��Vlog��ý Little Rock Participates in Institute on Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Campus Centers

John Hill — Mon, 27 Jun 2022 17:20:34 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is one of 75 higher education institutions across the country that has been chosen by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) to participate in the . A team of employees from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock and the City of Little Rock attended a virtual training June 21-24 to learn the TRHT framework and create an action plan to create a new TRHT Campus Center at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock is the only Arkansas university that participated in this year’s training. In addition to the University of Arkansas, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock will be the second Arkansas university to create a TRHT Campus Center. The team consisted of Dr. David Montague, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs, Amber Jackson, equity program manager for the City of Little Rock, Rebecca Feldmann, assistant professor of clinical education at William H. Bowen School of Law, Dr. Richard Harper, dean of students, and Michael Johnson, director of development and external relations. The TRHT Campus Center Initiative Training prepares the next generation of leaders and thinkers to break down racial hierarchies and to dismantle the belief in a hierarchy of human value. The program is based on five pillars – narrative change, racial healing and relationship building, separation, law, and economy. Each center implements its own visionary action plan, based on the TRHT framework, to promote racial healing through campus-community engagement. “The growing importance of, and the need for, truth-telling, narrative change, and racial healing is evident by the number of institutions that elected to attend the institute,” said Tia Brown McNair, AAC&U vice president for diversity, equity, and student success and executive director for the TRHT Campus Centers. “We remain humbled that our colleagues continue to partner with us on this effort to build more just and equitable institutions and communities.” In preparation of applying to be accepted for TRHT training by AAC&U, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock team members consulted with TRHT Campus Center employees at the University of Arkansas and Oklahoma State University-Tulsa. Institutions were selected based on their vision for their Campus Center, the demonstrated commitment of leaders on campus and in the community to the goals of the Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation framework, and their ability to provide evidence for the need of a Campus Center in their community. “��Vlog��ý Little Rock has a strong history and commitment to using and leveraging data to assess problems and how they might manifest themselves within the community and on campus,” Montague said. “A more recent 2021 Campus Climate survey of faculty, students, and staff revealed some disheartening, but poignant information about issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) on campus. We have a diverse student body, and we want to have something that reflects Little Rock’s important history in the civil rights movement. Our hope is for the center to serve as a catalyst for various campus and community initiatives.” The Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Campus Center training and network is administered through the American Association of Colleges & Universities in partnership with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Newman’s Own Foundation. In partnership with the City of Little Rock, the campus center at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock will use truth, racial healing, and transformation as a means to change both the city and university’s cultural competency. “We are excited to participate in this Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation training and support the work of the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock team as they engage their campus community in the critical work of DEI,” Jackson said. The center’s mission is to deepen the community engagement footprint by strategically strengthening our commitment to robust economic development, social justice, and an increased focus on BIPOC student and faculty recruitment and retention. “We want people to come together to share their lived experiences, no matter what that may be,” said Dr. Melvin Beavers, the Chancellor’s DEI fellow. “The center creates a safe place for people to talk about race and racism where people won’t be judged.”

William H. Bowen School of Law welcomes four new faculty members

John Hill — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 17:45:48 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law has added four new faculty members for the 2020-21 academic year. The new professors include Aaron Schwabach, associate professor of law, Rebecca Feldmann, assistant professor of clinical education and director of Bowen’s new Veterans Legal Services Clinic, Desireé Slaybaugh, visiting assistant professor of law, and Carolyn Ryburn, visiting assistant professor of law.

Aaron Schwabach

“Each of these professors brings to the classroom a wealth of experience in both the classroom and practice as well as a passion for teaching. Our students will benefit greatly from that,” said Theresa Beiner, Bowen’s dean. “We are excited to have them join Bowen’s faculty, and I look forward to working with each of them.”

Rebecca Feldmann

An international law scholar, Schwabach’s scholarly interests range from property-related topics, including intellectual property, international and domestic environmental law, and the inheritance laws of the European Union, to the law of war and the complex legal and cultural legacy of Thomas Jefferson. An advocate for the Rule of Law internationally, Schwabach has worked with the American Bar Association’s Central and Eastern European Law Initiative and Rule of Law Initiative to strengthen the development of the rule of law across the world. Schwabach is the past editor of two pieces in UNESCO’s Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems. He is also a current member of the editorial board of the Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law. An advocate for Americans who cannot afford legal representation, Feldmann began her legal career as an attorney at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, where she represented low-income immigrants and their U.S. citizen family members in a variety of immigration proceedings. Before joining the Bowen faculty, Feldmann held clinical teaching positions at Villanova, Seton Hall, and Georgetown, where she supervised students representing survivors of trauma in administrative proceedings.

Desireé Slaybaugh

Prior to joining Bowen, Slaybaugh served two years as a Westerfield Teaching Fellow at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law and one year as a C.V. Starr Lecturer of Law at the Peking University School of Transnational Law in Shenzhen, China, where she also taught contracts drafting and international human rights law. Before transitioning to teaching, Slaybaugh practiced at a nationally recognized plaintiffs’ law firm in Dallas and devoted pro bono services to a local human rights nonprofit.

Carolyn Ryburn

A Bowen graduate, Ryburn worked in private practice for the Barber Law Firm in Little Rock and as an in-house counsel prior to transitioning to teaching. In practice, she specialized in insurance coverage defense and workers’ compensation litigation, including practicing before the Arkansas trial and appellate courts. Ryburn then worked as employment counsel for Simmons Bank, a multibillion-dollar bank with locations in eight states. While in-house, she managed and practiced in employment litigation before the Arkansas Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, various states’ unemployment agencies, and in courts throughout the company’s multi-state footprint.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

����Vlog��ý Little Rock Participates in Institute on Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Campus Centers

William H. Bowen School of Law welcomes four new faculty members

- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Participates in Institute on Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Campus Centers