23rd Annual Diversity Conference
April 2, 2025, 9:30 - 5:30 pm
Seymour Union
“Uniting our Communities for an Inclusive Brockport”
Using an equity, diversity, and inclusion framework, this year’s conference will expand on current efforts to Build a Better Brockport. Specifically, conference participants will have the opportunity to engage in workshops and discussions about bridging the divide between members of our community, to be a more inclusive University that fosters a strong sense of belonging for all its members.
Volunteer at the Conference
We are looking for faculty, staff, and students to help on conference day. All volunteers receive a free t-shirt!
Keynote Speaker: Reverend Ben McBride
National Leader on Belonging, New York Times Bestselling Author, Atlantic Fellow for Racial Equity & CEO of Empower Initiative
The Reverend Ben McBride is a native of San Francisco, spiritual leader, and longtime activist for peace and justice in the Bay Area. In 2008, he relocated his family to a challenging neighborhood in Oakland called the “Kill Zone” to understand and respond to the epidemic of gun violence firsthand. During this tenure, he was instrumental in relaunching Oakland’s first successful iteration of Operation Ceasefire, a data-driven violence reduction strategy, contributing heavily to a nearly 50% reduction in homicides over five years. In 2014, Ben launched the Empower Initiative to support bridging and belonging work nationwide.
Ben is a practitioner at fostering belonging and serves as a national leader in reconstructing public safety systems and gun violence prevention work, including a background of training over 100 law enforcement departments and executives. Ben led PICO California, the largest grassroots community organization in the state, representing 450,000 people across 73 cities, serving as the co-director from 2015 to 2020. He founded a national peacemaking initiative to address police-community trust-building during this tenure. He served at the request of Vice President Kamala Harris, as co-chair of California’s Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board, which focuses on ending racial profiling in California. Ben was featured in the Sundance Film Festival Award-winning film THE FORCE, concentrating on his peacemaking work.
Ben authored Troubling the Water: The Urgent Work of Radical Belonging (Broadleaf Books), which was released in October 2023.
Ben is a seasoned trainer specializing in fostering belonging and civility. He collaborates with companies, schools, universities, and students, and values-driven organizations across the nation, delivering transformative and educational keynotes and workshops that can be customized for any organization.
Schedule of Events
Registration is open!
- 9:30 am Welcome Remarks & Feldman Paper Winner Presentation
- 9:50 – 10:50 am Keynote Speaker: Reverend Ben McBride
- 11 – 11:45 am: Concurrent Sessions I
- 11:45 am – 1:15 pm: International Festival
- 1:30 – 3 pm: Annual Malik Lecture, featuring a presentation from Parents Circle-Families Forum
- 3:15 – 4:30 pm: Concurrent Sessions II
- 4:45 – 5 pm: Closing Remarks
- 5 – 5:30 pm: Closing Reception
Full Conference Schedule
Please RSVP for each event you would like to attend. Locations for most of the sessions are not listed, but they will be posted and emailed to individuals who RSVP’ ed before the event.
Welcome Remarks
Keynote
April 2, 2025, 9:50 - 10:50 a.m. | Seymour Union
Diversity Conference Keynote: “Becoming & Belonging”
Experience a transformative keynote that challenges you to rethink belonging—not just as inclusion, but as radical co-creation across differences.
Concurrent Sessions I
April 2, 2025, 11 - 11:45 a.m. | Seymour Union
This workshop will examine how internalized oppression shapes group dynamics and impacts the ability of communities to work together.
April 2, 2025, 11 - 11:45 a.m. | Seymour Union
This session will examine the barriers students with disabilities face in obtaining accommodations in higher education.
April 2, 2025, 11 - 11:45 a.m. | Seymour Union
Diversity Conference: “Redefining Messy Solidarity as Humanness”
The structures of colonialism are deeply intertwined, necessitating a collective approach to dismantling oppressive systems (Brant & Webber, 2022).
April 2, 2025, 11 - 11:45 a.m. | Seymour Union
The goal of this workshop is to bridge cultural divides and make our schools and communities more welcoming and inclusive spaces for people of all abilities and backgrounds by helping participants see beyond their own personal world view.
April 2, 2025, 11 a.m. - Noon | Seymour Union
Diversity Conference: Reverend Ben McBride
Reverend Ben McBride will have a breakout session.
International Festival
Malik Lecture
Concurrent Sessions II
Closing Remarks & Reception
Accommodations
SUNY Brockport is fully committed to providing accessible events to all. If you need a disability-related accommodation, please contact us at (585) 395-2024 or diversityconference@brockport.edu. Requests should be made by March 21.