How We Got Here: Challenges & Achievements

A Conversation with Black Alumni

Thursday, 06 Oct 2016 at 7:00 pm – Sun Room, Memorial Union

African American alumni will have an honest discussion about the challenges they faced at Iowa State as well as describe the support they received and the sense of community they were able to develop that led to their achievements on campus and in their careers. Modupe Labode is Public Scholar of African American History and Museums and an associate professor of history and museum studies at Indiana University-Purdue University. Keecha Harris is president of KHA Inc., a consulting firm specializing in evaluation and organizational development for nutrition and public health support services. Mohamed Omer switched from a crime-fighting forensic chemist to innovative product development in the private sector, recently stepping down as Associate Vice President for Strategic Foresight & Innovation at L'Oréal. Celia Naylor, professor of History and Africana Studies at Barnard College, was the Margaret Sloss Women's Center director from 1993-1997, and will be participating in the q & a.

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Modupe Labode is Public Scholar of African American History and Museums, associate professor of History and Museum Studies at Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis. Her research projects include the African American public sphere in Denver, Colorado; representations of African Americans in museums and historic sites; and personal experiences of school desegregation in Indianapolis. A Rhodes Scholar, Labode earned her D.Phil. from Oxford University. Before joining the faculty of IUPUI she taught at Iowa State, her alma mater, and was the Chief Historian at the Colorado Historical Society from 2001 through 2007.

Keecha Harris is president of KHA Inc, a consulting firm specializing in evaluation and organizational development. Her team has worked with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Rudd Center, the South Carolina Community Loan Fund, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, 11th Hour Project of the Schmidt Family Foundation, School Food FOCUS, Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the Division of Community Health of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Harris serves as vice chair of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation and is an appointee to the Southeastern Health Equity Council of the Department of Health and Human Services. She has an undergraduate degree in dietetics from Iowa State and is a master and doctor of public health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Mohamed Omer received a masters degree in physical chemistry from Iowa State and subsequently joined the New York City Police Department Crime Scene Laboratory, where he became an expert on narcotics and managed the intoxicated driver unit before he switched from forensic chemistry. For the last fifteen years, Omer was focused on innovation and assumed various roles in companies such as Colgate Palmolive, Alberto Culver, Unilever, Mintel and L'Oreal, where he helped develop a range of products. He recently stepped down as Associate Vice President for Strategic Foresight & Innovation at L'Oréal, the world's largest cosmetics company. Previously, he was a Global Personal Care Analyst at Mintel, a leading global supplier of consumer, product and media intelligence for worldwide trends.

Cosponsored By:

• African & African American Studies Program
• Black Graduate Student Association
• Black Student Alliance
• Chemistry
• College of Human Sciences
• College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
• History
• LAS Diversity and Inclusion Committee
• Committee on Lectures (funded by Student Government)