ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA—Winthrop University President Dan Mahony and the university’s Diversity Council will sponsor a Day of Understanding event on Feb. 20 to celebrate PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion.
President Mahony is the first, and still the only, college president in South Carolina to sign the PwC CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion pledge. This diversity initiative by PwC challenges CEOs and college presidents to encourage conversations around diversity and inclusion in the workplace, provide unconscious bias training to employees, and share actions and initiatives with other CEOs/presidents in the network that have been implemented at their company/university.
“This is a unique and important event for Winthrop,” Mahony said. “The Day of Understanding event fulfills the No. 1 commitment of the pledge: making the workplace a trusting place where difficult conversations around diversity can occur. Over the years, we’ve made great strides in our diversity, but we must continue increasing our understanding and appreciation of it and how it positively benefits our campus.”
The Day of Understanding event will include four speakers who will share “Moments of Bravery,” in which they will share stories of experiencing biased behavior due to their gender, race, age or sexual orientation. Audience members also will be able to participate through an activity allowing them to examine diversity in their own networks, such as groups of friends, coworkers, faith-based organizations, etc.
The speakers include:
*Piyush Dehru, an information systems analyst in Finance and Business Affairs;
*O. Jennifer Dixon-McKnight, an assistant professor who teaches courses in African-American history and U.S. history;
*Eduardo Prieto, vice president for access and enrollment management; and
*Byron Putman ‘94, president of the Winthrop Alumni Association Executive Board.
The event will begin at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 20, in Dina’s Place, followed by a reception in 114 DiGiorgio Campus Center.
The Day of Understanding event comes on the heels of another major Winthrop accomplishment. The S.C. Human Affairs Commission recently announced that Winthrop is once again the top-ranked four-year S.C. university in meeting its affirmative action goals for recruiting, retaining and promoting minorities and women.
For more information, contact Nicole Chisari, communications coordinator, at 803/323-2236 or chisarin@winthrop.edu.
