Dawn D. Bennett-Alexander
Dawn D. Bennett-Alexander (born 1951) is a lawyer, academic, author and consultant who created the first course in employment law addressing workplace discrimination for colleges of business and led in the development of what is now known as Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB).
In the 1970s, Bennett-Alexander was a law clerk for the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and Federal Trade Commission and was an assistant to the associate director and counsel at the White House Domestic Policy Council.
Beginning in 1955, and for 22 years, her father was a pastor at Galilee Baptist Church in Washington D.C.[9] Bennett-Alexander had four siblings, Jean, Gale, Brenda, and William.
[9] Bennett-Alexander was 12 when she attended the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and heard Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech (August 28, 1963).
After that, she was an advisor and attorney at the Federal Labor Relations Authority from 1981 to 1982, when she was hired at the University of North Florida as an associate professor of business and employment law.
[15][16] Bennett-Alexander consulted with organizations and companies about equity and inclusion after the racially motivated killings of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd.
[5] Stunned by emotional toll that the deaths have had on blacks, and Americans as a whole, Bennett-Alexander presented a course at Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) of University of Georgia entitled Diversity and Inclusion in a Post-COVID World: Does it Still Matter.
[3] Other important publications written by Bennett-Alexander are: "Sexual Harassment in the Office", in Personnel Administrator in 1988; "The State of Affirmative Action in Employment: A Post Stotts Retrospective" in the American Business Law Journal in 1990, "Hostile Environment Sexual Harassment: A Clearer View" in the Labor Law Journal in 1991; and The Legal, Ethical & Regulatory Environment of Business, published in 1996.
She learned the strength of her enslaved great-grandmother who bore a lifetime scar on her face that she received fighting off a sexual attack by the landowner.
Dressed in clothing of enslaved women, the woman in the photograph "has more dignity and more common sense than many people whose wealth or academic degrees indicate in their stature".
[23] In 2016, Bennett-Alexander and Cas Mudde, also a professor at the University of Georgia, spoke at the viewing of Hate: A Film by Israeli Nadav Eyal at the school.
She served as a board member for the Girls Clubs of Jacksonville, Inc., Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Northeast Florida, and the Friends of Athens Creative Theater.
[1] Bennett-Alexander received the National Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Excellence in Teaching Award[2][24] and President's Martin Luther King Jr.
[25] She founded the Dawn D. Bennett-Alexander Building Bridges Scholarship for qualified students who pursue diversity and inclusiveness in their studies.
