Plenary Speakers
October 4: Opening Plenary
Deepa Iyer
Building Movement ProjectDeepa Iyer is a South Asian American writer, lawyer, and strategist. She is currently the Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives at Building Movement Project where she creates projects, resources, and narratives that support nonprofits, networks, and individuals engaged in social change. Her work includes developing the social change ecosystem map, and coordinating SolidarityIs, an initiative that fosters multiracial and cross-movement connections through trainings, the Solidarity Is This podcast, and strategic guidance. Iyer has worked at various national and local organizations with a focus on immigrant and racial justice. She served as executive director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) for a decade and has also held positions at Race Forward, the US Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center, and the Asian American Justice Center. Iyer’s first book, We Too Sing America: South Asian, Arab, Muslim and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multiracial Future, received a 2016 American Book Award. Iyer has received fellowships from Open Society Foundations and the Social Change Initiative, and in 2019, she received an honorary doctoral degree from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Iyer serves on the Advisory Council of the Emergent Fund, which resources grassroots organizing and power building in communities of color, and occasionally teaches courses on Asian American communities and social movements at the University of Maryland. An immigrant who moved to Kentucky from India when she was twelve, Iyer graduated from the University of Notre Dame Law School and Vanderbilt University.
October 6: DEIB in Higher Education: Reflections and Trends
Dania Matos
Vice Chancellor for Equity & InclusionDania Matos began her tenure as the 4th Vice Chancellor for the Division of Equity & Inclusion (VCEI) at the University of California, Berkeley, in August 2021. Prior to coming to Berkeley, she was the inaugural associate chancellor and chief diversity officer at the University of California, Merced. Dania is a member of Chancellor Carol Christ's Cabinet, advising and guiding the campus on diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and justice (DEIBJ). She is the co-chair of the Hispanic Serving Task Force(link is external), oversees the African American Initiative, and is the executive sponsor of multiple identity-based standing committees. Dania leads with vision and love, centering people and community first and creating change through collective wisdom. This year, Dania was awarded the Top DEI Advocate by the National Diversity Council. In 2020, she was selected as a Leadership Academy Fellow by the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, and in 2018, she was named one of the Top 25 Women in Higher Education by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education Magazine. Over the past decade, Dania has led equity and inclusion work in the private, nonprofit, and government sectors. She was the inaugural deputy chief diversity officer at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, and served in Virginia’s public defender’s office. Dania holds a J.D. from the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, and a BA from Brown University.
Renetta Garrison Tull
Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & InclusionDr. Renetta Garrison Tull is the University of California Davis' inaugural Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), which houses Academic Diversity, the Office of Campus Community Relations, four centers, and Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (DEI within the medical school, nursing school and health center). She also serves on the Chief Diversity Officers Council for the University of California, and has several programs and boards within her portfolio including HSI initiatives, the Police Accountability Board, Diversity and Inclusion Education and strategic planning, 4 centers, and more. She formerly served as Assistant Dean for Graduate Student Development and later, Associate Vice Provost for Strategic Initiatives at UMBC. She had a detail within the University System of Maryland’s headquarters (for 12 institutions), serving as the Director for Pipeline Professional Development Programs, and she has been either Co-PI or PI on National Science Foundation grants within the Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP), ADVANCE, and Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) programs. At Davis, she is PI of the PROMISE Engineering Institute, a collaboration between UC Davis and UMBC, with connections to engineering schools within the UC, and engineering schools in Maryland (UM College Park, Morgan State, and Johns Hopkins) to form an engineering “East-West” collaboration. Her degrees in electrical engineering and speech science are from Howard University and Northwestern University, and she has had faculty roles at UW-Madison, University of Maryland College Park, UMBC. She was inducted into Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society, and participates in faculty activities as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC Davis, and a faculty affiliate in the Interdepartmental Program on Human Rights Studies. An international speaker on global diversity in STEM, Dr. Tull was a Global Engineering Deans Council/Airbus Diversity Award Finalist, and has received the ABET Claire L. Felbinger Award for Diversity, and the Student Platform for Engineering Education Development Global Mentoring Award. She has been involved with Puerto Rico’s ADVANCE Hispanic Women in STEM, the Latin and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions, UNESCO, the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES) community, and her research interests in Humanitarian Engineering continue through sharing the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She is an author of a chapter of Rising to the Top, IFEES book on global women in engineering – which will be featured at the World Engineering Education Forum in 2021, and was part of the consensus committees for the National Academies’ “Impact of COVID-19 on the Careers of Women in Academic STEMM,” and “The Science of Effective Mentoring in STEMM. Tull enjoys her work as an education policy strategist and champion for equity.
October 6 Gilman Top Producers Plenary
Ethan Rosenzweig
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Academic Programs Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs
October 7 Plenary: Ten Years of Tech, Talent, and Travel
Andrew Gordon
Founder and CEO, IncludifiAndrew is an award-winning social impact entrepreneur and CEO & Founder of Includifi, an inclusion management software that helps organizations achieve their belonging and success goals. Prior to Includifi he was CEO of Diversity Abroad, a global education organization he founded in 2006. He currently serves as a strategic advisor to Diversity Abroad. Andrew has 15+ years of leadership at the intersection of technology, global education, diversity & inclusion, and student success. As a thought leader with a deep passion for equitable access to opportunity, he advises college & university, non-profit, and business leaders on strategies for achieving holistic success for today’s students and employees. A native of California, Andrew is a graduate of the University of San Francisco. He’s fluent in Spanish, proficient Portuguese and has studied, worked, and traveled in 60+ countries on 6 continents. He’s an alum of INROADS, AVID, and the Association for the International Exchange of Students in Economics and Commerce (AIESEC). Andrew enjoys meaningful travel as well as local culturally immersive experiences. A self-professed ‘foodie’, he loves learning about and indulging in the local culinary scene wherever his travels take him.
Torian Richardson
Investor, Culture Scientist, and Global Executive CoachTorian is an investor, culture scientist, and global executive coach who has lived and worked on four continents and journeyed through over 80 countries. He has served as a Chairman of the Board for Globalminded and consultant with HBS Club of New York. Lived and worked in Africa and China and has worked with American Airlines, San Francisco 49ers, Meijer grocers, Deloitte, BCG Digital Ventures, and is featured in a Wharton Business course on leading diverse teams. Born on Chicago’s Southside, Torian is a first generation college graduate earning a Bachelors of Business Administration in Finance from Benedictine University. Earning a Masters of Public Administration in International Development from Tsinghua University in Beijing, and graduating from Harvard Business School.
Special Guest Speakers
Mary Bruce
Associate Director United States Peace Corps, Volunteer Recruitment & Selection
Chinyere Oparah
Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs University of San Francisco
Rev. Paul Fitzgerald
President of the University of San Francisco
