GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA — Beth Costner, dean of the Richard W. Riley College of Education, Sport & Human Sciences, is among 48 leaders recently selected to participate in the Richard W. Riley Institute’s intensive five-month Diversity Leaders Initiative (DLI) program. The institute is housed at Furman University.
For more than 20 years, the initiative has brought together community stakeholders and equipped them with the skills and perspectives that drive social and economic progress in South Carolina. To date, more than 2,700 people have completed the program.
Participants are selected following nomination by a DLI graduate and a thorough application and interview process. Each class includes leaders who represent the varied demographics of the state and who seek to institute diverse and inclusive practices within their communities and organizations.
Costner said she is excited to join the program. “Secretary Riley’s impact on education is recognized in many ways from the name of our college to the work of the Riley Institute,” Costner said. “I am honored to have been chosen to work along leaders from across the Midlands area and bridging public and private sectors as we engage together on this exploration.”
Juan Johnson, the designer and facilitator of the Riley program, has crafted a curriculum that includes interactive case studies, scenario analyses and experiential learning tools. With five meetings over the course of five months, this program will explore modules related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Among the topics explored in these discussions are the differences between bias and discrimination, the role of context, differences in mental and physical abilities, generational diversity, and diversity frameworks.
The DLI program concludes with groups undertaking community action projects. With these capstone projects, this new class of DLI participants will identify challenges in their communities and will work together to address them. Many of the DLI graduates have developed projects that continue to produce tremendous good within their communities.
Don Gordon, executive director of the Riley Institute, remarked, “Today’s leaders are responsible for making positive contributions that benefit everyone, particularly the most marginalized among us. This program creates opportunities to tackle challenges faced by diverse segments of our community and introduce enduring solutions and systems-level change within organizations and businesses across South Carolina.”
About Beth Costner
Costner, who has been the university’s education dean since 2022, also was selected
last summer as an Impact Academy fellow through the national non-profit organization
Deans for Impact (DFI).
At Winthrop, she has also served as chair of the Department of Mathematics, as associate dean in education, and assistant and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Her teaching and research have focused on the content knowledge development of elementary and middle grades teachers.
About the Riley Institute at Furman University
Furman University’s Richard W. Riley Institute advances social and economic progress in South Carolina and beyond by building leadership for a diverse society, broadening student and community perspectives on critical issues, hosting expert speakers, supporting public education, and creating knowledge through community solutions-focused research. It is committed to nonpartisanship in all it does and to a rhetoric-free, facts-based approach to change.
For more information, contact Claudia Winkler, director of marketing and communications at The Riley Institute at 864/294-3368 or e-mail her at claudia.winkler@furman.edu.
