Our Vision

The Urban Institute’s mission is to open minds, shape decisions, and offer solutions. To advance our mission, we must attract and support a diversity of backgrounds, experiences, talents, and thought. We must work harder to recruit and retain talented people who can provide insights and solutions for an increasingly multifaceted society. We must think intentionally about how we can learn from and speak to audiences that reflect the rich diversity of America’s communities, and we must foster a culture where employees from different backgrounds and perspectives enjoy mutual respect, inclusivity, and collegiality. These efforts are critical to the health, vibrancy, and relevance of our institution and, most important, to the excellence of our research.

To learn more, read a letter from our president, Sarah Rosen Wartell, on our commitment to greater diversity, equity, and inclusion at Urban.

Our Goals

We believe transparency is the first step toward advancing institutional diversity, equity, and inclusion. We start by sharing Urban’s Diversity and Inclusion Roadmap, which articulates our aspirational goals, sets concrete objectives, defines activities to advance our objectives, and establishes clear mechanisms for responsibility and accountability.

We will also share key metrics of our progress, starting with information about the composition of Urban's staff by race, ethnicity, and gender, reported below for our leadership, research staff, and all staff.

Today, these metrics reflect the considerable distance we must go to achieve our vision. As we implement the activities in our roadmap, we will track and share these metrics to assess our progress and inform midcourse corrections.

 

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION ARE CRITICAL TO PREPARING US FOR THE WORK AHEAD AND ENSURING OUR CAPACITY TO ELEVATE THE DEBATE, STRENGTHEN COMMUNITIES, AND IMPROVE LIVES.

SARAH ROSEN WARTELL