Statement on Diversity - Marriage and Family Therapy - Applied Psychology - Antioch University New England
Statement on Diversity
Diversity Defined
Diversity is defined in terms of differences between groups of people with respect to structural disadvantage and systemic marginalization. These differences are related to such factors as gender, sexual identity, social class, ethnicity, race, religion, spirituality, age, health/ability, immigrant status, etc.
“In the MFT program, we value diversity of background and experience, as well as ethnic and cultural diversity, and we infuse teaching about diversity into each of our courses.” — Dr. Kevin Lyness, Director, MFT Program
Diversity at Antioch University
Antioch University as a system is committed to issues of social justice and diversity. To this end, we work to support diversity in as many ways as we can within the program. However, Antioch University New England is located in an area with very little racial diversity (New Hampshire is 96% White and Keene is nearly 98% White). As a result, our faculty, supervisors, and students largely represent the area demographics in terms of racial diversity. However, because our clinical sites are located all over New England, many of our students work with families from a wide range of socio-economic statuses and religious backgrounds, and in some of the urban areas, immigrant groups.
Our core faculty includes two White professors and one African American professor, with a diversity of religious backgrounds. Within our department there is a fair amount of sexual orientation and religious diversity and there are two African American faculty in the Department of Applied Psychology.
Our field supervisors are fairly evenly split in terms of gender and are mostly White, with one or two Latino supervisors, depending upon the yearly distribution of clinical sites.
Our student body is predominantly female (about 85%) and White at this time, but again it reflects a diversity of socio-economic backgrounds, religious backgrounds, and sexual orientations. One aspect of diversity in our student population is age diversity—our student body typically ranges from 22 to 68 years old.