The San José State University School of Information’s Diversity Committee recently launched its Diversity Webinar Series as part of its commitment to support diversity and inclusivity. The series is being organized by Assistant Professor Michele Villagran, who serves as chair of the Diversity Committee. 

Bringing more than two decades of experience in the public and private sectors as a consultant, cultural intelligence and diversity and inclusion expert, Villagran is uniquely positioned to helm the Diversity Committee and to organize the Diversity Webinar series, which supports section 2.2 of the iSchool’s Strategic Plan with the goal to develop training opportunities and research dissemination activities that focus on professional development around cultural competency in the school’s curriculum.

“Advancing diversity via inclusive excellence is a central and critical component of our school’s approach to educating information professionals,” said Villagran. “As chair of the Diversity Committee, I felt it was important to offer a series of diverse topics from diverse speakers to highlight our commitment to diversity and share this with our community.”

Villagran’s research focuses on diversity and social justice in library and information science and cultural intelligence phenomena within libraries. She currently teaches INFO 200 – Information Communities  for students enrolled in the Master of Library and Information Science degree program at the iSchool.

“With diversity components embedded into numerous courses, we also offer opportunities for students, faculty and alumni to learn about diversity issues,” said Villagran. “I plan to continue with an ongoing Diversity Webinar Series each year to illustrate our ongoing commitment.”

Consisting of eight webinars in total, four hosted in the spring, four in the fall, all sessions of the Diversity Webinar Series are open to the public, free to attend, and conveniently held online via the web conferencing program Zoom.

For the current schedule, please visit the upcoming webcast page and access the recordings on the on-demand web page. Past presentations are also available on the iSchool’s YouTube Channel. Podcasts can be downloaded from iTunes.