Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Welcome to the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion!

The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion serves the students, faculty, and staff of Napa Valley College, with outreach to the communities of Napa County and its surrounding areas.

Our office works to create, strengthen, and sustain structures, policies, practices, and behaviors that:

  • support a diverse campus population and culture,

  • advance efforts to achieve equity in student educational outcomes and employee professional success, and

  • foster a sense of inclusion and belonging for all members of the Napa Valley College community, while also actively dismantling structures that promote and maintain inequality and oppression.

We firmly believe that diverse, equitable, and inclusive learning and working environments where all cultures, identities, experiences, and worldviews are valued and welcomed lead to innovative, creative, and successful institutions that are healthy, nurturing, and highly productive. This, in turn, supports the development of more equitable, just, inclusive, and innovative societies poised to solve the challenges of this historical moment.

The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion engages in research and data analysis, the application of best practices in DEI, collaboration with institutional departments and units, partnerships with community, the creation and delivery of professional learning, and the development of social justice and equity networks to advocate for the advancement of equity, cultural understanding, and inclusive excellence in educational and work environments.

We are excited to welcome you to the Napa Valley College family. Please reach out and let us know how we can support you in your educational and professional journey.

Dr. Patricia van Leeuwaarde Moonsammy
Senior Director, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

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It is important to acknowledge that the lands we all occupy today are Indigenous lands. Napa Valley College and the surrounding Napa Valley sit on the unceded traditional, ancestral, and contemporary homelands of the Miwok, Patwin (comprised of three federally recognized tribes: the Cachil Dehe Band of Wintun Indians of the Colusa Indian Community, the Kletsel Dehe Band of Wintun Indians, and the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation), and Wappo (including the Mishewal Wappo also known as the Onatsátis) peoples. These lands were taken via genocide and forced removal.

We recognize the past and contemporary violations of sovereignty, territory, and water perpetrated by invaders that have impacted the original inhabitants of this land who resided here for over 10,000 years and are still here. Before this land was colonized and farmed like we see it today, it was carefully tended by the Indigenous people, the first stewards of the land.

The glorious sun that shone on the Miwok, Patwin, and Wappo peoples before settler colonization and mass genocide still shines in Napa. The beautiful mountains that were places for celebration, community, and prayer for the Miwok, Patwin, and Wappo beckon to us today. The magnificent trees that gave shade, food and shelter still stand tall across the county. The Miwok, Patwin, and Wappo who were here stewarding the land, raising their families, and loving friends and community are still here. Elders are sharing their wisdom, knowledge, spiritual and cultural guidance with younger generations.

As part of Napa Valley College’s mission of transforming lives through excellent educational and professional opportunities that are student-centered, equity-focused, and community-oreiented, and in accordance with the College’s values of accountability, integrity, inclusion, respect, social justice, and sustainability, we make this acknowledgement.

We also affirm that this acknowledgement is insufficient. It does not undo the harm that has been, and continues to be, perpetrated against Indigenous people, the land, and water. May we hold steady in our commitment to be in solidarity and in action to seek equity and justice with the Miwok, Patwin, and Wappo peoples.

What is Equity?

Equity at Napa Valley College
At Napa Valley College, equity is both a guiding value and aspirational goal. Equity is a multifaceted principle. Equity remedies systemic inequalities that are the result of intersecting systems of oppression ingrained in our educational institutions. According to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, equity is defined as “the condition under which individuals are provided the resources they need to have access to the same opportunities as the general population. Equity accounts for systematic inequalities, meaning the distribution of resources provides more for those who need it most.”


Equity requires robust systems and dynamic processes that reinforce and replicate socially just ideas, power, resources, strategies, conditions, habits, and outcomes. Inequities are eliminated through changes in institutional mindsets, heartsets, cultures, practices, policies, and routines. Equity necessitates an antiracist and socially just framework to confront overt and covert racism and discrimination on the basis of nationality, religion, gender, sexual identity, age, and disability embedded in institutional structures, policies, cultures, and practices. The achievement of equity demands a social justice orientation and a recognition of how power shapes and affects relationships across the 
institution.

• Centering equity in our actions and decision-making challenges us to seek and invite the voices and experiences of young people, families, and communities that have been situated farthest from the opportunities and desired outcomes we espouse for everyone.
• Leading for equity requires us to redesign structures, policies, procedures, and processes to consciously redistribute power across role groups and institutions.
• Practicing equity in community acknowledges that we build with, and not for, others — we invite, engage, and design solutions, and co-produce knowledge in partnership.

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