Office of Organizational Culture & Community 

Office of Organizational Culture and Community (OCC)

The Office of Organizational Culture and Community (OCC) is here to make sure everyone—students, faculty, and staff—feels included, heard, and supported. We’re all about building a strong community where you can thrive! This is a core part of UMSI’s strategic goals, especially goal #6:

Cultivate a positive culture that supports all UMSI community members in reaching their full potential

Creativity and collaboration are hallmarks of UMSI’s success and reputation and are best achieved when every student, postdoc, staff and faculty member feels welcome, valued, and empowered to contribute. By fostering a supportive community, UMSI reinforces its ability to attract and retain top talent and outstanding students with a broad range of experiences and backgrounds, stimulate meaningful research, and prepare its community to tackle complex, real-world challenges. This goal creates the foundational conditions for individual and collective success.

In support of this goal, OCC runs programs and initiatives that help create a sense of belonging, make UMSI education accessible to more people, and promote a positive and effective learning and working environment. By working with other UMSI offices, we focus on making lasting changes that are part of the school’s DNA. Specific initiatives include: 

Culture of Care Initiative: Through community interviews with students, faculty and staff and many rounds of review and feedback, OCC led the collective development of the UMSI Culture of Care Framework. 

• Promote practices that celebrate success

  • Showing appreciation for individual and team contributions. Acknowledging diverse examples of success and differences in the definition of success.

• Advance meaningful connections

  • Design and engage in opportunities for connection at both organizational and interpersonal levels, recognizing that shared experiences, genuine interactions, and trust foster collaboration and help navigate challenges across differences. 

• Communicate with transparency and respect

  • Uphold a commitment to dialogue that builds reliability and defines pathways for personal connections, accountability, and repair. Develop policies, skills, and processes that establish a foundation for timely, respectful, and open communication.

• Take space and time to Thrive

  • Cultivate an intentional space to consider the well-being and development of the School of Information as a whole, each individual and team, both professionally and personally. Create a culture that accommodates the unique needs, accessibility concerns, strengths, and backgrounds of every member of our community

K-20 Educational Outreach

We aim to build awareness of the field of information science by connecting with community college students and students in K-12 and opening access to college and career options.  UMSI students, staff, and faculty join this effort by volunteering their time to present during summer programming and campus visits during the school year.  Fill out our interest form to join educational outreach opportunities. 

UMSI Community Read 

Trying to reach some reading goals but need some accountability from others to get the pages read? Look no further! We host a community read for the UMSI community to process and work through a common book together. A couple books we've done before are Viral Justice by Ruha Benjamin and Disability Visibility edited by Alice Wong. 

Consultation & Advising

Do you have an idea for a program or event to help build connections and community? Or maybe you have a concern but are unsure where to start or how to navigate a situation?  Make an appointment to meet with us and we can help directly or point you in the right direction. See our contact information below 

Our Team

• Assistant Dean: Devon Archer  

• K-14 Educational Outreach: Sandra Lopez

• OCC Community Programs, Education & Events: Julia Dang

Contact us

• OCC email: umsi.contact.occ@umich.edu 

Updated 8/12/2025 DA