38th Annual MLK Celebration Leadership Award Recipient: Alyce Johnson

Alyce Johnson

member, Committee for Race and Diversity, MIT

38th Annual MLK Leadership Award

Alyce Johnson was awarded an MLK Leadership Award for her dedication to diversity and inclusion for staff employees.

Alyce Johnson was awarded an MLK Leadership Award for her dedication to diversity and inclusion for staff employees. Her career in all facets of human resources (benefits, compensation, employee relations, organization development, professional development, & staffing) spans over 30 years. Her certifications include the Center for Creative Leadership in Benchmarks 360, 360-By-Design Assessment Tools, and Coaching for Development. She is also certified through the American Compensation Association (aka World of Work); the Hay Group in Emotional Competence Inventory; CPP,Inc in MBTI; Situational Leadership II; and the Society of Human Resources Management (PHR).

She is responsible for the development, implementation and oversight of programs and processes that promote and sustain diversity, equity and respect. Collaborating with members of the MIT community, Johnson provides leadership and guidance for developing programs, strategies and practices to advance and support MIT's long-standing commitment to workplace diversity and an inclusive and equitable work environment for staff members across the Institute.

She is a member of the Institute's Committee for Race and Diversity, which represents the diverse interests of faculty, students, and staff. She also leads the Council on Staff Diversity and Inclusion, which leverages a distributed leadership model of sharing information and implementing programs locally for staff. In addition, Johnson leads the Human Resource Diversity and Inclusion team charged with developing the tools, systems and programs for implementation through the CSDI.

Johnson continues to apply an organizational lens to other work through coaching leaders and managers, delivering professional development learning opportunities, assessing readiness for change and performance development and facilitating retreats that focus on strategic planning, employee engagement, and team building.

MIT Excellence Award

In 2011, Alyce Johnson was honored by MIT for fostering diversity and inclusion.

An outstanding leader and example for us all, this awardee is the manager for staff diversity and inclusion. Her responsibilities include developing and implementing programs that promote diversity, equity, and respect—but she has gone above and beyond expectations in fulfilling that role. In just the past year, her work leading the Council on Staff Diversity and Inclusion has helped shape a stronger MIT vision, and her willingness to talk candidly about sensitive topics has made her invaluable in efforts to make MIT more inclusive. She co-led the Affirmative Action Planning process and created the HR Diversity and Inclusion Team, in both cases developing resource materials and distributing leadership responsibilities to multiply the Institute’s diversity efforts. She also organized an impressive knowledge-sharing event with other universities, placing MIT as a leader among its peers.

Please join me in congratulating Alyce Johnson.

MIT Diversity and Inclusion: Inventing Our Future

Alyce Johnson in her own words

I think the questions that resonated for me is, what about -- what about MIT allows me to demonstrate my own excellence, my own performance? And I think it has to do with the values of MIT. It has to do with how I connect with this community, that I have a community, that it allows me to bring all of me to this job. It's a 24/7 community that, I think that instills something about the need for me, then, to bring my 24/7, my whole being, my 360, to this work environment.

I think one of the advantages that I have is that I worked in a department that had a diversity of staff. I was not the only one. And so that made it very comfortable for me to bring me. I worry about departments that either have no staff of color, or differences. Because I do think, regardless of who you are, I, I think part of your success is the connections that you make and how people, again, help you to navigate. I don't care whether you're African American, white, Asian, Latino, it doesn't matter. It's -- and it's not able, disabled, transgendered, sexual orientation, doesn't matter. People need -- to be successful, I think you sometimes need a little help. How do I get through this? Or, or what are my challenges?

So hopefully you have that kind of a relationship with your manager, your supervisor. But if you don't, there are others in the community to seek out. And not even in an official capacity. In an unofficial capacity.