Diversity Champions
Congratulations to our Diversity Champions
Since 2008, OCC Highland Lakes Campus Diversity Chair Allison McFadden-Keesling has successfully coordinated the very popular and largely attended Human Library at her campus.
Through this event, she offers a unique way to fight racism and prejudice by providing an opportunity for people to have meaningful conversations with someone different from themselves.
Recently, McFadden-Keesling presented about the Human Library at a poster session and as a guest presenter at two Michigan Library Association Academic Libraries Conferences. On Saturday, October 17, 2015, she enthusiastically volunteered to implement a Human Library experience for the Optimist Club of Central Detroit.
Aside from her Human Library initiative, McFadden-Keesling strives to come up with creative ways to keep diversity and inclusion in the forefront of everyone’s mind. To ensure OCC Highland Lakes Campus employees have access to diversity and inclusion-themed documentary films, she created a special collection for these loanable materials at the Highland Lakes campus library. For the last eight years, she has organized Highland Lakes’, “African American Read-in.” Additionally, she helps coordinate the Diversity and Inclusion Fair at her campus. McFadden-Keesling also actively seeks opportunities to work collaboratively with the college's Student Life office on Diversity and Inclusion events. Lastly, over the many years of her involvement, she has moderated film viewings and discussions of “The Great Debaters,” “Anyone and Everyone,” “Iron Jawed Angels.”
McFadden-Keesling will be recognized on the Diversity Champion Honor Roll sponsored by the Race Relations & Diversity Task Force of the Birmingham Community House in early May. The Task Force is the beneficiary of a Kellogg Foundation grant. Its goal is to develop and maintain an open, intentional community that works to overcome racism, prejudice and discrimination through education, advocacy and response.