CWU alumni to participate in EDIB panel May 9

The College of Education and Professional Studies (CEPS) will be hosting an Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (EDIB) alumni panel on Thursday, May 9, and members of the CWU and Ellensburg communities are invited to attend.

The free event, from 4-6 p.m. in the SURC Theatre, is open to the public and will also be available on Zoom. Registration for virtual attendance is available at cwu.edu/events.

Four leaders from the CEPS alumni community will guide the conversation and share their experiences with EDIB initiatives in the workplace. The panelists will share and discuss their personal experiences and professional work as it relates to EDIB in their fields: 

• Alejandro (Alex) Castro-Wilson, fifth-grade teacher, Renton School District
• David Puente, director, YOUR Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs
• Erykah Weems, senior research associate, Justice + Joy National Collaborative (J+J); independent consultant
• Oscar Licon-Eusebio, executive director, North Central Washington (NCW) Equity Alliance

The moderator will be Dr. Alberta Jones, a CWU assistant professor of Curriculum, Supervision, and Educational Leadership.

The panelists will share their insights with the audience, many of whom will be students, about supporting EDIB initiatives and leveraging the benefits at their future workplaces. Their stories will inspire others in the CWU community about ways we can live into our vision to be a model learning community of equity and belonging.

The CEPS leadership team also believes that the college and institution are stronger when a diversity of identities, values, backgrounds, ways of knowing, and nationalities are represented among our community members. The CEPS EDIB Vision Statement proclaims:

“By pursuing diversity, our students will have better educational experiences, learn to challenge stereotypes, draw inspiration when they see themselves in our faculty, staff, and college leaders, and be better prepared to enter the workforce.”

It goes on to say: “Through an integrated design for EDIB approach in everything we do, CEPS will increase diversity, promote inclusion, and design out inequities from our systems; we will create an environment where CEPS community members will feel they belong—that is, feel welcomed, included, heard, valued, and connected.”

The May 9 panel in the SURC Theatre is sponsored by CEPS and Alumni Relations. If you have questions about the event, email Alumni Relations Coordinator Xiaoyin Zhong at xiaoyin.zhong@cwu.edu.