Kelly McNamara Corley, ‘89, on Founding the Law School’s Corley Institute for Diversity and Inclusion Education
“I’m hoping that we are creating a leadership pipeline on D&I issues”
Kelly McNamara Corley, ‘89, founded the Corley Institute for Diversity and Inclusion Education at Antonin Scalia Law School with the goal of promoting diversity and inclusion programs for law students and legal educators. Sitting down with Craig Sawyer, the institute’s director, Corley says while advocating for these issues has always been important to her, her views on education, diversity, and inclusion are continually evolving. She traces this advocacy to her youth, where she grew up in California and attended a diverse high school. “I’ve always felt comfortable and interested and curious about different cultures and different ethnicities,” she says. She goes on to say that diversity and inclusion should be a top priority. As society becomes increasingly diverse, it is imperative to know how to navigate and leverage our differences.
Corley maintains that diversity is not only a moral imperative but a market imperative. “Increasingly,” she says, “we find that we’re serving a more diverse population, from a customer perspective. Our employee base is diverse, and in order for our company to succeed, and in fact to win, in the marketplace, we’ve got to create the right environment.” She cites an instance in which a blind colleague helped their marketing department enhance the company website to make it more accessible to blind individuals. Corley says that this is one of many examples of how fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace lends a competitive advantage.
Corley identifies the legal profession as a critical area to identify biases, cultivate relationships with people from different backgrounds, and expand inclusion practices. “If you can’t do those things,” she says. “You can’t be a very effective lawyer, and you can’t be an effective contributor to society.” Corley decided that focusing her efforts on the law school would be the most effective way to help ensure that lawyers entering the legal profession were prepared for these challenges. She was particularly attracted to Antonin Scalia Law School because of the institution’s diversity of perspective and diversity of thought.
The vision for the institute, explains Corley, is to establish fluency and competency when it comes to diversity and inclusion, and to give GMU law students an edge with their capabilities in the workforce. “My hope,” she says, “is that we are graduating young leaders, and when they move into leadership roles, that they are able to think about these issues. So I’m hoping that we are creating a leadership pipeline on D&I issues.” As Corley puts it: “It takes skill and it takes knowledge and it takes effort to create an environment where you bring differences together and you leverage it for a positive good. There’s nothing more powerful than that.”
The Corley Institute has been offering a no-charge Certificate Program in Diversity & Inclusion to Scalia Law students since fall 2018. It also developed a D&I tool kit for its program that it has shared to all law schools at no cost. This spring, the Corley Institute is leading virtual certificate programs for law students at seven other law schools. Each new initiative elevates the understanding and importance of diversity and inclusion in the legal profession.