The Alliance is a strategic relationship between The Diversity Collegium and the American Institute for Managing Diversity. Its goal is to further the missions of the two organizations in providing the public with thought leadership on diversity.

The Diversity Collegium, founded in 1991, is a think-tank consisting of approximately 25 diversity practitioners.

The American Institute for Managing Diversity (AIMD), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, was established in 1984 and is committed to demonstrating the power and potential of diversity management through research, education and public outreach.

As The Alliance, the two organizations collaborated to provide a forum where seasoned diversity professionals from anywhere in the world could gather in one place and engage in serious discourse. The forum became the 2004 Diversity Symposium, Equity, Affirmative Action and Diversity: From Past to Present to a Promising Future, held October 6-8, 2004 in Lansdowne, Virginia.

The Alliance selected the topic of affirmative action for its first collaborative effort, anticipating the U.S. Supreme Court's controversial decision in the University of Michigan case (2003).

While most affirmative action advocates declared the 2003 decision a "win," Justice Sandra Day O¹Connor¹s pronouncement about the waning need for affirmative action deserved some exploration. The Alliance decided to assemble experts and opinion leaders as a step to begin shaping the dialogue about affirmative action's future.

The outcomes of the 2004 Diversity Symposium are available in two forms, free of charge, on this Website:

- The Executive Summary of the 2004 Diversity Symposium
- The full Proceedings Report of the 2004 Diversity Symposium

We invite you to download these documents and discuss the contents with your colleagues.