Loretta Ross - "Calling In: An Inclusive Practice for Building a Rigorous Intellectual Community"
Loretta J. Ross is an activist, public intellectual, scholar, the 2022 recipient of the MacArthur Foundation "Genius" award and an Associate Professor at Smith College. She has a passion for innovating creative imagining about global human rights and social justice issues and started her career in activism and social change in the 1970s. In 1978, she was the third executive director for DC Rape Crisis Center, the first rape crisis center in the country. This was her entry point into the women’s movement where she learned about women’s human rights, reproductive justice, white supremacy, and women of color organizing. Through her organizing she helped launch the movement to end violence against women that has evolved into today's #MeToo movement. Throughout her 50-year career, she has worked with the National Football League Players' Association, the National Organization for Women (NOW), the National Black Women's Health Project, the Center for Democratic Renewal (National Anti-Klan Network), the National Center for Human Rights Education, and SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective.
Loretta retired as an organizer in 2012 to teach and follow her passion to educate. In 1996, she founded the first center in the U.S. to innovate creative human rights education for all students transforming social justice issues to be more collaborative and less divisive. In her work Calling In the Calling Out Culture, she transforms how people can overcome political differences to use empathy and respect to guide difficult conversations. In 2023, Loretta was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
Theodore Mason - "Threading the Needle: Making Good on the Promise of Rigor"
Ted Mason is a scholar of African American literature and culture. As a teacher and scholar he is particularly interested in how narrative can foster a sense of cultural belonging and create an effective counter-history. He is also a transformative leader in higher education as well as in diversity, equity and inclusion. He began his academic career at the University of Virginia, where he helped develop the Carter G. Woodson Institute. He has been on the faculty of Kenyon College since 1989, where he is now a Professor of English. He has chaired that department and has directed the program in African Diaspora Studies. In addition, he served a term as Kenyon’s John B. McCoy-Bank One Distinguished Teaching Professor and has been a Teagle Foundation Teaching Fellow for the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA). In 2015 he began working in academic administration, becoming Associate Provost for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Senior Adviser to the President, and Kenyon’s Chief Diversity Officer. In those roles he helps coordinate Kenyon’s DEI and Anti-Racism efforts across the college. Beyond Kenyon, he has been President of the International Society for the Study of Narrative Literature, as well as President of the Associated Departments of English. He is currently Co-President and Co-Chair of the Liberal Arts Diversity Officers Consortium and is also a member of the advisory board for the GLCA's virtual teaching and learning center. He holds a B.A. in American Studies from Wesleyan University and a Ph.D in English from Stanford University.