BY K AY CARNEY / PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMES CALCAGNO
T
he Saint Mary’s College Committee on Inclusive Excellence (CCIE) has been committed for more than 10 years to advancing the goal of achieving inclusive excellence at all levels of the College community. This ongoing effort is supported by the CCIE’s mission to call upon students, faculty, administrators, and staff from different social, economic, and cultural backgrounds to come together to grow in knowledge, wisdom, and compassion to become active and effective global citizens. Efforts such as the aforementioned occur in the most visible of places on campus, and in conference room meetings where strategies are mapped out and honest dialogue ensures that representation is fair and just. Some of the more outward-facing actions of the CCIE have been the notable and sometimes controversial guests that it has sponsored to speak at Saint Mary’s: Ryan Coogler, award-winning director, producer, and screenwriter whose riveting movie Fruitvale Station tells the true story of an armed white police officer who kills a young unarmed black man; and Melissa Harris-Perry, award-winning political commentator, author, and host of the often confrontational Melissa Harris-Perry Show that aired for four years on MSNBC. Harris-Perry recently presented at Saint Mary’s on “Representation: Power, Resistance, and Media in American Politics,”
during the College’s 44 Days Honoring Black History co-sponsored by the CCIE. The College leadership in collaboration with the CCIE advanced efforts to hire a full-time administrator with significant experience in diversity and inclusion. In 2019, Kathy Littles ’94, PhD, joined the Saint Mary’s community as the inaugural associate provost for Faculty Affairs and senior diversity officer. Part of Littles’
responsibilities include serving as co-chair of the CCIE along with Margaret Kasimatis, provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs. Littles shared that she is excited to return to her alma mater to deliver on her passion about the critical importance of diversity and inclusion. “I’ve always been very passionate about this work around diversity, equity, and social
Embracing the Richness of Diversity at Saint Mary’s CCIE advances pathways to equity and inclusion.
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SAINT MARY’S MAGAZINE
