Participants discuss poster presentation during last year's conferenceWritten by: Keaira Turner
Media contact: Alicia Rohan, arohan@uab.edu
The University of Alabama at Birmingham welcomes students, faculty, staff and the public to attend the 2016 Community Engagement Institute conference at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex on Friday, Oct. 14.
The CEI was started to focus on issues related to health equity and social justice. The conference, themed “The Journey to Justice: Expanding the Possibilities,” is made possible by support from the UAB Center for Clinical and Translational Science, One Great Community, the UAB School of Public Health, and the Center for the Study of Community Health.
The primary focus of the conference will be to touch on different practices that individuals can use to challenge injustices and elevate equity as the central intersection at which impact and community change occur. The keynote speakers to present will be Kevin Powell, political activist, and Jeramey Anderson of the Mississippi House of Representatives.
Powell is a political activist, poet, acclaimed writer and entrepreneur hailing from Jersey City, New Jersey. He is the president and co-founder of BK Nation, an organization that focuses on education and leadership training. He travels as a public speaker to various institutions to talk about social injustices and other problems affecting youth today. In 2014, Powell was awarded for his efforts by being named the International Ambassador for the Dylan Thomas Centennial in America.
Anderson is the Democratic member of the Mississippi Home of Representatives in District 110. In November 2013, he became the youngest African-American to be elected to a legislature in United States history. He serves as the president of Purple Knights of America, a nonprofit organization he founded at the age of 16.