Diversity workshop part of Parks fete

Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Williams

The eighth annual Gordon Parks Celebration will present a workshop on diversity titled "How Do We Embrace Diversity?" at 3 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 7, in the Ellis Family Fine Arts Center meeting rooms.

Understanding, valuing, and using the differences in every person is the basis of embracing diversity -- in the workplace, in school and in society, a news release said.

The free mini-workshop will provide some hands-on activities and group work to help understand why diversity matters.

Workshop leader will be Carmaletta Williams, executive director for diversity, equity and inclusion at Johnson County Community College. She is also a published writer, motivational speaker, editor, educator and speaks on diversity and African-American cultural Issues.

A prolific writer, Williams has published on the subjects of racial identification and African-American migration; Langston Hughes, an early 20th century black poet and writer, and the Harlem Renaissance; and noted black writer, folklorist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston. Since 1993, Williams has made more than 300 presentations before academic, professional and community groups, the release said.

At JCCC, Williams was awarded the college's first-ever Diversity Award in 2005, five Distinguished Service Awards, the Burlington-Northern Santa Fe Faculty Teaching Award and the League for Innovations' Innovation of the Year Award. She has received more than 20 awards and honors including the Fulbright-Hays Fellowship for Study in Ghana in 1997 and the 1997 Kansas Professor of the Year Award, awarded by the Carnegie Foundation.