Eric Junco

Affiliation

Northern Illinois University

Biography

Dr. Junco’s works has been instrumental in creating a culture of belonging at NIU by organizing faculty panel discussions, facilitating belonging surveys, focus group research, and disseminating DEIJ research and pedagogy-based materials. Working closely with various administrative committees, Dr. Junco collaborates to improve mentoring and retention programming to support BIPOC students. Similarly, he assists with the implementation of recruitment and retention of racial, cultural, and linguistic students and staff. Dr. Junco’s work also focuses on building external partnerships. A quarter of his work involves collaborating with various institutions to create the Illinois Partnership of Educators for Inclusion and Equity (IPIE), which serves as a space for 60 Illinois DEI leaders from school districts, community colleges, and universities to share resources, ask questions, and support one another in their collective efforts to eliminate barriers and ensure that all students are able to maximize their opportunities for success and enrichment, academically and personally. This partnership also encourages its members to share experiences, strategies, and information that will be helpful to moving the equity agenda forward that is outlined in the ISBE Equity Journey continuum.