Engaging Communities

Engaging Communities Event, February 7, 2012

This year’s Engaging Communities Luncheon will take place on Tuesday, February 7, 2012, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. in the Campus Center Emerson Suites.

For this third annual Engaging Communities program, we are honored to welcome Brian C. Johnson, a dynamic and energetic speaker. Mr. Johnson’s creative presentation, “Reel Diversity,” frames the diversity conversation through modern film.

The Engaging Communities luncheon event is free and open to the entire campus. Generally there are 200-250 faculty, staff and students in attendance.

We welcome audience members to arrive beginning at 11:30 a.m. to enter the buffet line and eat lunch.  Mark Coldren, Associate Vice President of Human Resources, will welcome the faculty, staff, administrators, students and Ithaca Community guests in attendance and will introduce Mr. Johnson around 12:00 noon. Mr. Johnson will speak for 45-60 minutes allowing an additional 10-15 minutes for questions. People will come in and out of the event as class schedules may not permit faculty and students to stay for the entire luncheon event.

Brian C. Johnson - Bio

Brian honors the struggles and accomplishments of the ordinary citizens who launched the Civil Rights Movement by committing himself personally and professionally to the advancement of multicultural and inclusive education.

He serves as a faculty member in the Department of Developmental Instruction at Bloomsburg University and is the Director of the Frederick Douglass Institute for Academic Excellence.  He is a founder of the Pennsylvania Association of Liaisons and Officers of Multicultural Affairs, a consortium that promotes best practices in higher education.  He is a former trainer with the National Coalition Building Institute and was certified in their prejudice reduction and controversial issues process modules.  He is a featured columnist on the Antiracistparent.com website.  He also has professional experience in social and human services.

Brian earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from California University of Pennsylvania, and has completed the necessary coursework toward a doctorate in education from Nova Southeastern University.  His research is in the area of white student racial identity development.  Brian is the author of We’ve Scene It All Before: Using Film Clips in Diversity Awareness Training (2009) and co-author of Reel Diversity: A Teacher’s Sourcebook (2008).

Brian, an ordained minister, serves on the ministry team at Revival Tabernacle in Watsontown, PA where he is a church elder, youth minister and a team leader for the Tabernacle Players, the church’s performing arts troupe.  In August 2009, his book, Sintimacy: The Christian’s Love Affair with Secret Sin, was published by Revival Nation Publishing.

Engaging Communities Event Background

Engaging Communities is a program offered to the Ithaca College community by the Office of Human Resources. The purpose of this annual program is to provide the Ithaca College community with an opportunity for faculty, staff, and students to come together to hear from invited guests, and to have a shared experience of listening, discussing, and appreciating our different journeys and perspectives. The Engaging Communities luncheon event is free and open to the entire campus. Generally there are 200-250 people in attendance.

On February 10, 2010, the inaugural year for the Engaging Communities program, the invited speakers included three faculty and staff members from Syracuse University. Diverse in their heritage, career paths, and backgrounds, they shared their personal and professional stories as well as some challenging work situations, and described how individuals and groups had influenced their lives. Subsequently, with the concept of affinity groups introduced en masse, the Office of Human Resources enhanced support for existing affinity groups and initiated the formation of several new affinity groups for faculty and staff including: women of color, men of color, lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender, cancer awareness, and working parents. 

Last year, our presenters included two highly accomplished individuals; Chapuchi Ahiagble, a master weaver of Kente cloth who stimulated our cultural experience, and Dr. Alma Clayton-Pedersen, Vice President of Emeritus Consulting Group out of Chicago and an AAC&U Senior Scholar, who focused our attention on improving leadership and the climate for diversity in higher education.

Each year, our guest speakers are scheduled to conduct presentations and/or to facilitate informal dialog with smaller groups of individuals with whom we have regular conversations about diversity, unintentional bias, and inclusion, such as search and selection committee chairs, President’s Advisory Committee on Diversity (PAC-D), members of some of our affinity groups, and/or student leaders. This year, John Rawlins, Associate Director of Multicultural Affairs at Ithaca College, is working with Mr. Johnson coordinating a student program that will take place on February 7, at 7:00 p.m. in Textor Hall 103. To allow faculty and staff the opportunity for more in-depth interaction with Mr. Johnson, he will be on campus until mid-afternoon on Wednesday, February 8.