Attend annual Mercy Summit on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

On Friday, April 28, Salve Regina will host its third annual Mercy Summit on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the O’Hare Academic Building. This event is sponsored by the Presidential Commission on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and it is the University’s hope that the summit will see wide participation from the campus community.

The University’s goals with the summit are to utilize a common framework for understanding at Salve Regina by intentionally engaging in cross-cultural interactions, developing strategies that advance DEI work on campus, and exchanging ideas in a nonjudgmental way.

What to expect at the summit

Dr. Kelli J. Armstrong (middle, right) poses with the summit’s keynote speaker in 2022, Dr. Régine Jean-Charles (middle, left). Also pictured are staff member Aida Neary (left) and faculty member Tara Brooke Watkins (right).

The Mercy Summit on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is meant for staff, faculty and students, so anyone who is part of the Salve Regina community can participate.

The morning’s events will begin at 8:30 a.m. with an optional continental breakfast, but the summit itself starts at 9 a.m. The keynote speaker, who is highlighted below, will be followed by breakout sessions for further dialogue around topics presented in the keynote.

After the breakout sessions, the participants in this year’s inaugural intercultural competence development program will have a presentation and award ceremony.

Lunch will be provided at 12:45 p.m. After the lunch, there will be a number of breakout afternoon educational sessions where staff, faculty and students can pick which topics they’d like to learn more about.

Participants can sign up for the morning, and they must also sign up for each breakout session in the afternoon that they might like to attend.

For a full schedule and to register for the morning as well as the breakout sessions, go to the summit’s webpage.

Participants attend an afternoon educational session during the 2022 summit.

Keynote speaker

The keynote speaker, Minal Bopaiah, will deliver a virtual presentation entitled “Intercultural Understanding Starts with You” at 9 a.m. in the Bazarsky Lecture Hall.

Minal Bopaiah is an author and strategic consultant with nearly 20 years of professional experience. Her areas of expertise include human-centered design, behavior change psychology, and the principles of DEI as they relate to media, marketing, communications and organizational design.

Minal Bopaiah

Bopaiah is founder and principal consultant of Brevity & Wit, a unique strategy and design firm that  combines human-centered design with the psychology of behavior change and the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion. Her work includes working with NPR’s news managers to design a system for diversifying news sources. She is also the creator and facilitator for the DEI Executive Forum, a six-month cohort learning experience for general managers in public media that helps them become more equitable leaders and develop a strategic plan to accomplish their DEI goals.

For a full schedule and to register, go to the summit’s webpage.