How do Foundations Successfully Implement or Manage DEI Grant Programs in Light of Anti-DEI Legislation? [Fall 2024 HRA Members Meeting; October 1, 2024]

In light of the recent Supreme Court decision on Affirmative Action, and other state anti-DEI legislation, foundations are at a crossroads when it comes to managing DEI grant programs. This session explored how Foundations can remain compliant with current legislation while offering grant programs that institutions can accept that continue to advance DEI related efforts.

A written session summary is linked above, in lieu of a recording. You must be logged into the website to download the summary file.

Resources related to this session:

Moderator
David Leyden, MPA, CRA
Senior Director, Finance and Administration, SFARI, Neuroscience, and Informatics| Simons Foundation

Presenters
Tammy Collins, PhD
Program Officer | Burroughs Wellcome Fund

Emily Cuneo DeSmedt
Partner | Morgan, Lewis & Blockius, LLP

Emily Cuneo DeSmedt represents employers in a wide variety of employment-related matters, including the defense of wrongful termination, harassment, discrimination, and retaliation claims. Emily is recognized as a strategic, practical, and decisive litigator, who consistently achieves summary judgment dismissals and/or favorable settlements for clients with minimal disruption to their internal business clients. She also handles internal investigations into complaints of alleged harassment, discrimination, workplace misconduct, and retaliation.

Emily provides strategic employment and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) counseling to in-house counsel, business leaders, and boards of directors. Emily is a co-leader of the firm’s employment counseling practice and regularly advises on complex issues such as leaves of absence; disability, pregnancy, and religious accommodation requests; sexual harassment allegations; and executive-level performance management.

Emily is also a leader of the firm’s DEI Task Force, and she advises many of the nation’s largest private and public companies, foundations, nonprofits, and investment funds regarding how to advance their DEI, racial equity, and supplier diversity programs and strategies without running afoul of the law. Emily also defends Section 1981 lawsuits challenging DEI and racial equity programs.

Emily represents clients in several industries, including retail, sports, pharmaceutical, healthcare, and philanthropy.

As the pro bono chair of the Princeton offices, Emily maintains an active pro bono practice.

Prior to joining Morgan Lewis, Emily gained experience as an associate in the New Jersey office of a large national firm, where she focused on employment litigation and represented employers, particularly large healthcare institutions, in employment matters before state and federal courts and agencies.

David Henderson, MD
Vice President for Equity, Diversity and Belonging, Department of Medical Education | American Medical Association

Dr. David Henderson is a graduate of Amherst College and Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, and a family physician by training. After two decades of community-based practice, including one year working as a physician volunteer in Sierra Leone, West Africa, he joined the faculty of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine (UConn SoM) in 2003. As a faculty member, he distinguished himself across a diversity of leadership roles. As an educator, Dr. Henderson was one of the faculty leaders of the curricular reform process that produced the MDelta curriculum. He also conceived and led the development of the Certificate on Social Determinants of Health Disparities, a graduation requirement that threads content related to social determinants and health equity within MDelta. Administratively, he served as the Faculty Accreditation Lead during a successful LCME accreditation site visit in 2018. He received the Alumni Association’s Distinguished Faculty Award in 2019 when he stepped down after nine years of service as Student Affairs Dean. He also served as Chair of Family Medicine and the Associate Dean for Multicultural Affairs. Nationally, he has served on the Board of Directors of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, which also awarded him the Bishop Fellowship in 2015. He has represented UConn SoM in the AMA ACE Consortium and served as co-chair of the Executive Committee and the Learning Environment Work Group. In 2021 he was selected to join the National Academic Affiliations Council which is advisory to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. In May 2021 he received the UConn Board of Directors Faculty Recognition Award which is the highest honor bestowed upon faculty by the SoM. In December 2022 he retired from the SoM to begin service as the inaugural Vice President for Equity, Diversity and Belonging in Medical Education at the American Medical Association.

Jessica Koenigsknecht-Talboo, PhD
Director of Foundation & Corporate Philanthropy | University of Kentucky Philanthropy

Jessica Koenigsknecht-Talboo, PhD is the Director of Foundation and Corporate Philanthropy at the University of Kentucky (UK). In this role, Jessica drives foundation and corporate philanthropy strategies and builds productive partnerships to maximize support for UK’s academic, research, and community outreach programs. She also serves as a point of contact in UK Philanthropy for the UK Office of Research and UK’s Economic Development Collaborative. Initially, she joined UK Philanthropy as the Associate Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations for Health Affairs. In that position, Jessica led the development of a robust corporate and foundation fundraising program focused on attracting major funding priorities in health education, health promotion, health research, and health delivery models.

Before coming to UK in 2014, Jessica served as Senior Associate Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations on the Medical Alumni and Development team at Washington University in St. Louis. Prior to her career in philanthropy, Jessica was a postdoctoral research scholar at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in a premier Alzheimer’s disease laboratory. As a scientist, she has more than 10 peer-reviewed research publications in top-tier journals. Jessica earned a PhD in neuroscience from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and a BS in biology from Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio.