INFORMATION FOR
In 2021, the university launched the President’s Diversity Lecture. This annual event brings together faculty, students and staff to hear from a distinguished diversity scholar on topics related to equity and inclusion. This event provides an opportunity to increase our capacity to better serve our diverse community and builds community across our differences through a meaningful learning experience. This lecture is held during the spring semester each academic year.
Monday, April 28,2025 Click here to view recorded presentation »
Dr. Gina Ann Garcia is a professor in the School of Education at UC Berkeley. Dr. Garcia graduated from California State University, Northridge with a bachelor’s degree in marketing, the University of Maryland, College Park with a master’s degree in college student personnel, and the University of California, Los Angeles with a Ph.D. in higher education and organizational change. She is a proud alumna of a HSI and was a Title V Coordinator at Cal State University, Fullerton which drives and motivates her research and praxis.
As part of her talk at William Paterson, Garcia will lay out the framework for understanding “servingness” and will provide examples of how HSIs can assess the extent to which they are serving Latinx students. Dr. Garcia will challenge audience members to think about servingness as a multidimensional concept that can be addressed in unique ways at our university.
Garcia’s research centers on issues of equity and justice in higher education with an emphasis on understanding how Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) embrace and enact an organizational identity for serving minoritized populations. She explores the experiences of administrators, faculty, and staff at HSIs and the outcomes of students attending these institutions. As an equity-minded scholar, she tends to the ways that race and racism have shaped institutions of higher education.
Please note this lecture was live and no recording is available.
Scholar and Activist Hakim Mohandas Amani Williams, EdD. Dr. Williams also serves as an associate professor of Africana studies at Gettysburg, as well as a faculty affiliate in the departments of education, international and global studies, and public policy. Dr. Williams completed his doctorate in international educational development and peace education at Teachers College, Columbia University.
In his talk, titled “Disorientation, Healing, and Freedom Dreaming: The Long Journey to Pluriversal Thriving,” Williams will discuss the multiple and simultaneous interventions we must pursue, as a society, to unravel deeply entrenched systems of oppression.
Williams’ research centers on structural violence in schools, educational inequities, youth and community empowerment, and cross-national solidarity building. He was a 2022 recipient of a Fulbright Global Scholar Award and a Spencer Foundation grant that took him to Jamaica, Ghana, and Brazil to study globalized anti-blackness and decolonial peace and justice education. .
Thursday, March 31, 2022 | 4:00-5:30 pm Click here to view recorded presentation [campus login required] »
Deborah A. Santiago is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Excelencia in Education, America’s premier authority on efforts to accelerate Latino student success in higher education. For more than 20 years, she has led research and policy efforts from local to national levels to improve educational opportunities and success for all students.
Santiago will discuss how serving students—especially Latino students—requires intentionality. She will share strategies that build on students’ strengths and opportunities guided by evidence-based practices and leadership commitment.
Santiago co-founded Excelencia in Education in 2004 to inform policy and practices to accelerate Latino student success in higher education. Her work focuses on federal and state policies, financial aid, Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), and effective institutional practices for student success. She has been cited in numerous publications for her work, including The New York Times, Washington Post, The Economist, Forbes, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. She serves on the Board of Visitors for the University of Mary Washington, her alma mater, and on the advisory board of TheDream.US. Please join us for this engaging and informative lecture and discussion.
Thursday, March 11, 2021 | 3:30-5:00 pm Click here to view recorded presentation »
Shaun Harper, PhD, Provost Professor in the Rossier School of Education and Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and one of the nation’s most highly respected racial equity experts.
In this inaugural President’s Diversity Lecture, University of Southern California Professor Shaun Harper will discuss racial challenges and opportunities currently facing universities in the United States. He will explain how and why faculty, staff, and institutional leaders often mishandle racial situations. He will conclude by offering numerous practical recommendations for institutional stakeholders who are seriously committed to advancing racial equity at William Paterson University.
Professor Harper is the Clifford and Betty Allen Chair in Urban Leadership at the University of Southern California (USC), where he also serves Provost Professor in the Rossier School of Education and Marshall School of Business. He is also founder and executive director of the nationally-recognized USC Race and Equity Center, and president of the American Educational Research Association, as well as editor-at-large ofTime magazine. The recipient of dozens of top honors in his field and one honorary doctorate, Professor Harper has been repeatedly recognized in Education Week as one of the 10 most influential scholars in the field of education.k Please join us for this engaging and informative lecture and discussion.
