What is meant by equity and how it can be achieved? Gary Cunningham, Metropolitan State’s 2014 Alumnus of the Year, will address “The State of Equity” in a speaker series open to the public and presented through the MAPL (Master of Advocacy and Political Leadership) Program in the College of Management.
The presentation is the first in a series that will be open to the Metropolitan State community over the course of the spring semester in the master’s level Topics in Advocacy (MAPL 668) course taught by Wy Spano, MAPL Program Director.
Cunningham is president and CEO of the Metropolitan Economic Development Association, which supports entrepreneurs of color. He will speak from 9 a.m. to noon, Saturday, Jan. 16 at Metropolitan State University on the Saint Paul Campus, room 306. Cunningham will address Minnesota’s African-American community specifically to help us understand the state of equity in that community.
“The news these days is often about equity, whether various groups have a fighting chance,” Spano says. “Equity is core to the discussion Black Lives Matter is having with the community. Equity—economic, racial, or gender-based—is being debated everywhere.
“The topic for this course was selected by our students who are studying how to become effective advocates for the causes and organization in which they believe.”
Attendees from the Metropolitan State community are welcome but discussion is limited, time permitting.
Dr. Colleen Wieck, executive director of the Minnesota Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities
Equity as it pertains to the developmentally disabled community will be the subject of the next class discussion which will feature Dr. Colleen Wieck, executive director of the Minnesota Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities, 9 a.m. Jan. 23, in the library, room 306.
For the past five years Cunningham has been a member of the Metropolitan Council, appointed by Gov. Mark Dayton, where he has led the council’s examination of equity in housing for minorities and the poor.