Faces of Michigan

Gerald Hoff: Diversity Champion Promotes Appreciation for One Another

Gerald Hoff learned his earliest lessons about diversity from his mother when growing up in Westland, Michigan. In addition to raising six children, Gloria Hoff was active in the American Cancer Society, cooked holiday meals for the needy and taught her children to appreciate and value other people, including those who were different from them.

Hoff, who counts his late mother and Martin Luther King Jr. among his heroes, is the winner of the 2007 Laurita Thomas Diversity Champion Award. The accolade, which is given annually to a U-M Health System (UMHS) employee, recognizes recipients for demonstrating qualities that create and sustain a diverse work environment.

As a diversity representative at UMHS, Hoff, an insurance verification representative, works to increase awareness about diversity among colleagues through programs and communications, including the Diversity Quizlette, a monthly quiz he distributes. He serves on the U-M Council of Disability Concerns and UMHS Diversity Awareness Subcommittee, and helps plan and publicize Investing in Ability Week events for the University and UMHS. For more information, visit http://www.med.umich.edu/abilities/.

To bring attention and recognition to people who have disabilities and as part of Investing in Ability Week in October 2006, Hoff organized an exhibition wheelchair basketball game between current and former U-M athletes and the Michigan Thunderbirds, a group of disabled men who regularly play wheelchair basketball.

For Hoff, who is married to an African American woman, diversity is very personal. What does diversity mean to this father and grandfather?

“Diversity to me is an acceptance of us all that is free of barriers, an acceptance that is free of fears, an acceptance that not only embraces our differences but holds them with value.

“It’s remembering the struggles of our past and the sacrifices of many that brought us up to this day. It’s the realization of the consequences when we all don’t share the same rights and opportunities.

“It’s knowing that if we share respect and appreciation for one another, we will live in harmony and experience true success.”