Jason Thompson
Vice President, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion | Western Governors University
Denver, Colorado, United States
Jason R. Thompson is author of Diversity and Inclusion Matters (Wiley, 2021) and a thought leader in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, having spent the past 25 years building DE&I programs in sports, healthcare, technology, and education organizations.
His programs have won several awards at the local and international level. Most recently, the D&I Scorecard Jason developed received the top honor in the 2016 International Innovations in Diversity Awards program from Profiles in Diversity Journal, which also recognized him as a Diversity Leader in 2017 and 2018. His work has been highlighted and quoted in USA Today, The Washington Post, CNN, The New York Times, and The Guardian.
Areas of Expertise:
Diversity and inclusion as it pertains to leadership, strategic planning, board relations and engagement, stakeholder engagement, change management and community outreach. In the education sector, he has expertise in multi-communication channel engagement and relationship building with alumni, students, faculty, staff and administrators. He is able to address current headline news and help organizations and individuals to navigate difficult conversation and controversial issues to find understanding.
Education:
University of Wyoming: M.A. Sociology, 1997
University of Wyoming: B.A. Sociology, 1990
Biography.
Jason Thompson serves as vice president, diversity, equity & inclusion (DE&I) for Western Governors University (WGU), a nonprofit, accredited university focused on competency-based learning that serves more than 120,000 students. In his role, Thompson is responsible for developing and executing WGU’s DE&I strategy. He manages the day to day operations and works to establish WGU as a thought leader in the DE&I space.
As co-founder and senior advisor to CAPE Inclusion, an innovative Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion a platform to collect, analyze, plan & execute your diversity goals, Thompson is regularly sought out for advice and leadership on how to create, grow, measure, and sustain a DE&I program by DE&I officers across the corporate and non-profit sectors struggling to have their DE&I efforts impact their organization. Thompson developed the initial diversity and inclusion program for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee and created the D&I scored cards to measure diversity within the US Olympic movement. As a result of this path-breaking innovation the USOC became the first large sports organization in the US to release their diversity data.
The diversity and inclusion programs developed by Thompson have won several awards at the local and international level. Most recently the D&I Scorecard received the top honor in the 2016 International Innovations in Diversity Awards program from the Profiles in Diversity Journal. He was also recognized as a 2017 and 2018 Diversity Leader by the Profiles in Diversity Journal. In 2015, the USOC D&I department received the Diversity Champion Award for Excellence from the Colorado SHRM.
Jason has served on local, regional and national committees for multiple organizations, including the founding member of the Diversity and Inclusion Sports Consortium (DISC) one of the largest sports organizations in the US with participation by the NBA, NFL, MLB, PGA of America and the NCAA.
Selected media appearances and articles.
A Diverse Winter Olympics. But on the Ground?
New York Times, 2018-02-12
Thompson said more needs to be done to recruit athletes across racial and ethnic groups.
Trying to make team USA look more like America
Washington Post, 2018-02-04
Thompson said, “I think full-on inclusion has always been a priority of Team USA. I think everybody’s always felt it should represent every American.”
United States seeing uptick in diversity for Winter Olympics team
USA Today, 2018-02-05
Thompson said, “If people see themselves reflected there, it is not necessarily that they will become an athlete, they might just become a fan."
Meet the Winter Olympians making big strides for diversity
The Guardian, 2018-02-16
Thompson said, “We started out thinking, ‘how do we look like what America looks like?’ The way we thought about sports in the past limited who participates.”