Henderson, KY –Henderson Community College’s (HCC) Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion will be hosting Black History Monday’s during the Month of February via Microsoft Teams. All are welcome to attend.
Dr. Michelle Chappell, HCC’s Coordinator of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, coordinated these events because she knows the importance of diversity. She said “Understanding diversity is vital, and that’s why I believe it’s so important that we learn about Black History from scholars who teach and work in Higher Education.”
Below are our Black History Monday events! We hope you’ll be able to join in one, two, or all three of these conversations.
FEBRUARY 1
Dr. Donavan Ramon
Assistant Professor of Liberal Studies, Kentucky State University
When: February 1, 12 – 1PM
Topic: “Passing in Education” throughout black history and today’s society.
Join: https://tinyurl.com/y4e5keqh
Biography: Dr. Donavan Ramon is an Assistant Professor of Liberal Studies at Kentucky State University, specializing in African-American and African Diasporic Literatures. He teaches literature and writing courses to students in the Whitney Young Honors Collegium. A native New Yorker, he earned his BA in English and the Special Honors Curriculum from Hunter College, where he was a Mellon Mays Fellow, and his doctorate in African-American Literature from Rutgers University. He has published articles on Philip Roth and Alice Dunbar-Nelson, and most recently guest edited a special issue of the South Atlantic Review on the ninetieth anniversary of Nella Larsen’s Passing. His first monograph, Betraying Their Colored Descent: Psychoanalysis and Racial Passing, will be published by the University of Missouri Press this year. It explores the psychoanalytic motivations for jumping the color line in American Literature.
FEBRUARY 8
Robin Harrington, CSW, MSSW
Assistant Professor/Program Chair for the Human Services Program at Ivy Tech Community College Sellersburg
When: February 8, 2 – 3PM
Topic: Robin will share bit of black history, how it encourages her to pursue education and her career path, and also how she believes we can move forward in today’s society.
Join: https://tinyurl.com/yxozu7rq
Biography: Robin Harrington currently works as an Assistant Professor/Program Chair for the Human Services Program at Ivy Tech Community College Sellersburg. She is from Louisville, KY and is a graduate of the University of Louisville, Kent School of Social Work where she received a Master of Science in social work and completed twelve graduate hours in Pan African Studies. Northern KY University is where she completed her undergraduate degree in Organizational Leadership and areas of concentrations in Women/Gender Studies and Communication Studies.
Robin has over ten years’ experience in higher education in which she incorporates a student advocacy and holistic approach in assisting students with meeting their personal and academic goals. She served as the JCTC Co-Chair for Achieving the Dream 2.0 for African American Student Success. Currently she works as a social work educator, clinical social worker and community advocate in the Greater Louisville and Southern Indiana region. As a clinical social worker, she provides mental health services to under-represented populations that have limited access to quality mental health services. She is currently a member of Black Lives Matters Louisville Healing Team. Supporting future black human services professionals is an important part of her job as a social work educator. Robin loves to serve her local community and provides consulting and support to several local non-profits. She serves as board a member for the following organizations: Play Cousins Collective, West Louisville Math and Science Project and Zora’s Cradle.
FEBRUARY 22:
Dr. Ronald Rochon
President of University of Southern Indiana
When: February 22, 1 – 2PM
Topic: Dr. Rochon will discuss some black history and how it contributed to his educational journey of higher education.
Join: https://tinyurl.com/yxozu7rq
Biography: Dr. Ronald S. Rochon became the University of Southern Indiana’s (USI) fourth president in July 2018, after eight years of serving as USI’s provost.
During his tenure as provost, Rochon oversaw the revamping of the University Core Curriculum and UNIV 101 seminar course, led the establishment and approval of USI’s second doctoral program in education leadership, advanced new opportunities and programs for undergraduate, graduate, and online learning students, and fostered new approaches to recruit students to campus and developed programs to help them excel.
As provost, he also directly supervised the deans of USI’s four academic colleges, Graduate Studies, Outreach & Engagement, International Programs, Rice Library, Student Affairs and all other academic departments.
Rochon’s academic and professional career has focused on advocating for educational excellence, access, equity and equality. He has taught classes on the history of American Education, culturally relevant and responsive teaching practices within pre-K through grade 12 schools, and organizational leadership within higher education settings. His body of work has centered on the needs of diverse learners within underserved schools and communities as well as their integral contributions to the larger society.
Rochon came to USI from Buffalo State in Buffalo, New York, where he served as the inaugural dean of the School of Education, associate vice president for Teacher Education and professor. He was director and co-founder of the Research Center for Cultural Diversity and Community Renewal at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, as well as interim associate dean and director of the school of education. In 2010, he also served as chair of the Board of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (Washington, DC). His professional teaching career has included work at Texas A & M University, Washington State University, and University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
President Rochon earned a bachelor’s degree at Tuskegee University and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His doctoral work was in educational policy studies, with an emphasis in educational history and policy analysis. (Bio information courtesy of USI President’s Profile, https://www.usi.edu/president/presidents-profile)
Henderson Community College is located at 2660 S. Green Street in Henderson, KY. For more information about the college, please visit www.henderson.kctcs.edu.
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