Professional Affiliations: East Texas Historical Association, Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, and Texas Association of Black Personnel in Higher Education and American Association of Women in Community Colleges.

Community and Organization Memberships: Life Member, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Life Member, The University of Mississippi Alumni Association, and a charter member of the Greater Pearland Area (TX) Chapter of the Links Incorporated where she serves as the chapter president. Dr. Baggett is also a member of the Houston Greater Black Chamber of Commerce and a board member of the Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council and serves on the Adult Death Review Team and Education committees.

Awards and Recognitions: Dr. Baggett is recognized for her work in diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout the Houston community. She received the Houston Community College Vice Chancellor Award for Diversity in 2015, and presently a member of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leadership Council. Other recognitions include The Chancellor’s Outstanding Leadership Award in 2022 and Top 30 Most Influential Women, 2022 in Houston Texas.

Education: Dr. Baggett is a graduate of Texas Southern University where her major was American history with minors in geography and political science. She is a practitioner scholar with master’s degree in American history with concentrations in southern women, civil rights, and education from the University of Mississippi. Her thesis: “A History of the Political, Social, and Financial Struggle to Establish and Sustain the Teacher Training Program at Jackson State University, 1877-1970,” examines the institution’s evolution as one of the most globally influential urban universities in the 21st century. As a result of the rising violence against women, young ladies and persons in marginalized communities, Dr. Baggett elected to combine her community and volunteer activities with classroom experience. Her dissertation research examines intimate partner violence, sexual assault, harassment and stalking and the impact it has student success in higher education: Texas Gulf Coast Area Region Title IX: A Coordinated Community Higher Education Response Model for Student Safety and Success. This twelve member higher education committee collaborates on policies and best practices to keep both 2-year and 4-year students, faculty, and staff members safe on campus and in their personal learning environments. Dr. Baggett is a member of Shepherd of the Heart Church and serves on Core Leadership team. She is married to Terrence Medearis and their blended family includes 4 adult children and 4 grandchildren and a rambunctious Yorkie.

Currently, I serve as Director of Financial Aid at California State university, Fullerton where not a day that goes by that I do not fully appreciate my role, privilege, and responsibility in serving over 40,000 students a year in achieving their educational dreams. I am also fortunate to lead a team of professionals and seek to inspire growth, passion, and willingness to achieve wonderful things together. I am driven each day by the love I have for my family (my husband, Luis, and our two children, Matteo and Julianna). I am conscious of the power of words and actions, and I seek to be the best version of myself that I can be to those I lead and serve. I am grateful for the gift of life, and I am blessed to be on this journey with you all.

My efforts to foster and facilitate relationships across difference not only underlie longstanding work in the classroom and across the campus community, they also inspire my scholarship in two seemingly incongruent interdisciplinary fields: Indigenous Studies and Gender & the American West. I have published widely on foundational and contemporary Native authors as well as Indigenous mixed-media, visual arts, and comics. A co-author of Trading Gazes: Euro-American Photographers and Native North Americans, 1880-1940 (Rutgers University Press), I also facilitated a new edition of the regional classic, In the Land of the Grasshopper Song (Bison Books) in collaboration with Karuk tribal members Terry Supahan and André Cramblit. A former president of the Western Literature Association, I am a two-time recipient of its Walker Award for best-published essay in the field of Western American Studies. I am also the recipient of the Beatrice Medicine Award, given by the Association for the Study of American Indian Literatures for the article, “Acorn Soup is Good Food: L. Frank, News from Native California, and the Intersections of Literature and Visual Arts,” published in Studies in American Indian Literatures.

As a settler scholar, I reckon with the histories of gendered (and maternal) colonialism in the American West and seek shared lexicons across deep differences in a recently published edited collection, Gender and the American West, part of Routledge’s Gender Companion Series. In 35 essays, a community of scholars offer the first intersectional consideration of the “American West” from the perspectives of Indigenous Studies, feminist studies, queer Indigenous Studies, Jotería studies, Latinx Studies, Asian American Studies, and more. Organized by four core concepts—Genealogies, Bodies, Movements, Lands—Gender and the American West invites readers to think relationally across fields, theoretical orientations, and situated knowledges.

Her longstanding career in Higher Education has taken her to multiple campuses and positions. From 2006 to 2009, she lived and worked on the campus of Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina in the areas of residence life and minority student services. From 2009 to 2013, at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, She served as the Assistant Dean of Students for Multicultural Affairs. From 2013 to 2016, Sabrina worked as a Graduate life intern, University College seminar instructor, and a
research assistant for the College of Education while pursuing her doctoral degree from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. After completing her coursework at UNC-Charlotte, Sabrina accepted a job at Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis, Missouri. Returning to an HBCU was imperative for Dr. Brown and serving in the role of Director of Retention and International Programs allowed her to implement everything she had learned on her higher education journey, which led to increased retention, persistence, and graduation rates.

In addition to internationalizing the campus by providing multiple study-abroad opportunities, Dr. Brown has received awards and recognition throughout her career in higher education for her contributions to campus and the field. She received the Bobby E. Leach award from the Southern Association of College Student Affairs and voted Staff Member of the Year at HSSU. She was a Jackson Scholar with the University Council for Educational Administration; A Fellow in the Higher Education Leadership Fellowship Program (Zeta Cohort) and a 2019 inductee into the ECSU Alumni 40 under 40 Society. Dr. Brown currently works at Washington University in St. Louis as the Director for the Office of Student Success where she supports first-generation and low-income college students. Outside of work, Sabrina enjoys spending time with her friends and family as well as traveling both domestically and internationally.

As a CSUDH faculty member since 2005, Dr. Chávez has served the campus in various capacities. She has also been recognized for her excellence in teaching. In 2016, she was awarded the CSUDH Lyle E. Gibson Distinguished Teacher Award. From 2015 -2020, she chaired the Chicana and Chicano Studies Department. As an Academic Affairs Administrative Fellow in 2014-15, she coordinated the campus’s first High-Impact Practices Symposium and subsequently co-chaired the inaugural Faculty Learning Communities Advisory Board, supporting the implementation of high-impact practices for over 50 faculty members. Active in service to the university and to her discipline, Dr. Chávez has served on the HIPs Assessment Committee, the General Education Assessment Working Group, the General Education Committee, and the University Writing Committee, and numerous other campus committees. Dr. Chávez has also been a member of the preliminary selection committee for the Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowship in Women’s Studies since 2013. Additionally, she has served as a reviewer for various journals and as a member of the selection committee for the Lerner-Scott Prize of the Organization of American Historians.

Dr. Chaffin DeHaan is the coauthor along with Kendra Stewart and Danielle Bloom of “How Prisoner Reentry Programs Influence Reentering Citizens’ Trust in Government.” (Journal of Political Science, 2019) and a co-author with Natasha Altema McNeely and Verónica Hoyo of “Climate and Culture in Political Science: Diversifying our Institutions, Methods and Identities to Combat Implicit Bias and Microaggressions” as well as a co-author with Josh Franco, Verónica Reyna and Randy Villegas of “A Commitment to Teaching, Learning and Student Advocacy: Community College Careers” both in Strategies for Navigating Graduate School and Beyond (American Political Science Association, 2022).

As a former community college transfer student his research explores three areas of the transfer experience for historically underserved and marginalized students, with a particular emphasis on Latina/o/x students who use the community college as a pathway to complete their baccalaureate degrees. First, his work examines the transfer policies, practices, and programming four-year colleges and universities apply to limit or eliminate institutional and structural barriers Latinx students face during the transfer process. Second, his work highlights how Latina/o/x community college students develop their agency and use aspects of their cultural and social capitals to navigate and negotiate the ideological, material, and structural conditions within the community college to four-year college or university transfer process. Third, his work explores the campus culture for Latina/o/x community college transfer students once they transfer to a four-year college or university by looking at the relationship between race and space and the intersectional identities with which Latina/o/x community college transfer students identify.

He is currently working on a co-edited book, tentatively titled Community College and Beyond Understanding the Transfer Pipeline for Latina/o/x Students. The edited volume provides much-needed theoretical and empirical data on the experiences of Latina/o/x students who enter postsecondary education through the community college. The book will bring together research highlighting the experiences of Latina/o/x students during the pre-and post-transfer process to ensure that higher education institutions develop transfer policies and programming that support the specific needs of Latina/o/x students.

Antuan strives to foster a strong sense of belonging and community in his work. He hopes institutions and organizations can work across boundaries and eliminate silos through inclusive and self-directed leadership practices that produce value-added solutions to today’s complex challenges. Thus, Antuan’s membership in the university’s employee engagement program, Voices of the Staff. Antuan is a proud, first-generation student who believes in the power of education. He credits Cranbrook Schools, Horizons-Upward Bound program for preparing him to enter and succeed in post-secondary education. Antuan earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration and Organizational Leadership from Alma College. He received a Post-Bachelor Certificate in Information Systems Management from the Ilitch School of Business at Wayne State University. In addition, Antuan is pursuing a Master of Arts in Higher Education from the University of Michigan School of Education and a Professional Development Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Certificate from the Rackham Graduate School. Antuan Featherstone loves spending time with family. In addition, he enjoys a good book, jazz music, cooking, and making beautiful memories with those most important in his life.

Having sold his business in Dec. of 2019, he (again) wants to foment the conditions whereby young women & men become more fully articulated individuals. How so? By assisting them in becoming more fully articulated spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, academically, financially, athletically, physically, artistically, creatively, et al. In short, help them become the full breadth of the human being that they are meant to become in life. Julio holds a B.A. in Political Science with a Minor in Economics from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), and his Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.) from the City University of New York at Baruch College. He is currently pursuing his Doctor of Education at the University of the Pacific (focus on Leadership & Innovation). And perhaps more importantly, he has been married to a wonderful woman for over 26 years, and they have two terrific sons, ages 22 & 25.

Andrew is an active scholar and media artist whose teaching, scholarship, and creative practice have explored the intersections of script development, innovative production practices, and “lean” entrepreneurial principles. His recent creative works have included a commissioned 360° spherical video essay for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival called “The Road We Travel In Between” (2017) and the OSF-produced experiential play, “Take Them Into the Dirt: An Immersion” (2017), of which he was co-creator and director of media & VR. He has published peer-reviewed scholarship on screenwriting and script development, including in the Journal of Screenwriting (2014), in Women Screenwriters: An International Guide (2015), in Toy Story: How Pixar Reinvented the Animated Feature (2018), and in the Palgrave Handbook of Script Development (2021). He is currently co-editing a new handbook on global screenplay theory for Bloomsbury Academic expected in 2024. He also publishes the online open educational resource (OER) Screenplayology, which is used in college screenwriting classes across the globe.

Before becoming a full-time educator, Andrew worked as a freelance production coordinator, production manager, and assistant director in commercials, reality television, and independent film, and for such companies as Red Bull, Discovery, and Disney. He has written, directed, and produced for both fiction and documentary media. He has served as board president of Film Southern Oregon, on the board of the Oregon Media Production Association, as a programmer for the Ashland Independent Film Festival, and serves on the Teaching Committee for EDIT Media (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Teaching Media).

Dr. Gonzalez-Gorman’s research is driven by an interest in American politics and public administration and the intersectionality of two closely related disciplines. Dr. Gonzalez-Gorman has published on the indefinite detention of unaccompanied children, push and pull factors in undocumented immigration in the U.S., unaccompanied youth and their agency, and environmental sustainability issues in the transborder region. Her latest book Political Speech as a Weapon examines changing demographics and how political rhetoric is used to create an atmosphere of ‘us versus them.’ Dr. Gonzalez-Gorman regularly teaches courses in Latin@ politics, immigration, race and citizenship, and graduate courses in world and borderland politics.

As Chair of the DEI Committee, Dr. Graham helped organize and moderated town hall and panel discussions to address racial and ethnic tensions in the college community. As a member of HCC’s Women in Leadership organization, Dr. Graham helped organize and/or moderated panel discussions, focus groups, and webinars to recognize and hear from men who support women in leadership, to celebrate 100 years of women’s right to vote, to understand the signs of sexual assault, and to understand the lived experiences of multi-racial families.

Aside from her work at HCC, Dr. Graham is a literacy advocate and has served on the board of a local literacy council. Additionally, she is an ethnographer, genealogist, and author. As an ethnographer, using an emic lens, she researched the phenomenon of low college enrollment and graduation rates among select African-American men in one Texas community. As a genealogist, she collaborated on a joint project to index and conduct indexing workshops of the Freedmen’s Bureau Records. As a result, the names of approximately 1.8 million Civil-War era men, women, and children are freely searchable online.

In 2018, Fort Bend Independent School District appointed Dr. Graham as subject-matter expert and consultant to lead the genealogical efforts to discover the identities of 95 individuals whose remains were
unearthed in Sugar Land, TX. These 95, known as the Sugar Land 95, were part of Texas’ convict leasing system that took place between 1871 and 1911. To date, the names of 72 men who labored and died at this camp have been identified. For her contribution to a report on the Bullhead Convict Labor Camp Cemetery in Fort Bend County, Texas, the Texas Historical Commission presented Dr. Graham with an Award of Merit. Dr. Graham also serves as Director of Genealogical Research for Principal Research Group. She and her team of archaeologists, bio- archaeologists, geneticists, and historians work to (1) identify, study, and conserve or protect cultural materials, peoples, and places related to the understudied, underrepresented, and/or forgotten communities in history and (2) reunite communities with their past.

His research interests include the rhetoric of violence and discursive systems in fight culture—and he is the recipient of two Excellence in Teaching awards from WRS and the Chair Award for his work promoting equity, diversity and inclusion at the University. David currently serves as the chair of both the Senate Advisory Committee on EDI (SAC-EDI), the Bennion Community Engagement Center’s Curriculum Review committee, and co-chairs of the Day of Collective Action committee. He lives in the Olympus Hills neighborhood of Salt Lake City with his family and is an avid boxer.

He has participated in multiple fellowship programs in several organizations such as the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, National Community College Hispanic Council, and the WSCUC Assessment Leadership Academy. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of the About Campus journal and previously served on the Board of Directors for the National Community College Hispanic Council. In 2018, Dr. Hernández was recognized as a Promising New Faculty awardee by the Fresno State Office of the Provost and as an Outstanding Faculty awardee by the NASPA Latinx/a/o Knowledge Community.

Some of Aurora’s earliest research focused on enhancing college access for Latinx/a/o/é, immigrant, and undocumented students. This research was conducted primarily through the National Center for Institutional Diversity and the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good, both at the University of Michigan. Aurora recently co-authored several book chapters including: Let’s Road Trip: Aligning Theoretical Frameworks, Research Questions, and Research Design (forthcoming); Cuida tu casa y deja la ajena: Focusing on retention as a self-perpetuating engine for recruiting Latina faculty in STEM; The benefits of diversity for innovation in academic research; and Undocumented student access to higher education: Focused efforts at the federal and institutional levels. Furthermore, her scholarship on strategies for diversifying STEM graduate education can be found in several journal articles.

Aurora’s scholarship and teaching are complimented by her professional work in the K-16 pathway at the brink of student affairs and academic affairs in various units, including Outreach, Service Learning, Multicultural Affairs/DEI, Academic Support Services, and as an Associate Dean. In her current role as Assistant Provost for Inclusive Excellence, she works on developing and implementing strategies to diversify our faculty and to provide more inclusive learning environments around campus. At a national level, Aurora serves as the Treasurer-Elect on the Board of Directors for the American Association of Hispanics for Higher Education (AAHHE), and is involved in several national projects focused on the development of Latinx/a/o/é leadership. Aurora earned a BA in Social Sciences from the University of California, Irvine; EdM in Administration, Planning and Social Policy at Harvard University; and a MA in Higher Education Management and Organizations, and a PhD in Higher Education and Organization Behavior at the University of Michigan.

He has served the community for eight years as a member of Broward County Public School’s Technology Advisory Committee, which provides strategic input and recommendations for the procurement and implementation of technology within the nation’s sixth-largest school system. During the COVID pandemic, his leadership at the Kendall Campus won him the MDC Hero Award from the Miami Dade Foundation. He is also an adjunct professor at Broward College and Miami Dade College. Russell has earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Florida Atlantic University and a Master of Science in Information Systems from Florida International University. He is currently a Business Administration Doctoral Candidate at Florida International University.

Speaking of her passion and commitment to serving first-generation college students, she is honored to assist students with navigating their college experience as they complete their academic journey. She is continually amazed at students’ perseverance and resiliency to reach their goals. She serves on various organizations with the Utah State Board of Education, the Advisory Committee on Equity of Educational Services for Students (ACEESS), and the Primary Children’s Hospital Community Board, where she has an opportunity to serve the Pacific Islander community. As the Associate Director for Opportunity Scholars in the Office for Student Inclusion, she hopes to continue her deep commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equity for first-generation, underrepresented students in the Eccles School of Business. Education and life experiences have opened her perspective, and she understands how education can be powerful, liberating, and life-changing. Latu believes that part of the privilege of being in Higher Education is serving our communities. Latu loves to travel with her family. She currently lives in Utah with her partner, Tevita Muli Kinikini, and they have four children and two grandchildren.

Working in higher education has provided Gil with the experience and opportunity to not only develop himself professionally but to be able to pass on his experience and guidance to his teams and the students he works with in his role. Personally, Gil loves to travel, spending plenty of quality time with his spouse and three dogs, as well as supporting local nonprofit organizations, and serving as the Vice President of the Phi Kappa Sigma International Fraternity board of directors. He also continues to do research focusing on Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), Latina/o/x student success, and Latina/o/x higher education leadership.

In addition to TRIO Programs, I lead institutional efforts focused on First-Generation college students and our Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) designation and initiatives. I also teach sections of the first-year experience course for students who identify at first-generation college students. My training and background include working with underprepared learners as a mentor, advisor, instructor, and special programs manager. I see my motivation to put in the extra effort for students and the programs and projects I lead as a way to “pay it forward” for the many wonderful opportunities that I was able to be involved in. With the knowledge and experience I have gained from working in access, equity, and inclusion programming, I hope to continue research interests that will help support opportunities for under-resourced students and under-prepared learners. An adage that I find as a driving force is “to the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world”.

Her research has been published in the National Review of Black Politics; Politics, Groups, and Identities; Ethnic and Racial Studies, and Political Research Quarterly. Dr. Altema McNeely has published on the examination of factors that affect Immigration attitudes among Hispanics in South Texas, Race/Ethnicity, Gender and Political Institutions (State and Local levels), the impact of interracial marriage upon racial attitudes, and how the intersectional identities of Black female mayors align with their attempts to provide descriptive and substantive representation for their Black constituents by addressing Black Maternal Mortality in their cities. Dr. Altema McNeely teaches undergraduate courses on political institutions in the U.S. including Congress and the Presidency, and political parties. She also teaches courses on public opinion and voting behavior, representation for racial and ethnic minority groups in political institutions and offers a graduate course on Race & Ethnic Politics in the U.S.

Dr. Pruneda-Hernandez has developed strong relationships with the community and provides leadership coordinating the regional early childhood education professional continuing education and community engagements events, including the Regional Early Childhood Education Summit, Statewide Early Childhood Education Symposium, and countywide early childhood education events.

Dr. Pruneda-Hernandez has served on numerous collegewide committees, including co-chairing one of the standards for Middle States accreditation and participating in the 2022 cohort of the American Association for Women in Community Colleges LEADERS Institute. Dr. Pruneda-Hernandez was awarded the MC Faculty Outstanding Service Award in 2015 and the NISOD of Excellence Award in 2016. She was the recipient of the American Association of Community College Dale P. Parnell Distinguished Faculty Designation for 2018 and was selected as the 2019 Northeast Regional Association of Community College Trustees Faculty Member Award. Dr. Pruneda-Hernandez earned a doctorate of education from Walden University, a master of science in education from Nova Southeastern University, and a bachelor of arts in Spanish from the University of North Florida.

Dianne completed the Association of Florida Colleges (AFC) Certified College Professional Program and was elected as Chair of the Student Development Commission. She was named the 2023 AFC Region V Director and is also a member of NASPA, American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, and Chi Sigma Alpha International Student Affairs Honor Society. Prior to working at Miami Dade College and Florida International University, Dianne held human resources and finance positions at BankUnited. She received her Master of Science in Higher Education, Bachelor of Business Administration, and Training and Instructional Design Certificate from Florida International University. Dianne is currently pursuing an EdD in Organizational Leadership at Barry University, where she is specializing in Human Resource Development.

Previously, Diana served in various capacities as part of her work with the TRIO Student Support Services and Upward Bound programs at Monterey Peninsula College. Being part of TRiO SSS and working with programs such as Upward Bound, Math/Science Upward Bound, and GEAR UP solidified her need and want to help people, particularly in her community. Diana has mentored aspiring professionals through her work with Girls Inc. Central Coast and the Pay It Forward scholarship program. With Girls Inc, Diana worked with young ladies and taught them to be advocates for themselves and their communities. Similarly, as a Pay It Forward Program mentor, Diana helps and supports students through their personal and professional journeys. Diana believes that ALL students deserve an equitable education that provides the knowledge and skills to choose and succeed in post-secondary education pursuits.

Diana holds a baccalaureate degree in Linguistics with an emphasis in French from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She also has a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from Santa Clara University. At Santa Clara, Diana’s Master’s thesis focused on Intragroup Marginalization among Latinx College Students. Diana is currently pursuing her Doctorate in Educational Leadership from San Jose State University. Currently, her research is focused on first-generation Latinx students’ college readiness post-pandemic. In her spare time, Diana enjoys spending time with her family, cooking with her mom, listening to Beyonce, and visiting her hometown in Jalisco, Mexico.

She is a first-generation, non-traditional college student. Her professional work experience has been with non-profits and community-based organizations specializing in culturally tailored programming. She currently serves as a community health liaison for Project Success Coalition and is a co-founder of Utah’s Black, African, and Afro-Latinx Health Initiative. She is a grant writer and consultant for equity-focused, community-based organizations in Utah and California.

Tashelle is from Woods Cross/Bountiful in Davis County, Utah and grew up in West Valley City, Utah before moving to California for graduate school. Her father is from Ghana, West Africa and mother is from Utah. She has an amazing son, who is a youth social justice advocate. Tashelle has worked for the Utah Department of Health focusing on programming for groups who identify as Black, African, African American, and Pacific Islander, as well as supported bridging communities in clinic in the underserved areas of Glendale, Rose Park, and South Salt Lake for folks who don’t have access to care. Her passion is connecting people through health equity, inclusion, and diversity work. One of her favorite opportunities is teaching Black History for students in Kindergarten and 1st grade. She teaches with one-of-a-kind teachers as part of Utah’s RISE virtual academy.

She has worked for more than a decade with people in the margins, both locally and internationally addressing health disparities, education access, and social inequities. In addition, she is founder and co-executive director of DISRUPT Utah, a local nonprofit that focuses on leadership development for youth in confinement and are court-involved. DISRUPT Utah works to combat the systemic and social inequities that criminalizes youth behavior into the Juvenile Justice System. Katty received her undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University-Provo in Sociocultural Anthropology with emphasis in the Arabic language and International Development. She then went on to complete her Master’s degree in International Development, emphasis in Social Impact and Leadership from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota. Katty has also furthered her education by enhancing her linguistic skills in 4 other languages.