An Invitation to Discomfort in Pursuit of Diversity, Inclusion, and Excellence

kstrunk@msu.edu When I received the call in the summer of 2019 asking me if I’d consider running (unopposed) for president of the Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP), I was completely surprised and elated. AEFP is the organization in which I grew up. It has been my intellectual and professional home since I first began attending the conference in 2004 as a second-year doctoral student. I gave my first conference presentation, shaking behind the podium, with several of my academic heroes in the audience. Over the years I’ve made strong personal and professional connections through AEFP, and I count several of our members among my closest friends. So, I was shocked, but thrilled. This organization has given me so much, and I was and remain eager to give back. Of course, as one does, I began thinking about what I would talk about in my presidential address. I would talk about the importance of “research with consequence”: applied research intended to foster change and continuous improvement in education policy and practice; the importance of working together with policy makers and practitioners to do this kind of research, so that we are using our knowledge and skills to address the reallife, real-time questions and needs of the people who are devoting their lives to improving kids’ and adults’ educations and longterm outcomes. This is the work for which AEFP is known. But that was summer 2019—the world has changed in the last three years. And so, while the research, the work that we all do, must go on—and has gone on—and for that I’m incredibly grateful, I’m going to talk about something different than I’d planned. These last few years have been tough. On everyone, and on some more than others. I’m generally a silver linings kind of person, but even the most starry-eyed optimists among us haven’t been able to see the rainbows through the clouds every day or even most days lately. Not to state the obvious, but we’ve been living through a global pandemic for the last two years. As of March 2022, over