Alumni leaders: Meet the Black Alumni Network

Rochester’s newest affinity group works to support Black alumni and students with mentoring, networking, and supporting programs in equity, diversity and inclusion.

In December, the University of Rochester’s Black Alumni Net-work will celebrate its first anniversary as an official affinity net-work. Its mission is to unite, engage, and empower Black alumni, students, staff, parents, and friends and to foster and promote an inclusive community where those of the African diaspora know that they belong.

“Having a name for the group is important,” says Ashley Campbell ’09, ’10W (MS), one of the network’s three global co-chairs and director of equity, diversity, and inclusivity integration, education, and programming within the University’s Office of Equity and Inclusion. “We are no longer an unofficial group that’s blended in with one of the multicultural groups,” says Campbell, who holds a PhD in transformational studies. “We are the Black Alumni Network, and it’s meaningful to articulate that.”

Campbell and the other cochairs—University Trustee Emerson Fullwood and Gina Cuyler ’92M (MD), ’95M (Res)—collaboratively lead the network. They work closely with the network’s leadership volunteers across three committees and the Office of Alumni and Constituent Engagement. Together, they create pro-grams designed specifically for the University’s Black community; develop mentoring and career networking opportunities; and encourage philanthropic support of key equity, diversity, and inclusion goals.

Cuyler, a practicing physician and founder of Comprehension Internal Medicine, says that for many Black alumni, the experience at Rochester was not always what it could and should have been.

“We recognize that and are working with each other and with the University to identify ways to improve what and how we do things, celebrate successes, and truly live the values that this

institution and all of us so fervently believe in,” she says. “We are dedicated to supporting each other, advancing professional opportunities, and accelerating change where it is needed, especially around inequities and racism.”

Network members facilitate candid conversations that address social justice issues within the context of the University’s mission. Specifically, the network has played a key role in developing and leading some of the University’s programs centered on equity, diversity, and inclusion, such as the virtual monthly series, REAL—Rochester’s Equity and Access Leadership—Conversations.

One example of how the network has influenced programming for alumni and friends occurred during the summer of 2020 when the University held its first-ever event to honor Juneteenth, the nationally celebrated day that marks the full emancipation of enslaved people in the US. The inaugural event brought more than 100 Black alumni, students, faculty, and staff together at a pivotal time of racial reckoning. The event resulted in a written report, summarizing the attendees’ equity, diversity, and inclusion recommendations that was shared with University leadership to help influence positive change. The program also paved the way for an annual Juneteenth Celebration to take place, with 2021 offering a monthlong suite of programs for support and reflection and to celebrate Black excellence.

The “Keep on Pushin’: Juneteenth and the Evolution of Emancipation” REAL Conversations event held on June 18 kicked off the second annual celebration. President Sarah Mangelsdorf welcomed attendees; Wade Norwood ’85 offered an invocation; Jazmine Saunders ’22E gave a vocal performance; and Scot Brown ’89, an associate professor of African American studies and history at UCLA, presented the keynote address and guided the audience through a tradition of African heritage, the Nguzo Saba.

“Through the Juneteenth programming, we built community and gained healing—all of this solidified a real family feeling among the University’s Black community,” adds Campbell. “This underscored for us that we aren’t alone, that we are all in this together, and that we have much to honor and be proud of. And even though we might not have all gone to college together at the same time, we share a common connection with this University, and we share a common history associated with our Blackness.”

“The Black Alumni Network provides such an important re-source to the University,” says Fullwood, a retired senior executive from Xerox and parent of a Rochester medical school graduate. “Those in the network have a long connection with the University—for many, it’s where they started their journey into higher education and it’s where they continue to learn, grow, and have a chance to support students and alumni of color, perhaps in ways that have never existed before. This is a formative time for the network, and I am honored to be a part of it.”

People can get involved in the network through regional professional and social activities and by mentoring students and hosting and attending virtual and in-person (in adherence with the University’s COVID-19 guidelines) programs.

All members of the University community are encouraged to volunteer, mentor, and connect with others on The Meliora Collective and through the University’s Black Alumni Network Facebook page.