Dr. Olukemi Sawyerr is the inaugural Associate VP for the Office of Academic Innovation (AI) and Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at Cal Poly Pomona. Dr. Sawyerr supports the development and implementation of innovative curricula across the institution. The Office of Academic Innovation curates opportunities for experiential learning, discovery and innovation for the Cal Poly Pomona community through the Center for Community Engagement, Kellogg Honors College, Office of Undergraduate Research, Student Innovation Idea Lab, and Learn Through Discovery Initiative. She has overseen the creation of innovative learning spaces on campus including the iLab, the Library Maker Studio, and the off-campus Innovation Orchard incubator. Dr. Sawyerr has founded multiple innovative curricular and co-curricular programs including the Cal Poly Pomona Entrepreneurship in STEAM (E-STEAM), iStartup Academy, NASA Technology Assessment, and CPP Startup NASA programs. Dr. Sawyerr received her Ph.D. in Strategic Management from the University of North Texas. She is the Principal Investigator on Cal Poly Pomona’s National Science Foundation I-Corps Site Grant and oversees the CPP I-Corps site. Her research interests focus on new technology startup firms and entrepreneurship education impact. Her research has appeared in multiple peer-reviewed journals and she has presented her work at national and international academic and professional conferences.

PAST SPEAKERS

"Simply Because People Refuse to See Me." 
How Racial Justice can inform Social, Educational, and Employment Equity Needs Today
AIRED Tuesday, August 4, 2020, 1:00-2:00 EST

Dr. Yohuru Williams

Distinguished University Chair and Professor

Racial Justice Initiative, University of St. Thomas
Current Dean, College of Arts & Sciences

University of St. Thomas

On June 17 2020, The University of St. Thomas, in Minneapolis MN, announced the formation of a new Racial Justice Initiative (RJI) to be headed by Dr. Yohuru Williams, current dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.  Dr. Williams was set to take new role at St. Johns in NYC at the end of June, but after careful consideration, instead opted to stay at St. Thomas to start RJI, given that Minneapolis and St. Paul are at the epicenter of a national movement for substantive change in the racial justice landscape.

Dr. Williams received his Ph.D. from Howard University in 1998. Dr. Williams has held a variety of administrative posts including serving as Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at Fairfield University, Vice President for Public Education and Research at the Jackie Robinson Foundation in New York City, and Chief Historian for the Jackie Robinson Foundation.

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Dr. Williams is the author of Black Politics/White Power: Civil Rights Black Power and Black Panthers in New Haven (Blackwell, 2006), Rethinking the Black Freedom Movement (Routledge, 2015), and Teaching beyond the Textbook: Six Investigative Strategies (Corwin Press, 2008) and the editor of A Constant Struggle: African-American History from 1865 to the Present Documents and Essays (Kendall Hunt, 2002). He is the co-editor of The Black Panthers: Portraits of an Unfinished Revolution (Nation Books, 2016), In Search of the Black Panther Party, New Perspectives on a Revolutionary Movement (Duke, 2006), and Liberated Territory: Toward a Local History of the Black Panther Party (Duke, 2008). He also served as general editor for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History's 2002 and 2003 Black History Month publications, The Color Line Revisited (Tapestry Press, 2002) and The Souls of Black Folks: Centennial Reflections (Africa World Press, 2003). He also served as an advisor on the popular civil rights reader Putting the Movement Back into teaching Civil Rights.

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Dr. Williams has appeared on a variety of local and national radio and television programs most notably Aljazeera America, BET, CSPAN, EBRU Today, Fox Business News, Fresh Outlook, Huff Post Live, and NPR and was featured in the Ken Burns PBS Documentary Jackie Robinson and the Stanley Nelson PBS Documentary: The Black Panthers. He is also one of the hosts of the History Channel’s Web Show Sound Smart.  A regular political commentator on the Cliff Kelly Show on WVON, Chicago, Dr. Williams also blogs regularly for the Huffington Post and is a contributor to the Progressive Magazine.

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Dr. Williams's scholarly articles have appeared in the American Bar Association’s Insights on Law and Society, The Organization of American Historians Magazine of History, The Black Scholar, The Journal of Black Studies, Pennsylvania History, Delaware History, the Journal of Civil and Human Rights and the Black History Bulletin. Dr. Williams is also presently finishing a new book entitled In the Shadow of the Whipping Post: Lynching, Capital Punishment, and Jim Crow Justice in Delaware 1865-1965 under contract with Cambridge University Press.

Services and Pricing Notes

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Recording available indefinitely to purchasers. 

There are no refunds for the session after purchase. If you cannot attend, you still have access to the recording. 

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