Presenters: Kayla Kutter & Dave Korman 

Presenter Bio's:

Kayla Kutter: As the Procurement Service Center Sustainable Procurement Program Manager, Kayla supports both the University of Colorado as a whole and individual campuses in developing, measuring, and achieving a broad spectrum of sustainability and supplier diversity goals. She identifies sustainability and supplier diversity opportunities that intersect with procurement and helps to promote, integrate, and advance sustainability throughout the University's procurement process, including product selection and usage, life cycle cost analysis, awareness campaigns, identification of critical supplier partnerships, and building relationships with key University and supplier stakeholders. She received a Masters of Sustainable Solutions and a Masters of Science and Technology Policy from Arizona State University. 

Dave Korman: Dave supports the University’s Small Business Program by developing and executing the supplier diversity programs and processes for small and diverse suppliers within the University’s business community. He works with external organizations and businesses to enhance and grow the diversification of supplier partners to encourage the inclusion of qualified small and disadvantaged businesses. He also performs trainings to educate suppliers on conducting business with the University, counsel, and provides assistance to these businesses with the University procurement processes. His educational background is a Bachelors in Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin.

Presentation Description:

Many small, local, and minority-owned businesses have been hit especially hard in this time of COVID. According to the World Economic Forum, approximately 25% of small businesses in the Denver area are expected to close by the end of 2020 and may never reopen. The ones that remain open will need significant support from surrounding communities if they are to avoid shutting down permanently. 

Historically, corporate America has made supplier diversity a high priority, heavily investing in efforts to increase opportunities for diverse businesses. But what about higher education, specifically public institutions? When it comes to diversity and inclusion, colleges and universities have largely focused on the diversification of students and faculty, but how much of an emphasis they place on the inclusion of minority-, women-, veteran-, LGBTQ-, and disability-owned businesses?

The University of Colorado is an incredible economic driver for the state and can be the difference between a local business shutting down or being able to weather through times of hardship. It can also be argued that as an anchor institution, the University of Colorado has an obligation to support small, local, and minority-owned businesses in the communities we operate. 

Supplier diversity programming adds economic value because it encourages the growth of diverse businesses. Diverse businesses typically encounter barriers that challenge their startup and sustainability efforts, such as access to capital and networking opportunities, and effective supplier diversity strategies can alleviate these pain points. Not only does supplier diversity benefit underrepresented businesses, but it also uplifts the communities where those businesses are located through job creation, increased wages, and tax revenue. 

Of the Universities' $4.5 billion budget, approximately $1.2 billion comes through the Procurement Service Center (PSC) and is spent on various goods and services. The PSC negotiates contracts, works with strategic suppliers, and supports CU departments purchasing these goods and services. CU is now beginning to understand its potential impact with the money it spends on goods and services and can direct these funds to do the most good in local communities by directing those funds to be spent with small, local, and minority-owned businesses. 

This session highlights the dire need for university support in rethinking how we spend our money in a Post-COVID, more socially-just world. We will discuss "what is supplier diversity?" and dive into the role that the University of Colorado can play in supporting the communities surrounding the universities' campuses. 

Presenters: Dr. Charity Lehn, Dr. Heather Bleacher & Dr. Lakshmi Karra

Presentation Password: f2P0.hs?

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Presenters Bio's:

Charity Lehn is an Assistant Professor of Family Medicine in the University of Colorado Department of Family Medicine and a Family Physician with Obstetrics at Denver Health. She teaches medical students and residents in clinic and in the hospital. Dr. Lehn has been involved with the University of Colorado Family Medicine Residency Social Justice Working Group for the past 3 years, including delivering a training to clinic staff on micro-aggressions in the workplace. She is also a facilitator for the Family Medicine Department’s Social Justice book club.

Heather Bleacher is core faculty at the University of Colorado Family Medicine Residency. Since 2012 she has co-directed the residency’s community health curriculum which focuses on population health, advocacy, and community engagement. She practices full-scope family medicine in inpatient and outpatient settings in the UCHealth system and has led initiatives at her practice to address patients’ social needs during clinical encounters.

Lakshmi Karra is a second year resident at the University of Colorado Family Medicine Residency program. As part of the Denver Health track, she works at the Lowry Family Health Center, serving a diverse and global patient population. She is co-chair of the Social Justice Working Group at UCFMR.

Presentation Description:

The Social Justice Working Group was formed in 2017 to promote diversity, equity and inclusion efforts within the University of Colorado Family Medicine Residency. This working group, composed of faculty and residents, focused their efforts on a few key areas: residency and faculty recruitment, residency curriculum, community engagement, and an annual climate survey. This year, a need for improved residency faculty training and competence around DEI topics was identified. Recent faculty training in this topic has focused mostly on the resident recruitment process, but current faculty development opportunities on general DEI literacy is not currently well-organized.

In response to this need, some UCFMR faculty members formed a working group to design and implement longitudinal training for UCFMR faculty on building skills and knowledge around bias, racism and anti-racism. There is presently a wide range of DEI literacy, confidence and experience among faculty, therefore our group’s first step was to create a survey to assess our current state. We reviewed multiple existing surveys from a few national leaders in this area, and adapted them to our specific needs. The key survey areas we included assessed knowledge, behaviors/skills, attitudes, and future directions. 
The survey results will identify which DEI concepts and skills should be included in future faculty development sessions. We will also determine which resources (e.g. time, training, programmatic structures) faculty feel are most important for promoting future health equity and racial justice work. Next steps for this initiative will include creating a faculty development curriculum to address DEI literacy gaps uncovered by this survey. Session participants will also hear recommendations for others working to assess faculty DEI skills or develop related training for their home program.

Presenters: Dr. Brad Morse

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Presenter Bio:

Dr. Morse earned his Ph.D. in Technology, Media, and Society from the ATLAS Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder. A Masters degree in Cultural Anthropology was obtained before finishing his terminal degree. His current academic interests include user experience (UX) research, human-centered design, mHealth, qualitative research design, qualitative methods, ethnography, community engagement, and collaborative video development.

Presentation Description: 

Introduction/Background: The purpose of this presentation is to describe a community-centered design of a Transgender Health information Resource (TGHIR) using complementary virtual focus group and user-centered design sessions to gain key community insights.  A credible health information resource (HIR) is crucial to address the health disparities facing transgender (trans) individuals today. Remote engagement is imperative at this time due to the Coronavirus pandemic which has impeded face-to-face data collection efforts. For our project, we leveraged established relations in our local community to generate online interest in our virtual focus groups and design sessions. These two methods were used in combination to establish an understanding of the community’s needs and technological preferences. 

Specific Aim: We hypothesized that running complementary virtual focus groups and design sessions would refine understanding of the trans community’s need and lead to key insights that would inform the development of a HIR. 

Materials and Methods:  Focus group interactions provided high-level (macro) conceptual insights into the lived experience and needs of Transgender persons seeking health information. These insights were then distilled for discussion in design sessions to learn about the technical functions and requirements (micro) when searching for online transgender health information. Additionally, discoveries from the design sessions informed the themes of the focus groups. Virtual focus groups were conducted using Zoom.  A suite of virtual tools was used to host participants in seamless virtual design sessions, including Mural.co, Justinmind, REDCap online survey, and Zoom video conferencing. 

Results: Preliminary findings from the focus groups suggest themes around policies and practices that create barriers to equitable care, historic mistrust of health care providers, and limited access to mental health. The rich, descriptive qualitative data has guided the team’s design decisions in a manner that honors the needs and preferences of the Transgender community. The interactive design sessions provided insights on participant's likes and dislikes about mobile apps, experiences with online health information resources, and produced a list of 23 desired features for the TGHIR mobile application. Using the Kano Model of customer satisfaction, participants helped to identify the importance of features to potential end-users of the app and how to prioritize them for development. In the next design sessions, participants will co-design the user interface. Informed design decisions are intended to present HIRs in an efficient and culturally relevant manner. As an example, the systemic barriers to healthcare information informed the identification of an application feature that allows users to search for health information that is aligned with gender identity categories. Moreover, the complementary and iterative nature of the focus groups and design sessions has allowed our results to be validated and explored in greater detail. 

Conclusions: Each focus group and design session meaningfully engaged community members in virtual interactions. The complementary sequence of focus groups and design sessions allowed the researchers weave macro lived experiences (focus groups) and micro health-information seeking behavior and preferences (design groups) in a manner that informs the development of a HIR prototype for the Transgender community.

Presenter: Dr. Lisa Merkel-Holguin

Presenter Bio:

Lisa Merkel-Holguin, Associate Professor, Pediatrics at the Kempe Center at the University of Colorado, and Director of the National Center on Family Group Decision Making, has close to 30 years of experience in identifying, developing, and implementing innovative child welfare reforms, particularly in areas of child and family safety, permanency and well-being. Two of these most prominent reforms are family group decision making and differential response, both which humanize the child welfare system, give professionals the opportunity to build helping relationships with families and organize services to meet their needs, and position families as leaders. With her expertise in implementation and capacity building, she has supported the installation of numerous evidence-based and -informed innovations in child welfare agencies in over 40 States and a number of Canadian provinces. As a principal investigator and senior research analyst, she has led numerous impactful evaluations in child welfare, including three Family Connection grants studying the impacts of different types of family meetings, child abuse prevention programs, and the National Quality Improvement Center on Differential Response in Child Protective Services. She is also the Implementation Director for the Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development that is charged for working with child welfare agencies to implement and test workforce improvement interventions. She also currently serves as an Organizational and Waiver Consultant for the Capacity Building Center for States, funded by the Children’s Bureau. Most recently, she launched the Kempe Center’s Call to Action to Change Child Welfare, the first international conference of its kind that is encouraging courageous conversations and eliciting solutions that mobilize and recognize child, family and community leadership. As part, she is convening an international community of practice that will delve into the challenging issues of racism, sexism, classism, oppression and othering that are deeply embedded in formal child welfare systems across the world. She has presented her work at international and national conferences in the capacity as a keynoter, lead presenter, and panelist over 200 times, and has over 50 publications to her name, in the form of edited books, books, peer-reviewed journal articles and reports. She competently transfers research and evaluation findings into child welfare practice with national and international implications. 

Presentation Description:

By most historical accounts, the current day US national child protection systems emanate from the work of our university’s own, Dr. C. Henry Kempe, a tenacious researcher and relentless advocate. Dr. Kempe and his colleagues were the first to recognize and identify child abuse and neglect in the defining paper, The Battered Child Syndrome (1962). This paper was regarded as the single most significant event in creating awareness and exposing the reality of child abuse. A decade later, the Kempe Center was born and for almost the next 50 years has been instrumental to the establishment of the policy, laws and perceptions to better protect children.

Undoubtedly, the Kempe Center, along with other national, state and local government, nonprofit and community organizations, have worked tirelessly to protect children and support families, and have numerous positive outcomes to show for their efforts. Yet, there is an awakening across the world that child welfare systems need to be transformed. This reckoning is because there is a growing awareness that child welfare systems disproportionately harm people of color, exclude family systems, marginalize the poor, create an economic underclass, and produce abysmal outcomes for far too many. In addition, there is a culture of oppression that permeates many of the child welfare structures, policies, and protocols, impacting not only the children and families but also the workforce. 

It was a David Brooks’ New York Times Opinion column in March that planted the seed with Kempe Center faculty that we needed to use our organizational position to stimulate critical thinking and inspire change in the field of child welfare. He suggested—from studying pandemics from a historic perspective—that we have an opportunity to create a redemptive narrative to improve society and encouraged everyday citizens to innovate their work and use the pandemic as a motivator for change. We seized the moment, leveraging the Breakthrough culture of our campus and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and the global protests, and hosted an international virtual conference, A Call to Action to Change Child Welfare a mere 5 months later. Over 1,400 people attended this groundbreaking event joining from 20 countries around the world. This diverse international community of practice convened to address issues of justice, social inequality, race equity, family leadership and oppression in the child welfare and allied systems and began to discuss, debate and solution build on how systems, communities and individuals can begin the process of fundamentally changing the structure of these systems. We believed that bringing stakeholders into relationship and conversation would foster connection, collaboration, courageous conversations, and challenges to existing ways of working with children and families.

The Kempe Team of 10 faculty and staff collaborated and created a highly ambitious conference agenda: 270 unique sessions were offered over this 4-day event that spanned 17 hours each day (68 total hours), promoting new thinking, new behaviors and new decision-making advocating that children, family, and community need to be the driving force in changing child welfare systems. Major foundations, two consulting and research firms and a large State child welfare agency co-sponsored the conference. The event welcomed those with lived experience—parents, youth alumni and kinship care providers; child welfare practitioners, supervisors, administrators; legal, mental health, and medical professionals; community and neighborhood leaders; researchers; policymakers; advocates; and other thought leaders from around the world. Kempe believes that each of us—no matter our role—can make micro and macro changes in practice, policy, research, training, systems, and law to create an improved, socially just and fair child welfare system.

Kempe's work is the embodiment of revolutionizing systems for equity--in our case child welfare systems. The pandemic motivated us to boldly challenge the status quo and work with our international and national colleagues to discuss radical concepts from major transformation to abolition. What we can all agree on: children and their families deserve fair and equitable services and treatment from the multi-disciplinary professionals and systems intended to help them.

Presenters: Patrick Frierson, Maura Gissen & Dr. Sneha Thamotharan

Presenters Bio's:

Patrick Frierson is a first-year student in the Clinical Health Psychology Ph.D. program at CU Denver. His research interest focuses on health disparities in communities of color. Specifically, he seeks to examine how racial identity and racial battle fatigue impact the health outcomes of Black youth, with an emphasis on young Black men. Prior to graduate school, Patrick attended Santa Ana College as a Psychology, Human Services, and Biological Sciences triple-major before transferring to Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in Los Angeles, CA. He earned his bachelor’s degree as a Psychology major and Women’s and Gender Studies minor. While at LMU, he began working as an undergraduate research assistant at the Psychology Applied Research Center at LMU (PARC@LMU) and transferred to a full-time research assistant position following graduation. It was here that Patrick was introduced to community-based participatory research and the many ways in which research can positively contribute to improving social and health outcomes. In this lab, he gained invaluable experience in health disparities and social justice-oriented research working with underserved, unserved, and inappropriately served communities throughout Los Angeles, the state of California, and beyond. Patrick worked on projects centered around organizational capacity building, community organizing, racial uplift, public policy change, work within ethnically and geographically diverse communities, leadership development, program evaluation, and prevention and early intervention.  Since then, he has had the pleasure of working under Dr. Sneha Thamotharan in the Pediatric Research in Equity and Prevention (PrEP) Lab here at CU Denver. Patrick is committed to health disparities research in the Black adolescent community and looks forward to integrating research as a meaningful change agent throughout his career. 

Maura Gissen received her B.A. in Psychology at the University of Western Connecticut (2015) and her M.A. in Counseling Psychology at the University of Denver (2017). During her time in graduate school, she researched varying psychosocial factors among individuals with Parkinson’s Disease as well as cancer survivors, and the psychosocial impacts on caregivers. Additionally, she focused her clinical internship experiences on providing behavioral health services to underserved youth in residential and academic settings. Afterwards, Maura worked for two years as a Research Assistant within the Veteran’s Health Administration studying suicide risk assessment among Veterans where she was able to continue to strengthen her professional research skills. Maura’s combined research and clinical experiences working with vulnerable and underserved groups and studying the impacts of care at the individual and larger systems levels have informed her clinical research interests. She is interested in studying health equity and health disparities among youth at the patient, provider, and systems levels. In her spare time, Maura enjoys reading, yoga, taking hikes with her partner and dog, and trying new foods. 

Dr. Thamotharan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Colorado Denver. She is a provisionally licensed, pediatric psychologist with a background in integrated primary care and pediatric patient-centered medical homes. She is committed to minoritized health and health equity. She has focused her clinical practice on providing behavioral health services to underserved youth, which has informed her approach to clinical research. Specifically, she focuses on health behaviors with significant health and healthcare disparities impacting adolescents, most prominently sexual and reproductive health. She conducts culturally and gender responsive, preventive health services research to foster accessible and high-quality healthcare and alleviate disparities among youth of color, in particular young women of color.

 

Presentation Description:

COVID-19 has caused historic levels of emotional distress. College students are processing economic hardships, isolation, and human loss, as well as campus closures, demands of remote learning, and uncertainty about college education and postgraduate careers. This has taken a devastating toll on student mental health, with many reporting depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.
 
Most notably, our Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPoC) students are experiencing intensified psychiatric distress. Compounding the COVID-19 pandemic, is the public health crisis of racism and the resulting violence, injustice (social, educational, economic, and health), oppression, and dehumanization of minoritized communities, in particular the Black community. Unfortunately, BIPoC college students are less likely to receive treatment and have lower mental health service access and utilization. 

Unfortunately, campus-wide internal resources and infrastructures are inadequate to address student mental health and counselors often lack training in providing services to BIPoC patients. Student counseling centers often employ short-term care models with long waitlists and the cost associated with counseling varies. The short-term care model coupled with the financial requirements is a barrier to seeking mental health services. This is particularly salient to BIPoC who need more comprehensive mental health care and are less likely to benefit from generational wealth. Mental health is an issue of social justice. BIPoC college students need accessible, effective mental health services. 

This TedTalk will highlight (1) the need for accessible, high quality, equitable mental health services that are understanding, respectful, and culturally responsive to BIPOC undergraduate and graduate students, (2) potential financially feasible and flexible model of care which includes multiple paths of engagement, (3) approaches to increasing culturally responsive care on-campuses, and (4) how the provision of effective, evidence-based psychotherapy and a safe place to process racial identity and heal from oppression and pervasive injustices, will positively impact BIPoC retention in academia. 

Presenter: Julia Deyanova

Presenter Bio:

My name is Julia Deyanova, and I am a current graduate student through CU Denver’s Integrated Sciences Program in Applied Chemistry and Mathematics. I serve as the program’s representative to the CLAS Dean’s Student Advisory Council and have recently joined the CLAS Council on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Throughout my undergraduate and graduate studies, I have engaged in computational chemistry research. My most recent work was with the Air Force Research Laboratories Space Scholars Program, where I modeled the microphysics of electrospray propulsion systems. During my childhood and undergraduate career, I struggled with communication, sensory challenges, and schoolwork. At the age of 25, I was diagnosed with ASD and ADHD – an event that catalyzed my advocacy for neurodiversity awareness and inclusion. Although the diagnoses put many aspects of my life into perspective, they also revealed a concerning reality: Our community is gravely uninformed about ASD and ADHD. More alarming is the lack of resources and information available to college students and educators on navigating the difficulties associated with these disorders. As a consequence, many neurodivergent students fall through the cracks. My goal is to shed light on these issues and advocate for greater disability inclusion and awareness. 

Presentation Description:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that, in the U.S., 1.85% of children are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 9.4% of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Within those groups, additional comorbidities such as dyslexia, anxiety, and depression exasperate learning and future career challenges. 

The actual percentages are likely higher due to the underdiagnosis of women, minority, and low-income groups. As an example, medical professionals believed that ASD and ADHD affect mainly boys. Proponents of the “Extreme male brain theory of autism” claimed that autism was an extreme version of the normal male brain, citing the “empathizing” versus “systemizing” differences between males and females. Recent research on females has challenged this theory, suggesting that autism presents differently in females. In fact, studies have found that neurodivergent individuals are more likely to identify with genders outside the traditional masculine and feminine norms. 

At present, the autism spectrum ranges from “low-functioning” (classic autism) to “high-functioning” (previously Asperger’s syndrome). However, “functioning labels” can be misleading because they dehumanize the “low functioning” individuals and invalidate the experiences of the “high-functioning” individuals. Society’s myths surrounding neurodivergent individuals tend to focus on their deficiencies. Many people still believe that autistic people don’t feel empathy and that ADHD people are always hyperactive. Disability stereotypes are alienating, ableist, and exclusionary. Awareness is the first step towards tackling these misconceptions and a key factor for creating an inclusive community. In the words of Temple Grandin: “Different, not less”. 

Land Acknowledgement

Dr. Jerreed Ivanich 

Welcome 

Dr. Regina Richards

Chancellor Don Elliman

   President Mark Kennedy 

Morning Keynote: "Revolutionizing Systems for Equity: Doing Good Work for the Next Round"

Rev. Dr. Jamie Washington

Introduction by:

Dr. Dominic Martinez

Session Recording

1. Session Title: Problematizing Race as a Variable

• *Presenter: Dr. Naomi Nishi
• Presentation Description: So much of scientific research takes race into account as a variable or category but does not examine racial constructs critically. This allows researchers in STEM, medicine, healthcare, and beyond to treat race as if it were a biological difference, which it is not. In this workshop, Dr. Naomi Nishi will delve into the history of race and race-making in the US. Participants will understand race as a sociopolitical construct and hierarchy that privileges and empowers whiteness. Participants will reflect on how race is understood and used in research and in higher education and identify how to appropriately consider the impact of race, and particularly the role of racism in these systems. This session will take an anti-deficit approach instead of blaming BIPOC people for their own oppression and disenfranchisement.
• Presentation Recording
• Presentation Prezi

• Type: One-Hour Workshop

• Level: All

 

2. Session Title: Leveraging Student Lived Experiences to Promote Buy-In for Required Curricular Diversity Initiatives

• *Presenter: Christine Zabala
• Presentation Description: Schools across the US have implemented a variety of diversity initiatives to combat systemic racism and oppression in higher education. One such initiative is the presence of courses for undergraduates that focus on diversity in the US and that are required for them to graduate. Such required diversity courses have been adopted by the several campuses in the University of Colorado system (Boulder, Denver, & Colorado Springs). While these courses are gaining rapidly in popularity (Zabala, in progress), they are also fraught with uncertainty. Research has found that these kinds of courses can be highly effective in combating prejudice and bias in students (Nelson Laird, Engberg, & Hurtado, 2005; Radloff, 2010). However, some studies suggest that the benefits may be greater for white students than for students of color (Bowman, 2010; Cole, et al., 2011), that faculty and graduate students of color are often burdened with teaching these courses (Perry et al., 2009), and that their efficacy also depends largely on the type of course and the topics covered (You and Matteo, 2013). This workshop will begin with an overview of diversity curricular initiatives -- their efficacy, their prevalence, and the rationales presented by universities for their existence -- before examining these specific requirements in the University of Colorado system. Particularly, the workshop will facilitate participants in unpacking the kinds of rhetoric used by the University of Colorado system to examine what values the framing of these diversity courses makes clear about the University system. The workshop will then provide some tools and classroom readings/activities I have used to encourage buy-in from students in my required diversity course -- a course that they may not have enrolled in without such a requirement. My positionality as a white Latina will be discussed and how this may impact student relationship with the material. Finally, the workshop will conclude with discussions about other ways to encourage buy-in from white students who may not see themselves as implicated in racism, as well as how to ensure that BIPOC students are able to bring their own experiences to class and walk away with new understandings as well.
• Presentation Recording
• Type: One-Hour Workshop
• Level: All

 

3. Session Title: Alternative Models to Combat Harm in DEI Work

• *Presenter(s): Dr. Nelia Viveiros & Sara D. Anderson
• Presentation Description: There are a few things we have come to well-understand during the pandemic in the higher education setting. The first is that while the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has and continues to have broad health implications across the globe. Being overlooked in response and policy debates is the pandemic's disproportionate impact on BIPOC  faculty, staff and students through things such as cultural breeches . Second is that our society is being divided along ideological lines threatening to create further divisions that harm our community, especially in our work in the areas of diversity equity and inclusion that also disproportionately impacts BIPOC faculty, staff and students. Third is that higher education responses to repair cultural breeches coming out of these harms are proving inadequate. The University of Colorado Denver and its sister campuses utilize a model of retributive justice that overly focuses on policy violations, rather than on restorative models of justice. In a time of pandemic, COVID-19 shadow pandemics, such as: increased violence against women, heightened racial tensions, shelter in place mandates and mental health needs have become our norm. We need to provide spaces that work to repair harm that do not place people in further adversarial positions. This session proposes to focus on the development of a unit that would include restorative justice principles but also other dispute resolution (DR) practices and work towards the build out of an Integrated Conflict Management Systems (ICMS) to help repair cultural breaches.  The ICMS model proposes examination of an integrated conflict management and dispute resolution competency that would offers a menu of options: 1. Additional training/prevention options, 2. Victim-offender mediation, in which victims may confront a perpetrator directly or through mediators, 3. Group conferencing, which includes how to apologize using an RJ/accountability framework and support people for both the victim and the perpetrator, along with others from the community, 4. The use of “circles” of people — much like group conferencing, but often with wider community participation to create an agreed-upon way to address the harm caused by the perpetrator & 5. “Other” approaches similar to those above, which likewise aim to address the harm, such as coaching, mediation and shuttle diplomacy

• Type: One-Hour Workshop
• Level: Advanced

 

4. Session Title: Solidarity Built As A Kitchen Table: The case for dialogue and relationship at the core of transformational equity practices

• *Presenter(s): Amanda Griffin Linsenmeyer & Tamara Williams Van Horn 
• Presentation Description: General terms like BIPOC/POC obscure the complexities of variant community histories and specific journeys to Americanness and belie the "messiness" of marginalized communities building networks of solidarity and mutual support. Understanding that divide and conquer and reductionism are effective tools of white supremacy and patriarchy, this session will explore techniques that mitigate barriers to the creation and maintenance of intercommunity solidarity. Our presenters, a Black femme and an Indigenous woman, have intentionally utilized dialogic processes and attention to deep relationship building to disrupt oppressive, colonial systems and corporatized diversity work.  These frameworks have made space for solidarity in practice - building intersectional support, programming, and advocacy services to move the campus climate towards appreciable equity for students of underrepresented communities. In this facilitated conversation two University of Colorado Boulder inclusion leaders will unpack their journey, providing tips and tricks participants can muse on and adapt for their own inclusive excellence practice. 
• Type: One-Hour Facilitated Discussion
• Level: Intermediate

5. Session Title: DEIA and Y.O.U. - How to be an Accomplice and Co-conspirator

• *Presenter: Dionisia de la Cerda, Taryn Bogdewiecz, Deanna Schroder & Dr. Heather Bleacher
• Presentation Description: Less than three years ago, an unlikely pair came together and championed DEI for a very large Family Medicine Department in the School of Medicine. The work changed their department and paved the way for others on campus to expand the work. The seminar will describe the journey and lessons learned in working in DEI including: the development of a climate survey, a holistic review hiring process, and an initiative to highlight ways to give back to the community.  We will discuss lessons learned and explore the challenges of implementation, highlight some specific initiatives, and provide opportunities to ask questions on engaging in your own DEI initiative.
• Type: One-Hour Facilitated Discussion
• Level: All

 

6. Session Title: Health Impacts and Inequities of COVID-19 among Colorado's Young People

• *Presenter: Whitney Israel, Dr. Ashley Brooks-Russell, Emily Fine & Lauren Cikara
• Presentation Description: This session will describe the results of a statewide, anonymous youth health behavior survey administered in the fall of 2020. In the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Colorado School of Public Health (CSPH) School & Youth Survey team administered the 2020 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey (HKCS) Supplement to measure adolescent health outcomes across Colorado. The survey was a shortened version of the standard HKCS, which is aligned with the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey. The 2019 HKCS was administered in the fall of 2019 to over 100,000 middle and high school students and is typically given during odd-numbered years. The 2020 HKCS Supplement was administered from October through December with the purpose of collecting critical data to evaluate the effects of COVID-19 and other relevant and timely health indicators such as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), racism & discrimination, and resilience. In addition to these new measures, the instrument retained alignment with core measures in the 2019 HKCS for comparative analysis (e.g., mental health, substance use, school connectedness). See attached documents for a table of domains in the 2020 Supplement instrument.The 2020 HKCS Supplement was offered to all participating schools of the 2019 HKCS (n=503). This convenience sampling resulted in approximately 70 schools enrolling in the survey. Data collection will end in mid-December, allowing for analysis and dissemination of results to relevant stakeholders.

• Type: 45-Minute Panel
• Level: All

7. Session Title: You Matter.  You Belong: A panel discussion with diversity and inclusion experts

• *Presenter: Kate Miller, Dr. Ryan Ross, Theodosia Cook, Dr. Amy Kahn, Dr. Praveen Shanbhag & Louis Morales-Schnaider
• Presentation Description: Systemic racism and the events that have unfolded across America over the past few months serve as an urgent reminder of the continued change needed in our society and its institutions. As members of the ed-tech community, it is crucial that we are attuned to the racial injustices in a larger sense and are aware that this issue is present in every aspect of our work in higher education. Join us in a conversation about creating a culture of diversity and inclusion and taking actionable steps toward equality for all. Share their strategies and successes in building and working with diverse teams. Overview of how we value all forms of diversity and inclusion in the current US climate. Discuss actionable steps needed to create a more inclusive culture. Highlight the positive impact a diversity strategy can have on culture, and student, staff, and faculty success. 

• Type: 45-Minute Panel
• Level: All

8. Session Title: The Forgotten Community: COVID-19's Impact on Black Communities

• *Presenter: Hinal Rathi & Beza Jobira
• Type: Mixed mode
• Presentation Description: Diversity is being inclusive of various communities and respecting their cultures and norms. Unfortunately as we progressed over time some communities were “forgotten” and were heavily impacted by the COVID-19; thereby further widening the existing gap between the social determinants of health and health equity. Colorado Black Health Collaborative’s (CBHC) answer to the above point was exactly what this Summit is about, if not now, then when? Based on the current literature African American/Black communities have been at a disportionately higher risk of various social, health, and racial disparities. These disparities exist due to factors such as limited access to resources, financial instability, reduced access to care, discrimination due to their race, lack of trust on political leaders, and several other factors. With the current onset of the COVID-19 pandemic many of these disparities have been on the rise and further segregating the African American/Black communities in the health care system. In order to systematically gauge and come up with some solutions to bridge the gap between such disparities and prevention plans, CBHC wanted to explore the effects of this pandemic on such disparities in the state of Colorado by providing a survey to their directory members as well as other community members. Through the concerns that were shown via the survey, CBHC’s developed a strategy plan that includes; revamping a microsite that will provide COVID-19 and chronic disease information, dynamic COVID-19 statistics in the Black communities and serve as a resource hub.  This resource hub will help community members tackle their mental, emotional, and physical health through holistic care. 
• Level: All

 

*Click on each presenter to view bio 

These guides were created in collaboration with other CU Denver Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion offices on-campus and we utilized feedback/content provided from those offices that have expertise on the topic(s). Please note, the guides are meant to start the conversation; we know there is so much more we could expand upon for each topic. 

Office of Equity Self-Guided Learning Home Page

Includes: Links to all 5 modules and content related to establishing shared language, land acknowledgements, safe vs. brave space, and woke Olympics/SJ arrogance (content adapted from Reverend Dr. Jamie Washington!!).

• Bystander Intervention Guide

• Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion 101 Guide
  

• Gender Visibility Guide
  

• Intersectionality Guide
  

• Relationship Violence Guide

The Urgency of Intersectionality | Kimberlé Crenshaw:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akOe5-UsQ2o

Implicit Association Test (IAT):

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html

The Danger of a Single Story:

https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en#t-23505

Message

Sara Anderson, Assistant Vice Chancellor, CU Denver Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Welcome

Dr. Jorge Chavez

The Faculty Council Committee for Racial & Ethnic Equity (CREE)

Session Recording

Afternoon Keynote:

Theodosia Cook, CU Chief Diversity Office

Introduction by:

Sara Anderson 

Session Recording

1. Session Title: Carceral Pedagogy and Abolitionist Responses

• Presenter: Shea Swauger
• Presentation Description: This session will present several policies, technologies, and practices in higher education that borrow from prisons and policing, which taken together is called carceral pedagogy. This approach to education criminalizes students, assumes they are deficient or broken, and positions them as untrustworthy. Abolitionist pedagogy is the best way to deconstruct carceral pedagogy and repair the harm done by it. We'll identify specific examples of carceral pedagogy such as facial recognition, predictive analytics, machine learning, and remote test proctoring. We'll then move to what an abolitionist response to each of these would be and how we can enact this as a system. 
• Type: One-Hour Workshop
• Level: Advanced

 

2. Session Title: Self-Care for Vicarious Trauma

• Presenter: Jessica Ladd-Webert & Sarah Williams 

• Presentation Description: This year has been hard on everyone. The pandemic, racism, death, job loss, food insecurity, relationship struggles, loneliness, deprivation of needs, the list goes on. Impact can vary based on one's own experience, privileges, and targeted identities and yet we all are experiencing a collective trauma.  While we may be in helping positions as therapists, first responders and medical providers, we are impacted too. None of us have been through a pandemic before yet we are in a position of helping others as they navigate through it. So how are we helping ourselves? This session will focus on vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, and self-care; what is all this, what does it mean. We will look at barriers to caring for ourselves and how to look at new ways that can be accessible to everyone, even when we are in a pandemic lock down at home. So what does this have to do with social justice? As Audre Lorde says, “caring for my self is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation and that is an act of political warfare.” This session is geared towards helpers (therapists, medical providers, first responders) and could benefit anyone and everyone.

• Type: One-Hour Workshop
• Level: All

 

3. Session Title: Creating a Compassionate, Brave Space for Antiracism Dialogue

• Presenter: Jeanne McDonald & Dr. Lisa H. Schwartz 

• Presentation Description: Planning committee members of the CU Boulder Outreach and Engagement Professionals Network (OEPN) will share about a virtual study group that met this past fall to examine racial justice and antiracism. The goal of the study group was to work towards incorporating what was learned into community-engaged practices to build more inclusive, diverse and equitable programming. A cohort of about thirty faculty, staff and students from across the Boulder campus, along with several local community members participated in six weekly, one-hour sessions that focused on discussions around Ibram X. Kendi’s book, “How to Be An Antiracist.” Members indicated that their goals were to work within a community to learn about how to affect culture change within their units and organizations. The study group provided the opportunity for participants to develop a compassionate community of practice, with weekly presentations by campus champions of antiracist work and small group discussion supported by prompts and shared facilitation. Through dialogue focused on moving from ideas to practice, participants learned from one another, gained confidence in communicating about antiracist policies and practices, and built the understanding to engage differences in experience, understanding and growth. This session will share the collaborative design process, best practices, and lessons learned about how to create a space for crucial conversations about antiracism and how it could be replicated at other campuses. Established in 2014, the OEPN is a community of practice that provides training, shares best practices and offers professional development opportunities for CU Boulder staff, faculty and students who manage outreach programs and community partnerships.

• Type: One-Hour Workshop
• Level: All

4. Session Title: Structural Violence in Healthcare: Ideological Considerations, Historical Reflections, and Application to COVID Vaccine Distribution Presentation PPT Slides

• Presenter: Emily Gamm & Dr. Susan Bonini

• Presentation Description: Healthcare ideology and approaches have been primarily rooted in a modern philosophical framework, a Newtonian science and atomistic approach, where disease and human beings are molecularized, creating systems in healthcare ripe to propagate structural violence.  Scientific inquiry, and consequently healthcare, is de-socialized and biosocial systems, including systemic discriminatory and oppressive power dynamics, are lost.  Privileging quantitative over qualitative research is one example of atomistic and de-socialized practices woven in to the fabric of healthcare systems. Divorcing scientific discovery from a patient’s lived experience creates a breeding ground for structural violence, and ultimately distrust, in healthcare which can be demonstrated historically.  Acts of structural violence, perpetuated historically and currently, against Black individuals include medical abuse, exploitation, failed response to natural disasters, predatory experimentation, and systemic medical racism, to name a few.  The abuses and resultant destruction of trust are so ubiquitous that it has been termed the “Tuskegee effect” referencing the U.S. Public Health study spanning 1932-1972.  The generational skepticism and damage enacted on Black persons manifests today as reluctance on the part of Black individuals to trust the healthcare system, ergo accept the safety of COVID vaccines.  It would appear the results of structural violence perpetrated in the name of science will continue to leave a legacy of distrust on communities of Color.  Trust in the healthcare system, believing healthcare has their best interests as the focus, necessitates deliberate exposure and disruption of systems of injustice, which also necessitates creating venues for purposeful dialogue about how to disrupt these systems and earn trust.

• Type: One-Hour Facilitated Discussion
• Level: Intermediate

5. Session Title: Reducing Bias in Training Program Recruitment

• Presenter: Dr. Jenna Glover, Dr. Monique Germone, Dr. Jacob Holzman, Dr. Courtney Lynn & Dr. Ayelet Talmi

• Presentation Description: Faculty with the Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Division of CU Anschutz of the Psychology Training Committee at Children’s Hospital Colorado have prioritized diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts since its inception in 1989. The Committee is currently undertaking the 2021-2022 recruitment cycle for our American Psychological Association accredited psychology doctoral internship program, where we have received 280 applications to review. Our committee has collectively decided to advance our commitment to being an anti-racist training program by revising our recruitment practices and policies to reduce bias and improve inclusion and equity of diverse trainees during our current recruitment year. This includes significant revisions of our application review process, interviewing procedures, and education initiatives to reduce implicit bias. The proposed panel would include selected faculty from our Committee who will present narratives of considerations for education to begin an equitable recruitment process, considerations for evaluating the effectiveness of revolutionizing the recruitment process, and lessons learned during the creation and implementation of these practices. Faculty representation includes the training director, clinical rotation leaders, and trainee supervisors ranging from junior to senior faculty levels.  

• Type: 45-Minute Panel
• Level: Intermediate

 

6. Session Title: Equity in Change: Creating Safety

• Presenter: Dr. Laura Ramzy & Dr. Samantha Pelican Monson 

• Presentation Description: When revolutionizing systems for equity, the change processes themselves need to be examined and re-designed to ensure safety for all participants. Nowhere is this more true than in educational and healthcare systems where longstanding hierarchies establish organizational power levels that often mirror demographic power levels, thereby compounding these dynamics. For example, at the “top” of both healthcare and educational systems, you will find more white people and at the “bottom” more people of color. As systems get reinvented, it is imperative that these power dynamics are accounted for and neutralized. This session will offer several strategies to ensure that as equity is pursued, the processes themselves are equitable: balanced minority/majority leadership, use of White Supremacy Culture as a self-audit of equity committees/processes, reflective questioning, culturally congruent meeting structures, creating groups based on similar power levels, creation of transparency, consideration of disproportionate burden for change placed on minority group members, and ongoing acknowledgement of need for “action over words.” Only by attending to the processes themselves can we ensure sufficient safety to invite authenticity and meaningful change.

• Type: 45-Minute Panel
• Level: Intermediate

 

7. Session Title: Supporting Undocumented Students: Realities and Resources Across the CU System

• Presenter: Stephanie Roberts, Dr. Dominic Martinez, Alé Ruiz & Giselle Bustamante 

• Presentation Description: In these challenging times, one group of students under particular duress are undocumented students. With the impacts of COVID, uncertainty around the future of DACA and other immigration concerns, these students need us to understand their realities now more than ever. Join us to hear about what each of CU's campuses have been doing to support undocumented students, what opportunities may exist in the future, and how to get involved in supporting this key and highly motivated group of CU students. 
• Presentation Recording

• Type: 45-Minute Panel
• Level: All
  

 

8. Session Title: Embodied Oppression: Somatic Healing for Marginalized Communities

• Presenter: Parker Schneider

• Presentation Description: The focus of this session will be on increasing access to knowledge of the embodiment of oppression and somatic approaches of trauma healing. The session will be geared toward participants from marginalized communities in an effort to provide them with resource, rather than focusing the session on providing education to individuals from privileged communities. Oftentimes, in these spaces and events, people from marginalized communities are providing emotional labor toward educating their oppressors and that education for the people in (a) place(s) of privilege is prioritized. Rarely are sessions geared toward those from marginalized communities receiving offerings. Thus, changing the focus and prioritizing the experience of the oppressed, not only increases access to knowledge for people from marginalized communities, it also revolutionizes the way we structure social justice conversations.

• Type: Workshop & Facilitated Discussion
• Level: Intermediate

 

*Click on each presenter to view bio 

 

Introductions by:

Lauren Fontana, JD

Panelist:

Dr. Regina Richards, CU Anschutz

Dr. Dyonne Bergeron, CU Boulder

Dr. Stephany Rose Spaulding, UCCS

Dr. Nelia Viveiros, CU Denver

Theodosia Cook, CU System

Facilitated by:

Dr. Cerian Gibbes, UCCS

Session Recording

Karissa Stolen

Sam Dancis

Dr. Dominic F. Martinez

 

Session Recording

 

Naomi W. Nishi, PhD, is a scholar-practitioner with over 15 years in higher education. Her research draws on Critical Race Theory, Settler Colonialism, and Critical Whiteness Studies to focus on issues of racial equity and social justice in higher education. Specifically, she uses qualitative methods, including portraiture, to study race, racism, and whiteness in the college STEM classroom, as well as these same issues within higher ed leadership. Naomi is a mother scholar with two small children and is a founding scholar in Critical Race Parenting (ParentCrit). Naomi is a staff member in Research Development for CU Denver and the Anschutz Medical Campus and is a faculty member in Ethnic Studies. Naomi holds a PhD in education from the University of Colorado Denver, an MA in Intercultural Communication from the University of Denver, and a BS in Scientific and Technical Communication from Michigan Technological University.

 

Christine Zabala (she/her/hers) is a current PhD candidate in the Education Literacy Instruction program at CU Boulder. Here at CU Boulder, she has spent several years teaching courses on diversity and equity in education, including masters and undergraduate level courses. Her dissertation work and research agenda focuses on curricular diversity requirements at the higher education level and how to leverage queer pedagogies and literacies to generate buy-in from students who may only be enrolled in these diversity courses to meet a graduation requirement.

 

Dr. Nelia Viveiros (she, her, hers) is Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the University of Colorado Denver (Denver Campus). In 2020, she was awarded the University Thomas Jefferson Award for her achievement in advancing the cause of civic responsibility and for her commitment to the welfare and rights of the individual.

 

Sara D. Anderson serves as the Interim Assistant Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Passionate about inclusion and equity work, Sara has dedicated her life’s mission to ensure that the issues of systemic inequalities and oppression are disassembled. Sara enrolled at Colorado State University and received her BA in Communication Studies and minored in Women’s Studies. Sara spent several years in the nonprofit sector professionally on issues affecting Colorado’s most vulnerable and marginalized peoples.  In her spare time, Sara would mentor low-income high school students and assist them with the college application and enrollment process, or facilitate diversity and inclusion trainings to various communities across the metro area. Eventually Sara decided to return to the academy and receive her master’s degree in Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis. Here, Sara furthered her passion by facilitating trainings for undergraduate, graduate, faculty, and staff members on topics pertaining to diversity, equity, and inclusion. When Sara is not working, she is with family and friends, teaching or practicing yoga, hiking, cooking, or watching movies.

 

Amanda Griffin Linsenmeyer (she/her/hers) is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. She serves as the Director of the Office of Intercultural Engagement in the Center for Inclusion and Social Change at CU Boulder. A graduate of the University of California Davis and the University of Arizona, holding degrees in Native American and American Indian Studies, Amanda has incorporated Indigenous culture and knowledge systems, intersectional feminism and student development into her work as a leader, a mentor, a trainer, and an advocate. Amanda has designed and led numerous trainings, dialogues, and presentations on campus, within the CU System and at national conferences. She contributed a chapter to the anthology, "Feminist Responses to the Neoliberalization of the University: From Surviving to Thriving" and serves as the co-chair of the Women's Centers Committee of the National Women's Studies Association.

 

Tamara Williams Van Horn (They/them/theirs and She/her/hers) is the first and only daughter of Jennifer and Louis of Cincinnati, Ohio (MA Sociology, CU Boulder/ BA African & African American Studies, U of Cincinnati). Associate Director of the Office of Intercultural Engagement in the Center for Inclusion and Social Change at CU Boulder. “Rap Sessions” in high school leadership spaces have launched Tamara’s academic and social change work into institutionally-diverse contexts like hospitals, startup museums, craft stores, and neighborhoods reinventing after riots. Across these spaces, Tamara gained a passion for facilitating full participation from all contributing constituencies in the name of citizenship. Tamara strives to be “the community’s educator,” using intersectional feminist values to leverage the power of our shared narratives as a challenge to professionalism-as-violence and invite in community care. Tamara loves doing bridge work with other cheerful doers, especially to improve the lot of elders and children.

 

Dionisia de la Cerda is the Associate Director of Diversity and Health Equity for the Department of Family Medicine on the Anschutz Medical Campus. She co-founded the Diversity and Health Equity program with her colleague, Dr. Cleveland Piggott. She has worked at the University of Colorado for almost 2 decades, working in student retention, pipeline programs, the Department of Corrections, and now in a clinical department. She is passionate about community, and developing relationships and partnerships to move the needle on equity. In her free time, she enjoys pampering her four senior pitbulls.

 

Deanna Schroder is a 25-year veteran of Human Resources and has worked in diverse environments ranging from retail to non-profit before joining the University of Colorado’s Department of Family Medicine in 2012. She specializes in translating ideas into action and helping people clarify their issues and discover their own solutions. In her free time, she proofreads her daughter’s college papers, volunteers for various food banks, hikes, bikes and enjoys time with friends.

 

Heather Bleacher is core faculty at the University of Colorado Family Medicine Residency. Since 2012 she has co-directed the residency’s community health curriculum which focuses on population health, advocacy, and community engagement. She practices full-scope family medicine in inpatient and outpatient settings in the UCHealth system and has led initiatives at her practice to address patients’ social needs during clinical encounters.

 

Taryn Bogdewiecz is a Professional Research Assistant at the University of Colorado Department of Family Medicine, has been with the department for 5 years, and is currently leading the Giving Back to Health initiative.

 

Whitney Israel is the Operations Manager at the Colorado School of Public Health (CSPH) for the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey (HKCS) and Smart Source. As the Operations Manager, Whitney leads the Systems and Operations Core in school and youth survey methodology, development, and administration. Whitney obtained her Master in Public Health from Touro University with an emphasis in community health. For the past seven years as a public health professional, she has applied her knowledge of preventative health to school districts and health departments in several cities and states. Whitney has been working with CSPH for four years and looks forward to continuing to deepen her knowledge of adolescent health research to advance health equity in Colorado.

 

Dr. Ashley Brooks-Russell is an assistant professor at the Colorado School of Public Health. Her PhD is from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, after which she completed a postdoc at NIH. Her interests include adolescent health with a focus on preventing injury outcomes such as violence and suicide prevention. Dr. Brooks-Russell currently directs Healthy Kids Colorado Survey (HKCS) and Smart Source Survey. Her current research investigates cannabis impaired driving.

 

Emily Fine works as the School and Youth Survey Manager at the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment (CDPHE). In this role, Emily manages the state's unified approach to school and youth health surveys to support the health and well-being of young people. She enjoys working closely with data analysts and prevention experts at CDPHE, the Colorado School of Public Health, other state departments, local public health, schools, nonprofits, and the CDC. Emily is proud to have supported Colorado’s Suicide Prevention Commission in adopting statewide suicide prevention recommendations to create inclusive communities for LGBTQ+ youth and strengthen economic supports. Prior to working for CDPHE and for close to a decade, she held various roles at a nonprofit community mental health center, including directing the operations department and working with the Board, C-level team, and HR.

 

Lauren Cikara is the Recruitment and Outreach Manager for the School and Youth Survey Team at the Colorado School of Public Health. In this role, Lauren works with school districts across the state to participate in both the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey (HKCS) and Smart Source and provides technical support to schools and community partners as they navigate using the survey results to inform school and adolescent health work across Colorado. Lauren’s background is in student leadership, health education, policy/advocacy, and diversity and inclusion. She has spent her entire career advocating for youth and youth programming in K-12 education, higher education, and community organizations. She enjoys hiking and exploring the Denver art and music scene, and craft beer.

 

Kate Miller's interests rest in a fusion of technology, universal design, and accessibility. Kate's current position is the access and usability manager for the Office of Information and Technology (OIT), which serves both the CU Denver and CU Anschutz campuses. Kate's aim is to improve the access of all of the technologies and applications OIT is responsible for implementing. Her areas of constant curiosity include equity, diversity, inclusion, leadership in higher education, and organizational structure. Kate has a master’s degree in educational leadership with a focus on student affairs in higher education and is now pursuing her doctorate in leadership for educational equity.

 

Dr. Ryan Ross is a sought-after speaker, educator and leadership coach who is committed to equity and inclusion, educational access and the development of leaders. His passion for community, leadership and education is directly related to his experiences growing up and desire to pay it forward to the community that afforded him many opportunities. He helps lead programs such as the Kappa League Leadership development program, the Urban Male Initiative and the Urban Leadership Foundation of Colorado. Ross serves as the associate vice chancellor for Student Affairs, Equity and Inclusion for the Colorado Community College System.

 

Theodosia Cook joined the University of Colorado as chief diversity officer for the four-campus university system in May 2020. Theodosia helps develop and implement system-wide policies and initiatives that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. She coordinates and collaborates with chief diversity officers, faculty, and administrators on each of the campuses. She also leads efforts to ensure diversity is effectively represented in CU’s strategic and annual planning. Cook has led diversity and inclusion efforts for faculty, staff, students, and alumni at Dartmouth College. Before working in higher education, Theodosia resided in the K-12 space as a Professional Development Lead Teacher, Curriculum Writer for cuturally relevant teaching, and a union representative. She has served as an advisory board member for the Posse Foundation and Friends and Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Guyana. Theodosia holds a BA in Political Science from Sewanee: The University of the South and an MA in Education Leadership from Teachers College, Columbia University.

 

With a career in educational leadership backed by more than 20 years in executive leadership roles in the business sector, Dr. Amy Khan has developed proven strength in strategic planning, financial management, research and data analysis, and expertise in diversity programs. Her skills and expertise ensure that programs not only meet accreditation standards, but deliver academic rigor and student support that drive learning, retention, and enrollment growth. From innovating academic programs to revamping work processes, her leadership ensures that instructional and support programs meet the evolving needs of students and communities. Dr. Khan currently serves as the dean of Academic Affairs for CCCOnline.

 

Dr. Praveen Shanbhag is founder and CEO of NameCoach, and was initially inspired to build the company when his sister’s name was mangled at her college graduation. NameCoach supports Inclusion, Equity, and Belonging initiatives by embedding accurate audio name pronunciation buttons and gender pronouns into the tools we use everyday, such as Canvas and Salesforce. The NameCoach mission is to provide current and prospective students, alumni, employees, faculty, and staff with a sense of equality and belonging in every interaction. Dr. Shanbhag holds a PhD in Philosophy from Stanford and an MPhil in History of Technology from Cambridge. 

 

Louis Morales-Schnaider is a first-generation Latino student pursuing a career in medicine. Louis is motivated to serve, be a role model in his community, and embrace diversity to broaden his perspective. As a reputable athlete and student in the state of Colorado, he has been able to develop his own leadership style as well as a sense of cultural awareness that will allow me to provide culturally responsive care for his patients in the future. When Louis tore his PCL while at Metropolitan State University, it gave him a chance to meet an amazing orthopedist as my injury healed. The care and passion I received from him was so powerful that it sparked my interest in medicine. His goal is to use his role as a physician to serve minority communities and introduce them to opportunities in education and preventive healthcare to get closer to obtaining health equity for all.

 

Hinal Rathi is a second-year medical student at Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine. She graduated with a Bachelor’s in Biology from University of Colorado Denver in 2018. She has been an active community volunteer at Nine Health Fairs and also did a service learning trip to Los Angeles in 2015 aimed at working with organizations raising awareness and providing support to HIV-AIDS survivors. She began her journey with Colorado Black Health Collaborative (CBHC) around 6 years ago as a student volunteer.  They have collaborated on several public health projects such as asset mapping in underserved communities, tackling menthol in the Black communities, and their most recent project, understanding the effects of COVID-19 in the Black communities. She has advocated for CBHC’s mission of achieving health equity in Colorado’s Black communities by volunteering for the Barbershop Health Salon Program and leading health awareness events on cardiovascular and diabetes education in communities such as the Dahlia Campus for Health and Well-being  and Montbello High School. Her aim through CBHC is to voice the concerns and gaps that exist between our healthcare system and forgotten communities such as the African American/Black communities to come up with systematic solutions at a public health level.  She plans to go into Internal Medicine and work in the underserved, uninsured communities by providing them holistic care.

 

Beza Jobira is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Colorado School of Medicine Anschutz Medical Campus. She earned a Bachelor's in Biology from the University of Colorado Denver. She then earned a Master’s in Public Health in Health Systems, Management, and Policy at the Colorado School of Public Health University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. During her undergraduate school, she began her community engagement by joining the Colorado Black Health Collaborative where she has served in various roles and projects including regular blood pressure screening and health education outreach, community asset mapping in Montbello/Green Valley Ranch, leading focus groups session focusing on assessing Black patients’ perspectives on Culturally Competent Care through focus groups and adolescents’ perspective on e-cigarette smoking, and more recently, designing an innovative model to administer a virtual blood pressure screening during the COVID-19 pandemic. During medical school, Beza has been a part of the research track where she worked on exploring the relationship between the gut microbiome, type 2 diabetes, polycystic ovary syndrome, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease among adolescent youth. Beza plans to go into Internal Medicine where she can merge her strong interests in population health and chronic disease prevention to reduce health disparities in the underserved population.

Shea Swauger is a librarian at the Auraria Library who's written about and researches data ethics, remote test proctoring, and discrimination in technology. Read more here: https://www.sheaswauger.com/

Twitter: @SheaSwauger

Pronouns: he/him/his

 

Jessica Ladd-Webert, LPC (pronouns she/her), Director- Office of Victim Assistance, CU Boulder

Jessica has been with the Office of Victim Assistance (OVA) since October 2007.  She has a Master’s degree in Community Counseling.  Previous work includes police and sexual assault crisis center advocate. In 2014 Jessica was a negotiator for the Department of Education's Federal Rulemaking Committee helping inform new regulations based on the 2013 re-authorization of the Violence Against Women. Jessica has a background in a variety of trauma informed therapeutic modalities.  She also has presented locally and nationally on a variety of trauma informed practices such as how to support survivors, neurobiology of trauma, vicarious trauma, and campus advocacy programs.  Jessica's career has always focused on crisis and trauma work and has a strong commitment to social justice and she continues to bring her skills of integrated therapy, advocacy, and presenting to support the CU Boulder community.

 

Sarah Williams, LCSW (pronouns she/her), Therapist, Consultant-a local Boulder therapist in private practice and has a Master’s degree in Social Work. Sarah previously spent six years with the Office of Victim Assistance (OVA) at the University of Colorado Boulder providing trauma informed counseling and advocacy as well as education on supporting survivors.  Sarah now provides ongoing consultation to the OVA.  Sarah currently works with college students, parents, and LGBTQ individuals. Sarah brings with her to this training her experience as a therapist, parent, and human navigating the pandemic.

 

Jeanne McDonald is the associate director in the Office for Outreach and Engagement at the University of Colorado Boulder. As part of the office since 2006, she coordinates the annual CU Boulder Outreach Awards and other program funding, co-chairs the campus Outreach and Engagement Professionals Network, and is the planning committee co-chair for the Engagement Scholarship Consortium’s Outreach and Engagement Practitioners Network.  A CU Boulder employee since 1993, Jeanne has had the privilege of working in several different areas across campus, including managing the box office in the College of Music’s Office of Concerts & Public Relations, coordinating programs and events for the Office of Community Relations and Division of Student Affairs, and working as an assistant to the chancellor. She coordinated the three annual campus commencement ceremonies from 1999-2006. Jeanne also has worked at South Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa, CA, A Contemporary Theatre in Seattle, WA and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival in Boulder. She received her bachelor's in drama from The Colorado College and master's in theatre from CU Boulder.

 

Lisa H. Schwartz is a community outreach program manager in the Office for Outreach and Engagement at the University of Colorado Boulder. Lisa supports faculty, staff and students in the development of partnerships and program strategies for work with communities around Colorado. She leads the arts and humanities focus area and manages the community impact and micro grant funding for the office.  Lisa has a doctorate in education from the University of Arizona and was a postdoctoral researcher and research director in the CU Boulder School of Education before joining the office in 2016. Lisa has longstanding experience as an outreach professional, educator, educational researcher and social scientist. In her prior work, Lisa designed and researched digitally mediated learning environments and educational resources that leveraged university and community resources. Lisa’s past experience and published work focuses on STEM/STEAM, new media/new and multimodal literacies, and community/school gardens with learners of all ages and a focus on Latino and lower-income communities.

Emily Gamm, LCSW, CACII, ACS is faculty at the University of Colorado's College of Nursing's clinical practice site CU-Sheridan Health Services in the Family Health Clinic. In that role, Emily provides direct care as a Behavioral Health Provider and co-ordinates Master's level trainees as the Behavioral Health Trainee Program Coordinator. Emily is licensed as both an Licensed Clinical Social Work and Certified Addiction Counselor II. Recently she was accredited as an Approved Clinical Supervisor. In her role at CU-SHS, Ms. Gamm also co-founded and co-leads the CLAS Committee (Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services), leads clinic education efforts on social justice and culturally responsiveness practice, and fosters community partnerships with Transgender Center of the Rockies and Street's Hope.  She guest lectures extensively at the College of Nursing and other area universities on culturally responsive practice.  Within the community, Emily has served on the Office of Behavioral Health's Cultural Competency Advisory Council and The African American Equity Task Force through Denver Public Schools.   She has presented nationally on workforce development and education drawing on achievements with the Master's Level BH Trainee program at CU-SHS.  Personally, Emily has trained with Education for Racial Equity, Robin DiAngelo, and The Center on Colfax.  Ms. Gamm earned a BA in Theology and Philosophy. She went on to do considerable course work toward an MA in Religious Studies with a focus on critical theories and earned her MSW in Social Work from The University of Denver.

 

Jenna Glover, Ph.D. is a Licensed Psychologist and an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.  Dr. Glover serves as Director of Psychology Training at Children's Hospital Colorado.  Dr. Glover received her doctorate in Combined Clinical, Counseling, and School psychology from Utah State University.  She has previously worked as an Assistant professor at Washburn University and Utah State University as well as serving as the lead psychologist at Avalon Hills a residential eating disorders program. Over the past 15 years, Dr. Glover’s career has focused on teaching and training mental health providers.  Dr. Glover has a broad range of pedagogical experience that spans from teaching large lecture-style classes, providing clinical supervision, to her current role where she oversees the Children’s Hospital Psychology Training Programs that trainees 30-40 students a year and has over 50 faculty members involved in the delivery of the training curriculum.  Dr. Glover also provides community outreach giving talks and lectures on promoting wellness and self-care and has given a TEDTalk on these topics. She has been honored with awards for teaching excellence, service to students, and wellness.   Dr. Glover's research interests include improving patient experiences of psychological evaluation through therapeutic assessment and identity and relationship development in LGBTQ youth. Dr. Glover’s clinical work focuses on utilizing motivational interviewing and acceptance-based therapies with adolescents across a range of disorders.  Across all areas of her career, Dr. Glover is a champion for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion. Dr. Glover accomplishes these aims by service to DEI focused committees at the hospital, university, and was appointed to the Association for Psychology Post-Doctoral and Internship Centers national diversity committee this past year. 

 

Monique Germone, PhD, BCBA is a licensed clinical psychologist and board-certified behavior analyst with the Pediatric Mental Health Institute at Children’s Hospital Colorado, and Assistant Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry & Pediatrics at the University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus. Dr. Germone has been involved in diversity and advocacy efforts for individuals with developmental disabilities since 2008. Her clinical work and research focus on advancing care and treatment for individuals with unique needs, including developmental disabilities and autoimmune conditions. She has been an active member of the Psychology Training Committee at Children’s Hospital Colorado since 2014. Recently, she has joined the efforts to advocate for instituting changes to support recruitment, retention, and the training experience for diverse psychology trainees.

 

Jacob Holzman, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Licensed Clinical Psychologist. He is an early career faculty within the first 2 years of faculty at the UC-SOM. Dr. Holzman provides clinical and teaching services within the Children’s Hospital Colorado outpatient behavioral health clinic. His primary clinical interests involve early childhood mental health, prevention oriented clinical work, and providing interventions that simultaneously support both young child and their parents’ mental health. Dr. Holzman’s research interests focus on investigating interactions between transdiagnostic mechanisms (e.g., temperament, self-regulation) and contextual factors (e.g., parenting) in the development of behavioral health concerns as well as factors that affect responses to parenting-focused, early childhood interventions.

 

Courtney Lynn, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and a Pediatric Psychologist embedded in the Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Center at CHCO. Dr. Lynn is responsible for providing supportive psychology services, assessment, and intervention to patients with CF and their family. Dr. Lynn’s research focuses on health literacy and improving communication between providers and families. She has studied health literacy in a variety of chronic illness populations including pediatric HIV, diabetes, and cancer.

 

Ayelet Talmi, PhD is a Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and a Licensed Clinical Psychologist. Dr. Talmi is the Director of the Section of Integrated Behavioral Health, a Director of the Irving Harris Program in Child Development and Infant Mental Health, and the Director of Project CLIMB. Dr. Talmi has been engaged in early childhood and integrated behavioral health systems building efforts, direct service, advocacy, and policy in Colorado and nationally. Her primary clinical and research interests focus on integrating behavioral health into primary care settings, early childhood mental health, and service delivery systems for children and families. Dr. Talmi is a Past President of the Colorado Association for Infant Mental Health and a Graduate Fellow of Zero To Three’s Leader’s for the 21st Century Fellowship.

 

Laura Ramzy, PhD and Samantha Pelican Monson, PsyD are psychologists with Denver Health (DH) and clinical faculty members with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Laura and Sam have spent the last year working under Health Resources and Services Administration funding to uplift the experiences and voices of minority DH Federally Qualified Health Center employees working on the front lines. Through their quality improvement work and research, Laura and Sam have identified key factors that help create safety for participants in equity work, thereby supporting authenticity and meaningful change. Laura is a cisgender, able-bodied, second-generation woman of color. Sam is a cisgender woman, white, her family has been in Colorado for four generations, and she is a person with a previously invisible disability that has been made visible through the Covid-19 pandemic. Laura and Sam have graduate training in multicultural practices and a collective 15 years working together with underserved populations, including refugee and immigrant patients, at Denver Health’s Lowry Family Health Center.

 

Stephanie Roberts (she/her/hers/ella) is the Assistant Director for Intercultural Engagement in the Center for Inclusion and Social Change at CU Boulder.  Born in Brazil to a Bolivian mother and a US-born father, Stephanie’s childhood experiences in an extended family of mixed ethnicity, language, cultures, citizenship status, geography, and perspectives led to a life-long interest in intersectionality, how we communicate across difference, and how power and privilege play out in that space and effect day to day life.  Stephanie earned her BA in International Studies and Spanish with a minor in Latin American Studies from the University of Evansville, and her MA in International Development with a focus on Gender and Education from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, and has lived and worked in many parts of Latin America and the U.S. Stephanie has worked in international education, international human rights, LatinX and undocumented community advocacy, and intercultural engagement, and has used dialogue, advocacy, and education as a key components of her work in each of these areas.

 

Alé Ruiz (she/her/Ella) is the Graduate Assistant for Undocumented Student Support in the Multicultural Office for Student Access, Inclusiveness and Community (MOSAIC) and the LGBT+ Resource Center at CU Colorado Springs. Born in Los Angeles, California to an undocumented Mexican mother. Alé is a survivor of severe poverty, gang violence, racial profiling, being a first-generation student, comes from a mixed-status family and a child of a domestic violence survivor. As she met and observed too many inequalities in the world, it fueled her passion for fighting for the equity of all people. Alé earned her BA in Criminal Justice with a minor in Spanish from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS), and she is currently pursuing her MA in Sociology at UCCS. 

Giselle Bustamante is a Colorado native and first generation American whose parents immigrated from Peru. She identifies as a proud Latina and graduate student at the University of Colorado Denver, completing a degree in School Counseling. She previously earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Colorado Boulder. She believes in being a strong leader and inspiration to many and advocating with students who feel they have lost their voice. Giselle believes in the power of using the privileges she possesses to help make a difference in the lives of those who are not awarded such privileges and opportunities. She is bilingual and likes to see herself as a bridge within the community to provide support and resources to all.  

Parker Schneider joined CU Boulder's Office of Victim Assistance in October 2020.  Parker has a Bachelor’s in Psychology with minors in Women’s Studies, Education and Sociology from Columbia College in Columbia, Mo. and later went on to complete a Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Naropa University in Boulder, CO. Additionally, Parker is a Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of Colorado. Parker has experience working in community mental health, therapeutic and educational group work, residential treatment, professional training and consultation, experiential education, and trauma therapy. Parker’s clinical work has primarily focused on trauma, oppression, and addiction treatment, as well as the intersection of those areas. Parker’s prior experience includes providing presentations, trainings and consultation related to transgender-specific victim services, supporting LGBTQ+ survivors, the importance of therapists' systems and self-awareness in clinical work, and the neurobiology of trauma. Parker also co-wrote a published journal article on Rites of Passage as a supportive framework for Transgender youth. Parker has received clinical training in EMDR, parts-work, somatic and psychophysiological approaches to trauma, among others. Social Justice frameworks and Feminist Therapy inform all the client work and systemic advocacy Parker engages in. Parker is passionate about working to unlearn what oppressive systems teach us all, as well as increasing access to information to historically marginalized communities.