In June 2022, several of City University of Seattle’s (CityU) Social Justice Coalition (SJC) members attended the 34th Annual National Conference on Race and Ethnicity (NCORE) held at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, OR.

Pictured above: Carolyne Begin, Jon Saperstein, Jalissa Schmidt, and Dr. Antonio Estudillo – NCORE 2022; Friday June 3rd, 2022

Why Attend NCORE? This conference is the one opportunity a year for students, faculty, and staff to gather and discuss issues of race, equity, and inclusion in higher education. Experts in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work in both higher education and community partners connect to learn from one another and share ideas about making higher education truly accessible to students from historically marginalized communities.

NCORE is led, annually, by the University of Oklahoma in partnership with The Southwest Center for Human Relations Studies, College of Continuing Education Outreach. The 2022 conference centered on addressing racial, ethnic, and sovereign equity and social justice issues in higher education. Attendees included domestic and international participants from many institutions of higher education identified as advocates, change agents, practitioners, and those interested in improving institutional systems contributing to higher education settings. Over 5,000 people attended this live, in-person event and many rich and impactful conversations were had.

Two Social Justice Coalition members, Dr. Pat Russell and Mariah Kindle, represented CityU with a presentation dedicated to sharing on CityU’s current and ongoing social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (SJEDI) initiatives. This session titled “From Zero to Foundational: Implementing DEI in a PWI,” provided the history and background of the foundational SJEDI work lead by this team in partnership with the CityU leadership. This session also showcased how the foundation that was built and provided a platform for further success as we work toward embedding DEI into every aspect of City University of Seattle.

Since the formation of the Social Justice Coalition in 2020, several SJC members met in person for the first time! We had the opportunity to have deep and meaningful conversations, shared ideas on how to move SJEDI initiatives forward at CityU, and enjoyed getting to know each other in person.

Another highlight of the NCORE conference was meeting our SJEDI partners at National University:

If you are interested in checking out what NCORE is all about, they offer webinars on demand. You can access these at any time and more will be added in the Fall 2022. Check them out at www.ncore.ou.edu/en/on-demand/webinar-series.

If you are interested in learning more about City University of Seattle’s work in support of the advancement of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, please visit www.CityU.edu/office-of-equity-diversity-inclusion/.