Zoë Plakias (2024, Junior)
Dr. Zoë Plakias, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Western Washington University is the 2024 CWAE Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Award Winner in the early career (Junior) category.
This discipline-wide award is supported by the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association’s (AAEA) Committee on Women in Agricultural Economics (CWAE). It celebrates and recognizes individuals who have actively worked to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in the applied economics profession. Awardees, like Dr. Zoë Plakias, actively and tirelessly work toward making our profession a more welcoming and supportive place for all. Recipients of this award are committed to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) within the discipline.
Dr. Zoë Plakias, has been a champion of DEI at multiple levels—within departments, college, university, and profession. A highlight in Dr. Plakias’ nomination letter is a recent published work in which she, along with her co-authors, document the status of women and underrepresented minority faculty in agricultural and applied economics over the past several decades. That publication also presents strategies for increasing representation and maintaining diversity in the profession (Hilsenroth et al. 2022). The previous research publication is only an example of her many research contributions in the DEI space. Her nominators bring up Dr. Plakias’ research program which focuses on “understanding fair, healthy, and environmentally sustainable food systems.” “While studying several aspects of food systems, she examines whether communities and the society are made better off by supply chains, and if not, what the supply chain actors would need to do to meet their goals.”
Zoë has established herself as a role model for the CWAE and inspires us to challenge ourselves, examine our own biases, and work toward a more inclusive professional environment. As the Chair of the AAEA Mentorship Committee since 2022, she has assembled resources for economists across their career arc, led a series of focus group discussions to better understand mentoring needs in the profession, and organized several track sessions and activities at the annual AAEA summer conference.
When mentoring graduate and undergraduate students, Zoe applies a holistic wellbeing advising approach including resources for mental wellbeing. Lei Xu, PhD Candidate in the Department of AEDE, OSU shares that “Zoë is a fabulous advisor, and she consistently finds ways to guide me in research and supports my career goals. She is always patient with answering questions and makes time to work with me. As an international student pursuing higher education in the United States, I benefited a lot from Zoë’s guidance and suggestions, learned from the opportunities that Zoë created for me, and have gradually become more independent as a scholar. I am especially grateful to her for creating a safe and stimulating learning environment and encouraging me to build confidence in pursuing my goals.”
Zoë creates learning environments to motivate students using a variety of learner-centered activities recognizing that students learn in different ways and different stages. She designs courses that would bring diverse perspectives into the classroom by highlighting important contributions from authors of multiple races and ethnic backgrounds in her discussions. Her nomination letter states that: “At Ohio State University and now at Western Washington University, Dr. Plakias has established herself as an outstanding teacher who facilitates self-directed, well-rounded intellectual development in a thoughtful manner, with particular emphasis on inclusive pedagogy in the classroom and in online settings.” It also says that Zoë “creates a learning environment that motivates students and uses a variety of learning-centered activities recognizing that students learn in different ways and different stages.”
Additionally, she has demonstrated positive impact on employer culture and the workplace , through her efforts to catalyze change in the area of diversity, equity, and inclusion. As an assistant professor, Zoë was a Co-Lead PI of the Racial Justice Pathways Program (2021-22) at The Ohio State University through which she and colleagues helped faculty and staff at Ohio State develop tools to address racial inequities across the University.
Charlene Brenner, Program Director of The STEAM Factory notes that: “Zoë Plakias was a driving force and dedicated creator of the STEAM Factory Racial Justice Pathways (“RJP”) pilot program at Ohio State. Through Zoë’s leadership and organizational efforts, we built an innovative, transformative racial justice initiative that leveraged and developed institutional infrastructure support to design, enact, assess, and sustain equity practices at all university levels from the ground up.” “Personally, and professionally, Zoë is a model DEI champion who’s commitment to service leadership, combined with her dedication of time, energy, heart and talent make her exceptional among her peers. Zoë’s insights, expertise, leadership, determination, and organizational skills were an incredible asset to the STEAM Factory, Ohio State and Columbus”
Zoë also worked closely with an OSU community partner to support the development and launch of Campus Compact’s Equity and Inclusion peer-reviewed credential. Charlene Brenner explains that this credential “is now available to faculty and staff at universities and colleges across the United States.”
Zoë demonstrates an empathy-driven approach to equity work, centering the identities and concerns of others and using her positionality to support students. She frequently raises her voice to amplify DEI issues and encourages colleagues in their DEI work. She is a known ally to students, and an emergent leader within the college DEI Committee at Western Washington. Her leadership fosters welcoming and belonging for students from underrepresented backgrounds.
Awardees like Zoë advance our field by demonstrating how the contributions to and passion for creating an inclusive workplace through intentional and empathic DEI actions and initiatives can make the discipline, a university, a college or a department, welcoming for all.