22-23 Trotter Distinguished Leadership Series 🎤

As a national leader in promoting an inclusive campus climate, the Trotter Multicultural Center serves as a campus facilitator, convener, and coordinator of cultural awareness and inclusive leadership education initiatives for students. The Trotter Distinguished Leadership Series is designed to increase healthy discourse and learning throughout the University of Michigan by inviting speakers from the political and public service sectors of national and international note. Our goal is to bring together bright minds with talks that are idea-focused on a wide range of subjects to foster learning, inspiration, and wonder – and provoke conversations that matter to students at the University of Michigan.

The Trotter Distinguished Leadership Series is developed with the financial support of generous donor gifts.





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Trotter Multicultural Center - Multipurpose Room
Purvi Patel (Director of Campus & Civic Engagement at University of Chicago's Institute of Politics) & Reverend Nelson Pierce Jr. (Grassroots Power Builder for Democracy for America) w/ Moderator: Neeraja Aravamudan (Director of the Ginsberg Center)
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Livestream Available (Visible After Registration)
Silvia Pedraza (Professor of Sociology and American Culture at the University of Michigan), Rebeca Ontiveros-Chavez (Managing Attorney at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center), Melanie Grund (Senior Advisor on Immigrant Affairs, Food Security, and Housing

The Trotter Distinguished Leadership Series is a student-centered program that promotes civic engagement throughout U-M by inviting speakers from the political and public service sectors of national and international note.

This session will feature panelists who will discuss the different perspectives of U.S. Immigration, their journey, and resources. 

Dr. Silvia Pedraza (Professor of Sociology and American Culture at the University of Michigan) - She was born and raised in Cuba, from where she immigrated with her family at the age of 12. Her research interests include the sociology of immigration, race, and ethnicity in America, and the sociology of Cuba's revolution and exodus. Her work seeks to understand the causes and consequences of immigration as a historical process that forms and transforms persons and nations; as well as social revolutions’ rupture with the past and attempt to create a different present. With a B. A. and M. A. from the University of Michigan, Silvia Pedraza has long been a Wolverine. She holds a Ph. D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago, where she specialized in Demography as well as Stratification, and in Latin American Studies.

Rebeca Ontiveros-Chavez (Managing Attorney at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center’s) - She serves children who entered the United States and are detained in federal custody in facilities contracted by the Office of Refugee Resettlement and children who have been released to sponsors in Michigan. She has also represented individuals in the metro Detroit area on a variety of immigration matters. In 2019, she was appointed by the Michigan Supreme Court to the Foreign Language Board of Review as the Limited English Proficiency Populations Advocate. She is the co-founder of the Immigrant Justice Lab, an interdisciplinary lab that brings students together from different disciplines at the University of Michigan and MIRC attorneys to work on various projects that advance client needs and improve legal services. She also advocates for equity as a member of the Michigan Advocacy Program’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Melanie Grund (Senior Advisor on Immigrant Affairs, Food Security, and Housing for the Oakland Executive) - She is the founder of GCB Global Strategies, a global entrepreneur specializing in strategic planning and project management for non-profit organizations as well as political mentoring for foreign-born populations in southeast Michigan. As a young peace activist, she worked with children from both sides of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. She went on to work for Congressman Sander Levin and built a comprehensive outreach plan for the wide variety of foreign-born populations in his district, particularly on refugee issues and resettlement. She left government work in January 2015 to start GCB with the mission of “leaving the world better than she found it.” Currently, Melanie serves as the Senior Advisor on Immigrant Affairs, Food Security, and Housing for the Oakland Executive. She is a Core Member of the Southeast Michigan Regional Refugee Resettlement Collaborative and co-chairs the housing sub-group. In December 2023, she will graduate from the Ford School with her Master of Public Affairs where she focuses on immigration policy and food systems change.

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Sankofa Lounge, Trotter Multicultural Center

The Trotter Distinguished Leadership Series is a student-centered program that promotes civic engagement throughout U-M by inviting speakers from the political and public service sectors of national and international note.

This session will feature panelists who will discuss their experience with student activism, strategy, research, and impacts in their careers today. Attendees will receive Trotter Multicultural Center swag and can enjoy light refreshments and cupcakes!

Dr. Charles H.F. Davis III - A third-generation educator and artist dedicated to the life, love, and liberation of everyday Black people. Dr. Davis is currently an assistant professor in the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education and director of the Campus Abolition Research Lab at the University of Michigan. Dr. Davis’ research is broadly concerned with issues of race, racism, and resistance in education and its social context to include a focus on the racialized consequences of higher education on society. His current work examines the ways campus and community organizers work collaboratively to reimagine public safety and security through the divestment of colleges and universities from the institution of policing.

Jon Curtiss - A union organizer and field representative with AFT Michigan. Born in New Jersey, he came to graduate school at the University of Michigan, where he served as president of the Graduate Employees Organization / AFT Local 3550, AFL-CIO (GEO). His experience with GEO led him to his work as a union organizer, and he has helped non-tenure-track faculty and graduate student workers organize unions at UM, Michigan State, EMU, Western, Ferris State, Central, and Wayne State, among others. He has more recently helped workers organize at Michigan Medicine, and he is currently the field representative for the AFT Michigan locals at UM: GEO, the Lecturers’ Employee Organization / AFT local 6244 (LEO), United Physician Assistants of Michigan Medicine /AFT Local 5297(UPAMM) and United Michigan Medicine Allied Professionals/ AFT Local 6739 (UMMAP). His daughter is a student at UM.

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22-23 Trotter Distinguished Leadership Series 🎤
You May Choose As Many Sessions As You Want