The Clinton School’s Center on Community Philanthropy will host the first in a series of conversations on the issues of race and equity in the South on Thursday and Friday in Little Rock.
The event is part of a project titled, “Pathways to Racial Healing and Equity in the American South: A Community Philanthropy Strategy,” which will engage researchers and practitioners to explore structural racism impacting children’s education and health, and mobilize community leaders to heal racial divisions. The project is supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.
The event will feature keynote speaker Dr. David Williams, the Flourence and Laura Norman Professor of Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health, and a professor of African American studies and affiliate of the Sociology Department at Harvard.
Williams is internationally recognized as a leading social scientist focused on social influences on health. His keynote address on Friday at 12:00 p.m. will be part of the Clinton School Speaker Series.
“We hope this event will help us begin a conversation on the significance of race and diversity in community development across the South,” said Dr. Charlotte Lewellen-Williams, director of the Center on Community Philanthropy. “Before we can foster philanthropy at the local level, we must look at our communities through racial, gender and class lenses, so that we can capitalize on similarities and difference in order to move forward together.”
Other participants in the two-day conference include:
– Dr. Joel Anderson, chancellor of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, who has spearheaded the creation of an institute on race at UALR.
– Dr. Todd Shields, interim associate dean of the Clinton School, interim dean of the Graduate School and International Education and director of the Diane D. Blair Center for Southern Politics at the University of Arkansas.
– Rev. Malik Saafir, chair of the Environmental Justice Committee for Village Commons, a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness through education and programs on sustainable living.
– Bill Kopsky, executive director of the Arkansas Public Policy Panel
Follow the link for the conference schedule: Race and Equity Conference
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