The Alabama Association of Higher Education Diversity Officers hosts an annual ALAHEDO conference, in partnership with ALAHEDO member institutions. The goal of the comprehensive diversity conference is to build and further a vibrant diversity best practices and research community by bringing together interested practitioners and researchers who have responsibility or interest in the broad field of diversity. The conference provides a mix of oral presentations, posters, and panel discussions that stimulate new research and provide ideas for effective, practical, and sustainable implementation of diversity best practices.
The statewide conference covers topics that include innovation for inclusive excellence in diversity, equity, and inclusion; the impact of media/social media on DEI advancement efforts; diversity in culture; effective recruitment and retention efforts of minority faculty and staff; policy development for best practices of inclusive excellence; diversity in the classroom and diversity in the workforce.
Ijeoma Oluo (ee-joh-mah oh-loo-oh) is a writer and speaker. She is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and her work has been featured in The Guardian, The New York Times and The Washington Post, among many other publications. She was named to the 2021 TIME 100 Next list and has twice been named to the Root 100. She received the 2018 Feminist Humanist Award and the 2020 Harvard Humanist of the Year Award from the American Humanist Association. She lives in Seattle, Washington.
Dr. Nuila is an associate professor of medicine, medical ethics, and health policy at Baylor College of Medicine, where he directs the Humanities Expression and Arts Lab [HEAL] program. His work and research on the use of arts and humanities in medical practice have been supported by the Association of American Medical Colleges, and he has received fellowships for his writing from MacDowell, Yaddo, the Logan Nonfiction Program, and the Texas Institute of Letters. His features and essays have appeared in Texas Monthly, The New York Times Sunday Review, VQR, The Atlantic.com, and the New England Journal of Medicine. His short fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories, McSweeney’s, Guernica, and other magazines.
Over his decade-long career as a practicing physician, Dr. Ricardo Nuila’s first-hand experiences have fueled his writing on health disparities, healthcare policy, and the interface between art and medicine. His stunning debut, The People’s Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine, details the stories of five Houstonians unable to access healthcare in his hometown of Houston, TX.