Queen Quet

Biography: Queen Quet Marquetta L. Goodwine is a published author, computer scientist, lecturer, mathematician, historian, columnist, preservationist, environmental justice advocate, environmentalist, film consultant, and “The Art-ivist.” She is the founder of the premiere advocacy organization for the continuation of Gullah/Geechee culture, the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition. Queen Quet has not only provided “histo-musical presentations” throughout the world, but was also the first Gullah/Geechee person to speak on behalf of her people before the United Nations in Genevé, Switzerland.

Queen Quet was one of the first of seven inductees to the Gullah/Geechee Nation Hall of Fame. She received the “Anointed Spirit Award” for her leadership and for being a visionary. In 2008, she was recorded at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France at a United Nations Conference in order to have the human rights story of the Gullah/Geechee people archived for the United Nations. In 2009, she was invited by the Office of the High Commissioner of the United Nations to come and present before the newly founded “Minority Forum” as a representative of the Gullah/Geechee Nation and the International Human Rights Association for American Minorities (IHRAAM) which is an NGO in consultative status with the United Nations. Queen Quet is a directorate member for IHRAAM and for the International Commission on Human Rights. She represented these bodies and the Gullah/Geechee Nation at the “United Nations Forum on Minority Rights.”

Queen Quet’s accolades include the United States Jefferson Award for community service, the Jean Laney Folk Heritage Award for Gullah Advocacy from the state of South Carolina, the inaugural “Living Legacy Award” from the Association for the Study of African American Life & History (ASALH), the inaugural HOTEP Award, the inaugural MaVynee Betsch Conservation Award, numerous Woman of Distinction Awards, the National Black Herstory Award, being featured on the “Wall of Heroes” at the National Wilderness Society headquarters in Washington, DC and on the website of The Citadel in Charleston, SC as a woman of honor. She has received several Queen Quet Day and “Gullah/Geechee Days” proclamations in various states. She received the “Preserving Our Places in History Lifetime Achievement Award” from the South Carolina African American Heritage Commission. The General Assembly of South Carolina also honored Queen Quet with Resolution 1453 for the work that she has done on behalf of her home state and Gullah/Geechee people locally, nationally, and internationally.

Dr. KerryAnn O’Meara

Biography: KerryAnn O’Meara conducts research on organizational practices that facilitate the full participation of diverse faculty and the legitimacy of diverse scholarship in the academy. She studies organizational policies, practices and cultures with an eye toward changing them to be more inclusive, equitable, and agency-enhancing for all faculty. Her recent work examines how work environments and reward systems enhance faculty agency and influence departure, the role of peer networks in advancing equity and inclusion, and gender equity in workload and distribution of campus service. Her work has been published in the Journal of Higher Education, Review of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education and Gender and Education, among other venues. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, Kettering Foundation, Luce Foundation, College Board, former American Association of Higher Education (AAHE), American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), and Teagle Foundation. She serves on the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Higher Education and as Associate Editor of the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning. KerryAnn regularly consults with campuses on revision of reward system policies to support multiple forms of scholarship, gender equity reform, faculty development and engaged scholarship.

KerryAnn received the Outstanding Teacher of the Year award (University of Massachusetts, 2003), Early Career Research Award (IARSCLE, 2008), Graduate Mentor of the Year Award (University of Maryland, 2012) and Outstanding Woman of the Year Award (University of Maryland, 2013) for her work advancing women at UMD. In 2014 she became a Fellow of the Academy of Community Engaged Scholarship. She is Director of the University of Maryland’s ADVANCE grant, an institution-wide effort to invest in the professional growth of women faculty, and transform organizational practices in work environments to support inclusive excellence and the full participation of all faculty.

KerryAnn lives in Columbia, MD with her three daughters and partner Dan Schreier. She is a lifelong fan of anything Lord of the Rings, Pat Conroy, Charleston, South Carolina, and Long Beach Island, NJ.

Keynote Presentation

Equity-Minded Reform in Academic Reward Systems: What We CAN and Should Do Now
It is commonplace for college campuses to say they foster inclusive excellence and support diverse faculty and diverse forms of scholarship. However, the rubber hits the road in academic reward systems. Too many institutions maintain narrow definitions of scholarship, criteria, metrics of impact, and systems of peer review that disregard, and devalue engaged scholarship and exclude the critical work of diverse faculty. This keynote session calls for all of us to work together toward reform of our academic reform systems—and provides concrete action steps to make this happen now.

 

Melody Porter

Biography: As Director of the Office of Community Engagement at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, Melody Porter advances community engagement efforts across the university, fosters student leadership in alternative breaks, and develops strong connections with community partners to ensure that our work is community-driven and leads to positive social change.

Melody came to William and Mary from Emory University, where she served for three years as director of Volunteer Emory (VE), a student-led department for community service. In that position, Melody and student leaders of VE reignited alternative breaks at Emory with an annual Fall Break trip, began a service theme house, and expanded the alumni service day, Emory Cares, to include hundreds of current students. As Associate Minister at First United Methodist Church of Germantown in Philadelphia, Melody spent three years working in areas of social justice and community development, and directing an after school program that served more than 100 high school students.

After college, Melody served as a long-term volunteer for three years, beginning a job development program in the Frankford neighborhood of Philadelphia and working with preschool children and their families in downtown Johannesburg, South Africa. Melody received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Religion from Emory University in 1995.

Along with her colleagues and friends Shoshanna Sumka and Jill Piacitelli, Melody is author of Working Side by Side: Creating Alternative Breaks as Catalysts for Global Learning, Student Leadership, and Social Change. She was recognized as Staff Person of the Year by Break Away in the National Alternative Break Awards in 2010. Melody is proud to be chair of the Board of Directors of Break Away and a volunteer for various community organizations.

Through all of her professional and volunteer experiences, Melody has seen how connected and interdependent people and communities are everywhere, and believes in the power of mutual connection to transform lives and bring positive social change. She also loves cheese fries.

Keynote Presentation

What did you do? What did you learn? What would you never do again? And, what would you absolutely recommend?
When we engage in community work, we jump into the deep end of complex relationships, ideas, issues, and hopes. We do so with fellow students, community partners, faculty members, and staff advisers. Still, it’s a rare occasion that students get the chance to exchange ideas and lessons learned with those on other campuses and in diverse contexts. This talk will highlight ways students can make the most of the opportunities to have real, honest conversations with other students about their successes and challenges at the Student Showcase.

 

Panel Keynote Presentation

GABRIELLE HICKMON is a senior at Cornell University majoring in Industrial and Labor Relations with interests in international education, service-learning, and Black collegiate students’ racial identity development. After graduation, she plans to pursue an MA in International and Comparative Education. Her career aspirations include working for the United Nations, giving Black students curated SL opportunities, and teaching college courses on community engagement and the role of education in Black racial identity development. An original contributor to the SLCE-FDP, Gabby wrote a thought piece titled “Double Consciousness and the Future of Service-Learning.”

SARAH STANLICK is the founding director of Lehigh University’s Center for Community Engagement and a professor of practice in Sociology and Anthropology. She previously taught at Centenary College of New Jersey and was a researcher at Harvard’s Kennedy School, assisting the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power. Her current interests include inquiry-based teaching and learning, global citizenship, transformative learning, and cultivating learner agency. One of the curators of the SLCE-FDP, Sarah co-authored the “Introduction” (with Patti Clayton), contributed a thought piece entitled “Getting ‘Real’ About Transformation,” and co-authored the thought piece “Moving Towards a National Agenda: A Way Forward” (with Jeffrey Howard).

PATTI H. CLAYTON is an independent consultant and SLCE practitioner-scholar (PHC Ventures), a senior scholar with IUPUI and UNCG, and a visiting fellow with NERCHE. She works with practitioner-scholars and campuses to envision and establish SLCE infrastructure and to build capacities among all partners for excellence in SLCE, especially through integrated course design, critical reflection, reciprocal partnerships, and collaborative scholarship. Her current interests include democratic engagement, co-learning among all partners in SLCE, civic learning, place-engaged SLCE, and the power of language to shape how we understand and enact engagement. One of the curators of the SLCE-FDP, Patti co-authored the “Introduction” with Sarah Stanlick, a thought piece titled “Engaging Place as Partner” (with Cheryl Siemers, Barbara Harrison, and Tal Stanley), and another titled “Transforming Higher Education Through and For Democratic Civic Engagement: A Model for Change” (with John Saltmarsh and Emily Janke).

Keynote Panel Presentation

This panel will address the future of service-learning and community engagement in higher education. What do we envision for the future of SLCE? Why? What will it take to get there? Patti, Sarah, Gabrielle, and also participants in Wednesday’s pre-conference workshop will facilitate discussion of the future of SLCE, sharing key ideas, questions, and points of tension raised during the pre-conference and engaging the full set of conference attendees in ongoing exploration of these questions. As with the pre-conference workshop, discussion in the plenary session will be documented for incorporation into the international conversation being facilitated by the SLCE-Future Directions Project.