Inclusive Excellence Conference

Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Center for Intersectional Gender Studies & Research

Together We Grow

Thursday, April 11, 2024 9am – 5pm. | USU Eastern Jennifer Leavitt Student Center

Live Broadcast

9:00am - Conference Welcome and Keynote
10:30am - Inclusive Excellence in Teaching

3:00pm - Inclusive Excellence in Programming

4:30pm - Closing

Broadcast

Schedule

Time	Event	Location
8:30 am	Check in and Continental Breakfast	JLSC Multipurpose Room
9:00 am	Welcome	Geary Event Center
9:30 am	Keynote – Pinqy Ring	Geary Event Center
10:30 am	Inclusive Excellence in Teaching	Geary Event Center
12:00 pm	Lunch	JLSC Multipurpose Room
1:00 pm	Inclusive Excellence in Research	JLSC Multipurpose Room (Breakout Rooms in JLSC 127 & 128)
3:00 pm	Inclusive Excellence in Programming	Geary Event Center
4:30 pm	Closing	Geary Event Center

Keynote

Pinqy Ring

Born and bred in Chicago, Pinqy Ring first shook hands with the mic at age 15 when her love for learning Hip Hop songs turned into a curiosity to try it for herself. A tough childhood, troubled teens and a catastrophic car accident all worked to mold the young artist into the powerful MC she is today. The accident, (which left Pinqy in a coma), served as the defining turning point in her life as she realized that telling her story was paramount. Pinqy has captivated several audiences in her hometown, including the Taste of Chicago in 2017, and has rocked stages in Miami, Washington, Denver, Austin, Houston...

Research

Each session will include short talks from scholars whose work is intersectional in nature, following by a Q&A from the audience. The session will then shift into a workshop, where each of the panelists will join a group of participants to reflect, evaluate, and synthesize for individual praxis. Finally, we will come back together to share our findings, with the goal of creating new knowledge that can impact our scholarship.

Dr. Avery Edenfield

Center Director, Associate Professor in English
Dr. Edenfield has been at Utah State University since 2016. His research agenda works at the intersections of professional communication and community-embedded workspaces with specific attention to cooperatives, collectives, and nonprofits. His research interests include theories of participation, rhetorics of empowerment and democracy, and community engagement in professional communication.

Dr. Julia M. Gossard

Associate Dean for Research (CHaSS), Associate Professor of History
Dr. Julia M. Gossard is an experienced and impactful higher education research administrator, history researcher, and award-winning educator. As the Associate Dean for Research, she supports CHaSS faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates in their pursuit of research and creative opportunities excellence. As a researcher, she investigates the long history of childhood and youth, advancing arguments around the inclusion of age as an essential component of intersectionality.

Dallas Haws

Research Assistant, USU Learn Explore Design Lab
Dallas Haws serves as a research assistant on multiple projects in the Learn Explore Design Lab at Utah State University. Focused on sustaining Indigenous cultures and fostering creative outlets of design and technology, he is primarily involved in the NSF-funded Community Learning Around Sharing & Partnership (CLASP) collaborative. CLASP brings together scholars, educators, and designers to engage a community-centered approach to research toward the goal of creating learning experiences that strengthen communities and their cultures. Dallas also supports the Braiding Knowledge and Whose History projects, which seek to develop and support accurate and appropriate representations of Indigenous communities in K-12 classrooms. Inspired by his own desire to reconnect with his Hopi culture, Dallas' research interests include cultural sustaining/revitalization, linguistics, learning technologies, and community building.

Dr. Gustavo Ovando-Montejo

Assistant Professor, Environment and Society
Gustavo Ovando-Montejo is an Assistant Professor at the USU-Blanding campus where he teaches in environmental studies and geography. He has experience implementing innovative and engaging teaching approaches especially for online courses. He also has a specific emphasis mentoring students with tribal backgrounds as well as implementing outreach opportunities for local Tribes. An expert in Geographic Information Systems, his research is in human-environmental systems with an additional focus on land use issues affecting Indigenous rights and ecosystem services and where he mentors Native American students

Teaching

Dr. Sunshine Brosi

Associate Professor in the Wildland Resources Department
Sunshine Brosi is an Associate Professor in the Wildland Resources Department in the S.J. & Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources at USU’s Eastern Campus in Price, Utah. Sunshine has sixteen years of teaching experience and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students. Sunshine is passionate about teaching including teaching first-year seminars, capstone courses, Community-Engaged Designated Courses and course-based undergraduate research experiences that have been taught in-person, through Zoom, and online. Sunshine is focused on student success and attracting and retaining the broad demographic of student learners through culturally-revenant, problem-based learning.

Cristina Chirvasa

Cristina Chirvasa is a senior dual majoring in Wildlife Ecology and Management and Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. She is a researcher, community-engaged scholar, global engagement scholar, and student leader. Her research is focused on environmental changes and social inequalities, and she hopes to transform her results into equitable policy decisions.

Programming

In these workshops, participants will learn about the Shoshone and Hip Hop culture and will explore ways they can collaborate with cultural organizations to promote inclusivity at USU and in our wider communities.

Dr. Tasha Iglesias

Dr. Tasha Iglesias currently serves as a lecturer for the Center for Intersectional Gender Studies and Research at Utah State University and Sociology department at Salt Lake Community College and Southern New Hampshire University. Dr. Iglesias earned a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from California State University Long Beach. Dr. Iglesias's research interests include: culturally sustaining pedagogy, Hip Hop pedagogy and praxis, and the history of Hip Hop as a culture. Outside of academia, Iglesias serves as the President of the Hip Hop Association of Advancement and Education (HHAAE) and co-chair of the Global Conference on Hip Hop Education and International Hip Hop Studies conference.

Pinqy Ring

Pinqy Ring is a radical and revolutionary Puerto Rican rapper, decolonizing minds one rhyme at a time. Born and bred in Chicago, she manifests her vision for a more just world as an MC, speaker, Hip Hop Educator and proud U.S. Hip Hop Cultural Ambassador - traveling overseas to manage and facilitate Hip Hop diplomacy programming. Collaborating with such organizations as the Universal Hip Hop Museum, Google, The Aspen Institute, Spotify, and more - Pinqy provides culturally competent creative consulting and powerful programming for organizations and schools looking to engage youth and explore the power of Hip Hop as a transformative tool. Pinqy Ring was TEDxChicago performer, has been featured on NPR, performed at Kidzapalooza and hosted at Lollapalooza, and was named Best Hip-Hop Artist by the Chicago Reader. Though she is proud of her awards and accolades, Pinqy's most prized possession is the platform she's purposing for historically excluded communities of the world. Hip Hop has taken her from the 'hood to speaking at Harvard, and Pinqy Ring raps her legacy loudly into place while creating pathways for others to do the same.

Darren Parry

Darren Parry is the former Chairman of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation. Darren serves on the Board of Directors for Utah Humanities and the PBS Utah. He attended the University of Utah and Weber State University and received his Bachelor's Degree in Education. Darren is the author of "The Bear River Massacre, A Shoshone History" and teaches in the Environmental Humanities department at the University of Utah. He lectures around the country on Native American issues surrounding history and Indigenous views related to sustainability. He recently gave a lecture at the University of Copenhagen and spoke about Indigenous views to Climate and Environment. His passions in life are his wife Melody, 7 children and 17 grandchildren. His other passion is his Tribal family. He wants to make sure that those who have gone before him are not forgotten.