Scholar, activist, and academic advocate Dr. Menah Pratt will provide a workshop on social change for Illinois State for faculty, staff, and graduate assistants at 1:30 p.m. November 17, in the Prairie Room of the Bone Student Center.
With over 30 years of administrative, academic, legal, fundraising, advancement, and community engagement experience, Dr. Pratt leads and manages large-scale transformational strategic initiatives, including diversity and inclusion efforts, at public and private higher education institutions.
The workshop, “Envisioning and Implementing Social Change for Sustainable Campus Transformation,” is free and open to faculty, staff, and graduate students. Those interested can RSVP here by November 10.
With a law degree and a doctorate from Vanderbilt University, Dr. Pratt’s research interests include issues of race, class, and gender in education, with a focus on the transdisciplinary analysis of diversity issues in higher education. The workshop will explore integration of equity, diversity, and inclusion strategies, as well as a legal understanding of the concept of critical race theory and its application in higher education.
Pratt serves as the vice president for strategic affairs and diversity at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where she is also a professor of education. At Virginia Tech, she oversees the Office for Inclusion and Diversity, the Office for Strategic Affairs, and the Council on Virginia Tech History. She was selected as the 2021 Inclusive Excellence Individual Leadership Award recipient by the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education. She is also on the editorial board for Insight Into Diversity. In addition, she is the founder of the Faculty Women of Color in the Academy National Conference and the Black College Institute at Virginia Tech.
She has taught at Fisk University (English and African American literature); American Baptist College (English and speech at the men’s and women’s prisons); Vanderbilt University (sociology and College of Law); and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (African American studies and College of Law).
She is the author of Critical Race, Feminism, and Education: A Social Justice Model; Journeys of Social Justice: Women of Color Presidents in the Academy; and A Promising Reality: Reflections on Race, Gender, and Culture in Cuba. Additionally, her book A Black Woman’s Journey from Cotton Picking to College Professor: Lessons about Race, Gender, and Class in America was awarded the 2018 American Education Studies Association Critics’ Choice Book Award for outstanding scholarship.
The event is sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the President’s Diversity and Inclusion Council. Find more information on events from the Center for Integrated Professional Development.
