Speakers

As vice president for Intercultural Affairs, Jennifer Abe facilitates strong collaboration between university administrators and faculty and staff leaders to develop and implement programs, policies and procedures that create and sustain an institutional culture and climate characterized by diversity, inclusion, equity, and equity-mindedness across the campus community.

Abe has served in various leadership capacities at LMU, including terms as associate dean (BCLA, 2005-2010), acting chair of Psychology (2018), and founding co-director for the Casa de la Mateada program. For this latter position, she and her family moved to Argentina to establish a mission-based study abroad program for LMU, living and working in the city of Córdoba for two years (2013-2015). Across these roles, Abe has consistently worked to foster an inclusive institutional climate in which all members of the campus community may thrive, with a particular focus on faculty of color and women faculty at LMU. Abe also completed the Ignatian Colleagues Program (2009-2011) and has long been committed to expressing values of diversity, equity, and inclusive excellence in the context of Ignatian values and the university mission.

She received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from UCLA (1992), where she trained with the National Research Center on Asian American Mental Health. Abe’s research addresses disparities in mental health service delivery to ethnically diverse populations and her teaching includes a course on Liberation Psychologies, based on the work of Fr. Ignacio Martin-Baró, S.J., one of the Jesuits killed in El Salvador in 1989. In her teaching and scholarship, Abe has worked to connect student learning to lived community realities outside the classroom, a reflection of the Ignatian ideal of a “well-educated solidarity.” She is also a senior research associate at LMU’s Psychology Applied Research Center (PARC), supporting university and community partners in the design and implementation of multi-year, multi-site evaluations with diverse populations using a community-based participatory research (CBPR) framework. Currently, Abe is part of PARC’s statewide evaluation team for the California Reducing Disparities Project (CRDP), a five-year initiative that includes 35 non-profit organizations representing African American, Latinx, Asian Pacific Islander, Native American, and LGBTQ communities in the state of California.

Bryant Keith Alexander is dean of the College of Communication and Fine Arts as well as a professor of Communication and Performance Studies. He is an active scholar, lecturer and performer with publications in leading journals. In his academic and administrative career, Bryant has promoted issues of race, culture and gender diversity; supported issues of equity and social justice; been committed to student-and faculty-engaged decision-making, as well as critical and democratic pedagogy; and supported interdisciplinary studies across departments and colleges.

Before coming to LMU, Bryant held key administrative jobs at Cal State L.A., including associate dean, interim dean of the College of Arts and Letters, as well as acting chair
of the Liberal Studies Department. Prior to joining the faculty at Cal State in 1998, he taught at Texas A&M University, Minnesota State University Moorhead and Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Bryant earned his Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from what is now the University of Louisiana, Lafayette.

Doris Baizley is a playwright and co-teacher with Judith Royer of Voices of Justice, a documentary theatre class in the LMU Department of Theatre Arts. Her newest play SISTERS OF PEACE, about four activist CSJ Sisters, premiered at the History Theatre in St. Paul, MN last spring. Documentary and community-based plays include ONE DAY SARAH HOUSE: LIVING AND DREAMING IN HOSPICE, winner of the Santa Barbara Independent Award for best original script; PH*REAKS: THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES (co-written with Victoria Ann Lewis); and SEX STING, based on an FBI internet case, winner of a Guthrie Theater/Playwrights Center grant, premiered at the Salt Lake Acting Company and was nominated for American Theatre Critics Association’s Steinberg Award for the best play produced outside of New York City. Published plays MRS. CALIFORNIA, SHILOH RULES, and A CHRISTMAS CAROL were developed and premiered at the Mark Taper Forum, ACT Seattle, and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. As story editor for documentary films, she has worked most recently with Anne Makepeace on We Still Live Here! As Nutayunean, winner of a Full Frame Documentary Festival Inspiration Award and Tribal Justice, on PBS’s POV in 2018. Doris is currently working with innovative filmmaker Rodrigo Reyes on his documentary, Sansón and Me.

Wolf Blitzer is anchor of CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, which airs weekdays at 5 p.m. ET, providing viewers with in-depth reports about the political, international and breaking news stories of the day. During the 2020 election cycle, he moderated several Democratic presidential town halls, as well as CNN’s January debate in Iowa. Blitzer also anchored special coverage of Election Night in America surrounding the 2020 election, which lasted several days until CNN was the first to project Joe Biden as the winner and Blitzer was the one to announce the projection. He has also been anchoring the network’s expanded coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

In 2016, Blitzer served as moderator for the CNN Republican Presidential Primary Debates in Las Vegas, Nevada and in Houston, Texas and the Democratic Presidential Primary Debate in Brooklyn, New York. Blitzer was pivotal to CNN’s election coverage throughout America’s Choice 2012, serving as lead anchor on key primary nights, caucus nights and the Emmy award-winning election night. He moderated three of CNN’s Republican presidential debates including the first-of-its-kind tea party debate. During the 2008 presidential election, Blitzer spearheaded CNN’s Peabody Award-winning coverage of the presidential primary debates and campaigns. He also led CNN’s Emmy-winning “America Votes 2006” coverage and “America Votes 2004.” Furthermore, he anchored the network’s coverage during the inaugurations of Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

Blitzer began his career in 1972 with the Reuters News Agency in Tel Aviv. Shortly thereafter, he became a Washington, D.C., correspondent for The Jerusalem Post and reported from the nation’s capital for more than 15 years. Blitzer has been with CNN for 28 years having joined in 1990 as the network’s military-affairs correspondent at the Pentagon. He then served as CNN’s senior White House correspondent covering President Bill Clinton from November 1992 election until 1999, when he became the anchor of CNN’s Sunday public affairs program Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer and remained for more than a decade.

Blitzer earned a bachelor of arts degree in history from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a master of arts degree in international relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. In addition, Blitzer has numerous honorary degrees from educational institutions across the country, including The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.; State University of
New York at Buffalo; The Catholic University in Washington, D.C; Howard University in Washington, D.C. and The Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pa. Follow Blitzer on Twitter @WolfBlitzer and become a fan of CNN The Situation Room on Facebook.

Stefan Bradley’s primary research area is recent African American and higher education history. He is primarily interested in the role that youth have played in shaping post-WWII American society but more specifically, the efforts and abilities of Black college students to change not only their scholastic environments but also the communities that surrounded their institutions of higher learning. Amazingly, young people, by way of protests and demands, have been able to influence college curricula as well as the policies of their schools. This interest in the movements of young people has led him to study Black student activism at Ivy League universities. Bradley’s most recent book, Upending the Ivory Tower: Civil Rights, Black Power and the Ivy League, details the progressive efforts of Black people at eight elite universities during the postwar era to not only desegregate campuses but decolonize knowledge. His first book, Harlem vs. Columbia University: Black Student Power in the Late 1960s, deals with Black students who risked their educations (and potentially their lives) during the famous controversy that took place at Columbia University in 1968- 1969. Bradley also co-edited Alpha Phi Alpha: A Legacy of Greatness, The Demands of Transcendence, which covers the creation and evolution of the nation’s first Black collegiate fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, which was founded at Cornell University. After the uprisings in Ferguson, Missouri and elsewhere occurred, Bradley’s work on student/youth activism has been discussed in media outlets such as the Harvard Law Review, New York Times, NPR, C-Span2 BookTV, CNN, Al-Jazeera, MSNBC, BBC, and BET.

Cheryllyn Branche is the president of the GU272 Descendants Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the memory, commemorating the lives and restoring the honor of the 272 enslaved people sold by the Jesuits of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus in 1838, and others before and after them who were sold as well. Branche desire is to continue to seek justice on behalf of our GU272 ancestors and all who have been shackled mind, body and spirit through enslavement; to collaborate with and support members of our GU272 Descendants Association; to represent our Association and to convey our story on behalf of conveying the truth about our history.

Kristine Brancolini is the dean of the Library, a position she has held since 2006. She arrived at Loyola Marymount University just as the planning began for a new library, which was an exciting opportunity for both library staff and the entire university. The William H. Hannon Library opened in the summer of 2009 and has since been the hub of intellectual and cultural activity on campus.

Dean Brancolini is committed to creating a user-centered library — an environment that honors the past but embraces the future by providing exemplary library services and access to outstanding collections in all formats. She leads an innovative and accomplished team of librarians and library staff members who help provide direct research and learning support to faculty and students.

Dean Brancolini has published widely in the field of library and information science, including media librarianship and digital library development. Her current research interests focus on continuing education for academic and research libraries, specifically the development of research skills and productivity, research self-efficacy and research networks. She is co-director of the Institute for Research Design in Librarianship, a three- year federally-funded program (2013-16) to train and support academic and research librarians who are novice researchers.

Dean Brancolini came to LMU from Indiana University in Bloomington, where she held a number of positions for over 22 years. In her last position, she served as the director of
a joint library-IT digital library program. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Scripps College and a Master of Library Science degree from Indiana University. She also completed coursework for a Ph.D. in Education at Indiana University.

Laura J. Cortez (She/Ella) is a lifelong Bell Gardens resident. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish from CSU, Los Angeles and her Master of Arts degree in Sociology with an emphasis in Community Development from CSU, Long Beach. Cortez has been a Spanish-English interpreter since 2010, including interpreting for domestic violence victims, health, and immigration organizations. Her work focuses on equity, specifically improving the lives of Black, Indigenous and people of color through community-led leadership for current and future generations.

Kevin Curran joined LMU’s Journalism and Communication Studies faculties in August 2020. His career in broadcasting and journalism started while still in high school on Long Island. Curran has held a variety of news and management positions at radio, television, and online outlets with a local or national focus and professional sports teams in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. He has taught communications, journalism, and business courses at colleges in Arizona, Oklahoma, and Texas. Curran holds a BA from Fordham University, an MBA from Arizona State University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma.

Brianne Gilbert is the associate director for the Center for the Study of Los Angeles, where she has led numerous studies involving voter polls, public opinion research, and leaders/elite surveys. She also is a senior lecturer at LMU in the departments of Political Science and Urban and Environmental Studies, teaching courses on political internships, GIS, and geospatial research. Gilbert also has served as a consultant in the fields of sociology, anthropology, GIS (geographic information systems), methodology, and public opinion research. She is the author of Statistics in the Social Sciences: Inferential Statistics as Rhetoric in Sociology. Gilbert received her BA from Wittenberg University and her MA from Florida International University.

Cheryl Grills is a Clinical Psychologist with a current emphasis in Community Psychology. She has been on faculty with LMU for 29 years and is a tenured full Professor. She is a national Past President of the Association of Black Psychologists and founder of Imoyase Community Support Services (ICSS). Grills currently serves as a Los Angeles County Commissioner on the Sybil Brand Commission for Institutional Inspections, which focuses on conditions and practices within county jails, probation and correctional facilities, and group homes for children. She also served as Co-Executive Director of the Los Angeles County Blue Ribbon Commission on Child Protection whose work led to significant reforms in LA County’s approach to child welfare, including establishment of an Office of Child Protection that is designed to reduce the fragmented approach to child welfare in LA and coordinate countywide efforts that require collaboration across disparate County departments. Grills is regularly called upon as a keynote speaker, trainer, or technical consultant within the mental and behavioral health field. She is currently part of the leadership of a team (consisting of the Community Healing Network and The Association of Black Psychologists) working with CIBHS to establish a CDEP for people of African ancestry. She has over 25 years of experience with multi-site, multi-year and multi-level program evaluations and the provision of technical assistance support via her work as Director of PARC@LMU and its sister organization Imoyase Community Support Services (ICSS).

Danielle Harrison is the Co-Director of the Slavery, History, Memory and Reconciliation Project. With over 26 years of experience of working in Christian environments, Harrison is a teacher, facilitator, trainer, consultant, spiritual director, campus minister and retreat director. Before accepting the position at SHMR, she was the director of Mission Integration at Visitation Academy. Harrison also taught Theology at a number of Catholic High Schools in the St. Louis area. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College, Saint Louis University Law School, and Aquinas Institute of Theology, where she received her Masters of Theology with a concentration in Biblical Studies. Harrison is a trained facilitator for Dismantling Racism and promoting Cultural Competency, and is frequently sought after to speak to issues of Equity and Inclusion.

Louvenia Jackson, Ph.D., LMFT, ATR-BC is an assistant professor at Loyola Marymount University Graduate Department of Marital Family Therapy with Specialized Training in Art Therapy. She received her MFT and Ph.D. from Notre Dame de Namur University Art Therapy Psychology Department. Her work on cultural humility in art therapy education has earned her the May 2016 Outstanding Service Award from NDNU’s Art Therapy Psychology Department Ph.D. Program and the American Art Therapy Association’s 2016 Perlie Roberson Scholarship. Jackson is featured in the research book Emerging Perspectives in Art Therapy (Carolan and Backos, 2018), in the co-edited chapter “Wisdom Through Diversity in Art Therapy,” focusing on cultural humility, and competence in art therapy. She has also co-authored a publication with LMU faculty Anthony Bodlovic, Bodlovic, A. & Jackson, L. (2018), A Cultural Humility Approach to Art Therapy Multicultural Pedagogy: Barriers to Compassion. The International Journal of Diversity in Education, 19(1):1-9. In 2020, Cultural Humility in Art Therapy (Jackson, 2020), Jackson’s first authored book will be released. Jackson serves on the American Art Therapy Associations Board of Directors and currently focuses on community-based art therapy practice and research in addressing social justice considerations in art therapy education.

Lawrence (Larry) Kalbers joined the accounting faculty of LMU in 2005. Before joining LMU, he served as professor of accounting, the director of the School of Professional Accountancy, and the associate dean of the College of Management at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University. Kalbers also taught at Wittenberg University, Penn State University and John Carroll University. His teaching interests include accounting and business ethics, auditing and financial reporting. He gained auditing and accounting experience working for J.K. Lasser & Co., Ernst & Ernst, Kalbers and Sturges, Inc., Ernst & Young, and as a sole practitioner. He also served as treasurer for several not-for-profit organizations. Kalbers is a CPA and a member of the American Institute of CPAs, the American Accounting Association, the Institute of Internal Auditors, and the California Society of CPAs. He earned a B.A from Wittenberg University, an M.S. from Kent State University, and a Ph.D. from Penn State University.

Timothy P. Kesicki, S.J., is the President of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the Jesuit Conference promotes common goals and oversees international projects for the Society of Jesus. As Conference President, Fr. Kesicki works with the Jesuit Provincials of the United States and Canada in implementing programs, represents the Conference internationally and serves as the religious superior of the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry and the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley, California. He serves on the boards of Jesuit Refugee Service/USA and America Magazine. Fr. Kesicki entered the Society of Jesus at Loyola House Jesuit Novitiate in Berkley, Michigan, in 1984. His formation as a Jesuit included philosophy studies at Loyola University Chicago, theology studies at the Jesuit School of Theology and studies in educational administration at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York. A frequent contributor to CNN and MSNBC, Fr. Kesicki hails from Erie, Pennsylvania, where he attended local Catholic schools before earning a bachelor’s degree in political science from John Carroll University in Ohio.

Sasha Klupchak holds a PhD in Media Studies from Emory University, where she was a Woodruff Diversity Fellow and Andrew Mellon Teaching Fellow. Grounded in feminist disability studies and media anthropology, her research and teaching investigate how digital media (film and photography, digital storytelling, podcast, installation, transmedia) can document the sensuous movement of disability in space in expansive ways, talking back to generations of medicalized and objectifying representation. Her scholarship has been published in Yearbook of Literature and Medicine and in Images and Human Rights: Global and Local Perspectives (2017), and her anthropological films have screened at museums and film festivals including Ethnocineca, Society for Visual Anthropology, and Days of Ethnographic Cinema.

Before joining CURes, Mahmood facilitated Community Conferences for 400+ juvenile expulsion, arrest, and court-diversion cases referred by the Maryland State Attorney office, the Department of Juvenile Services, the Baltimore City Police Department, and Baltimore City schools while working at the Community Conferencing Center. Her training is informed by Dr. Lauren Abramson, Johns Hopkins Medical Institute; Dr. Beverly Title, author and co-founder of Longmont Community Justice partnership; and Kay Pranis, national leader in Peacemaking Circles. Since moving to Los Angeles in 2011, she has facilitated 300+ Restorative Conferences.

Michael McNaught is assistant director of the Center for Religion and Spirituality at Loyola Marymount University, where he supports a number of continuing education programs and the Martin Gang Institute for Intergroup Relations. Formerly in communications and television production, McNaught has continued his love of cinematic storytelling, especially as an avenue for theological exploration, through his work at the Center and the greater community. He is the current chair of the film showcase at the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, and president of Catholics in Media Associates (CIMA), the Catholic-peer association for the entertainment industry in Los Angeles.

Amy Osborne is a 2016 graduate of Loyola Marymount University’s Master of Arts in Yoga Studies program. Prior to attending graduate school, Amy completed her B.A. in Communication Studies at Northeastern University and worked for six years in marketing and public affairs in Boston & Los Angeles. Amy completed her 200-RYT teacher training at Liberation Yoga in Mid-City, Los Angeles in 2014 and has been a regular home practitioner since 2010. Amy’s training and research is focused on Trauma Informed Mindfulness. Her first experiences as an instructor included teaching in a women’s county jail and at a community center where she developed ongoing programs in Southern California. In September 2016, Amy moved to Southwest Florida and soon after took on ownership of the local yoga studio, North Port Yoga, now North Port Yoga + Wellness (NPYW). She designed 200 and 300 Yoga Alliance Teacher Training programs and successfully graduated 15+ instructors, serving 11+ off- site locations in addition to 30+ weekly yoga classes at the studio. Her goal is to educate the community on the benefits of mindfulness and increase access to yoga and wellness services. Amy is a contributor to Headspace’s The Orange Dot blog and published her thesis, A Year in Yoga: Science and Practice of Trauma-Informed Mindfulness in Fall 2016. Amy rejoined LMU as Program Associate for the M.A. in Yoga Studies program in September 2019 with excitement for the continuation of her journey in Yoga.

Sr. María De Los Dolores Palencia, is a Mexican Religious of Saint Joseph of Lyon Congregation for 50 years. She is a primary school teacher, with a Master’s degree in Theology of Saint Ignatius Spiritual Accompaniment. Over the years, she has worked in urban, rural, indigenous and human mobility pastorals. As part of her Congregational Services, she served as General Counselor and Province Director for Mexico, Honduras and El Paso, Texas. Sr. Palencia is the founder and current director of a migrant shelter, Albergue Decanal Guadalupano, providing humanitarian support for migrants in transit since 2010 in the state of Veracruz, Mexico. She will share her compelling testimony in ministering to the migrants fleeing their homes who travel from South Mexico and South/Central America on their way to the U.S. Border.

Maria Elena Perales works for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange as Director for the St. Joseph Justice Center. She has been working with the sisters for almost 15 years. Perales represents the congregation as her office engages and partners with other religious congregations, organizations, laity groups and community leaders at a local and national level to promote awareness, advocate, pray and act to address social and ecological injustice. She is a proud mother to two young adults, Stephanie and Michael, who are also engaged in nonprofit organizations promoting social justice. As an immigrant from Mexico, Perales can relate to the hardship and anguish immigrants face today from the anti-immigrant political climate and the inequalities the COVID pandemic has surfaced.

Kwame M. Phillips is Associate Professor of Communications and
Media Studies at John Cabot University, specializing in sensory media production, visual anthropology and audio culture. Phillips’ work centers on multidisciplinary engagement and focuses on resilience, race, and social justice. He is co-author (with Dr. Shana Redmond) of the chapter “’The People Who Keep on Going’: A Radical Listening Party” in The Futures of Black Radicalism. He is also co-creator (with Dr. Debra Vidali) of the multi-sensorial sound art work, “Kabusha Radio Remix: Your Questions Answered by Pioneering Zambian Talk Show Host David Yumba (1923-1990).”

Tara Pixley is a scholar of documentary media, where her research interests include journalism studies, visual culture and critical race, gender and queer theory, particularly as it relates to re-visioning oppressed populations in the digital new(s) media sphere. She is an award-winning visual journalist and filmmaker who co-founded Reclaim Photo and Authority Collective — two organizations dedicated to de-colonizing visual media industry and individual practices. Her film and photographic work intersect with her scholarship and advocacy, each addressing the problematics of representation and the possibility of contemporary visual media to reimagine historically misrepresented/underrepresented communities.

Marisa Ramirez serves as Archivist for Archives and Special Collections in the William H. Hannon Library. She attained her undergraduate degree in biology from Loyola Marymount University in 2007 and has been part of the library staff since graduation. In 2018, Marisa received her M.S. in Library Science from the University of North Texas. Now working as an archivist, Ramirez processes incoming collections and creates finding aids for easier access. Born and raised in Los Angeles County, she enjoys working with any collections related to Southern California and natural history.

Peter Rej is a biocultural anthropologist with a background in community- based participatory research and a commitment to understanding (and correcting) health, social, and structural inequalities. Rej earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of Florida, where he investigated how social stressors (e.g., conflict, discrimination, and socioeconomic status) became embodied and influenced health and well-being in both locally based and international projects. He then completed a post-doc at the University of Washington, where he examined the interplay between environment, culture, and specific genetic/epigenetic indicators of health. Currently, Rej serves as a Research Fellow at the Psychology Applied Research Center at LMU and as a Senior Researcher with Imoyase Community Support Services, where he works on the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Project and the Ready to Rise project, respectively. Rej also holds a MA in Anthropology from the University of Cincinnati and a BS in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology from UC Santa Cruz with a minor in History.

Judith Royer, CSJ, has worked as producer, director and dramaturg with new play development programs sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, California Council for the Humanities, Playwrights Theatre, The Mark Taper Forum, Southern Repertory Theatre, Theatre Gallery in Los Angeles, of which she was founder and former artistic director, and a series of Oral Histories/ Documentary Theatre projects with seniors, cancer survivors, veterans and clients from agencies dealing with issues such as homelessness, human trafficking, immigration and restorative justice. Judith is a founding member of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE); former chair of that organization’s Playwrights Program; former coordinator for the New Plays Production; and outgoing respondent’s workshop coordinator for Region XIII Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.

Sharon Sekhon is the founder of the Studio for Southern California History, a nonprofit organization dedicated to critically chronicling and sharing the region’s social history in order foster sense of place. She teaches in the Honors Program and the Department of American Studies at CSUF. Most of her work is archived on line at http://www.lahistoryarchive.org/.

Head of the Office of Catholic Relief Services, Mexico

Cecilia Suárez heads the Catholic Relief Services office in Mexico since 2013. The office supports the efforts of the Catholic church through the national Caritas and social pastoral teams in different dioceses, implementing peacebuilding strategies in places with high levels of violence. Additionally, the office promotes capacity building strategies for church partners to manage disaster risk reduction programs in vulnerable communities. Suárez studied Food Chemistry in the National Autonomous University of Mexico and has a degree in nonprofit administration. She has a special connection with the Sisters of St. Joseph as she is a former student of the Sisters of Saint Joseph school in Mexico City “Colegio Francés del Pedregal” and embraces their belief, “to Christ always faithful.” Currently, she lives in Mexico City with her family.

Sullivan’s current book project, Lesbian Death: Danger and Desire Between Feminist and Queer, interrogates a current anxiety around lesbian extinction through an archival unpacking of the meaning of lesbian within feminist and queer projects. Sullivan is also in the beginning stages of research for a project that uses the herpes virus as a case study for exploring changes to biopolitical understandings of sexual health in a post-AIDS climate and the effects of these changes in the lives of sexually and racially marginalized individuals and communities.

Heather Tarleton is the newly appointed Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Seaver College of Science and Engineering. She also teaches courses in Nutrition, Chronic Disease Epidemiology, Obesity & Behavior, Public Health, Health & Wellbeing in Homeless Communities, Health Services for Marginalized Populations, Healthcare Administration, Cancer Survivorship, and Medical Bioethics. Her primary research projects examine the effects of exercise- based interventions as well as psychosocial interventions on reducing the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and poor quality of life among cancer survivors. The interventions aim to improve cancer survivors’ overall capacity to engage in life by addressing fatigue, balance, musculoskeletal health and strength, cardiorespiratory fitness, neuropathy and psychosocial barriers.

Tarleton works with students to examine the issues concerning the ecology (sociocultural and political landscape) of homelessness and the marginalization of communities. Since wellbeing is a complex phenomenon for those living the homeless experience, she encourages students to become sensitive to diversity of needs, issues with access and availability of city and state services, and interpersonal communication in order to

Diane Terry has over 10 years of experience in the field of social welfare and program evaluation research. Her research focuses on mental health disparities among communities of color, permanency and well-being outcomes for youth and families involved with the child welfare system, and criminal desistance among formerly incarcerated young adults. As a program evaluator, she has specialized in mixed methods, multi-year evaluation studies where she has played a key role in evaluation implementation, mixed-methods data collection, and project management. She currently serves as the Project Coordinator for the California Reducing Disparities Project (Phase 2) Statewide Evaluation Team—a multi-year, multi- site evaluation of community-defined evidence practices addressing mental health and wellness throughout California. Her book (co-authored with Laura Abrams), Everyday Desistance: The Transition to Adulthood Among Formerly Incarcerated Youth (Rutgers University Press, 2017) examines how formerly incarcerated young men and women navigate re-entry and the transition to adulthood in the context of urban Los Angeles.

David C. Turner III is an activist scholar from Inglewood, California. Growing up, Turner recognized the need for change as many of his family members were impacted by mass incarceration and the war on gangs. To Turner, the personal is political, and it has moved him into a life of organizing for social change.

As the Manager of the Brothers, Sons, Selves, Turner leads a coalition of 10 community- based organizations working to end the school-to-prison pipeline and decriminalize communities of color. He brings more than eight years of experience to the Brothers, Sons, Selves Coalition as a seasoned youth organizer and educator.

Currently, Turner teaches at the collegiate level, including classes on hip-hop, research methods, education, and comparative ethnic studies. As an activist, he has participated in the movement for Black Lives as a political education specialist, helping organizations with teach-ins and designing curriculum.

Turner has been featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education, NBC BLK and the New York Times for his activism. He has published articles in Abolition: A Journal of Insurgent Politics, Journal of Critical Studies on Higher Education and Student Affairs, and has an upcoming book chapter about youth organizing in Routledge.

Turner received his B.A. in Africana Studies from CSU Dominguez Hills and his M.S.Ed in Higher Education from the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently a 5th-year doctoral candidate in the Social and Cultural Studies in Education program at UC Berkeley, where his research focuses on youth-based social movements, political identity, and resistance to the prison regime.

Julia Wade earned her Master’s degree in Counseling with a PPS Credential from LMU and her Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy- Neuroscience-Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis. She has a passion for service and education. After completing her undergraduate studies, Wade embarked on a year of service with City Year (AmeriCorps) at Gompers Middle School in Los Angeles. She has worked in the Division of Student Affairs at LMU for 10 years. Wade served as the Senior Administrative Coordinator for Judicial Affairs and served for two years as the Associate Director of Student Success. She currently serves as the Associate Director for Restorative Practices in the Office of Student Conduct & Community Responsibility and as a Case Manager for the Student Affairs Dean’s Office. Wade is currently pursuing a doctorate in Educational Leadership at UCLA, with her dissertation focusing on the use of restorative practices as a response to student sexual misconduct on college campuses.

Research Associate, Center for the Study of Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount University

Mariya Vizireanu is the research associate for the Center for the Study of Los Angeles. With training in anthropology and public health, her independent work has focused on how mental models of health phenomena differ across cultures. As an interdisciplinary mixed-methods researcher, she has authored peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on topics ranging from how social networks influence health behaviors to the evolutionary psychology of food perceptions. Vizireanu earned her Global Health Ph.D. from Arizona State University and her MS in Health Promotion from Indiana University.

Amy Woodson-Boulton is associate professor of British and Irish history and past chair of the Department of History at Loyola Marymount University. She holds a B.A. from UC Berkeley and an M.A. and Ph.D. from UCLA. Her work concentrates on cultural reactions to industrialization, particularly the history of museums, the social role of art, and the changing status and meaning of art and nature in modern society. Published work includes articles and book chapters as well as her monograph Transformative Beauty: Art Museums in Industrial Britain (Stanford, 2012) and a volume that she co-edited with Minsoo Kang, Visions of the Industrial Age, 1830–1914: Modernity and the Anxiety of Representation (Routledge, 2008). She is currently working on a book-length study of ideas about “primitive art” in anthropology and art criticism, tentatively titled Explaining Art: Nature, Authentic Culture, and the Search for Origins in the Age of Aesthetes and Anthropologists. She teaches courses on British, Irish, modern European, imperial, and global history, with a focus on museum studies and cultural, public, and environmental history.

Carol A. Wells is an activist, art historian, curator, lecturer, and writer. She has been collecting posters and producing political poster art exhibitions since 1981. Trained as a medievalist at UCLA, she taught the history of art and architecture for 13 years at California State University, Fullerton. In 1988, Wells founded the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, an educational and research archive that collects, documents, preserves, and exhibits posters relating to diverse movements for social change. CSPG currently holds over 90,000 posters including the largest collection of post-WWII human rights and protest posters in the U.S. www.politicalgraphics.org

Raven Yamamoto (they/m) is the founder of Agency LMU — LMU’s first independent student news publication — and the host of its campus news podcast The Addendum. Having created both with the help of their talented peers, they have spent most of their career centering the voices of students of color in journalism and creating a more inclusive perspective of campus news. They are a recent graduate and alumni of the Journalism program and currently work as a podcast production assistant with Your Magic, LLC.