In 1986, NAIS hosted the first National Conference for Teachers and Administrators of Color in Independent Schools in Reston, Virginia. Two hundred people from 25 states attended the first conference, which later became the NAIS People of Color Conference (PoCC). This conference grew out of early equity initiatives at NAIS and was intended to be a place where faculty and staff of color, whose numbers represented a small portion of the workforce in independent schools, could come together to talk about their experiences, find support, and make progress in their career advancement. The Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC), which takes place as a parallel event held in the same host city, was started in 1993.