Engaging with educational and community leaders, this session of Friday Forums explored ways to hold ourselves accountable for cultivating a climate that is equitable and inclusive of the diverse bodies represented throughout our community.
The political and cultural climate inside and outside of the classroom has the potential to impact the learning environment positively or negatively for everyone on campus. How individuals experience the campus environment can then influence teaching, learning, and developmental outcomes, as well as overall well-being. However, university campuses are not isolated from the larger local and national landscape, thus many external factors, such as the recent Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, show up on our campuses and influence our environment. This forum examined current internal and external influences that affect the many different environments on campus. If we know that people thrive in healthy, inclusive environments how do we foster them? Panelists explored the institutional practices that can foster a more inclusive climate where individuals, communities, and campuses can thrive and examined the impact that campus, local, and even national policy can have on creating a healthy campus climate.
Speakers
Victoria Cabal, Ed.D.
Director of Research and Analysis; Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion
The University of Utah
Co-Moderator
With a focus on community building over competition, Victoria Cabal challenges the framing of diversity as market value and instead emphasizes the cultural value of diversity. In her position, she balances outcomes-driven expectations with community engagement to validate individuals’ cultural strength.
Outside of the University of Utah, Victoria serves as Vice President of the Learner-Centered Educational organization, focused on cultivating partnerships with both public and private organizations committed to ensuring access to learning opportunities for low-income students in Utah. She also partners with individuals and organizations to provide Intercultural Development Inventory© assessments, feedback sessions, and development plans as a Qualified Administrator for the University of Utah. Framing her work from a critical theory lens helps Victoria explore the historical and contemporary impacts impeding organizational inclusive growth. Utilizing a relationship-based approach (Degruy, 2018), Victoria makes connections throughout organizations to ensure the organizational “village” works toward supporting everyone’s success.
Victoria holds a Doctorate of Education from the University of Utah, as well as B.A. in Communication, and M.Ed. in School Counseling from Loyola University Chicago. Prior to moving to the Eccles School, Victoria worked as a school counselor at Northwest Middle School and Judge Memorial Catholic High School, in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she focused on creating innovative counseling programming to create equity across academic experiences.
Meshea L. Poore, Esq.
Vice President for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
West Virginia University
Panelist
Meshea L. Poore, Esq., a long-time champion of underrepresented people, serves as vice president and chief diversity officer for the West Virginia University Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. In that role, she motivates the Mountaineer family to recognize the value in diversity and challenges all who interact with her to create transformational change.
Poore has been helping light the way toward equity throughout her career. An attorney who served in the WV House of Delegates from 2009-2014, she is an accomplished and sought-after motivational speaker, public and political leadership consultant and strategist. The Women’s Campaign Fund named her a “Game Changer” during her campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives for WV’s 2nd Congressional District. She has mentored and consulted with hundreds of elected officials throughout the nation as they seek higher office. Poore is also an experienced educator who served as an adjunct professor at WV State University, as a faculty member in residence at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University and has teaching privileges at WVU College of Law. In 2017, Poore became the first African American woman named president of the West Virginia State Bar since its 1947 founding. Prior to operating her own practice, she was an attorney in the Office of the Kanawha County Public Defender in Charleston, WV. She is an alumna of the prestigious German Marshall Memorial Fellowship, a member of the executive committee for the Council on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities and is President of the Big 12 Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education. Poore earned her bachelor’s degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C., and her law degree from Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She also graduated from the Women’s Campaign School at Yale University.
Poore has recently facilitated insightful conversations with leading voices in social justice work, including Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award Winner and author of How to Be an Antiracist; Nikole Hannah-Jones, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and creator of the landmark 1619 Project; and W. Kamau Bell, sociopolitical comedian and host of the Emmy Award-winning CNN docuseries United Shades of America.
Teneille Brown, J.D.
Professor of Law, S.J. Quinney College of Law
The University of Utah
Co-Moderator
Teneille Brown is the James Farr Professor of Law, Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Research, and Director of the Center of Law and the Biomedical Sciences at the University of Utah, SJ Quinney College Of Law. Her research focuses on genetics, neuroscience, psychology and the law, and medical ethics.
Asia A. Eaton
Associate Professor
Florida International University
Dr. Asia Eaton is a feminist social psychologist and Associate Professor of Psychology at Florida International University (FIU) where she serves as Director of the Applied Social and Cultural Psychology Ph.D. Program. Her research explores how gender intersects with identities such as race, sexual orientation, and class to affect individuals access to and experience with power. For example, she has published work on discrimination in academic STEM contexts and the workplace, as well as power dynamics in intimate partner relationships. In her quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods work, she engages social and cultural psychological theories and methods to address real-world social problems in collaboration with local, state and national organizations and institutions. She is a nationally-recognized mentor, and considers mentoring diverse Ph.D. students to be her primary professional purpose.
Seema Mohapatra, J.D., M.P.H.
MD Anderson Foundation Endowed Professor in Health Law and Professor of Law
Southern Methodist University
Panelist
Seema Mohapatra is a tenured full-time professor of law at SMU Dedman School of Law who holds the MD Anderson Foundation Endowed Professorship in Health Law. She previously served as the Charles J. and Inez Wright Murray Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at SMU. Prior to joining SMU, Mohapatra was a tenured professor with over a decade of experience, most recently at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, where she twice earned the Dean’s Fellow title and award for outstanding scholarship. Upon graduation from law school, she practiced transactional health law and compliance at two large firms in Chicago, Sidley & Austin and Foley & Lardner. Mohapatra’s research centers around health care equity, the intersection of biosciences and the law, assisted reproduction and surrogacy, reproductive justice, and public health law.
Bob Silver, M.D.
Chair, Obstetrics and Gynecology
Maternal Fetal Medicine
The University of Utah
Panelist
Robert M. Silver, MD is the John A. Dixon Presidential Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine. Silver is also a Professor of Maternal-Fetal Medicine. His clinical and research interests include recurrent pregnancy loss and stillbirth, cesarean delivery, placenta accreta, vaginal birth after cesarean delivery, immunologic diseases in pregnancy, and medical disorders in pregnancy.