2022 MCC Diversity Conference

**Update - when we have reached 100 tickets, the registration for this event will close. Thank you for your interest and hope to see you next year!

Our keynote speaker is Dr. Marybeth Gasman and her presentation is titled, How to Educate a Diverse Nation.

She is the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Endowed Chair in Education, a Distinguished Professor, and the Associate Dean for Research in the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University. She also serves as the Executive Director of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Leadership, Equity & Justice and the Executive Director of the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions.

The focus of the panel is the role of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the development of college students.

Panelists are local scholars and experts in their field. They include:

Dr. Zachary R Brown is a Pathways to the Professorate Postdoctoral Fellow in the Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African American Studies and the Warner School of Education at the University of Rochester. His interdisciplinary research engages critical theories of race and gender, particularly Black feminist criticism, to study the social foundations and cultural politics of education in postsecondary contexts. Specifically attending to the archive of student protest and discourses of educational resistance, his scholarship examines how the psychic residue of racial slavery and settler colonialism on college campuses structures contemporary higher education practices.

Dr. Robin Cole Jr. currently serves as Vice President of Economic and Workforce Development and Career and Technical Education at Monroe Community College. He has had a diverse career in the field of higher education, which includes overseeing both for credit and non-credit programs. Before coming to Greater Rochester Area he served as Dean of Business and Technologies at Southwest TN Community College in Memphis Tennessee.

Dr. Melany Silas is an Educator, Minister, Author, Playwright, Motivational Speaker, and Mother. She attended the University of Rochester, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Health and Society and a Master of Science in Counseling and Human Development. She later attended Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, where she earned a Master of Divinity. Finally, Dr. Silas attended Syracuse University where she earned her PhD in Counseling and Counselor Education, where her area of study was the mental health help-seeking and self-care strategies of Black women. 

Dr. Tiffany Steele joined the University of Rochester Warner School department of educational leadership in 2022. Her work focuses specifically on the lived experiences of Black girls and women in education and the influence of external factors on their identity development. Specifically, Steele analyzes connections between inequitable U.S. societal elements and how they influence daily living and educational trajectories of Black girls and women. She also maintains a secondary interest broadly focusing on college access and retention of minoritized students and staff members at predominantly white institutions. 

Light breakfast begins at 8:30 am and speaker introductions at 9 am. Tickets are free for this event. The day will close with a boxed lunch served at 12:30 pm.

8:30 am - coffee and light breakfast

9 am - Dr. Marybeth Gasman, How to Educate a Diverse Nation

10 am - Table discussions and reflective practice

11 am - The Role of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Development of College Students

Panel: Dr. Zachary Brown, Dr. Robin Cole, Dr. Melany Silas, Dr. Tiffany Steele

12:30 - Closing and Lunch