Roanoke’s Diversity Center recently had to lay off its staff, including Bernard Alvarez, who has been with the organization since its beginning. This difficult decision came as Virginia’s new governor prepares to appoint a new director of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

After nearly a year, the Roanoke Diversity Center Library held its grand reopening, complete with a wide arrange of new books for patrons to enjoy.

U.S. Congressman Ben Cline has introduced the Federal Grant Accountability Act, which he said would prevent universities from using taxpayer-funded federal grants for “woke” Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and DEI initiatives.

The United States Supreme Court decision says universities and colleges cannot consider race in admissions.

Casa Latina in Roanoke said Hispanic Heritage Month is about celebrating culture and values through food, music, and community.

The Virginia Tech Carillion School of Medicine and Fralin Biomedical Institute just opened an inclusive and equitable environment for students at the Roanoke Campus and held a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The Academy Awards are happening in March, and in the 94 years the event has been running, only 20 Black actors have won an acting Oscar.

The 2020 U.S. Census gives new insights into how the country is changing.

Lego is kicking off LGBTQ Pride month, which is celebrated every June, a little early this year. NBC News reports, the toy company announced it’s releasing a special set, called “Everyone is Awesome,” that celebrates the diversity of its fans.

ROANOKE, Va – Carilion Clinic is taking steps to address inequities in its health care system. Nathaniel Bishop will serve as the company’s first-ever Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer. Bishop will be working to help bring more diversity among staff at all Carilion branches as well as address health inequities in the community among the homeless and refugee population. “We’re going to be looking at issues of disparity and inequities in the community, as we have more focus and working with partners to identify those disparities and inequities and looking at ways that we can be very intentional about overcoming those,” said Bishop. He said his role is more important now than ever as Carilion works to address inequities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

LYNCHBURG, Va. – Making sure students can see themselves in the books they read is a project a local school is working on. They meet online once a week after reading library books from Robert S. Payne Elementary School and seeing who those books represent. “The goal of this project is to have the collection of library books that we have better match our student population,” said Tracy Proffitt, Lead Instructional Coach at Robert S. Payne Elementary School. “There have not been enough books in our library that meets the diversity of what our children are,” said Stratton. Robert S. Payne staff would love to get other elementary schools working on similar projects.

ROANOKE, Va. – NASCAR has a rich tradition and history that dates back more than 70 years. So being able to share that information and serve as a steering mechanism, if you will, toward the opportunities,” said Warrick Scott. I get inboxes and mementos all the time and they want us to know they want to race,” Scott said. Not only compete in a race, but also as a race in a sport that has gone under the hood for something deeper than tune-ups. But you know, history will show, history will reveal how effective these things are,” said Scott.

Deeply impacted by recent events, one Florida native has made it her mission to spread messages of love, diversity and inclusion through books.