The North Star
Welcome to The North Star—a podcast produced by the Oberlin Center for DEI Innovation and Leadership, and a space for candid conversations on leadership, legacy, and navigating complexity.
In each episode, we’ll talk with changemakers, scholars, and disruptors who are asking bold questions and reimagining what leadership looks like—in education, in community, and in the world we’re building next.
Whether you’re leading a team, building a movement, or just trying to make sense of today’s challenges, The North Star is your companion for reflection, insight, and action.
The North Star
Four Pillars and a Future: JeffriAnne Wilder, PhD on Reimagining DEI, Innovation, and Leadership
This special episode of The North Star turns the spotlight on Executive Director JeffriAnne Wilder, Ph.D., in a candid conversation with colleague Letisha Bereola about her journey, her identity, and leading Oberlin’s Center for DEI Innovation and Leadership amid a nationwide rollback of DEI. JeffriAnne reflects on leading in “quicksand” while programs around her were cut, the four pillars guiding the center’s vision—communication and thought leadership, research, education and training, and community—and how Oberlin’s long legacy of access and opportunity shapes her commitment to equity, leadership, and innovation. She also shares candid insights on redefining success, choosing rest over relentless achievement, navigating life as a Black woman leader and mother, and why amplifying all forms of human difference, not pitting groups against each other, is the heart of DEI in 2025 and beyond.
🔗 Find out more about Dr. JeffriAnne Wilder.
🔗 Follow the Center for DEI Innovation and Leadership on LinkedIn.
🌎Visit Oberlin College's website.
Podcast Produced by: Paradigm Media Group
Hey everyone, welcome to the North Star, a space for conversations on leadership, equity, and justice. This season we are exploring disruption and those pivotal moments when scholars, leaders, and communities challenge systems and reimagine the future. This is a special episode because this is not a familiar voice to you right now. It's because we are flipping the script. I'm Letitia Bariola, senior strategist for communications and impact for Oberlin Center for DEI Innovation and Leadership. I'm hosting the show today, and my guest is the executive director of the center, Dr. Jeffrey Ann Wilder. Hi, Dr. Wilder. How are you? I am well. I am well. I want to dive into kind of like level set us where you are right now with your work at the center. So tell us what your day-to-day is like. What are some of the projects you're working on? Just drop us right into the season you're in right now.
SPEAKER_00:Well, before we get into our projects and the work that we're doing, I first have to just say that I am sort of walking into this season with an extreme amount of gratitude and humility for gosh, just having a job and being afforded the incredible luxury and privilege to still be able to do this work today. So it's November of 2025, and what a 2025 it has been already. I say this all the time because I do not take being able to do this work lightly at all. A year ago, so if we think about where we were last November, our lives, a lot of people's lives, looked very different. There are some of my good friends and colleagues who had jobs working in positions that were fully funded, fully staffed, fully resourced, who no longer have those jobs, who no longer have those resources, who no longer have those staffs. And I feel very fortunate to be in the very small number of people who are still able to do this work and to be able to do this work under the leadership of folks who recognize how valuable, how important doing this type of work is, not for the sake of doing the work, but for what the work means to our broader humanity. So O'Reilly and Center for DI Innovation and Leadership has been around since June of 2024. And we are just getting started. We have been up to, as folks would say, some really good trouble creating the next generation of change makers. And really, right now, the work has been about being in good conversation and really trying to convene and amplify really what's left. Right. So I I I before we, you know, dig a little bit deeper, I just had to say that I'm thankful, I'm appreciative, and I recognize how honored I am to be able to do this work today.
SPEAKER_01:What a way to answer that question. I love how reflective you are right now because for someone who's been working alongside you since the beginning, even though we still have our jobs, right? We're working in the DEI space, it doesn't mean it has been easy. And you've had a different set of issues remaining still in the field during this time. And we talked a little bit about that in our first interview together. But now that we're kind of the landscape is totally different, and who knows where it's actually going to land. But I will say that it does feel like we've been able to take a little bit of a breath and get back to work in a more visible way. The work never ended, right? But now we're a little bit more visible. I'm curious, what did that time do for you? Getting the job very soon after that, DEI began to be dismantled. I mean, at the level at academia, right? Like right where you sit. And you still had to do the work. Keep your head down, do the work, keep your head down, do the work. Now that we're here and we are now public with the podcast, we're doing a little activity on LinkedIn. It's interesting to hear you have so much gratitude for that, for that time, and that you're still here, right? So talk a little bit more about how it was to be propping up a DEI center at a time where DEI in business, academia, you name it, was being attacked. And still is to an extent.
SPEAKER_00:It definitely felt a little odd and to be honest, very lonely. Because when you think about doing this work, especially, and you know, so I'm a sociologist by training. I've had my PhD in sociology for I don't know, 18 years. And I've been working in the higher ed space for, I don't know, gosh. I like to think of myself as a young kid, but I'm not. I've been working in the higher ed space for over 20 years. I've been working, educating college age, and I shouldn't even say college age, working at the college level, working at the collegiate level for a couple of decades now. And so when you think about doing that kind of work, you're always doing it in some sort of community, right? So doing sociology and doing the sociology that I do, you're always doing it in community. You're doing it with others. It's public work, it's community work, even teaching. And so this felt very different because to your left, to your right, to the center, people, programs, initiatives literally being dismantled overnight. And then the folks who are left aren't sure how long their work is going to be around. And so it's definitely quite lonely. And so it's like building something in quicksand, first of all, and building something in quicksand in solitude in the dark, right? So if you're thinking about doing that, but then also in doing all of that, you're building something that you do at the same time have the buy-in of your leader, the leadership at Oberlin. And so the community at Oberlin, the history of Oberlin, so you're you've got the that connection there. But at the same time, it's still very lonely in a way. And so doing that, you still have to find a way to gather your community. And so for me, continuing to do the work, and after a while, I realized that my community, I had to sort of build and sort of gather, maybe not necessarily my peers in my regional community, but I had to find peers in other places. And oddly, or maybe not necessarily oddly, but luckily enough, I found community in places that I didn't necessarily think I was going to. For me at Oberlin, I found community in the programs that I was building, right? So for instance, we launched this Changemakers Fellowship for undergraduate students. And so as I was building this program for students, I was also building community for myself. As we were building community partnerships, I was building community for myself. We're building this podcast, which initially started private and now is public. We're building community. And so it's been really nice to be able to create something that we were again initially building quietly in the dark, in quicksand, sort of in a lot of ways in solitude, where we're now being able to see a little bit of sunshine, right? We've got some community, and it's really gaining momentum, and it's quite lovely. And and like I said before, we're only just beginning. And what we have found is that we have emerged for other people as this North Star, which is only fitting because this is Oberlin, right? The first institution to create access and opportunity for underrepresented populations. And so in Oberlin's third generation, so Oberlin was founded in 1833. This is only fitting that in this moment now that this is how Oberlin emerges, that we are using this center as the North Star as we emerge in this very uncertain time in our lifetimes. We've never been in a space like this in our lifetimes. We're using this opportunity to emerge and find a path forward, build community, build connection, and create conversation and some sense of stability for everyone as much as we can.
SPEAKER_01:When you think about the work that you're doing, I know that we we had to almost like level set and be like, first, let's just talk about where we came from. Like we're doing work now, but let's like have a moment to just honor what the last year and a half has been like. And so now let's kind of go back to that first question around like, what is the day in life of the executive director for Oberlin Center for DEI, innovation and leadership? What is your days like these days?
SPEAKER_00:It's creating a lot of, you know, I would say like it's adding a lot of meat to the bones, right? So we spent a lot of time initially thinking about like, you know, what the structure would look like for the center. Like, what do we want to do? What kinds of things are important to us? So, President Carmen Twile-Ann Bar, who is the president of Oberlin College, she's in her ninth year at Oberlin, and she was very intent on creating this center, and she had a vision for it. And she shared her vision for the center with me. And so when I first started, I thought about what she shared as her vision and what the community members shared as their vision for Oberlin and also thinking about the history of Oberlin and the legacy of that. And so I spent a large part of my first year at Oberlin thinking about sort of translating that vision into a broader kind of sketch for what that work could be, right? And so we've got sort of four pillars of the work that we do in the center: communication and thought leadership, where we will convene conversations, right? So this is what we're doing right now through the podcast. We have a research pillar where we will think about originating research, but also sharing out the research of others. We have an education and training pillar where we would like to think about curricular innovation and finally community, because as I mentioned before, community is really important. So that first year was really about creating that infrastructure, building up that infrastructure. And now it's about flushing out the work in those four pillars. So I will say that the days are very busy, no two days are the same, and it really is all about continuing to flush those things out. I'm teaching a class this semester. So that fellowship program that I shared earlier, we launched that this year, and I'm teaching a class connected to that fellowship program. So I'm teaching a leadership and social change class. So in addition to sort of my administrative hat, um I'm grading midterms, which is a ton of fun. And so there's all kinds of things that is a part of the work. There's also you got to think about how you're gonna be innovative, how you're gonna stretch your resources. There is a fundraising piece at some point that we need to do. So no two days are the same. And I consider myself both a generalist, but also a specialist. You've got to do all kinds of things leading the center. There's a human resource element to it as well, because I have uh staff and things that I have to do connected to that. So uh no two da two days are the same. It's a ton of work, but man, it actually is so fulfilling and it's a it's so enjoyable. And I have to say, and I've shared this before, I'm an educator at heart. I mean, I think that is probably one of my first loves is students. And so having the opportunity to teach and interact with students is literally one of the best things. And so I have really enjoyed being able to do that again. So that's been a ton of fun as well.
SPEAKER_01:Well, what you didn't mention, and I want to add this layer to your day-to-day, is that you are a mom of two girls. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. And so you have this big job with a lot of responsibility, juggling so you all the pillars, staff, your teaching. There's a lot happening there. But you also go home and you are a mom. There's also a commute element to your work, right? Back and forth between campus and working remote. And then there's this whole human that is you that needs to be fed, slept, have some fun. So the question here is around you represent so many of us, right? The hustle of the big job and being a mom and trying to take care of ourself. So I'm curious. Annie just recently had a birthday where I know you did some reflection. So I'm curious, what does self-care? How are you taking care of yourself in the midst of all of this? What does that look like right now?
SPEAKER_00:Believe it or not, I pledged to do less and not more uh this year. So I am not gonna share what birthday it was. And they say that black don't crack, but it kind of does, right? And I let's just say this I am staring at milestone birthday in the face, right? So I didn't have a milestone birthday, but I got one coming rather soon. But I am gonna enjoy the the birthday that I just celebrated about a week or so ago. And what I have learned um over the years is that, or and really just recently, is that I accomplished a lot over the course of my adulthood. And one of the things that I was really that meant a lot to me was accomplishing more things, right? Set a goal, achieve the goal. And when you're almost finished with that goal, you set the next goal. And that next goal has to be a higher goal than the previous one. And then you set the next one and the next one. I finished my PhD at 31 years old. And when I was finishing my PhD at 31 years old, I thought, gosh, I'm probably three to four years later than I would like to have been, which is a silly, silly thought at the time, right? Like, that's silly. Finished my PhD at 31 years old. That's super young, right? Like, what are you doing? Now I did have a lot of fun, so I do know how to have fun. And so that's always something that has been a sort of a credo of mine. You know, you work hard, you play hard. But what I have sort of settled into at this phase of my life is that I don't have to rush and I don't have to accomplish all the things, right? Less really is more. It really, really is. And there is there are no timetables for me anymore. Like, I am not like I honestly, like, what's what's the next thing? I don't know. Whatever the good Lord says. Seriously, I mean, something that is an accomplishment for me at this point in my life is like getting my rest, drinking my water, minding my business. And that's so cliche, but it is so true. I am not chasing anything else. My dream is to make sure that my two girls, once they grow up, they say that they had a good childhood. Their childhood was stable and they have great memories, and that mommy was present. That's literally like what I'm aspiring to, right? Not chasing the next thing or so they see that I know how to have a balanced life, firm boundaries. Saying no, it's okay to say no. Actually, no, I'm good. Striking that balance, that's really, really important. People say all the time that you actually can have it all, just not all at once. I wholeheartedly agree with that. And I would actually just throw my own little remix to that. I don't want it all. I don't want it all. I don't, I'm okay with that. Five years ago, ten years ago, I would have been chasing all of the things because that's how I was programmed. I don't want all of the things, I just want to be safe, happy, healthy, balanced, loved, and healed. That's it.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:I want to do good work. I want to help people, I want to help people reach their goals. That's literally all I want to do. So that's my aspiration now, as opposed to whatever it was that I thought was achievement before. This is sort of me resetting what achievement means to me at this point in my life.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my goodness, that is so good. What I love most. Most about that is yes, you're drinking your water and getting rest, but the your answer to that question was like, I've changed my mind on what I view as accomplishment, or what I view as a really good day, or what I view as, and and that in itself is a form of rest. You're allowing your ambition to like chill out for a minute, and you're allowing yourself to have space and margin, like shout out to having margin in the day, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Having space to just be, I think for a lot of women, Jeffrey Ann, you are you reflect what a lot of us feel right now. And so thank you for sharing that. I want to move a little bit into disruption and how that has looked at the center and your life. So let's just start with how is the center sort of challenging norms or forging new pathways for inclusion and equity?
SPEAKER_00:So I think our programming itself is really a form of disruption. So for instance, if you think about just really our name, we are the center for DEI, innovation and leadership. And when you Google this, and you'll probably remember this conversation from way back when we were thinking about we had a couple of name changes. So the center originally started off as the center for racial equity. And that name predates even me joining Oberlin. And that name changed from the Center for Racial Equity to the Justice, Center for Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Jedi. And that was the name when I joined the center. And I decided to change that name because it was really the thought of that was really disruption. I wanted to disrupt what people think about when they think about diversity, equity, inclusion. I wanted to sort of stretch and reach beyond typical and possibly even stereotypical thoughts of what a center like this is about and what a center like this can do. Because too often people think about justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and all of the quote-unquote alphabet soup as being very exclusionary and very limiting. And that's everything that we're not. This center is about really all of humanity, right? And we really are about ensuring that we really amplify all of human difference, right? I mean, really, that's what we're about. Overlin, as I mentioned before, Oberlin's history is really about, is really centered on access and opportunity, specifically as it relates to the education of women and folks of color. And so rooted within that is also rooted in the history of the center. And so we're going to lead with the spirit of access and opportunity as it specifically relates to racial equity. But we don't want to stop there. That's where we start, but that's not where we end, right? We want to start with racial equity, but we end with humanity, right? We end with all of human human difference. And so when thinking about what our name could be, we thought about how do we make this as broad based as possible, but equally attentive to humanity and all of human difference, right? And how do we also consider the future?
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Right? That's where the innovation and the leadership comes in as well. We want to think about how how we will envision the future, how we want people to envision the future. That in and of itself is disruptive thinking.
SPEAKER_01:How would you answer the question of what is DEI in 2025?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I think DEI in 2025 is everything, everything that people, everything that people don't want it to be, right? Or everything that folks are making it out to be, everything not, everything that I'm not even getting that right, but I'll say this. And I would argue that probably with that thinking, it should be, right? Because those folks who think that DEI should be canceled never understood what diversity, equity, and inclusion was in the first place. Folks who are proponents of the cancellation of DEI probably believe that DEI was exclusionary, was about marginalization, and that is not what DEI is, right? DEI became something that folks sort of that that grew into something that folks were against. But at the core of it, really diversity, equity, and inclusion is really about amplifying, appreciating all forms of human difference and ensuring that all of us, regardless of our social location and regardless of the things that make us different, that we are celebrated for those differences. And that's really what it's about, right? It's not about ensuring that one group gets something over another. Those are the kinds of things that, and also DEI is is made out to be divisive, right? And politically charged. But that's not the DEI or the diversity, equity, inclusion that I aspire to, right?
SPEAKER_01:This is actually a great segue into sort of going back into the roles that you've had before coming to Oberlin. For someone who's been at this work since you have to tell us the year that you first started this. I'm curious if you could bring us back to the essence of you kind of did that. Like when you were first working at this, what was sort of the energy around DEI? Like remind us how it started and all the good energy around the work you were doing. Where were you, the year, the time? What was the reaction, I guess, across the culture for DEI back then?
SPEAKER_00:I've been doing DEI so long, it wasn't even called DEI back then, right? So that's how long I've been doing that. So my very first job that was sort of in the space was back in 2001. Actually, here in the Cleveland area, I worked at Baldwin Wallace College, which is now Baldwin Wallace University. I worked in admissions and I was an admissions counselor, and part of my role was to do multicultural recruitment. And so at the time, and I had just finished my master's degree in sociology at Cleveland State University. And so at the time, my role was to recruit recruitment efforts for the college, but there was this focus on the recruitment of underrepresented students or multicultural students, and that was the terminology used at the time. So I did that for a couple of years, and then I transitioned for the same school into a role called that was titled the director of multicultural student support services. So at that time, it was multicultural. They had multicultural affairs, right? So I was the director of multicultural student support services, and I think that was in 2003. And that that was housed in the student affairs division. And I had all of the uh what we would call the identity-based groups now. I had all of the identity-based student groups sort of under my portfolio, and I was the advisor for all of the identity-based groups, the Black Student Association, the Latino Student Association, the People of Color United Group. I had all of those groups, and that was my job was to ensure that those student-based identity groups had all the support services that they need. At that time, I decided that even though I really enjoyed working with those students, I wanted to be on the academic side. So I went back to pursue my PhD. And so at that point, I left Cleveland and moved to Florida to pursue my doctoral studies. And so from there I did my PhD, studied for four years, and finished that. Then I moved into a faculty position at the University of North Florida. While I was at the University of North Florida and in my faculty role, I was there for 10 years. I ended up doing some work at UNF, and it was a service, sort of volunteer capacity. But while at UNF, I served as the associate chair for two years and then the chair of the president's commission for it was a commission on diversity and inclusion. So it was the it was maybe a 60-member organization around diversity and inclusion. So I did that for four years as a leadership role, and I was a founding member of that organization. So I served in that capacity for probably, I don't know, maybe six years. And then after that, I launched a center or an institute at the University of North Florida, the Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnic Relations, and did that for four years. And then I moved into another capacity at the University of Colorado Boulder, another DEI-facing role. So I've done a lot and held a couple other positions in the DEI space. So I've been working in DEI-facing roles since 2001. So for a really, really long time doing this work. And so when I said said earlier, it really is about amplifying the voices and experiences of underrepresented groups and also really about ensuring that human difference, right? It's about ensuring that human difference is front and center, not about pitting one group against the other. Charlie, what it's about.
SPEAKER_01:I'm curious during that, as you were rising in your career, were there challenges, what were the challenges then? Like it's very clear what the challenges are now, but did you experience any thread? Was there any thread of the of the pushback or the criticism or the dismantling? Was that happening at in any capacity throughout your career? Or is this a completely new idea that DEI does not belong in business and academia, et cetera?
SPEAKER_00:I think the there was a hint of those challenges that we saw when I was living in the state of Florida. So we started to see that happen with those challenges, the threat to those challenges with state statewide sort of pushback against diversity, equity, inclusion at the state, at the state institutions, at the public institutions in the state of Florida. Right. And I think those challenges happened around 2017, 2018, something like that. But you know, prior to that, I don't think we've seen the level of statewide and federal policy challenges that we have that we are currently seeing. And so this is the newness to it.
SPEAKER_01:Mm-hmm. I want to see talk about just advice that you can give. I know there are a lot of professionals that listen to this podcast, and people are going through different things, right? There are layoffs happening in across sectors. There, there's uncertainty around just, we'll say, the economy. And leaders, I feel like, especially have an extra burden now because of just the state of the world. Let's just put it all in that pile. What advice would you offer people who are still seeking to build, making an impact, people who are still trying to be effective at their jobs and their work? How are you keeping yourself laser focused when it feels like sometimes the world is just getting sort of crazier and crazier?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So I highly doubt Mel Robbins is listening to this. Maybe she will. Maybe somebody will.
SPEAKER_01:Hey, Mel, Mel Robbins, come watch this podcast. At least the clip, comment, please. I know.
SPEAKER_00:I know. Hey, Mel, would love to be on your show. Okay, so when the world gets crazy or people get get crazy, let them, right? So that's that's the nod to Mel Robbins. But you know, there are things that are in your control, and there are things that are outside of your control. You have to release the things that are outside of your control. Okay, so there's that. The other thing that I would say is I learned early on in my career that I needed mentors and coaches and sponsors to lean on those folks, right? So make sure that folks are identifying, not one person, because one person can't be your everything, right? Identify a group of mentors, peers, sponsors, coaches who can give you that feedback and guidance. The other piece is translate, translate, translate. Think about your skill set and learn how to translate that skill set into something else, right? We've seen higher ed shift and morph and change, and to a certain extent. It probably is shifting and changing and probably won't change back for the foreseeable future. So think about what skills you have that can shift into something else, right? Think about that. Don't be afraid to be an early adopter of technology. I have always been an early adopter of things, and I'm not talking specifically about AI, but all kinds of technology, right? Innovate. It's it's okay to do that. Upskill as much as you can, take advantage of that. And gosh, as a woman and as a woman of color, I have always thought about ways in which I can translate what I know. I'm an expert now, right? There are a lot of things that I can monetize myself as a business person, and so I always think about what I can use and leverage as an entrepreneur. Now I am not lovey, so now we're just throwing everybody out here, right? So I am not a big entrepreneur, but I'm always thinking about what value I have and how I can use that to leverage into the next side hustle or gosh, just additional streams of income. And then so I think that we have to be very intent on that right now because things are as unstable as they are. We we cannot just solely rely on one thing to keep us moving. We have to figure out how we get multiple things. So in the event that one thing or our main thing shifts, we have to have something or several things kind of on that back burner.
SPEAKER_01:And I love how you say that, not out of fear, because there is a lot of conversation right now around you got to have a back plan B, a plan C. But I love how like the calmness that you have about that, around just you look at it more as leveraging your skill set. You're an expert. It's like it's very positive how you see that. Well, then I can I can have an entrepreneurial spirit about my skills. And and there's no fear, and I don't sense a lot of fear, like you gotta have a side hustle, make sure you have a number two, make sure you're saving it. It's more like, no, look at the gifts that you have, look at the margin that you may have too, and figure out how you can move into monetization, side hustle, business, whatever you want to name it. I appreciate that. Now we're gonna move into rapid fire questions. Are you ready? Let's do it. First thing, what has made you smile this week?
SPEAKER_00:My kids, my kids, my kids, because they're always stealing my money. They always got plans for my money. They're in a purse, they're grabbing a wallet all the time. They just always got plans for my money. That's why I need to come up with separate strains of income because they always steal my money.
SPEAKER_01:Fun fact we both have daughters named Ava, and I just love that. When she talks about her Ava, I'll talk about my Ava. Okay, what keeps you up at night?
SPEAKER_00:Oh gosh, this is a separate conversation, but perimenopause, right? And I, you know, I go to bed pretty early because I do need my beauty rest. And um, the only thing that keeps me up at night is having to get up to go to the restroom in the middle of the night. That is the only thing. Because otherwise, you know, I go to bed at like nine, and it is so frustrating waking up at 2 a.m. to tinkle.
SPEAKER_01:Perry, Perry's knocking on your door. Gotta wake it up. Perry is making it hot in the mud.
SPEAKER_00:Home girl knocked on the door. She showed up with bags, she moved in. She sleeping next to you now. We're nine over here. Right.
SPEAKER_01:She just moved in with all her little stuff. She lives, she lives with you. Okay. What is your North Star? Dr. Wilder, the guiding idea or value that continues to anchor your work.
SPEAKER_00:Um, I know who I am. I know who I am. I've always known who I am. And anytime I forget, I have to remind myself, you know who you are, right? That's a kind human. That is a human who really believes in the goodness of other humans. And that is also sociology. I talk about sociology all the time. And that is the goodness and the promise of sociology. And that is about um solving or doing our damnedest to solve our social problems. And so that is my North Star.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you for your time today, Dr. Wilder, Executive Director. She is on the pod, her own podcast of the Oberlin Center for DEI Innovation and Leadership. It's been a pleasure to spend this time with you, my friend.
unknown:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you. And don't forget, everyone, this conversation with Dr. Wilder reminds us that disruption is both personal and collective. A story shaped by experience. Lots of it. You heard the resume, reflection, encourage. Thank you for listening to the North Star and stay tuned for more conversations at the intersection of leadership and innovation.