Alex Hernandez-Siegel, the new director of Student Diversity and Inclusion services will begin his “year of listening” to find out what is working at St. Thomas and what he can build on in terms of student diversity and inclusion.

Hernandez-Siegel said St. Thomas’ diversity and inclusion initiatives are more extensive than he’s seen at other colleges.

“Most schools may have one or two people, if that. But this tells you (St. Thomas) really is taking this seriously, this is a central part of the mission now. And I wanted to be a part of that,” Hernandez-Siegel said.

His last job was a Chaplain to the College and Associate Dean of Students at Colorado College. Prior to that, he worked at Harvard and Dartmouth College, where he worked on diversity and inclusion.

“I feel it’s important for not only an office such as this to do that work, but really encourage everyone every other office,” Hernandez-Siegel said. “How do we assist everyone to do that? Because we’re all connected.”

Hernandez-Siegel intends to work with not only diversity and inclusion, but also on building student leadership skills and confidence to have conversations surrounding inclusion.

“I think a truly educated person knows how to work with diversity in the world, Hernandez-Siegel said. “People still need to be educated and constantly educated. It’s really has to be very organic in terms of our conversations.”

Hernandez-Siegel wants to make sure everyone’s voice is heard.

“I think it’s important that we’re just very open minded. Just because something has not been your experience doesn’t mean it’s not real,” Hernandez-Siegel said. “Our education should be a model of fighting against that intolerance.”

Hernandez-Siegel said he wants to look at building on social and emotional intelligence as part of a liberal arts education. Ultimately, he wants to work to become allies of those who have been marginalized in society.

“I come from a mixed heritage; I see things from different angles, but especially from the Puerto Rican perspective,” Hernandez-Siegel said.

Dia Yang, assistant director of SDIS, said Hernandez-Siegel is taking over the role from Patricia Conde-Brooks, who had two roles. Conde-Brooks is the current Executive Director for Campus Inclusion & Community.

“With our students of color enrollment growing, and with the racist incidents and the anti-racist action plan, we found that it was immediate that we needed a director in this office that’s here in the space full time,” Yang said.

While Conde-Brooks will still be present in the SDIS office, bringing in Hernandez-Siegel will allow for more consistent voices to create different initiatives and share perspectives.

“He’s definitely going to help guide and support a lot of the diversity programming that we do on campus,” Yang said. “I’m hoping that with the new director, that there could be some really great things we could do, whether it be just it’s this office or in collaboration with other offices.”

Yang said the intercultural center will be a place to come together.

“One thing I really took from him is to not think of it as segregation but congregation and congregating together and being in one with each other,” Yang said. “We should get space for that.”

Linkages intern Jonathan Rosario said Hernandez-Siegel came to a Hispanic Organization for Leadership and Achievement meeting and spoke at a Linkages event.

“He seemed very invested in diversity and the jobs that he’s done,” Rosario said. “He’s been really open, really willing and courageous to kind of step out into this new environment.”

Rosario hopes that when people come to SDIS, they know it’s a safe space where they can go to Hernandez-Siegel, whose values are reflective of SDIS’ values and ultimately, of St. Thomas’ values.

“Inclusivity embodies every identity, every race, ethnicity, gender expression,” Rosario said. “We all have our own distinct life experiences and knowing that just because you may not be gay or you may not be African American, you can stand as an ally behind them.”

Rosario said while everyone is an individual voice, St. Thomas is working as a collective.

“Students here just have a very amiable way about them.” Hernandez-Siegel said. “But also they’re very focused, which is a very wonderful, it’s a wonderful great plan to see. I’m excited to work with that.”

Rachel Torralba can be reached at torr3544@stthomas.edu.