March 15, 2024, the branch held a zoom presentation with Dr. Veleka Gatling, Assistant Vice President for Diversity and Inclusive Excellence at Old Dominion University. The target population was a diverse group of ten girls from Phoebus High School and their student advisor, Mrs. Fredricka Conyers-Brinkley.  Other participants included members of the Hampton Branch, invited guests, which included members of The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) and two potential branch members.  Dr. Gatling began by advising the girls that diversity and inclusion start as soon as they begin interacting with others and that equity and the desire to belong show up in virtually every aspect of their lives.  Dr. Gatling used an oval chart on primary, secondary, organization and cultural behaviors we each experience in life. She also explained intersectionality, a phrase coined by Kimberle Crenshaw, which in Crenshaw’s own words is “a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects. It’s not simply that there’s a race problem here, a gender problem here, and a class or LBGTQ problem there.”

Everything Dr. Gatling shared was to remind the girls and others on the zoom of the need to be prepared to interact in society at a level that allows them to handle inequities they may face as they strive to surround themselves with an inclusive community.  In closing, Dr. Gatling advised everyone to be “curious” instead of judgmental as they go through life, seeking to find answers to the “why” behavior before judging others

Dr. Veleka Gatling