By Lauren Stott on behalf of the Diversity Dashboard team.

In fall 2017, ELGL began a campaign to collect diversity data on municipalities throughout the country. A simple start, seeking diversity information about the chief administrative officers (CAOs) and Assistant Chief Administrative Officers (ACAOs), is hoped to initiate research and spur important conversations. 

The campaign is supported by some critical influencers in the local government realm, including ICMA, who pledged thousands of dollars to fund the project. 

What’s important to remember, however, is the ultimate purpose of this project and intent of the research. It isn’t to call out communities for any perceived shortcomings in diverse representation or draw negative attention to any community, state or region. 

Instead, ELGL wants to understand the state of diversity in our communities so we can partner with them and improve the outlook for broad representation. 

Diversity is a topic of conversation in many circles (not just the public sector), and a higher level of understanding of representation throughout the country will help advance the conversation, catalyze ideas and impel action. 

ELGL wants to build partnerships with the gatekeepers of the information, so we can work together to improve the state of diversity in municipalities throughout the United States. 

Anyone who has questions about the intent of data collection or is wondering how the data might be used is invited to contact project coordinators Kirsten Wyatt (kirsten@elgl.org), Stacy Schweikhart (stacy@elgl.org), Libby Seguin (ewseguin@live.unc.edu), or Lauren Stott (lauren_stott@emerson.edu).