Members of the Anti-Racism Working Group announced

A message from Dr. David Malloy, King's Principal:

Today, Dr. John Mitchell, Associate Academic Dean and Acting Principal of Brescia, and I are pleased to announce that the members of the King’s/Brescia Joint Principals’ Anti-Racism Working Group have been selected.

The members representing King's will be:

• Co-Lead - Dr. Vidya Natarajan, Writing Program Coordinator/Lecturer
• Student - Deborah Kamba, Fourth Year Criminology
• Staff - Amna Wasty, Exchange and International Student Advisor, King's International and Nikki Sasso Mitchell, Communications Assistant, Communications & Media Relations
• Alumni - Siham Elkassem, BSW '15, MSW '16
• Faculty - Dr. Julius-Kei Kato, Religious Studies
• Equity Committee - Dr. Esra Ari, Lecturer, Sociology
• KUCSC - Zainab Al-Jaiashi, Vice-President, Student Affairs and Fourth Year Double Major in Political Science and Social Justice & Peace Studies and Roshaydia Morgan, Diversity/Inclusion Commissioner and Third Year, Honours Specialization in Social Justice & Peace Studies with a minor in Women's Studies

Dr. Mitchell and I were incredibly pleased and thankful to our respective communities for the tremendous response to the call for those interested in participating in this working group. Nearly 60 members of the King’s and Brescia communities answered the call. It is very heartening to know that so many students, staff, faculty, and alumni from both King’s and Brescia understand the importance of diminishing racism on our respective campuses and were willing to come forward to lend their support.

We would also like to thank everyone who took the time to review and provide feedback for our Working Group’s Terms of Reference. It was an excellent opportunity to seek consultation on our initiatives.

It is important that King’s and Brescia are working together on a common set of social justice values. This is putting our Catholic values and social teaching, such as the inherent dignity of the human person, into action.

Thank you to all who considered applying for membership in the group. That demonstrates your devotion to making our campuses safe for everyone. It is so encouraging to see this spirit at King’s and Brescia. For those members of our community who are not officially a part of the Working Group, we all have a part to play in making the King’s and Brescia campuses safer, more respectful and more equitable environments in which to study, research, work and live.

I continue to welcome your ideas via email.

As always, take care of yourself, each other and we will work together to make King's a place where the values of equity, diversity, and inclusion are put into action.