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The Conference is funded by a grant from the 
The Conference is sponsored by:
The Office of Intercultural Relations/Cross-Cultural Center
The Office of Educational Opportunity Programs and Ethnic Affairs
The SDSU Center for Leadership
Panels and Workshops
There are a total of 4 theme tracks for participants to choose from. Each track will have four different workshops. 1 workshop from each track will be presented during each workshop session. (schedule and topics are subject to change)
THEME 1: Black and Brown Voices, Men as Allies
Promoting Student Leadership
Description: In this workshop a panel of students from the EOP Student Advisory Board (ESAB) will discuss the challenges a student leadership team faces in seeking creative and innovative ways to inform and engage not only the University but also the San Diego community.
Location: Council Chambers
Presenter: Bryan Spencer
Recruitment & Outreach Coordinator, Office of Educational Opportunity Programs and Ethnic Affairs, SDSU
Bryan Spencer graduated from SDSU in 2006 with a bachelor’s of science degree in information decision systems. He has been working with Educational Opportunity Programs and Ethnic Affairs as a Recruitment and Early Outreach Officer since 2006. His responsibilities include coordinating middle school campus tours, presentations, and other outreach activities as well as coordinating EOP programs such as Freshman For A Day and First-Contact.
Presenter: Robert Guzmán
Center for Academic Assistance and Training, Office of Educational Opportunity Programs and Ethnic Affairs, SDSU
Robert Guzmán brings more than 15 years experience to higher education. He received a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of North Texas in 1991 and a master’s degree in history from the same institution in 2001. Guzmán is the Retention Systems Coordinator for Educational Opportunity Program and Ethnic Affairs at SDSU. In this capacity, he also serves as the supervisor of the tutoring center C.A.A.T. (Center for Academic Assistance and Training) which provides retention services to more than 500 students each semester.
Promoting Student Peer Support Models and Programs: SOAR, EOP Mentoring Program
Description: In this workshop we will discuss the EOP Mentors program, Success Opportunity Academics and Relationships (SOAR). The workshop will look at the development of such a program and how to create a sustainable program that serves the needs of an ethnically diverse student population.
Location: Council Chambers
Presenter: Henry Jackson
Assistant Director of Learning Communities and Transitional Programs
Cool Points Are Out – Show Me Your Grades
Description: This workshop will help students focus on attitudes and responsibilities necessary for college completion.
Location: Council Chambers
Presenter: Reggie Blaylock
Director, Office of Educational Opportunity Programs and Ethnic Affairs, SDSU
Reggie Blaylock has spent the past 20 years working in higher education at SDSU. His professional experience includes Intercollegiate Athletics, Academic Affairs, and Student Affairs. As the Director of Educational Opportunity Programs and Ethnic Affairs (EOP), Blaylock manages the largest EOP program in California, serving more than 4,000 SDSU students. As a former EOP student and student-athlete at SDSU, Blaylock is a strong advocate for access and equity, and support services that provide students the best “opportunity” to be successful in our campus community.
Establishing Community Service Programs Involving Black and Latino Male Students
Description: This workshop will discuss the establishing of community service programs involving black and Latino students. Through the use of the African word “Sankofa”, you will learn the importance of knowing your ethnic history, the difference between tolerance and diversity, issues from the past that still effect us in today’s society, and what can be done to change our youth’s society for the better.
Location: Council Chambers
Presenter: Trimaine Davis
Assistant Coordinator, SDSU Access Initiatives
THEME 2: Sexism, Identity and Belonging
LGBT Issues
Description: Students who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered are often an invisible minority within university culture. The same is true for individuals with disabilities, especially when their impairment is not obvious. Discussions of diversity seldom include sexual minorities or people with disabilities, leading individuals from those communities to be marginalized and discounted. Moreover, faculty and students who are not sensitized to discrimination and stigma experienced by these group members may inadvertently exclude students, provide misinformation or perpetuate myths. This presentation will focus on some of the experiences that are common to people from the LGBT community as well as people with disabilities when dealing with the “straight, nondisabled” world.
Location: Quetzalcoatl
Presenter: Marjorie F. Olney, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Administration, Rehabilitation and Postsecondary Education, SDSU
In her research, Marjorie F. Olney uses multiple methods to examine barriers to employment for individuals with disabilities, disability and identity; and psychiatric rehabilitation education. As an “out” lesbian, Olney leads by example, teaching future rehabilitation counselors that they can only be effective as counselors when they are fully congruent in every aspect of their lives.
Presenter: Joanne Miller
Joanne Miller is an employment specialist with Community Research Foundation. She is a member of the Community Research Foundation Training Committee and has hosted training sessions related to LGBT issues. Miller feels passionately about equitable access to mental health resources for all communities but particularly for the LGBT community. Miller is a graduate student in the Rehabilitation Counseling program at SDSU and is specializing in psychiatric disabilities.
Changing Attitudes Toward LGBT Fraternity and Sorority Members
Description: A comprehensive research and national study was recently completed involving more than 400 self-identified LGBT undergraduate members and alumni of fraternities and sororities. The study assessed chapter and campus climates toward LGBT students, level of "outness" of LGBT members, incidences of harassment, and overall quality of the participants' fraternity/sorority experience. The study found that remarkable positive changes have occurred in the past decade, but there is still much to be done to make fraternal organizations truly welcoming to LGBT students. This workshop will present the results of the study and discuss its implications and recommendations.
Location: Quetzalcoatl
Presenter: Doug Case
Coordinator of Fraternity and Sorority Life, SDSU
Doug Case has been involved in advising the fraternity and sorority community since 1978. Case has been an active member of the Association of Fraternity Advisors and has held several leadership roles in the professional association, including serving as President in 1991. He is an initiate of Kappa Sigma Fraternity and is an honorary member of Delta Lambda Phi Fraternity, the national social fraternity for gay, bisexual and progressive men.
Minority Greek Issues
Description: Panel Discussion
Location: Quetzalcoatl
Presenters: NPHC PANEL
Porsia Thomas: President of the National Pan Hellenic Council at SDSU, graduating senior from University of California San Diego, member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.
Mauri Hamilton: First Vice President of the National Pan Hellenic Council at SDSU, senior standing at SDSU, member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated.
Marcelle Yhap: Treasurer of National Pan Hellenic Council at SDSU, senior standing at SDSU, member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.
Kyle Brandon: Sergeant at Arms for the National Pan Hellenic Council at SDSU, graduating senior from SDSU Member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated.
Ayesha Williams: NPHC Delegate for the National Pan Hellenic Council at SDSU, junior standing at SDSU, member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.
Shanelle Clare: NPHC Delegate for the National Pan Hellenic Council at SDSU, senior standing at SDSU, member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Incorporated.
Jamario Marion: NPHC Delegate for the National Pan Hellenic Council at SDSU, senior standing at SDSU, member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated.
Buddhism: Philosophy Beyond Gender
Description: This presentation seeks to get to the root of mistaken perceptions and conceptions about gender following Buddhist methodologies for dealing with delusions. Egalitarian Buddhist philosophy offers a Middle Way that enables us to reestablish a balance that goes beyond gender. It does not simply rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic (reversing gender discrimination by privileging feminine values over masculine ones), it clears the deck. By shedding superficial determinants of identity, including gender, Buddha-nature is revealed. Hence, many key texts of Mah_y_na Buddhism include cogent arguments for a woman’s equal access to awakening.
Location: Quetzalcoatl
Presenter: Sandra A. Wawrytko, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, SDSU
THEME 3: Issues in Minority Health
Women’s Health Concerns
Description: Many times women go the their health care providers with concerns regarding their health and their symptoms are "dismissed". The focus of this workshop is to help women become more empowered with regards to their health by providing them with more of the type of information they need when talking with their health care providers. One of the major topics to be discussed in this particular presentation will be concerned with breast cancer and its effect on everyday life.
Location: Presidential Suite
Primary Presenters: Delnita Moore and Iman Drummond
Moderator: Estralita Martin, Ph.D.
Assistant Dean for Student Affairs, College of Sciences, SDSU
Estralita Martin obtained a bachelor’s degree in biology and physical education from Oberlin College, a master’s degree in biology from Atlanta University and a Ph.D. in biology with an emphasis in cell and developmental biology from the University of California at Berkeley. While doing her post-doctoral research at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the Veterans Administration Medical Center, she was asked to teach general biology and embryology, an upper division biology course, at SDSU. At SDSU she became a faculty advisor to some of the student organizations on campus.
Men’s Health Concerns
Description: There are several medical symptoms men have a tendency to minimize until they have become unavoidable. By ignoring some of these symptoms the length of time for recovery is extended and some curable diseases become incurable. This session will focus on some of these symptoms and what men should do when they occur.
Location: Presidential Suite
Presenters: To be announced
Moderator: Estralita Martin
Health Disparities Across Cultural Lines
Description: Many students are unaware of the services being offered to them through the student health facilities. This presentation will focus on what services are offered here at SDSU and which students are more inclined to maximize these services.
Location: Presidential Suite
Primary Presenter: Lani De La Torre
Moderator: Estralita Martin
Cutting Edge Biomedical Research
Description: Although SDSU has been recognized as America's #1 small research university, many students are unaware of the many biomedical research projects being conducted on this campus by undergraduate and graduate students. This presentation will provide information regarding several of these projects and how students can become a part of them.
Location: Presidential Suite
Presenters: Students doing biomedical research on campus
Moderator: Estralita Martin
THEME 4: Diversity in Higher Education
Managing the Politics of Domestication and Developing (Keeping) Your Own Academic Identity in Academe
Description: In this workshop, we will discuss the socialization pressures that beginning faculty--and especially faculty from underrepresented groups--often experience in academe. More specifically, we will discuss strategies for countering the politics of domestication--or the negative process of acculturation by which faculty from underrepresented groups are often expected to conform to established discursive practices while at the same time expected to abandon their unique socio-cultural perspectives and commitment to work for social justice.
Location: Calmecac
Presenter: Alberto J. Rodriguez, Ph.D.
Professor, College of Education; Chair of the Diversity, Equity and Outreach Committee, California Faculty Association, SDSU-Chapter; and Chair of the Latino/a Caucus, CFA
Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Exploring the Cultural Dimensions of Leadership
Description: This session will look at the multicultural principles of leadership based on the book “Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age” by Juana Bordas. The book and this presentation will look at leadership from the cultural contexts of the African American, Latino, and Native American experience. Presenters will summarize the book’s content and also share their own personal experiences around leadership and how their individual cultural experiences influenced their leadership.
Location: Calmecac
Presenter: James Parker
Coordinator for Leadership Programs, The SDSU Center for Leadership
James Parker joined the Center for Leadership in February 2008 and works to develop new programs, as well as manage current programs for the center. He received a master’s degree in higher education administration from the University of Kansas (ROCK CHALK!) and a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from Southwest Baptist University. Parker is originally from the great “show me” state, Missouri.
Presenter: Juanita Gray
Residential Hall Coordinator, Residence Education, SDSU
Juanita works to create an educational and social community through the development of academic incentives and programs as well as mentoring and motivating students and working as an advocate for issues of social justice. She received her Masters degree in Educational Psychology from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and two Bachelors degrees in Psychology and English from the University of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio.
Presenter: Irvin Harrison
Doctoral Student, College of Education, SDSU
Irvin Harrison is a member of the Navajo Nation. He is a Ph.D. student in the Higher Education program at SDSU and Claremont Graduate University. Harrison has extensive knowledge on research related to Indigenous populations in higher education, focusing on resiliency and identity development. He is currently an instructor for the Native American Scholars and Collaborators Project. He is in the SDSU School Counseling and School Psychology master's degree program. Irvin was recognized with the Dorothy Keller New Professional Award from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) for his work with the Indigenous Peoples Knowledge Community.
Presenter: Cynthia Torres
Assistant Director, SDSU Access Initiatives
Red Lips, Heels, Big Hair and Bling
Description: A panel of Latina and African American women will share their stories of achievement and struggles as women of color in professional settings. The stories are full of humor that speak to family influences, culture, language and traditions in their place of work. Audience is encouraged to participate in the dialogue.
Location: Calmecac
Presenter: Rosa Moreno
Director for Student Activities and
Campus Life, SDSU
Rosa Moreno oversees the Assistant Deans for Student Affairs, Cross-Cultural Center and Student Activities and Campus Life. She brings a breadth of experience in both student development and academic affairs from almost 20 years of higher education experience. She graduated from Cal State Northridge with a bachelor’s degree in child development. She earned a master’s degree in education, with an emphasis in organizational leadership, from Holy Names University.
Panelists: Maria Andujo Hanger, Ph.D., Associate Director, Counseling and Psychological Services, SDSU; Gloria Rhodes, Outreach Librarian, SDSU Library and Information Access
Privilege, Power & Leadership
Description: In this session we will expand on Peggy McIntosh’s work on White Privilege and explore the various forms of privilege we all hold in our society. In addition, we will discuss when we first identified with privilege, and our responsibility to address the power associated with privilege in our roles as leaders.
Location: Calmecac
Presenter: Cynthia Avery, Ed.D.
Director of Student Affairs Graduate and Undergraduate Curriculum and Leadership Programs, SDSU
Cynthia Avery received a bachelor’s degree in management science from SUNY Geneseo, a master’s degree in college student development from Alfred University and a doctorate in educational leadership from UCSD/SDSU. Avery’s research interests include achieving equitable educational outcomes for underrepresented students, social capital, resilience and leadership.