Current Parent

Sequoyah’s High School Equity Alliance

April '24
AmyLynne '25
Enrique '24
Erika '24
Kiara '24
Lexi '26
Mekaela '26
Sanai '25
Wyatt '25

Equity Alliance supports values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging on campus and in the community. Among other things, the committee sparks conversations about race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic identity, and the intersections of all identities. Members bring culture change to the Sequoyah community through special events, Affinity Spaces, and information.