Join the fourth annual Academic Excellence: Creating Inclusive Spaces event

The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusive Excellence would invites you to the fourth annual Academic Excellence: Creating Inclusive Spaces day-long workshop.

Talented and committed faculty and staff will share their passion and best practices for creating campus spaces where all of our students can reach their potential. 
 
We will begin the day with coffee and pastries and serve lunch. You’ll be able to meet colleagues from around the campus. Mission leave can be used for this day-long workshop. Can't make it to the sessions in person? Join via the live stream link below on Monday.

Schedule

PCH MVR - “Advising at the Intersections”  
Dr. Becky Vartabedian                                    
This workshop invites participants to consider their work as advisors and coaches (whether formal or informal) using an asset-based orientation to the students we work with. We’ll discuss asset-based strategies for working with students, examine a full-year program for asset-based advising, and use our shared experience to develop focused questions about our own practices in ways relevant to the diverse practices of advising at Regis. 
            
PCH 328 - “Access and Accessibility: Course Readings Made Easy”                             
DML Staff, Courtney Drysdale, Ali Gomez, and Rhiana Murphy
This workshop will step participants through the process of getting their course readings into an online learning environment with as little stress as possible. Librarians and experts from Student Disability Services will help you find materials in library resources, share those resources in WorldClass, and give you a place to go for help. Bring a laptop or another mobile device as there will be time to work with your readings and ask questions! 
 
PCH 307 - “Inclusive Hiring Handbook”
Dr. Elizabeth (Liz) Grassi, Dr. Michael Chiang, Dr. Wladimir Marquez
This workshop will introduce the Inclusive Hiring Handbook and walk folks through the highlights.

PCH MVR - “Inclusive Teaching Practices In and Out of Courses”
Dr. Heidi Blair, Jonnia Torres Carolan 
In this workshop, participants will identify the different facets of inclusive teaching and learning and why we must make meaningful changes in our practice. Participants will gain foundational knowledge for supporting a culture of equity in and out of the classroom.
 
PCH 328 - “Advising at the Intersections”  
Dr. Becky Vartabedian                                    
This workshop invites participants to consider their work as advisors and coaches (whether formal or informal) using an asset-based orientation to the students we work with. We’ll discuss asset-based strategies for working with students, examine a full-year program for asset-based advising, and use our shared experience to develop focused questions about our own practices in ways relevant to the diverse practices of advising at Regis. 
 
PCH 210 - “Innovation Thinking as an approach to creating Inclusive Spaces”
Dr. Ken Sagendorf
This workshop will have a mix of teaching and learning, business, innovation and design from the perspective of a college professor and father of two college students. We’ll look at the question: what experience helps our students make the progress they are seeking? while considering our individual jobs, circumstances (and they change!) and innovations.
            
PCH 307 - “Access and Accessibility: Course Readings Made Easy”                             
DML Staff, Paul Betty, Ali Gomez, and Neal Schlein
This workshop will step participants through the process of getting their course readings into an online learning environment with as little stress as possible. Librarians and experts from Student Disability Services will help you find materials in library resources, share those resources in WorldClass, and give you a place to go for help. Bring a laptop or another mobile device as there will be time to work with your readings and ask questions! 
 
PCH 309 - “Advising for Diverse Populations”
Dr. Ramon Walker 
This workshop will be student-centered and focus on creating inclusive spaces as it relates to advising a diverse student population. Not all students learn the same way. We learn from those whose experiences, beliefs, and perspective are different from our own. How do we create an inclusive community to help students of color and first-generation students feel they belong at our institution? 

“(Re)Framing Equity Work: Moving Away from the Formulaic and Focusing on the Mosaic”
Dr. Roberto Montoya, Chief Educational Equity Officer, Colorado Department of Higher Education
Dr. Montoya’s presentation will focus on how we must all continue to refine and expand our equity work and center communities through radical responsiveness. This talk will focus on three calls to action and how we must all lead with equity and dignity in these transformational and changing times.

PCH 315 - "Creating Inclusive Environments for Students with Intellectual Disabilities”
Dr. Jeanine Coleman
This workshop will focus on creating inclusive environments for students with intellectual disabilities who live, work, and play in our community. With the beginning of the GLOBAL Inclusive program at Regis, we will discuss how faculty, staff, and students can support and include students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Using a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework, we will discuss physical, social, and academic strategies for inclusion. 
 
PCH 328 - “Regis Inclusive Archives Program”
Hannah Miller and Sean Gruno, Digital Initiatives and Preservation Department
This workshop will focus on the Regis Inclusive Archives Program, which seeks to capture and preserve the real-life memories, perspectives, and actions of Regis students, staff, faculty, and alum, especially the lived experiences of historically marginalized communities on campus.
 
PCH MVR - “Advising for Diverse Populations”
Dr. Ramon Walker
This workshop will be student-centered and focus on creating inclusive spaces as it relates to advising a diverse student population. Not all students learn the same way. We learn from those whose experiences, beliefs, and perspective are different from our own. How do we create an inclusive community to help students of color and first-generation students feel they belong at our institution? 

Meet Dr. Roberto Montoya, our keynote speaker

Dr. Montoya has worked and researched at all levels of the educational system. He began his career as a diversity recruiter for Colorado Mesa University. He worked in enrollment at Regis University, and more recently, at the University of Colorado Denver as an instructor and researcher.

He has also worked in the private sector for two Fortune 500 companies; served as the manager of diversity and engagement for the City and County of Denver at the Denver International Airport; and was the west regional manager for the Government Alliance on Race and Equity at Race Forward.

In August 2021, Dr. Montoya took on the new position of chief educational equity officer for The Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE). In this position, he supports the Department’s diversity, inclusion, justice, and equity (DIJE) goals and promotes the vision of a Colorado higher education community that is inclusive and deliberate in erasing the persistent equity gaps in educational attainment across all student demographic categories. In this position, Dr. Montoya serves as a catalyst and advocate for educational equity initiatives and systemic change at Colorado’s institutions of higher education to develop quick and sustaining results that support historically racialized, underrepresented, and marginalized students.

Dr. Montoya has numerous peer-reviewed publications, and his research focuses on LatCrit, educational equity, speculative race fiction, and teacher education. He holds a B.S. in political science from Colorado Mesa University, an M.A. in ethnic studies from Regis University, and a Ph.D. in urban education from the University of Colorado Denver.

Forged in the barrios of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Dr. Montoya is committed to community, praxis, and elevating BIPOC epistemologies. He is a father, partner, scholar, educator, and self-proclaimed jazz and hip-hop head.