How can DePaul Prep improve its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion? That is the question that Coach Mallette works to answer each day, as DePaul Prep’s Director for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. 

After graduating from Princeton University, Coach Mallette moved from New York City to Chicago to take a job at an advertising agency. Following her work in advertising, she shifted careers to work in scholarship organizations specifically focused on development and fundraising for about six years. During that time, she decided to start a family, and focused on mentoring and scholarship work. She has coached track and field, among other sports, for the past 30 years.

She soon decided to focus on her family, and began staying home with her children; seventeen years later, her next job outside of her home was at The Frances Xavier Warde School (FXW) — a Catholic grade school in downtown Chicago, where all four of her sons attended school. 

After about six years at FXW, she saw the opportunity at DePaul Prep to work in DEI. Coach Mallette had, “always had a heart for DEI,” even while working in advertising: some of her biggest accounts were for McDonald’s and Samsonite, but she wasn’t content with the kind of advertising she was doing. Part of her job was to help increase the number of customers for McDonald’s, for example, and she believed that this was not the best work she could be doing. She loved advertising for good, but had been drawn to DEI beginning in high school. 

For Coach Mallette, DEI values had been, “interwoven in everything that [she’d] done.” Her original title at DePaul Prep was Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, but Coach Mallette officially changed it to Director for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. She works for these values, and believed it important that her title reflected that.

One of the first things that Coach Mallette noticed when she began work at DePaul Prep was that it was already a lot more diverse than many other Chicago Catholic high schools, and several selective enrollment Chicago Public Schools, too. 

As part of her role, she supports the work of our Admissions team to help maintain and grow the racial/ethnic representation at DePaul Prep, along with other historically underrepresented groups. Coach Mallette wants every single student, regardless of their identity and background, to feel like they belong at school, and to have equal access to all of the great opportunities present. 

Coach Mallette is already proud of the work that DePaul Prep has done to become a more inclusive, accepting place; we have things like AAPI Club, Latinos Unidos, Black Student Union, Irish, Greek, Italian, and Jewish Clubs, and Young Women’s Leadership already put in place. 

Ms. Merkl-Deutsch, Director of Mission and Ministry at DePaul College Prep, said that for her, “[Coach Mallette] has been an invaluable sounding board both to identify the needs, and to speak to the school’s joys and concerns from a faith perspective… I am better at my job thanks to her partnership and friendship.” 

During her first year, Coach Mallette started the ALL INclusive Ram Family Reception for prospective students and their families. This is usually held at the end of September or beginning of October, and is a great opportunity for, “parents of students that are historically underrepresented” to get a feel for DePaul Prep’s environment, talk to current students, and get a head start on the admissions process. 

Coach Mallette lives by the idea of RAMS: Representation and Access Matter at School. Even though she has already accomplished so much at DePaul Prep, Coach Mallette wants to do even more. One of her main goals is for the diversity of DePaul Prep to reflect that of Chicago as a whole. She also wants to increase the diversity of the staff at DePaul Prep.

Everything Coach Mallette does, “[comes] from a place of faith… and love,” Merkl-Deutsch said. She takes an “agape love approach,” with the idea that if more people were to, “operate from a center of love, we wouldn’t have 99% of the issues we have in this world/country.”

Coach Mallette clearly has a heart for DEI, and at DePaul Prep, she is the heart of DEI. Our community is extremely lucky to have Coach Mallette.