Community Engagement Subcommittee

Committee Charge

The President’s Advisory Council on Race was established to help guide the university’s progress in realizing the ideals of equity, diversity, inclusion and social justice in its educational, research, and engagement missions.

The Advisory Council made several recommendations regarding community engagement. This subcommittee is being charged with recommending steps for implementing those recommendations.

The subcommittee on community engagement will address UB’s community engagement mission by seeking ways to further collaborate with university partners and neighbors in the community to promote and support diversity, equity and inclusion.

Specifically, the subcommittee will:

  • Consider a centralized UB website (see UB’s social justice website: https://www.buffalo.edu/social-justice.html ) that would allow for better visibility and coordination of decanal and unit engagement community-focused programs and initiatives that address social justice and racial inequities.
    • Consider ways to highlight best practices.
  • Consider support and resource structures for:
    • Faculty and staff engaging in racial/social justice initiatives to recognize and incentives such work.
    • Community focused initiatives on racial/social justice.
  • Continue a conversation about UB’s commitment to the community, specifically communities that have been historically marginalized in Western New York.
    • What are we getting right?
    • What do we need to adjust?
  • Develop specific recommendations that would have widespread support across the university and could begin to be implemented immediately.
  • Frame recommendations within requirements stemming from applicable curriculum, state, SUNY, accreditation, and similar policies and guidelines.
  • Recommend roles and responsibilities for each recommendation.

Committee Membership

  • Beth Del Genio, Co-Chair, Chief of Staff to the President
  • David A. Milling, Co-Chair, Senior Associate Dean for Student and Academic Affairs, Associate Professor of Medicine, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
  • Hadar Borden, Director of Blackstone LaunchPad
  • Meelin Chin Kit-Wells, Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatric and Community Dentistry, School of Dental Medicine
  • Nathan Daun-Barnett, Associate Professor and Chair of Educational Leadership and Policy, Graduate School of Education
  • D’Ann Keller, Senior Associate Athletic Director, Senior Women’s Administrator
  • Ophelia Morey, Coordinator, Community Outreach Services, University Libraries
  • Tess Morrissey, Director of Community Relations, Deputy Director of State Relations, Government and Community Relations
  • Kyria Stephens, Director of Inclusion and Community Initiatives, Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus
  • Lillian Williams, Associate Professor of Africana and American Studies, College of Arts and Sciences