Highline College received the 2014 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education.

“Highline is honored to receive this award for the second year in a row and to be recognized for the work we do every day on our campus with enthusiasm,” said Highline President, Dr. Jack Bermingham. “Diversity is more than a program or an initiative at Highline; we want it to be our institutional identity.”

As a recipient of the annual HEED Award—a national honor recognizing U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion—Highline will be featured along with 82 other recipients in INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine’s November 2014 issue. Highline also received the HEED Award in 2013.

INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine selected recipients based on exemplary diversity and inclusion initiatives, and ability to embrace a broad definition of diversity on campus, including gender, race, ethnicity, veterans, people with disabilities, and members of the LGBT community.

“We hope the HEED Award serves as a way to honor those institutions of higher education that recognize the importance of diversity and inclusion as part of their everyday campus culture,” said Lenore Pearlstein, publisher of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.

Highline is the most diverse college in Washington and was the only community college in the state to receive the 2014 HEED Award. Diversity is one of the college’s core themes and its current success was also validated when Highline won the Twenty-First Century Colleges’ National Award of Excellence for Advancing Diversity in 2014 from the American Association of Community Colleges and President Bermingham was named as a Diversity Visionary by INSIGHT Into Diversity.

Other 2014 HEED Award recipients include: