Dr. Lisa Bergin teaches philosophy at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, where she has also served as a consultant for teaching and learning. Lisa has been a key member of a team that has worked together to shift the institution to a model in which equity and inclusion are embedded throughout institutional policies, practices, and procedures. Lisa strives to bring greater equity and inclusion into her own courses and has served on the organizing committee of the summer 2018 Anti-Racist Pedagogy Across the Curriculum workshop. At the college level, she has chaired the Minneapolis College Equity and Inclusion Curriculum & Pedagogy Committee, initiating a college-wide strategic goal to create an expectation of culturally responsive pedagogy. Through her leadership role at the Center for Teaching and Learning, Lisa has developed faculty workshops covering topics such as implicit bias, stereotype threat, culturally responsive pedagogy, and poverty responsive pedagogy. She has also created a New Faculty Core course with a module on culturally responsive pedagogy and universal design. She is now on sabbatical to create cohort training that will help faculty embed culturally responsive pedagogy into teaching practices.
Read Lisa's Voices and Viewpoints blog titled "Culturally Responsive Pedagogy: What's Poverty, Mindfulness, Trauma, Open-educational Pedagogy (and Love) Got to Do with It?"
As the first in her family to graduate from college, Alvina Clayton-Thomas strongly believes in supporting student success through higher education. Alvina is currently the dean of Student Success Services and a Title IX coordinator at Louisiana Delta Community College. She has worked for the college in various roles since 2004 and previously served as the director of Financial Aid and Scholarships at Grambling State University and as an assistant director of Financial Aid at the University of Louisiana Monroe. Alvina earned her Bachelor of Business Administration degree and a Master of Education degree from the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Currently, she is a third-year doctoral student at Louisiana State University-Shreveport, with an emphasis in higher education leadership. Alvina has served on various boards and as president of numerous professional higher education organizations. She actively serves in her community and is a member of Riverside Missionary Baptist Church and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.
Read Alvina's Voices and Viewpoints blog titled "Supporting Black Male Community College Students and Fostering Equitable Outcomes."
Richard Diaz is an award-winning student-affairs professional at Salt Lake Community College who serves as the interim director for the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs. Prior to that position he was the director of the First-Year Experience department. In both roles he has demonstrated his passion for supporting students who want to access higher education and graduate successfully. As a practitioner, he brings a wealth of knowledge to the profession with experiences ranging from working in admissions as an advisor for two Latinx/a/o student organizations, an adjunct faculty for the College of Education, a member of the Orientation and Leadership Development Office, and the Center for Empowered Students of Color. He holds a bachelor’s degree in social justice education and a master’s degree in educational leadership and policy, with an emphasis in student affairs. Both degrees were from the University of Utah. Richard deeply believes in the importance of community colleges in society and hopes to spend the remainder of his professional career devoted to living up to the mission of these institutions.
Read Richard's Voices and Viewpoints blog titled "Moving on from Diversity Work."
Richard Hayes is the director of Financial Aid at Olive-Harvey College, where he champions initiatives that bring financial awareness to the campus community. During the past 12 years, he has served in leadership roles in admissions, project management, academic advising, customer service and now financial aid. He also serves as an adjunct to continuing education and business departments. Richard's strengths are centered around data-driven strategic initiatives, community outreach campaigns that promote community engagement, customer service, and articulating complex processes to audiences at all communication levels. Recently, Director Hayes was recognized as a recipient of the 2019 National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development Excellence Award for his work with the college and community. He holds an MBA from University of Phoenix and a Masters of Public Administration degree from Keller Graduate School of Management. Richard's gregarious personality, innovative teaching style, and genuine care for student success are what he believes make higher education worthwhile.
Read Richard's Voices and Viewpoints blog titled "Creating a Financial Literacy Center at a Community College."
Dr. Antonio Jackson is a native of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and serves as the dean of arts and humanities at Fayetteville Technical Community College. Prior to his career in education, Antonio served for six years in the North Carolina National Guard and the U.S. Army. While serving in the Armed Forces, he attended Fayetteville State University and earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in sociology. Additionally, he earned an educational specialist degree and a Doctor of Education degree in community college executive leadership from Wingate University. Throughout his career in higher education, Antonio has served as a sociology instructor, a department chair, and now as a dean. He has also served as a program coordinator, a program evaluator, and a chair of first-year experience initiatives. He is a proponent of education at all levels, and as a former community college student, Antonio believes in the mission of the institutions. He also believes that community colleges serve the most diverse student populations in higher education and have created many postsecondary opportunities for underserved communities. As a community college educator and leader, it is his passion and goal to help community college students achieve success.
Read Antonio's Voices and Viewpoints blog post titled "Slow Academic Progress Among Minority Students is an American Dilemma."
Maati “Ati” Ka’awa is a former enrollment manager for apprenticeship and interim assistant registrar at South Seattle College, where she provided enrollment, funding, and student-services support to apprenticeships programs that deliver on-the-job training and education in livable wage pathways. She is now the director of Branch Locations at Green River College for Auburn Center, Enumclaw, and Kent Station.
Ati earned a bachelor’s degree from Portland State University and a master’s degree in higher education from Central Washington University. She has previously worked in continuing education and workforce funding programs that deliver high-demand and livable-wage alternatives to traditional education within the community college system in Washington. Ati is passionate about supporting improved higher education access and removing barriers to degree attainment for nontraditional and underserved minority populations.
Read Maati's Voices and Viewpoints blog titled "Making Equity Work Personal."
Dr. Brenda Refaei is an associate professor in the Department of English and Communication at the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College, where she teaches developmental, first-year, and second-year composition. She was recognized for her commitment to teaching when she was inducted into the University of Cincinnati’s Academy of Fellows for Teaching and Learning in 2011. Brenda also received the Distinguished Teaching Award from her college in 2018. Her research interests include examining composition pedagogy, ePortfolio pedagogy, and assessment process to better support equity and inclusion initiatives. As a former participant in the Inter/National Coalition of ePortfolio Research, she has been a strong advocate of ePortfolio use at the college and university. As acting honors director of UCBA Honors, Brenda worked to incorporate a focus on equity and inclusion in students’ projects and learning portfolios. She has presented her work at noteworthy conferences, and her writing has been published in College Teaching, Teaching English in the Two-Year College, and Basic Writing eJournal.
Read Brenda's Voices and Viewpoints blog titled "Putting Students in Control by Redesigning Developmental English."
Sarah Wolfe is an energetic, innovative, and committed educator who is dedicated to supporting student learning and development. Her objective is to build transparent and collaborative partnerships that positively influence both her institution and the community. Sarah hopes to serve as a catalyst for transformative experiences for students by creating opportunities for access to, readiness for, and support in higher education.
She is currently the director of student engagement at the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College. In this capacity, she is committed to helping students connect, engage, learn, and grow in and out of the classroom. She has served in a variety of roles at the college, with responsibilities in new-student orientation, student-leadership programming, career services, and multicultural student affairs. Sarah graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and continued her education at Miami University, where she earned a master’s degree in student affairs in higher education. She lives with her husband and two cats in Cincinnati. They enjoy visiting new places, spending time with family and friends, and cheering on their favorite teams at sporting events.
Read Sarah's Voices and Viewpoints blog titled "Equalizing College Readiness, Access, and Success."