Episode 1: The Office of Racial Equality and Social Unity

Sissy Siero  0:00   
have a microphone. So that's a fuzzy thing on the microphone so that we don't hear a bunch of sales from all over the place. It kind of helps the microphone just listen to your voices, voices, your voices you right now talking.
 
Debbie  0:19   
Having one black teacher within grades K through three, and then again in three through five, reduced the rates of drop out for low income black boys by about 40%.
 
Joshua  0:33   
Growing up a biracial male, I feel like if I had a teacher at those early stages, they would have been a pillar for me to lean on to get advice from because we would have been through similar struggles.
 
Erin  0:43   
I think in everybody's mind, right? There's the sense of what a school looks like and what a school should be. Perhaps that served us well at some time. And I think it's always served one group of people better than has served other people. If we're going to serve every single child, which we absolutely have to do, then we really do need to rethink what school looks like.
 
Kelley  1:01   
We're building our plan with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. We sort of knew what sounded good, but we didn't really know what what it looked like. And now I feel like we live it every day.
 
Millicent  1:14   
Hi, you're listening to Vital Voices, a podcast from Corning Incorporated, exploring innovative ways companies can be a force for good in our communities. I'm Millicent Ruffin.
 
Sissy  1:25   
And I'm sissy Siero. And those voices you just heard in the opening are just some of the voices we'll be featuring over the next five episodes of this podcast.
 
Millicent  1:33   
But before we dive in to some really meaningful and intriguing stories, I want to set the stage a little bit and explain who I am who Sisi is how we came together and what we're doing here.
 
Sissy  1:46   
Yep, great idea. I'll go first. I'm based in Austin, Texas. And I've been working with Corning Incorporated for a couple of years now as a Podcast Producer. As you know, Courtney has a long rich history of innovation and is one of the world's leading material science companies. You know, inventions and glass and ceramics from optic cable to Gorilla Glass to mirrors on the James Webb Space Telescope. These all make a vital impact on society. This vital impact includes the communities where Corning employees live and work. Actually, that's why this show is called Vital Voices. There are over 60,000 people working at Corning, and they all have such great stories to tell. But one of my favorite interview subjects was a director by the name of Dr. Millicent Ruffin.
 
Millicent  2:31   
Thank you see,
 
Sissy  2:33   
let me play a moment from our first interview together.
 
Millicent  2:36   
Chemistry has always been my first love from a career standpoint. And I recently posted on LinkedIn in honor of February 1 was the Greensboro sit in that I first met Franklin McCain, who was one of the greens or for as a chemistry intern. And it was the first time that I had met a professional practicing chemists of color. He normalized for me what it meant to be a black scientist, and it made it seem so achievable and an easy next step. And I think that interaction early on, because I was a freshman in college at that point, showed me the path towards being active in my community, as well as having a love for chemistry.
 
Sissy  3:27   
You know, I really feel so incredibly fortunate to work with you, Millicent and you know how much I love these projects that I do with you
 
Millicent  3:34   
hearing that clip from a few years ago, you know, really brought me back to when we first met, and I just moved into the office of racial equality and social unity.
 
Sissy  3:46   
Right, so let's tell the listeners what you're up to before. And then we can explain what exactly the office of racial equality and social unity is.
 
Millicent  3:54   
Sure. So I started with Corning in 2001. After completing my doctorate in chemistry from the University of Michigan, and the first 18 years of my career with Corning, I was doing bench science, and also product development and program leadership, helping Corning develop new products and processes to bring glass to the consumer electronics industry. And it's been a wonderful experience and a wonderful career for me. But in 2020, when COVID happened when George Floyd was murdered, we as a company obviously had to have some serious conversations about what more we needed to be doing to help our community. And that was when the decision was made to create the office of racial equality and social unity, which we lovingly call a rescue. And so I was asked to come over and help create the offices community affairs group.
 
Sissy  4:55   
Yeah, so I know that this wasn't an easy decision for you to make I'm switching at this point in your career.
 
Millicent  5:02   
Yeah, it was a tough decision initially. But it's one that after I started the work, I haven't looked back.
 
Sissy  5:10   
Yeah. And I know there were, you know, some really important events that happened in your life actually shaping your life that had a lot to do with the inspiration to make this change. And this is something that we had spoken about previously.
 
Millicent  5:24   
The thing that convinced me was remembering when my aunt passed away, she was someone who struggled with obesity her entire life. And so when she passed at home, we had to call the fire department to help move the body. And we waited. And we waited. And we waited. And for more than four hours, my aunt was deceased in her home around her children, that image and that experience is what an underserved community looks like. It's when at pivotal points in a person's life, the systems that are in place to help them to serve them to be there on time, those critical systems fail. And so in 2020, when we were at a pivotal moment in our community, where the systems that were designed to help people were not doing their job, and were deemed insufficient, it was a time that I knew I had to stand up and help in any way I could to change that trajectory.
 
Sissy  6:37   
So Millicent, you said you helped create a rescues community affairs group. But what is that group responsible for?
 
Millicent  6:44   
Within community affairs, we work in the communities recording has locations to help address socio economic disparities. And one of the biggest determinants of socio economic status is education.
 
Sissy  6:59   
Right. And I'm really excited that education is going to be the focus of this season of Vital Voices. As a daughter of a lifelong educator, this is very close to home. For me, a
 
Millicent  7:09   
lot of what we're going to talk about in these episodes is the importance that diversity and education and Diversity Awareness and Education plays in addressing socio economic disparities in our country. And it's, you know, just makes me excited for what our listeners will hear and this journey that we're about to embark on together.
 
Sissy  7:31   
Yes, me too. And perhaps we can talk about where this journey is going to lead, Millicent, can you share what communities arrestee was involved with?
 
Millicent  7:41   
So our initial focus is here in Western New York, and Corning, New York, where our corporate headquarters are located. And then also in North Carolina, which is our second largest location, or optical communications headquarters is located there, as well as several of our life sciences businesses are located in North Carolina. And so that's where as a community affairs group, we focus most of our time and attention.
 
Sissy  8:11   
So what was really the inspiration for this recording doing this work in these communities?
 
Millicent  8:18   
The first question we always get is, what's in it for Corning? Right? And what's the ROI? What's the return on investment. And the reality is that Corning cares about the whole life of its employees. And Corning cares about our communities. When our communities are thriving, then all of the businesses in that community are also thriving. And so when our students are in schools that are addressing all of their needs, and they are in a place where they are learning and growing, not just educationally, but as individuals and contributing members to society, then everyone benefits. That means that the parents are at work without worrying about their children. And we also get the benefit of developing these independent thought leaders that can then hopefully come and work for us as well.
 
Sissy  9:23   
Exactly. So tell me though, there was a process for you. What was it that helped you kind of figure out where to target and what programs to start with? Because that's a huge thing.
 
Millicent  9:33   
Yeah, you know, we took a lot of time, we took months and months, just listening. We didn't come in assuming we knew the answers or that we knew where to start. We spent time just talking to various leaders in the community and members in the community to understand what they were feeling and what their needs were and what their wants were. And then that helped us Define a path forward. The thing that I really love about the approach we take to this work is we're not coming in and putting new systems in place we're coming in. And we're partnering with the people who have been there and have been doing this work for years and years. And we're asking them, how can we help? What do you need from us? And we're forming these multi year commitments to help them be successful on endeavors that they've already started, or had already envisioned?
 
Sissy  10:34   
Well, I'm so glad you took the time to do that, because it led to some really extraordinary partnerships and programming, which will feature on this season of the show. And it's really great, because we're going to hear directly from students, educators and policymakers on the ground in North Carolina. And here's a sampling of some of those voices.
 
Paula  10:55   
They said these kids can't multiply and divide, how are you working with them on algebra? I said, Oh, no, they can multiply and divide. But what we were doing was really making it real for them. We looked like the kids, right? We listened to them. We talked about things, and we made everything completely irrelevant. And they absolutely flourished.
 
T'asia  11:16   
I think too many times I have been put in that box of limitation. So the things that society says that you have to do because you look a certain way, or you come from a certain background, or you're a certain gender or race or whatever the situation may be. And I did not want to do that with these kids.
 
Matt  11:32   
The strategic bet there was let's give kids a pathway into college to graduate debt free. And then let's give them a path to come back to Edgecombe where they already have a sense of connectedness because they grew up in this community where they already are wanted.
 
Millicent  11:47   
We'll also be hearing from educators in New York, not just principals and teachers, but also those that we've hired in arrest Sue, to work with our local school districts on equity initiatives.
 
Jarvis  12:01   
When something happens that causes some kind of friction tension, a moment to step back and say, Ouch, that hurt me. We don't avoid it, we embrace it. And we embrace that with a desire to be brave in that moment and share.
 
Debbie  12:16   
I recently met with an ELA team who is bringing in a book that has very strong racial themes. They're concerned, you know, how do we do this as white educators with predominantly white classrooms? How do we do this in the best way? You know, just thinking through changes to diversity in their curriculum.
 
Sissy  12:42   
I'm so excited to tell these people stories, you know, as well as a rescue story.
 
Millicent  12:47   
I hope that as we go through these stories, and through these episodes, people walk away feeling inspired, feeling hopeful, and identifying ways that they can jump in and help as well.
 
Sissy  13:04   
Right? Well, I have to tell you, I feel like my life has been changed working on this project.
 
Millicent  13:09   
I feel the same way. I mean, I no doubt have had an amazing career at Corning over the past 20 years. But this portion of my career has been transformational for me personally, as a leader. And I hope that what we share with our listeners will be transformational for them in their lives when they get to the end of the season. So for this episode, we gave an overview of arrest Sue, and what our focus is and how we got started. And our next Episode Episode Two, we will be in Southern Tier in New York, and we'll be talking to our DNI education coordinators and hearing from them about the work they've been doing in school districts around culturally responsive teaching practices.
 
Sissy  14:06   
Thanks for listening. You can find and listen to episodes of Vital Voices wherever you get your podcasts. For more information about the Office of racial equality and social unity and how its programs are impacting the community. Click on the links in the show notes.