CEAD Conference brings diversity education to campus

9th annual CEAD Conference brings diversity, equity and inclusion education to EOU

Feb. 3, 2020 LA GRANDE, Ore. –  Now in its ninth year, the Celebrate, Educate, Appreciate Diversity (CEAD) Conference invites students, employees and community members to learn more about diversity, equity and inclusion on Feb. 15 at Eastern Oregon University (EOU). 

EOU’s Office of Student Diversity and Inclusion sponsors the annual, one-day event. Sponsorship from the EOU Center for Teaching, Learning and Assessment makes the conference free for faculty and staff this year. Bennie Moses-Mesubed leads the Office of Student Diversity and Inclusion and said free, on-campus diversity training is one way the university lives out its strategy to, “support intercultural competency, inclusiveness, and diversity.” 

“The CEAD Conference promotes personal growth, provides skills that enable students to communicate and interact with various people, challenges them to think outside of the box, and encourages critical thinking,” Moses-Mesubed said. “In educating students on diversity and multiculturalism, they will also learn about inclusive language and gain skills that will enable them to be effective campus leaders and advocates for creating and promoting safe spaces and a more inclusive campus community.”

The conference runs from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 15 in Badgley Hall. The opening keynote begins at 9 a.m. with Alex Martinez, a poet and spoken word performer with works published in multiple journals and anthologies. Martinez manages the immigration campaign for the ACLU in the state of Kansas and is the director of the Kansas/Missouri Dream Alliance. The lunch keynote will be Dr. Emily Drew, Associate Professor of Sociology at Willamette University, where she teaches courses about racism, urban sociology, immigration and social change. 

Additional workshop topics include, “Who Are the Deserving Poor?,” “Inclusion and Equity in the Classroom: Promising Practices and Pitfalls,” “Get your Stuff Together! Building Collective Power,” “Klechibelau: The Palauan Civic Idea in the Face of Colonization,” and “The Middle Class and Other Stories about Wealth, Status and Power.”      

The conference is free for students, staff and faculty, and costs $20 for non-EOU students and $40 for community participants. Registration is open now at eou.edu/mc/programs-services/cead-conference.

CEAD Conference is made possible through the support of Student Council for Multicultural Affairs, EOU Vending Committee, EOU Diversity Committee, EOU Center for Teaching, Learning and Assessment, the Ford Family Foundation, Oregon Humanities, Sodexo Food Services, Sorbenots Coffee, EOU Student Diversity & Inclusion and EOU Career Services.