Senior Barksdale Fellow Ashleen Williams has been named the 2022 IHL Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion winner and a 2021-2022 Diversity Innovator award winner. From an article on the latter: 

She serves as co-chair to the First-Generation College Student Task Force, a higher education adviser to the Mississippi College Access Project and an adviser to more than 120 scholarship students at the university.

“I am very honored to receive this award because I am inspired daily by students and colleagues who commit to creating a more inclusive University of Mississippi,” Williams said. “When I originally started working with first-gen students, my goal was simply to help make things easier and more navigable for students I had a shared experience with.

“I was not expecting this to develop into what it has.”

Williams is also the university’s 2022 IHL Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion Award nominee.

The Diversity Innovator Award has been given to Ole Miss faculty and staff since 2020 and was extended to students last year. It is awarded by the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement to members of the campus community who show a level of commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion that goes above and beyond what is required by their positions.

To read more, visit news.olemiss.edu.