A top Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) diversity advisor is departing the government agency to rejoin George Mason University.
Christopher Carr served as the EPA’s senior adviser for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, a position he held since 2022.
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“It has been one of the greatest pleasures of my professional career to be able to serve our nation as the senior adviser,” Carr told ProPublica’s E&E News in a statement.
Carr is the former Associate Dean for Diversity, Outreach, and Inclusive Learning at George Mason’s College of Engineering and Computing before leaving for the EPA.
“I am happy to return to my role at the university,” Carr continued to E&E News, “where I am committed to continuing my commitment to the learning of our students, empowerment of our faculty, and engagement of our community.”
According to a university news article at the time, Carr was always planning to return to the school and was on a “two-year loan” to the agency under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act Mobility Program. The Program “provides for the temporary assignment of personnel between the Federal Government and state and local governments, [and] colleges and universities.”
As the university news article quotes him as saying, Carr sees his most important achievement at the EPA as creating the Office of Inclusive Excellence. “I’m very, very proud of that,” Carr said. “I’ll be able to look back and say, ‘That office has a fingerprint of mine on it.’”
Per its website, the Office “focuses on achieving equitable outcomes, fostering inclusion, and enhancing workplace culture for all EPA employees.”
In an interview before taking the EPA position, Carr explained his mindset about implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion principles.
“The future of DEIA is really about healing,” he said. “In this country we have yet to have a truth and reconciliation around our harmful past in relation to how we connect to and experience cultural differences. We have to heal from the trauma that has been systemically entrenched into our society, and we need to create healing spaces for not only those who have been directly harmed, but also those for whom the harm has benefited.”
Campus Reform contacted George Mason University and Christopher Carr for comment. This story will be updated accordingly.
This article was originally published at campusreform.org
