Nataka Moore (far right) with Chicago Campus students.
Nataka Moore, champions diversity, inclusion, and social justice in the classroom, across the University, and in her community work in Chicago and across the globe.
Moore, core faculty for the Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.) in Clinical Psychology program in Chicago, has served on the Diversity and Inclusion Committee for many years and has been an advisor for the Adler Black Student Association and for the Adler Queer Persons of Color student organization.
She has enjoyed working with students and has particularly found it powerful to collaborate with them to elevate programs at the University and to “push Adler forward in policies relating to harassment and issues of diversity.” Moore and her students were integral in advocating for a Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion position.
“We know many institutions struggle with diversity and inclusion, but because we have this as our mission, we really want to go further,” Moore said. “We want to find the solution that really helps our students to live in a space where equity exists. Our goal is to push ourselves as an institution to get as close as we can to that vision.”
This is important to her “because I understand that working toward inclusion increases everyone’s health and well-being. That’s my aim,” she said. “I know the impact and devastation of not having inclusion and how we are all impacted as a society when we don’t have it.
Moore recently won the Dr. Alfred Adler Social Justice Award, presented by the Adler University Institute on Public Safety and Social Justice. The award is given to members of the University community who embody the philosophies of Dr. Alfred Adler through acts to promote strong and inclusive communities.
“Moore exemplifies leadership in advancing social justice at Adler University and in the broader community. She models inclusion and advocates for social justice wherever she goes,” said Elena Quintana, Executive Director of the Institute. “She speaks truth to power and is the definition of an Adlerian in her quest for justice and inclusion for all.”
Moore is also the co-founder of the Chicago Global Health Alliance</a>, a nonprofit working to enhance mental health internationally, and regularly volunteers to provide community education and psychological services to people of color.
“There is a South African saying that says, ‘I am because you are and you are because I am.’ And what I recognize is that from my own intersecting identities of being a black woman is that I am not free until everybody else and all of their intersecting identities are free, and all of us are working together on our own liberation.”