The Business of People Helping People

TJ Bowie G’19 is channeling his passion to support many others by making sure people have prospects to prosper at Elon and beyond.

TJ Bowie G’19 acknowledged his 1st function in the Business office of Human Resources about a calendar year ago, but he’s been in the company of helping folks a ton extended.

As Elon’s inaugural equivalent chance and human resources compliance supervisor, he’s generally responsible for all improvement and training around equitable employment protocols, including assessing recruiting and hiring procedures. “We want to do our very best to handle bias and make as considerably of an inclusive and equitable system as achievable,” says Bowie, introducing that seeing people do well who weren’t supplied a chance at 1st because of to bias retains him heading.

It’s something that has enthusiastic him during his skilled everyday living. When he worked in residence daily life, creating employees and students from a social justice viewpoint was his focus. “The widespread concept all over my specialist trajectory is producing individuals and the society they work in,” he states.

Bowie moved often as a boy or girl but lived in Colorado for most of his upbringing. He invested time residing in a non-White the greater part group in high college, an experience that permitted him to see inequities in action. “I’m not certain we had any discussions about the inequities I noticed,” he states, “and it wasn’t right until I reflected on it far more as an adult that I could unpack it in my head.”

Prior to finishing two master’s degrees, he attended a Jesuit establishment in Denver. “That’s actually in which I confronted my whiteness, White privilege and ability that I have as a White man,” TJ claims. “Since then, it’s been a journey of utilizing that to be a voice and tackle units of inequity.”

As an undergraduate, Bowie went to El Salvador as portion of a analyze abroad prospect, an working experience that opened his eyes to even larger disparities. “This was my very first time seeing men and women live in desperate circumstances,” he recollects.

That solidified his desire to assist members of his local community. “It is what sparked that passion in me,” he claims. “I chose to establish and create others.”

When performing as an assistant director of auxiliary products and services at Elon, he made the decision to pursue an MBA at the Enjoy College of Business enterprise. Following finishing that plan, Bowie started off looking for possibilities to blend his motivation and enthusiasm for supporting persons with a posture at the institution. He related with Randy Williams, vice president and associate provost for inclusive excellence, and Kelli Shuman, affiliate vice president of human assets, and learned about the freshly developed equal option and human methods manager purpose, which he now retains.

Bowie is psyched to keep on his private and qualified advancement journey. Earlier this calendar year, he was picked to participate in a selective management software available by the College or university and College Specialist Affiliation for Human Methods. As aspect of the 12-thirty day period system, Bowie will have the chance to develop his qualified expertise through tailor-made studying experiences which include mentorship, mastering gatherings and courses.

“It is continuous self-development,” he states. “I simply cannot successfully assess our strategies and protocol with out figuring out who I am, how my identification reveals up in a experienced location, and addressing the biases that I have.”

He believes in the institution’s commitment to creating a far more inclusive and equitable group. The development of positions devoted to assistance additional equitable techniques, like his have role, are evidence of that commitment, he states. “If we can recruit extra fairness-centered individuals, the a lot more inclusive we can be as a local community.”

Bowie hopes to enrich the encounter of other folks by helping and supplying possibilities for people to prosper. “I say this often, people encouraging people is what I do,” he states.

TJ Bowie is component of “Huemanity of Individuals,” a sequence by the Division of Inclusive Excellence that celebrates the variety of Elon’s community to uplift the values of inclusion and equity.