June 17, 2024 | By Nick Pfost
Meaghan Wheat has been honored by University of Michigan’s Division of Student Life with a Values in Action Award. Wheat received the award for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion category, one of six rooted directly in the division’s values. It recognizes someone who lives out the division’s commitment to making campus “a place where differences are celebrated, patterns of inequity are disrupted, multiple perspectives are heard, and every individual feels a sense of belonging and connection.”
Meaghan Wheat is the program manager for CommonGround, a student-led, student-serving program—for student organizations, residence halls, Greek life, academic courses, and other student communities—to nurture social identity development and enhance group dynamics.
Meaghan is also leading the way in creating safe and welcoming places for neurodiversity, in addition to other social identities many people think of when talking about DEI. She helps “create safe spaces for those who are neurodiverse and educates all of us about the different ways that neurodiversity shows up in the workplace,” said Deborah Slosberg, Meaghan’s supervisor and IGR’s assistant director.
Renee Boudreau, who also nominated Meaghan, wrote of the way she creates a radical culture of community care that challenges traditional workplace norms. One example: “She normalizes addressing our needs during meetings, which may seem minute, but it’s transformative for many students who are accustomed to prioritizing productivity over their wellbeing… Meaghan’s exceptional leadership allows students of all identities to show up as we are, setting a profound example of how nurturing an inclusive environment can not only enhance individual wellbeing but also drive collective success.”
A double graduate of the University of Michigan, Meaghan has been involved with IGR for over a decade. In high school, she participated in the Summer Youth Dialogues on Race and Ethnicity in Metropolitan Detroit, an IGR outreach program centered on critical race and diversity dialogues with high school students and young people in the nation’s most segregated metro area. As an undergraduate and later a graduate student at U-M, she was involved with both Summer Youth Dialogues and CommonGround before accepting a professional staff role after earning a Master of Social Work in 2021. She received the Values in Action Award for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Student Life Staff Celebration, held June 4 at the Michigan Union.
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