News
Keith Jenkins

Alvarado-Fischer serves as the vice president, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion officer at Excellus BlueCross BlueShield and volunteers for numerous community organizations. As a result of her own intersecting identities, she has a strong passion for social justice with a special interest in women, Latinx, and LGBTQ+ issues.

People from across the university are helping RIT make substantial progress on the initiatives laid out in the Action Plan for Race and Ethnicity. Launched in July 2021, the plan unveiled an extensive series of initiatives designed to make RIT more diverse, equitable, and inclusive.

RIT’s annual event commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day will feature a keynote address by a faculty member whose work explores the intersections of communication, race, and identity. Katrina Overby, an assistant professor in the School of Communication, will headline the sixth annual Let Freedom Ring.

RIT will launch a new yearly tradition this week when students, faculty, and staff gather Friday for the first Together RIT: A Day of Understanding, Solidarity, and Racial Reconciliation. Registration closes Oct. 19 and is required to ensure a seat for desired sessions.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist will deliver the keynote address at RIT’s annual celebration of the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr. Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of The 1619 Project and a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine, will headline RIT’s 41st Expressions of King’s Legacy.

Nearly 30 events varying from interactive lectures to film screenings to a PC game-testing session are planned for the inaugural Together RIT: A Day of Understanding, Solidarity, and Racial Reconciliation on Friday, Oct. 21.

RIT has launched a new survey that will allow the campus community to provide confidential, honest feedback about the university’s ability to create an inclusive, diverse, engaging, and supportive environment.

RIT’s annual Let Freedom Ring event has been rescheduled to take place from 12-1 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 1, in Ingle Auditorium. The event was originally planned to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but was rescheduled when RIT closed due to a powerful winter storm.

RIT received national recognition for its work to help diversify the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workforce. STEM Workforce Diversity Magazine ranked RIT among its top 20 universities for 2021.

INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine has recognized RIT as a 2021 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award recipient and a 2021 Diversity Champion. This marks the eighth year in a row RIT has been named a HEED Award recipient and seventh consecutive year as a Diversity Champion.

RIT has appointed Perry Ground, an educator and storyteller from the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation, as the newest Frederick H. Minett Professor. The Minett Professorship brings distinguished multicultural professionals to RIT to share their professional knowledge and experience with RIT’s students, faculty, and staff for one academic year.

RIT unveiled its Action Plan for Race and Ethnicity, outlining numerous new initiatives that will guide the university’s work in diversity and inclusion over the next several years. Vice President and Associate Provost for Diversity and Inclusion Keith Jenkins, who led efforts to compile the plan, answered several questions about the plan and its implications.