Annual Convocation
Calling In: An Inclusive Path for Our Beach Community
Featuring keynote speaker, Loretta J. Ross
President Jane Close Conoley and Provost Karyn Scissum Gunn will share their vision for the upcoming academic year at the 2024 Convocation.
![Loretta J. Ross Headshot](/sites/default/files/styles/wysiwyg_scale200/public/images/2024-08/Picture1.jpg?itok=OyBjrY-a)
Loretta J. Ross is an activist, public intellectual, scholar, the 2022 recipient of the MacArthur Foundation "Genius" award and an Associate Professor at Smith College. She has a passion for innovating creative imagining about global human rights and social justice issues and started her career in activism and social change in the 1970s. In 1978, she was the third executive director for DC Rape Crisis Center, the first rape crisis center in the country. This was her entry point into the women’s movement where she learned about women’s human rights, reproductive justice, white supremacy, and women of color organizing. Through her organizing she helped launch the movement to end violence against women that has evolved into today's #MeToo movement. Throughout her 50-year career, she has worked with the National Football League Players' Association, the National Organization for Women (NOW), the National Black Women's Health Project, the Center for Democratic Renewal (National Anti-Klan Network), the National Center for Human Rights Education, and SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective.
Loretta retired as an organizer in 2012 to teach and follow her passion to educate. In 1996, she founded the first center in the U.S. to innovate creative human rights education for all students transforming social justice issues to be more collaborative and less divisive. In her work Calling In the Calling Out Culture, she transforms how people can overcome political differences to use empathy and respect to guide difficult conversations. In 2023, Loretta was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
Friday, August 23, 2024
8 - 8:45am
- Breakfast in the Dance Courtyard of the Carpenter Performing Arts Center (CPAC)
8:45- 9am
- Transition Inside Carpenter Performing Arts Center for Event Program
9am
- Event Program Starts
9 - 9:30am
- Provost Scissum Gunn Opening Remarks
- Academic Senate Chair, Staff Council Chair, & ASI President Remarks
- Introduction of Keynote Speaker
9:30 - 10:15am
- Keynote Address - Professor Loretta J. Ross: Calling In Presentation
10:15 - 10:30am
- President Conoley Closing Remarks