I love how the professional radicals have to make up an African name. Sekile Nzinga used to be Monique Wilson.

State’s new ‘thought leader’ on equity focused on ‘long game:’ Moving Illinois from diversity to equity

Nearly three and a half months after joining Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration, Sekile Nzinga will get to put her theory into practice as head of a new office of equity that the governor plans to create Friday through an executive order.

Diversity is not the end point, but the starting line.

That’s what Sekile Nzinga believes.

Nearly three and a half months after joining Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration, Nzinga will get to put that theory into practice as head of a new office of equity that the governor plans to create Friday through an executive order.

“I think diversity is our basement, it’s our sub-basement,” Nzinga told the Chicago Sun-Times. “Yes, every place in our world is diverse, and so why wouldn’t our agencies be diverse? So that’s the basement — that’s the minimum standard.”

The finish line is equity.

Named the chief diversity officer in April, Nzinga said she changed her title to chief equity officer because her goal is “to get to equity, to move us off the sub-basement, but recognizing that the sub-basement is where we start.”

Calls for more equity and inclusion intensified after the protests that followed the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last year. 

Nzinga told the Sun-Times that Pritzker’s administration, as well as others around the country, have “really been responsive to the need to elevate equity as a very key and critical part of their commitment.”

“I think the combination of these [issues] has elevated the critical need to have an arm within the governor’s office dedicated to ensuring that the people of Illinois are cared for in an equitable and fair and just way,” Nzinga said, expressing excitement to “be part of developing that office.”

Nzinga’s new office will be tasked with taking the lead on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, legislation and policy, as well as identifying barriers to equity, for the state and coordinating trainings. 

All state employees will be required to participate in annual trainings focused on diversity, equity and inclusion.

Sekile Nzinga, the state’snew chief equity officer, poses at the James R. Thompson Center Thursday afternoon.

 Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

“Diversity” is often defined as referring to all the many ways people differ – including, but not limited to, race, gender, sexual orientation and religion. “Equity” is centered around fairness for all those different groups, whether in access, opportunities, advancement or other areas. “Inclusion” involves the welcoming of those differences.

One expert uses a dance as a metaphor to explain the differences.

“Diversity is where everyone is invited to the party,” according to Robert Sellers, the University of Michigan’s chief diversity officer. “Equity means that everyone gets to contribute to the playlist. Inclusion means that everyone has the opportunity to dance.”

Nzinga’s role, among other things, entails supporting “equity-oriented efforts throughout the State to ensure services and resources are available and accessible to all in Illinois” and creating “a sustainable infrastructure and equity-oriented systems, policies, and procedures that operationalize diversity, equity, inclusion within state agencies,” according to language from the executive order provided to the Sun-Times.

The state’s equity officer has also set some goals for herself and her colleagues, with the chief one being to establish a structure for diversity, equity and inclusion that’s “sustainable and, in many ways, goes beyond me because I’m establishing the office.”