Alumni DEI Panel Discussion – Systemic Racism in the U.S.

Maxwell alumni and friends are invited to join us on Friday, April 23 at 3:00 p.m. EDT for a virtual panel conversation exploring issues of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations, Associate Professor of History and Maxwell’s Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, will moderate the discussion. Professor McCormick will be joined by Maxwell alumni Wesley Dias ’74 BA (PSc), Lisa Gordon ’90 MPA, Kishauna Soljour ’16 MA (His)/’19 PhD (His) and James Willie ’98 MPA; together, the group will continue the important and urgent conversation about systemic racism in the U.S.

Register for this Zoom event

For questions or more information about this online event, please contact the Maxwell Alumni Office at alum@maxwell.syr.edu.

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The program participants will include:

Gladys McCormick is Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations and Associate Professor of History at the Maxwell School. A longstanding advocate for Latinx issues, she also serves as the School’s Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and is one of the founders of Maxwell’s Faculty of Color group.

Wesley Dias ’74 BA (PSc) was co-founder and CEO/President of the Argosy Consulting Group, a multi-disciplinary consulting firm providing expert technical services and program support to public and private organizations in the areas of information technologies and management services. He received Syracuse University’s Orange Circle Award, recognizing extraordinary service and philanthropy, in 2009.

Lisa Y. Gordon, CPA, ’90 MPA is President and CEO of Atlanta Habitat for Humanity, one of the top 10 Habitat for Humanity International affiliates in the United States. She is a recognized leader in transformational redevelopment efforts for quality affordable housing, creating community spaces and neighborhood revitalization. She was inducted as a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration in 2016 and received the University’s Orange Circle Award in 2020.

Kishauna Soljour ’16 MA (His)/19 PhD (His) is a professor of History and Mellon Fellow at Sarah Lawrence College whose research explores Black presence in Paris. In 2019, she became the first Black woman to receive her doctorate in History from Syracuse University; her dissertation entitled, “Beyond the Banlieue: French Postcolonial Migration & the Politics of a Sub-Saharan Identity” won the all-university doctoral prize.

James Willie ’98 MPA is Division of Grants Policy Branch Chief, Health Resources and Services Administration at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As Branch Chief, he manages the Policy and Special Initiatives branch for HRSA, the primary federal agency for improving access to health care in the country through the awarding of more than 10 billion dollars annually in grants and funding.