Power of Diversity Lecture: “Reclaiming Racial Justice in Equity”

The Office for Inclusion, Diversity and Equal Opportunity will host Estela Mara Bensimon, the Dean's Professor in Educational Equity and director of the Center for Urban Education at the University of Southern California, for the next Power of Diversity Lecture. Titled “Reclaiming Racial Justice in Equity,” the lecture will take place Tuesday, Feb. 5, at 4:30 p.m. in Tinkham Veale University Center, Ballroom A. The lecture will be free and open to the public. Register through the Office for Inclusion, Diversity and Equal Opportunity CampusGroups page. With questions, contact janetta.hammock@case.edu.

About the speaker

Bensimon established the Center for Urban Education at the University of Southern California in 1999. With a singular focus on increasing racial equity in higher education outcomes for students of color, Bensimon developed the Equity Scorecard, a process for using inquiry to drive changes in institutional practice and culture. Since its founding, the Center for Urban Education has worked with thousands of educators and college presidents to help them take steps in their daily work to reverse the impact of the historical and structural disadvantages that prevent many students of color form excelling in higher education. Bensimon has been published extensively on equity, organizational learning, and practitioner inquiry and change. Her most recent books include Critical Approaches to the Study of Higher Education (co-edited with Ana Martinez-Aleman and Brian Pusser), Engaging the Race Question: Accountability and Equity in U.S. Higher Education (with Alicia C. Dowd) and Confronting Equity Issues on Campus: Implementing the Equity Scorecard in Theory and Practice (co-edited with Lindsey Malcom). Bensimon has held top leadership positions in the Association for the Study of Higher Education and the American Education Research Association, Division on Postsecondary Education. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Association for the Study of Higher Education Research Achievement Award, the Distinguished Service Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education and the Outstanding Latina Faculty Award for Research and Teaching from the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education. Prior to heading up the Center for Urban Education, Bensimon served as associate dean at USC’s School of Education and was a Fulbright Scholar to Mexico in 2002.