Doing the work to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion at the Media Lab

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Lorrie LeJeune

Lorrie LeJeune 

To achieve our DEI aspirations, the Diversity and Leadership Committee and the DEI Working Group strategize, prioritize, and evaluate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and initiatives for the Media Lab. Each member of the Committee represents our constituencies: the students, faculty, and staff at the Media Lab. 

Carrying on the significant work of not just the Culture Working Group but also that of the Funding, Governance, Research, and Student-Advisor groups, the DEI Working Group has been charged with continuing these efforts in a focused, strategic, and inclusive manner. 

2023 priorities of the Working Group:

  • recruit new members for 2023–2024
  • create and implement the Lab's first DEIB Pulse Survey
  • work with the MIT Center for Constructive Communication to launch RealTalk@the Media Lab
  • host our first Town Hall in the Fall of 2023

2022 priorities of the Working Group:

  • co-design of shared values statement
  • co-design of Code of Conduct
  • improve onboarding 
  • continue efforts on our DEI graduate student programming



  • THE DEI Working Group is Looking for New Members!

More of Who We Are

The Media Lab’s DEI Working Group is a team of faculty, students, and staff committed to fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment that values and embraces the different ethnicities, races, cultures, ages, abilities, sexual identities, and systems of belief that comprise of the Media Lab’s community. Grounded in the work done by the Media Lab’s working groups of 2019 -2021, we are committed to creating an environment that allows all the opportunity to succeed and thrive. While our group initially focused on implementing recommendations from the working groups, our future involves more evaluating and assessing the current DEI needs of the Media Lab with the help of all community members. As a community, we will continue to work on developing recommendations while including community members in its implementations.  

Membership Commitment

Members of the Working Group are expected to have a compelling interest in and support of creating and continuously improving a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment at the Media Lab. The minimum commitment to work on the DEI Working Group is no less than one year and no more than two years. Faculty, students, staff (including post-docs) are welcome to join!

How to Become a Member

If you are interested in becoming a member, please email the Chair of the DEI Working Group, Cesar Mieses. Your email should address the following questions:

1. What does DEI mean to you? 2. What types of events and activities do feel the Media Lab could engage in to foster DEI? 3. Do you have the time and/or capacity to meet with the DEI WG bi-weekly for one hour and to also engage in activities that may be, on average, 10-20 hours per year? 4. What unique experiences or attributes could you bring to the DEI WG? Emails to join are accepted year-round with the expectation that new members start on or around the beginning of the academic year (September/October). Please note there may be moments when new members start sooner or later.   

Thank you for your interest!