Two members of the University community have been honored with the Presidential Diversity Award, an annual award recognizing the accomplishments of faculty, staff, students, departments, and functional teams who contribute to creating and sustaining a campus culture of diversity and inclusion through exemplary leadership.
Molly Murdock is an advocate for gender equity in music performance and scholarship.
Recognizing the lack of female composers being taught in music classes at all education levels, Murdock collaborated with like-minded students at the Eastman School of Music and other institutions to create a website, Music Theory Examples by Women, to highlight music created by women.
“Music teachers that I talked to said they would like to use more compositions by women, but said they just didn’t know any,” says Murdock, a doctoral student studying music theory at the Eastman School.
The website helps solve that problem. Teachers can easily find examples of different music-theory concepts—in the form of scores, videos, and audio—in compositions written by women. The website’s resources have been used by professional societies and received endorsements from faculty who have used its public-domain materials for their teaching and research.
Murdock works hard to raise awareness among educators and musicians, using social media platforms to promote dialogue surrounding gender and racial equity in music. She will also present her research to the Society for Music Theory.
It’s Murdock’s hope that introducing female composers into music classrooms—at the high school level and beyond—will give young women new role models and inspire them to see their own potential.
Jonathan Wetherbee is an eloquent and passionate advocate for a more welcoming and accepting campus community. Throughout his 10-year career at the University, he has taken on ever more demanding leadership roles in a number of programs and initiatives supporting respect and dignity for all people.
“I’m so proud and humbled to work at a University where individuals’ efforts to help promote a more inclusive society are recognized in this way,” says Wetherbee, an information analyst for the Center for Employee Wellness at the School of Nursing.
As cochair of the University’s Pride Alliance, Wetherbee helps to lead a group of employees dedicated to promoting a positive work environment that values and supports individuals regardless of their sexual orientation or gender expression. He is also a Safe Space training coordinator and helps to educate faculty, students, and staff while providing visible support and an identifiable network of allies for the LGBT community.
Wetherbee is also a member of the University of Rochester Medical Center Executive Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, which aims to advance diversity initiatives within the Medical Center and cultivate a culture of inclusion in its approaches to education, health care, research, and community outreach.
At the School of Nursing, Wetherbee has been integral member of the Dean’s Council for Diversity and Inclusiveness and in 2016, he was named the school’s first staff diversity officer.
