A Little Giant: Promoting Cultural Diversity and Awareness

Deborah Miles, Executive Director of the Center for Diversity Education.   Photo: The Urban News

By Sarah Williams

Deborah Miles grew up in Hot Springs, Arkansas, but she’s lived in Asheville long enough that she could almost pass for a native. When she moved here approximately thirty-five years ago, she already had a plan that has since blossomed with a powerful, positive impact on thousands of people.

In 1995 she founded the Center for Diversity Education (CDE), whose mission is to celebrate and teach diversity in order to foster conversation and respect among cultures. Originally under the auspices of the Jewish Community Center, CDE is now housed at UNC Asheville.

The Center was a natural outcome of her efforts that began when she first began to work in Asheville as a key staff member at the Allen Center. She was a community organizer in the predominantly black East End neighborhood, as well as a developer and staff member of Our Place, an emergency shelter for at-risk youth. She was also involved in the creation of Stone Soup, a worker-owned café; its revenues helped support a group home for difficult-to-place foster children.

In 1988 she began teaching in two pre-schools that emphasized an
anti-bias curriculum. When her own children began school, she was a
founding parent on the PTA Multicultural Committee. The committee made
many attempts to persuade the school system to take a more inclusive
approach on issues of diversity, but despite her efforts, not much
happened. Frustrated, in 1995, she developed the organization that ever
since has worked to increase the ways in which diversity is included in
the daily life of K-12 classrooms.

Her teaching background and experience with the school system led
Deborah to design CDE programs to be in compliance with the North
Carolina Standard Course of Study. That decision required insight and
understanding of teacher and student needs, as well as flexibility and
practicality; Deborah’s talent for long-term friendships and networking
was a vital asset in bringing her vision of the Center to reality.

Each year the Center for Diversity Education provides programming
for more than 25,000 students, teachers, and other citizens throughout
Western North Carolina. Today, more than ever, Deborah’s work allows
teachers to better deal with everyday classroom issues.

Throughout her amazing journey, Deborah has demonstrated the
vision, skills, and determination that have enabled her to achieve
positive results within a system that is resistant to change. In part
that success is the result of her networking; she has partnered CDE with
such institutions as the Asheville Art Museum, Building Bridges, the
Diana Wortham Theater, North Carolina Center for the Advancement of
Teaching, North Carolina Council on the Holocaust, the Stephens-Lee
Alumni Association, Warren Wilson College and the YMI Cultural
Center—and both Asheville City and Buncombe County school systems.

Because the highly regarded CDE programs are frequently presented
by teachers, theater groups or others, Deborah is rarely recognized by
the community as the channel through which the work is created. Other
than being quoted sometimes in articles that announce events, she
receives little credit for her awesome work.

But in 2005, Deborah Miles was presented with the Nancy Susan
Reynolds Award for Race Relations, given by the Z. Smith Reynolds
Foundation, and in 2009 she received the Grace Lee Peace Award from
Warren Wilson College. We’re honored to join such illustrious
organizations in recognizing Deborah Miles for her pioneering work.