Diversity & Inclusion Award
The Diversity and Inclusion Award recognizes a community member who supports the broad range of backgrounds and experiences at VIMS and who works to create and foster a respectful, cooperative, and equitable campus environment.
The recipient of this year’s award is Cecilia Lewis.
Cecilia is a proactive and dedicated member of the DiveIn Committee. She constantly pushes for VIMS and William & Mary to make our campuses more inclusive, asking, “What else could we be doing?” and “How can we do better?” As a member of William & Mary’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee, she acts as a liaison between main campus and VIMS and increases awareness, collaboration, and communication about upcoming DEI initiatives and events.
In 2021, Cecilia was named Diversity Champion by the William & Mary Office of Diversity for her efforts. She is often the first to volunteer to join DiveIn subcommittees and a member of too many committees to list here. One of the subtle ways she promotes inclusion is to check the handicap buttons as she walks around campus to make sure they work. To quote one of her colleagues, “Her commitment to the VIMS Principles of Community…is inspirational."
Cecilia’s DEI work goes beyond VIMS. She has been on the American Fisheries Society’s Equal Opportunity Section for more than a decade. There she highlights the value of diversity to fisheries sciences and strives to increase participation of under-represented groups.
Cecilia represents someone who wholeheartedly “furthers the Goals and Principles of Community of the Diversity & Inclusion Mission at VIMS” and is highly deserving of this award.
Congratulations, Cecilia!