Diversity. It’s all about race, income, social status, religious beliefs or sexual orientation. It’s about living and working in harmony with people of different colors and cultures, right? Sure, but Keith Woods says that diversity is really about each and every one us.

In a recent speech to about 100 WKU students, Woods, the Dean of Faculty at the Poynter Institute, challenged them to discover the power of diversity in their own lives and careers as journalists and storytellers. The diversity that he was talking about is personal – all the things that make each of us unique and different from anyone else: the music we like, the literature that has influenced us, or the stories and sayings our grandmothers told us.

Woods grew up in Louisiana, says he listens to everything from “Bach to Beyonce to Frank Sinatra,” and has raised a multi-racial family. He emphasized that each of those elements, as well as the thousands of experiences, large and small, that have shaped his life, is essential to his story because “you bring your differences with you wherever you go.”

Because of this, we storytellers – journalists and other communication specialists – each bring a unique set of skills and experiences to contribute to society. Our own perspective lies in our own story, which Woods calls “the story of all things that combine to make you, you.”

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