PROVIDENCE – More than 200 educators, school leaders, alumni, trustees, parents and students from independent schools in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts will gather at the Wheeler School to discuss their schools’ efforts in diversity, equity and inclusion at the first annual Wheeler Diversity Conference on April 27.
The conference theme is “Power, Privilege, Equity & Voice: Raising Empathy & Taking Action.”
The conference is part of the national Pollyanna Inc. network, which seeks to support educators to act on each school’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, and to talk with neighboring schools, by sharing ideas, experiences and knowledge. The goal is to improve inclusion within communities and the understanding that racial, socio-economic, religious and sexual diversity enhances all elements of the community. Similar conferences are being hosted in New York, California, Georgia and Illinois, among other regional sites.
Keynote speaker for the inaugural conference at Wheeler will be Tricia Rose, professor of Africana studies and director of the Center for Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She will deliver her address at 9 a.m. in the Isenberg Auditorium at the Gilder Center for the Arts at Wheeler.
The following schools will gather as inaugural participants: The Carroll School, Community Preparatory School, Fayerweather Street School, Friends Academy, The Gordon School, The Lincoln School, Moses Brown School, Pine Point School, Providence Country Day School, San Miguel School, Shady Hill School, St. Andrew’s School, and St. George’s School.
