Building an Inclusive Team

Duke Athletics makes equitable hiring part of its game plan

Four people in a weight room
Duke Athletics Director of Sports Performance and Olympic Sports Performance Coach Dan Perlmutter, far right, talks with colleagues in the weight room in the Scott Family Performance Center. Photo by Travis Stanley.

This story is part of the Working Toward Racial Justice series.

On most days, hundreds of Duke student-athletes pass through the Scott Family Performance Center’s sprawling 13,000-square-foot Olympic sports weight room.

It’s the job of Dan Perlmutter, Director of Sports Performance and Olympic Sports Performance Coach, and his eight-person team, to help Duke’s diverse collection of student-athletes get more out of their bodies and expand what they believe they’re capable of.

That means building relationships with sprinters, golfers, rowers, wrestlers and others. It means connecting with student-athletes from Durham and Dubai, New York and New Zealand, and Iowa and Iceland.

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“Our student-athletes are from everywhere, all different walks of life, all different types of people,” said Perlmutter, who has been at Duke since 2009. “So, for us, representation matters.”

Earlier this year, Duke Athletics adopted a set of equitable hiring practices to help build a workforce that reflects the identities of student-athletes. As part of Duke Athletics’ Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Committee, Perlmutter helped craft the eight-page document of recommendations and protocols.

The document features advice about avoiding narrowly worded job descriptions that can exclude candidates and ensuring candidates have identical interview agendas and questions. It also outlines requirements such as including members of the committee in the resume review process and implicit bias training for hiring managers.

Working Toward Racial Justice series graphic by Zaire McPhearson, an instructor in the Duke Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies.

“We want to make sure everyone has a fair opportunity to come interview with us and hopefully work within Duke Athletics,” said Taren Moore, Senior Associate Director of Athletics and Chief Diversity Officer.

The document is part of a broader diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging initiative within Duke Athletics, where over 350 full-time employees support varsity sports, Recreation & Physical Education and the Duke University Golf Club. The effort has included focus groups and surveys to gauge the departmental climate and guest speakers on topics such as neurodiversity and Native American culture.

Building a strong, diverse staff has long been a departmental goal, and the new formalized set of equitable hiring practices fully weaves that priority into the department’s culture.

“If we want to change our culture and our community, how you think about promoting and hiring and retaining people is a key component,” said Kim Hewitt, Vice President for Institutional Equity and Chief Diversity Officer at Duke.

In the Scott Family Performance Center’s weight room, student-athletes seek out Perlmutter and his team to unlock their potential. It’s a job Perlmutter knows requires many voices different than his own.

“What we do goes beyond just getting someone bigger, stronger and faster,” Perlmutter said. “We need to have a well-rounded group so we can really impact our student-athletes’ lives.”

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