Over 100 people gathered in the Chapel Sept. 24 for the annual Embracing Diversity ceremony, which recognizes faculty and staff who recently graduated from the Diversity and Inclusion Certificate program.
The certificate program is a partnership of the Office of Institutional Diversity, the Training and Career Development Center and other diversity-related offices and programs at UGA.
“Including access is an important value at our university—so we need to embody it, we need to give voice to it and, on occasions like today, we need to take a breath and celebrate our diversity,” said Pamela Whitten, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, who gave opening remarks at the program.
UGA has an ongoing commitment to growing diversity in admissions, Whitten said, citing that minority enrollment has grown from 22 percent to 30 percent in the last decade.
Keynote speaker Han Park, a professor in UGA’s School of Public and International Affairs, spoke about the importance of incorporating and fostering peace. Peace, he said, is not the absence of war, but the existence of harmony.
“Diversity is a necessary condition for harmony, and without which, peace is impossible,” said Park, the founding director of UGA’s Center for the Study of Global Issues. “Each of us must transform ourselves so cultural diversity becomes part of our identity.”
Park, who will retire in December, championed UGA’s new experiential learning approach, which he said would enable students to expand and enrich harmonious experience and embrace diversity in and out of the classroom.
Diversity and inclusion certificates were awarded to 100 faculty and staff, who joined 233 previous graduates from the program. The certificate recognizes participants’ completion of six courses designed not only to explore strategic areas around diversity but also to improve their ability to contribute to the enhancement of the university’s welcoming and inclusive environment.
Enrollment in the certificate program is free to all faculty and staff and is offered quarterly throughout the year in partnership between the Office of Institutional Diversity and the Human Resources Training and Development Center.
The ceremony also recognized four first-year students—April Davis, Khadar Haroun, Jerel Harris and Chynna Moore—who were awarded the Black Alumni Association Scholarship and the Diversity Scholarship.
The 2015 certificate recipients included:
Lauren Adams
Mildred Anderson
Dashan Axson-Lawrence
Carol Baum
Corianne Bazemore
Cheryl Beasley
Diana Beckett
Robin Bingham
Suzanne Birch
Barry Bloom
Emily Boness
Vivian Bridges
Julie Burt
Carla Buss
Carrie Campbell
Cynthia Chan
Patricia Clark
Jennifer Collins
Kimberly Collins
Tim Culp
Jessica Davis
Mary Eberhard
Jennifer Erickson Brown
Lynn Faust
Amber Fetner
Alisa Fields
Dexter Fisher
Beverly Ford
Jackie Fortson
Rita Free
Nathan Freeman
Christy Fricks
Brett Ganas
Ashlee Garnett
Kelly Gebers
LaVonne Goldschmidt
Tiffany Haag
James Hansen
Carrie Harden
Charisse Harper
Jodie Harvey
Terri Hatfield
Jeff Haug
Lance Haynie
Elizabeth Helms
Shannon Herrington
T.Wayne Hill
Katherine Hines
Lauren Hutchison
Kristin Ingmundson
Gabriel Jimenez-Fuentes
Bonnie Joerschke
Peggy Johnson
Ralph Johnson
Rachel Jones
James Kallerman
Caleb Keith
April King Mosley
Patricia La Madrid
Yvette Leverett
Kimberly Love-Myers
Lisa Lowe
Monica Magby
Joshua Mallory
Chrisula Maragakis
Darlene Mealor
Esther Mitchell
Darin Morris
Kelli Nowviskie
Theresa Nutter
Pamela Orpinas
Julie Patterson
Emily Pearson
Jessica Pense
Stacy Piotrowski
Tonia Ray
Fred Remen
Jasmine Rizer
Tom Satterly
Mandra Scott
Mary Shelnut
Terrance Smith
Lisa Sperling
David Spradley
Aaron Stone
Elizabeth Strickland
Sara Swagart
Rose Tahash
Nathaniel Taylor
Lacey Tench
Hope Thomas
Jason Tiller
Lisa Troutman
Jill Vaughan
Suzanne Voigt
Jason Wallace
Tokesha Warner
Angellica Wentworth
April Whittaker
Celeste Wilson
