Michael Benitez, Ph.D., vice president of Metropolitan State University of Denver’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion, remembers the first time he met political activist Angela Davis in 2006.
“When I asked a question about her activism, she said, ‘I never claimed myself as an activist. That was a label given to me. I was simply sticking up for the people I love,’” Benitez recalled.
The conversation has been on Benitez’s mind throughout a career championing justice, equity, diversity and inclusion.
Benitez’s way of thinking has already been paying off for students, but it has also helped him earn recognition from the Colorado Coalition for the Educational Advancement of Latinx, or CoCEAL.
Benitez was recently awarded the JEDI Impact Practice Award from CoCEAL for his leadership in diversity and inclusion, something he says is “particularly special.” The award’s namesake, Mary Ontiveros, is someone Benitez considers “a staple in the state of Colorado.”
While under the leadership of Benitez, MSU Denver became the first higher-education institution in Colorado to earn the Seal of Excelencia, a prestigious certification for support of Latino students. The University was also named a Fulbright Hispanic-Serving Institution Leader.
Benitez says he’s deeply humbled to earn the award, but he also says justice work is just a part of who he is and that it’s easy to do the work when you have a big heart coupled with values such as service, solidarity and sharing.
“I do the work strictly on the servitude of it and for the conviction and heart that I have for justice work,” Benitez said. “And that award represents everything about service, solidarity and sharing..”
Manuel Del Real, Ph.D., executive director for HSI and Inclusion, said it was an easy decision to nominate Benitez for his JEDI work.
“Dr. Benitez is one of the reasons why at MSU Denver, we don’t just talk the talk; we model what we expect from our campus community through transparency and accountability to our mission,” Del Real said. “He teaches us what it means to ‘walk liberated through systems of oppression’ and to do this work ‘with grace and pace.’”
Benitez is in a powerful position to make a difference through JEDI work, but he says anyone can make a difference — it just takes using your voice and encouraging everyone around you to do the same.
“Anyone can have a voice,” he said. “You don’t have to be the loudest voice but just know that you have a voice. There’s a reason why we have a brain, a heart and a spirit. When we combine all that together, we’re allowed to have a voice, and let’s not allow ourselves to let that voice dwindle or to be suppressed.”
