Sotelo-Peryea speaks at first Navy/SUNY discussion on sexual harassment, assault

Anna Sotelo-Peryea, assistant director of health promotion and violence prevention coordinator in UB Student Life, was a featured speaker at a recent conference that aimed to curb sexual harassment and sexual assault.

Hosted by SUNY and the Department of the Navy, the event was held last month at the SUNY Global Center and the New York East Side Marriott.

The purpose of the event — officially known as the first Regional Discussion on Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment at America’s Colleges, Universities and Service Academies: Achieving Cultural Change Through Data and An Evaluation Mindset — was to demonstrate SUNY’s and the Navy’s shared commitment to eliminating sexual assault and sexual harassment at colleges, universities and service academies.

The event opened with remarks from Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer and SUNY Chancellor Kristina M. Johnson.

Sotelo-Peryea was one of three members on the “Translating Science into Action” panel.

She provided the audience — including senior leaders from the Navy, SUNY and SUNY institutions — with practical instruction on the process of prevention, drawing on examples from her work at UB in the university’s award-winning Sexual Violence Prevention Program. The program was one of five nationwide that received the 2017 Prevention Excellence Award from the Campus Prevention Network for outstanding achievements in sexual assault prevention. UB had ranked in the top 6% in the national Sexual Assault Diagnostic Inventory.

Additional sessions at the conference focused on the importance of engaged leadership, insight from congressional leaders, how civilian and military educational institutions can promote a culture of change with the effective use of data, and the role of climate more broadly in creating risk for sexual harassment and sexual assault.

The conference had more than 300 attendees from across the U.S. and Canada representing more than 100 institutions of higher education and service academies across the divisions of the armed forces. The event is expected to be the first in a series of biennial conferences designed to move this work forward.