Why do you think Black History Month is important? And what does it mean to you?

Studying Black history has led me to recognize more deeply the awful privations of slavery and unjust conditions for many years afterwards that beset so many African-Americans. Black history also shows strengths of the American system of government and the Rule of Law that enable “the arc of the universe..to bend towards justice,” albeit far too slowly.

What is an event or moment in Black History that has directly influenced your life, or that you believe is especially important?

Ours was the Civil Rights generation. We labored to redress social and economic grievances of African-Americans and of Americans more generally. That exceptional time, including both Vietnam and the Civil Rights Movement, led me and many others to become public interest lawyers and seek to use the strengths of our Rule-of-Law system to improve conditions for those who were disadvantaged despite that system. I declined an offer to join a Wall Street law firm and instead joined a public interest law firm to try to provide Wall Street-quality service to advance our idea of the public interest.

Who is a Black individual that you believe has enhanced the field of public administration?

Many Academy Fellows have enhanced the field. I would point especially to Sallyanne Payton, William Cook Professor of Law at the University of Michigan emerita. She and I enjoyed many years of service together in Academy activities, including on the Academy Board. Among her positions of influence on laws and administration, Sallyanne served on the Nixon Administration’s White House Domestic Council and the Clinton Administration’s Health Care Reform Task Force, and as Chief Counsel of the Urban Mass Transit Administration. She was the first African-American graduate of the Stanford Law School and later served on Stanford’s Board of Trustees.

Who is a Black individual that has influenced your specific area of work?

In law school (see the two photos) I had the opportunity to argue a moot court case before Justice Thurgood Marshall. His determined and creative use of the law to advance social justice has inspired many young lawyers. For example, in the 1930s he used the noxious “separate-but-equal” doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson to force the University of Maryland to admit a black student to its all-white law school. (The argument: if Maryland didn’t admit the student, then it would need to build a new separate-but-equal law school just for him). That kind of legal jiu-jitsu is essential when going against an unjust but powerful opponent.

How can we work to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace?

Too many organizations use DEI as a gesture rather than reality. Needed is leadership from the top to implement DEI the same way that a leader shapes the organization’s culture and performance in other areas: through creation of a vision supplemented by performance standards and monitoring of progress in realizing the vision. To succeed, DEI can’t be seen as a zero-sum game, pitting one group against another; rather DEI must be permeated by an ethos of fairness, joint effort, and quality organizational performance.