“The heartfelt testimony given by members of our community in the course of the summer has made it searingly clear that racism is also present here at Fordham,” Father McShane said in his September 12 State of the University address, referring to stories of discrimination students and alumni of color shared, largely on social media.

“As painful as that admission may be, we must face up to it. Therefore, let me be clear: anti-racism, diversity, and inclusion are institutional and mission priorities at Fordham.”

Case in point: The trustees have mandated annual anti-racism training for all faculty, students, staff, and administrators—including the president’s cabinet and the board itself. And they have charged the newly renamed Mission and Social Justice Committee with ensuring that diversity and anti-racism are central to the University’s efforts.

In late October, Fordham Magazine brought together six members of the board for a candid discussion of bias, inclusion, and what it will take to bring about meaningful, lasting change at the University and beyond.

The Participants

VALERIE RAINFORD, FCRH ’86
Moderator
Valerie Rainford is the CEO of Elloree Talent Strategies. Previously, she was a managing director at JPMorgan Chase, where she led the company’s Advancing Black Leaders strategy. She also had a 21-year career at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where she was the first Black woman to rise to senior vice president. She is the author of Until the Brighter Tomorrow: One Woman’s Courageous Climb from the Projects to the Podium (Elloree Press, 2014). A Fordham trustee since 2019, she is currently spearheading anti-racism trainings among the trustees and within the University as part of Fordham’s action plan for addressing racism.

ROBERT D. DALEO, GABELLI ’72
Chair, Fordham University Board of Trustees
Bob Daleo is a former vice chairman of Thomson Reuters, where he served as executive vice president and chief financial officer before retiring in 2012. He joined the Fordham Board of Trustees in 2008 and was elected chair in 2012.

MARY ANNE SULLIVAN, TMC ’73
Vice Chair, Fordham University Board of Trustees
Mary Anne Sullivan is senior counsel at Hogan Lovells. Previously, she served as general counsel for the U.S. Department of Energy. She became a Fordham trustee in 2016 and has been vice chair of the board since 2018.

ANTHONY P. CARTER, FCRH ’76
Anthony Carter retired in 2015 as vice president and chief diversity officer at Johnson & Johnson. At Fordham, he has served as a member of the Diversity Task Force, and in 2017 he led the search committee for a chief diversity officer. He joined the board in 2018 and is now co-chair of its Mission and Social Justice Committee.

THOMAS J. REGAN, S.J., GSAS ’82, ’84
Father Regan was named superior of the Jesuit community at Fordham in July 2020. He previously served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the Graduate School at Loyola University Chicago, and as a Fordham trustee. He rejoined the board this year and is now co-chair of its Mission and Social Justice Committee.

GUALBERTO RODRIGUEZ, FCRH ’95
Gualberto Rodriguez has been the chairman of Grupo Navis since 2017 and managing partner of Semillero Ventures since 2016. From 2005 to 2017, he served as president of Grupo Navis, the San Juan, Puerto Rico-based firm that was founded by his grandfather in 1960 as Caribbean Produce Exchange. He joined the Fordham Board of Trustees in 2019.

The Discussion

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity and space.

VALERIE RAINFORD: So, the world has this problem, and many feel it’s pretty overwhelming and don’t know where to start. What gives you hope that we can make progress at Fordham?

BOB DALEO: One of the intentional actions we are taking is refining the focus of the trustees’ Mission and Social Justice Committee, which has oversight responsibility for our antiracism strategy. If we’re going to cure this, you have to start at the board level to make sure that the institution has in its process what the Jesuits have in their heart. And that’s a hard transition, to go from head and heart to how we behave as an institution.

We are an organization whose mission has always been about social justice. We’ve always talked about educating young men and women for others. What does that mean if it’s not for all others?

Calling out “social justice” in the title of this committee is our way of deliberately emphasizing our intent and ensuring that we stay focused.

We don’t have all the answers, but we are committed to combating racism, overt and covert, and doing our part to ensure the opportunity and ability for all to generate real wealth, to share in the American dream.

Understanding the Pain

In conversation, the trustees discussed some pernicious examples of bias and racism that students have experienced on campus in recent years—and they related those instances to their own experiences as undergraduates. Allowing these intensely personal stories to surface, they said, is part of the process of spurring the entire Fordham community to reflection and action.

RAINFORD: Are there specific experiences with racism that drive how you think about the work we are undertaking?

ANTHONY CARTER: We had an issue on campus several years ago when I was on the President’s Council. It was explained to me that a Black student, on move-in day—one of the most enthusiastic days for students—went downstairs to bring more stuff up to his dorm room, and when he got back, the N-word was carved into his door.

I wasn’t a trustee at the time, but my son had just graduated a year or so before that happened. I didn’t ask what is wrong with the school. I asked, what’s wrong with our students and families? Our focus was on making sure that the student did not feel the incident was systemic; it was not the baseline of what happens at Fordham.

That example brought back memories that I had of the white student union as a Fordham undergraduate during the 1970s, and my feeling, as a grown man still experiencing these things, is, how do we console? How do we make someone feel whole again? How do we make folks who are constantly subjected to this feel that we are better than this, and that your very being here, and that very experience here, indicates we have a lot of work to do?

I am emboldened, I am hopeful, because the leaders on this team believe as I do, that there’s zero tolerance for racism at Fordham University. And I think our students need to know that.

MARY ANNE SULLIVAN: Hearing Anthony’s examples makes me think of the Instagram posts by Fordham students and alumni after George Floyd was killed, and how shocked and hurt I was at how some Black students had been made to feel unwelcome. There was a story of a student who brought his little brother to see Fordham, and while he was giving his little brother a tour of the campus, he got challenged that he “didn’t belong” there. Having brought my little sister to campus when I was an undergraduate, and having her be so welcomed—it just crushed me to see that Black students were having such a different experience.

RAINFORD: Mary Anne, were you surprised, or was it the contrast that made you feel crushed?

SULLIVAN: It was the contrast, that I had done something so similar and had such an absolutely opposite experience.

GUALBERTO RODRIGUEZ: What it brought up for me is an experience I had in the first month of sophomore year at Fordham. I was in a U.S. history class, and the professor called on me to finish a very common American nursery rhyme parents use to put their kids to sleep. I didn’t know it, and he put me on the spot in front of the entire class by asking, “How come?” “Well, I’m from Puerto Rico,” I responded. And he’s like, “Isn’t that part of the U.S.?”

I felt so ashamed, that I really didn’t belong. I ran to my new theology professor, a Jesuit, and, like Anthony said, he consoled me. He made me realize, “You do belong. I know this professor. He’s a very kind man. He just doesn’t know about your background.”

I had written a letter, in my fear that I somehow found myself in the wrong place. He read my letter—I was trembling—and he said, “I think you should send this to him, and you should have a conversation.” So, my Jesuit professor, through the wisdom of his loving advice, empowered me to take on this issue by myself. And it was a beautiful conversation with a very kind man who simply had never thought about why a student from Puerto Rico would not know a common nursery rhyme in the States.

So my hopes are, in this whole process of tackling racism, that we dig deep for the Jesuit approach, a very loving, consoling, compassionate one, focused on justice with compassion, without anger.

THOMAS REGAN, S.J.: I taught for 19 years at Fairfield University in Connecticut. And Connecticut prides itself on planting dogwood trees. Every spring they have this magnificent dogwood festival, and the colors are just breathtaking. I was living in a residence hall, and I said to the student who lived next door to me, “I know it’s finals, but you need a little break from studying. You have a car. Go up to Greenfield Hill, and just allow yourself to see the beauty of Fairfield.” And so after dinner that night, I walked by his room. I said, “How was the dogwood festival?”

And he says, “Well, it was really pretty, but I got stopped three times by the police in Fairfield.” And your heart just goes out to him. Why can’t he go up to Greenfield Hill, like any other student, and have an enjoyable experience? Why is he deprived of that?

RAINFORD: So, the unfortunate reality is that racism is not new and is as prevalent today as ever. Each of us has seen it before, but have we taken it on to end it? To make it clear that as an organization, we will not tolerate racism? Now is the time to openly and proactively take it on as trustees of this great institution that we all love.

Making Anti-Racism Part of the Fordham DNA

The trustees spoke about the need to root out racism at the University in a systemic way, and why, despite a host of challenges related to remote learning and the ongoing economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, they are committed to using the board’s authority to unite the community in combating racism and educating for justice.

RAINFORD: What are your thoughts for how we will embed anti-racism policies and practices in how we lead as a board?

CARTER: What I want us to be conscious of is that while we don’t have all the answers, the questions that we’re asking as a governance body can lead us to look for solutions. And not only look for solutions but to hold leaders in the Fordham community and beyond accountable for those solutions.

But there are two things, I call them syndromes. One is the fatigue syndrome. And one is the obvious racism syndrome. The fatigue syndrome allows us to believe, “Oh man, this has been going on for so long.” And I hear this from a lot of my white friends. “It’s not the time to talk about this. Since George Floyd and all the things happening before that, we’re just so fatigued.”

The racism syndrome says to me that we at Fordham have all made ourselves accountable. Whether we experienced racism or not, with our action plans, we embrace the fact that racism affects us all. This is not the time to be fatigued.

There are some things embedded in our strategic plan around this topic. But now we have embraced anti-racism policies and behaviors and mechanisms to solve this thing in a way in which we own it. And our Fordham community must know that, because we put people on notice. We put our own board on notice.

SULLIVAN: If we’re going to be relevant going forward, we have to make rooting out racism part of our DNA. This can’t just be a nice-to-have that we do on the side. It has to be a systemic change that comes about by a thousand different actions we take. It has to be part of our course offerings, part of our student body, part of our faculty, part of our public safety force.

It’s got to be everybody’s job to make Fordham relevant for the future. And the reality is, the future has many more students of color who are going to be looking for places in college, and a society that demands that we be representative of the communities we live in.

At my law firm, we cannot put forward a team for a client on a project if we don’t show that we are including members of color. And Fordham’s role is to fill the pipeline so that those people are there.

And Anthony, we do have a lot in the strategic plan that was already focused towards educating for justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion, but we’re now saying with everything we look at, how is it responding to the issue of racism in our society? How are we fixing the problem at Fordham in this one area, in this one area, in this one area?

We have four broad goals in the strategic plan, and I would say three of the four pretty explicitly lend themselves to anti-racism objectives. Holistic student development—addressing the needs of students to feel respected, to feel consoled, when necessary. Walking with our community. We sit in New York City, a very diverse community, and we are not nearly as diverse as the community we sit in. The goal is to develop more partnerships of all kinds that will engage the broader community. We are looking for ways to strengthen what we’re doing to have a greater impact. For example, cybersecurity is an area where we are partnering with the historically Black colleges and universities on a cybersecurity initiative. The fourth broad objective is STEM-plus. I would say people of color are underrepresented in STEM.

I’m a to-do list kind of person, and so I want to see what’s on our to-do list that is going to address this problem so we’re not just having pious thoughts and writing beautiful statements.

Changing the Way Fordham Looks

The trustees spoke about the barriers between Fordham’s campuses and the surrounding areas of New York City, and of efforts to recruit and retain diverse faculty and students.

RAINFORD: Maybe this is for you to help us with, Father, but what is Fordham’s unique opportunity given its Jesuit traditions around social justice? And what’s the thing that gives us the ability to do this differently than probably any other university in New York City?

FATHER REGAN: We have to change the way that Fordham looks. I’m just coming off six years of being dean of arts and sciences at Loyola University Chicago, and every time we hired a tenure-track faculty member, they sent three candidates up to the dean. And so I said, “If we don’t have a person of color on that list, you’re going to get it back.” It’s very competitive, but you have to be really intentional that you’re going to do this and hold people to the fire. Whoever is applying, the HR managers have to say, “Bring me a diverse slate of candidates and let’s change the way that Fordham looks.”

To speak to the Jesuits, we have this incredible Jesuit network. We could create scholarships for the students coming out of the 56 Jesuit high schools in the U.S. If you’re a person of color, you have a home at Fordham. We’re in New York; you can’t get a more diverse city than New York. And so we have to be reflective of this city.

But we also have to make people feel welcome. Because I listen, and see on Instagram—the students want to come, people who work here want to come, but they want to see people who look like them. We really have to say, this is who we are and we’re going to put up the money to make this happen.

RODRIGUEZ: It strikes me that there would be a special Fordham Jesuit way to address, on a day-today basis, the issues of inclusion and racism. That is what I would like to draw from the Jesuit tradition, this idea of comforting and consoling and reconciliation. That could make the process of having a different look to the faces—the process itself—interesting.

For example, an invitation to a prospective African American faculty or staff member would be to be part of a process of change. We have a Jesuit way to explore that experience of not yet being the end result. I think that will make us a very interesting lab as an institution for people who like to be the astronauts, the first on the moon, to experience that in a safe, consoling, socially interesting laboratory.

RAINFORD: I love that concept of a lab for anti-racism, done in a Fordham way, rooted in the Jesuit tradition. Now, how do we get that done?

Mastering the Architecture of Reform

Since the spring, deans, faculty, administrators, students, and staff have been working to advance Fordham’s anti-racism goals, but in conversation, the trustees expressed the need to establish a framework to ensure that the community’s efforts are not only unified but sustainable.

DALEO: In establishing a framework, the first thing you want to do is set the strategy; then you say, as an organization, “Okay, do we have the structure to properly implement that strategy?” And then the third thing is, “Do we have the people in that structure to run that process to implement the strategy?” I think one of the most important things we can do as a board is to be nudging the organization on these issues.

As a board, the one thing I’d like us to always come back to is, “Okay, these are great ideas. How do we get it done?”

We must also continually remind ourselves that our role is one of oversight. We are not the strategists but instead evaluators of the strategy. We have tremendous power, if you will, by shaping that, by pushing back and saying, “Nope, that isn’t quite right. Go back and think about it again.”

CARTER: This is moving. It’s motivating. We can be the masters of the architecture around designing inclusive behavior.

For example, we invite faculty to our board meetings, typically department heads; we should invite faculty of color to periodically meet with us. As the governing body, we determine how we want to engage. And from that engagement, we can become more solutions-oriented. “We’re here to hear you. What can we do?”

FATHER REGAN: Higher education has changed so dramatically, and the pandemic has just put that in floodlights. What does a university do? How is it going to look different after the pandemic? That’s exciting. That’s exactly where we need to go.

CARTER: I’m encouraged by the reports we get on what’s going on with COVID-19, how the University is proactively managing the crisis to protect the Fordham community. It is data-laden, well-researched; there is direction to it. Now we need to say, with that same sort of vigor, how do we apply that to those things that focus on social justice? How do we make that an agenda item with data, with information to measure our progress?

Once you tell somebody, “I need a report on that,” people get pretty serious. So, I think we have the energy to keep us aware of what’s going on with this backdrop we’re living in, but what are the other components that might be missing from those presentations that we need to know?

SULLIVAN: When we’re meeting in person as a board, we routinely have a lunch speaker. I would suggest that we set an expectation that whoever is presenting will address anti-racism. What is their school doing? What is their part of the University doing on this subject to advance our goals?

DALEO: I love all of your ideas, including the suggestion to increase our interaction with students and faculty of color so that we can talk about and learn how these issues affect them directly. As we move forward, the key will be to continually look for ways to institutionalize improvements for long-lasting change. Let’s continue to have these kinds of open discussions more broadly, because it’s easy to get frustrated by the problem of racism, to not know how to solve it.

I believe, and I think Fordham believes, the way you change the world is one life at a time. Our actions need to ensure that we are impacting every single life.

RAINFORD: Team, the essence of this conversation is that while we don’t have all the answers, the board is proactively engaged and owning the challenge. We’re committed to pushing each other and pushing the organization and asking all the questions that will continue to move the organization forward to create sustainable and equitable change. Thank you!

Addressing Racism, Educating for Justice

The University’s anti-racism plan features six broad goals and nearly 40 concrete action steps.

Six Goals, Six Examples of Work Underway

1. Develop robust admissions strategies for effective recruitment of students of color.

Fordham is expanding pipeline programs with local schools, such as Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, that have a high number of Black and Latinx students.

2. Recruit and retain a more diverse faculty, administration, and staff.

Of 26 arts and sciences full-time tenure/tenure-track faculty members hired this year, 50% are persons of color.

3. Develop curricular and cocurricular initiatives that support the imperative of confronting racism and educating for justice.

With support from Teaching Race Across the Curriculum grants, academic departments are integrating questions of race and justice into introductory courses.

4. Create a more welcoming and affirming campus.

A multicultural center will be part of the campus center expansion at Rose Hill, and a similar center will be established at Lincoln Center.

5. Build lasting partnerships with our neighbors.

Fordham has joined the Bronx Is Reading to co-sponsor and co-host the annual Bronx Book Festival and other events.

6. Amplify our voice in educating for justice beyond the campus.

The Center on Race, Law and Justice recently hosted a webinar on police reform that included Benjamin Tucker, LAW ’81, first deputy commissioner of the New York City Police Department.

Read the complete action plan.

Read the December 2020 update on progress the Fordham community has made so far in implementing the initiatives outlined in the action plan.

Just a few days after Floyd, a Black man, died during an arrest in Minneapolis, with protests and calls for systemic change sweeping the country, Carter began texting with his longtime friend and fellow rapper, Franco Obour, about collaborating on a song to highlight their lived experiences as Black men and the personal and structural racism they’ve been exposed to throughout their lives. After three days of sharing lyrics and voice memos with each other and choosing an instrumental from producer eeryskies, Carter and Obour recorded their verses at a friend’s studio in Manville, New Jersey.

The resulting song, “What Do You See?” was released on June 12 on all major streaming platforms after initially being posted on Instagram and Facebook. Since then, Carter and Obour—a Rutgers dental student who performs under the name juneyouare and who grew up with Carter in Hillsborough, New Jersey—have received press from outlets including BroBible, Karen Civil, and Forbes. As part of its release, the two decided to donate all proceeds from the song’s iTunes purchases this year to Color of Change, a nonprofit civil rights organization that “leads campaigns that build real power for Black communities.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/CBVgECApRDX/

Over a laid-back, hypnotic beat that recalls the G-funk sound favored by West Coast rappers of the 1990s—like the often politically minded Ice Cube and 2Pac—Carter rhymes about both the frustrations of seeing articles and social media posts that downplay the racism experienced by Black people in America (“I do not come to a wake to debate what you been through”) and questions of ancestry and intergenerational trauma (“Look at my lineage/I’m a descendant of slaves/Somewhere in South Carolina/but I cannot find ’em/’cause they don’t have graves”).

“People seemed like they were losing track of the ultimate thing that happened, where this man lost his life and that could have been prevented,” Carter says. “It just felt very frustrating. It’s like, you don’t go to a funeral if someone’s relative passed and talk about, ‘Oh, well, we should be mourning my relative too.’ It’s like, hey, let’s focus together on what’s going on and try to fix it and find a solution.”

An Internship Becomes a Career

Carter’s interest in music dates back to sixth grade, when he performed with friends in a talent show, but he says he began to take things more seriously while at Fordham, where he majored in communication and media studies. After landing in the Bronx, where his father, Anthony—a 1976 Fordham College at Rose Hill graduate and current member of the University’s Board of Trustees—also studied, Carter set up recording equipment in his Loschert Hall dorm room (and later in O’Hare Hall and Campbell Hall) and earned a reputation as a musician on campus, getting invited to play at house parties, club events, and the University’s popular Spring Weekend concert.

While balancing his studies and music, in 2014, during his senior year, Carter also began an internship at the Robot Company, a sports and entertainment marketing firm founded by LeBron James and Maverick Carter. After completing his internship—the first one at the then-new company—Carter was offered a full-time position, and he has been with the firm ever since. In his current role as talent and influence manager, Carter works with brands, athletes, and influencers to find opportunities for collaboration.

A Growing Musical Platform, from NBA 2K to Australia

Meanwhile, Carter’s music career has continued to flourish. In May 2018, he independently released his debut album, Roadtrip, which has garnered more than 300,000 streams across major platforms. And this past December, two of the songs off Roadtrip, “G.N.S.L.” and “Pull Up,” were chosen to appear on the soundtrack for the hugely popular NBA 2K20 video game, appearing alongside both up-and-coming artists and established stars like Drake, Travis Scott, Cardi B, and Carter’s current favorite rapper, J. Cole.

“I grew up playing the game, and it’s still exciting every time [I] turn it on and hear my song come on shuffle in the background,” he says. “I would say almost every day, there’s someone new who DMs me like, ‘Yo, I heard your song on 2K. I live in London,’ or ‘I live in Australia,’ all these different places. So it’s cool to see that aspect.”

Looking ahead, after already releasing three new singles this year—“Made Men,” “Gassed Up,” and “What Do You See?”—Carter says he wants to continue to put out a new song every six to eight weeks. With what he calls “a vault” of unreleased music he’s been sitting on—and the marketing skills he’s acquired through his education at Fordham and his work at the Robot Company—he foresees having a promotional plan for each new song in order to gain continued traction with listeners. Having the ability to create his own media kits and knowing how to promote his music, Carter says, has made being an independent artist a viable path.

In writing and releasing “What Do You See?” Carter says he and Obour “had complete control of how we wanted to do it, where we wanted to put it out,” including the decision to donate proceeds to Color of Change.

With that kind of artistic control and freedom, Carter hopes that he can continue to inspire productive dialogue, saying that by releasing the song, he and Obour wanted to “make a statement and hopefully ignite a conversation.”

“It was just sending a message,” he says, “something I would talk about with close friends or keep to myself and trying to amplify that, knowing that there’s a platform that I have—and people, I think, would want to hear it.”

“[George Floyd’s death] really puts us in position to look at something else that rears its ugly head all too often—not just in a macro sense, but in a micro sense at Fordham University, [in]  corporate America—and it’s called racism,” said Carter, who retired as vice president for global diversity & inclusion and chief diversity officer for Johnson & Johnson in 2015. “We have to call it what it is, and we have to understand we all are affected and afflicted by this sin called racism. And we have to come together collectively to do something about it.” 

A frequent lecturer and writer on the topics of diversity, inclusion, and social justice, Carter was a member of Fordham’s Diversity Task Force in 2015 and supports the University’s CSTEP program. He grew up in the South Bronx in a family of 10 children. His son Dayne is a 2015 Fordham graduate.

In part of the June 18 interview, Carter reflected on how his Fordham baseball cap helps protect him from people who may misjudge his identity and “take a cheap shot” at him. 

“Outside of what we do, we still have to find ways to protect who we are,” Carter said. “I often use [this]  example. I have a white cap, and it has a beautiful Fordham emblem on the front of it, and on the back of it, it says Board of Trustees. And I put that hat on like every other trustee with a sense of pride … But I also put that hat on for protection. I put that hat on because I don’t want anybody to misjudge who I am and take a cheap shot at me. Because absent that hat, I could be set up in circumstances that are unfortunate simply because of the color of my skin.” 

In his role at Fordham, Zapata focuses on the support and strategic development of practices that promote racial justice, gender equity, disability access, and full participation in the life of the University among all members of the community. He’s a native New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent who grew up in the Chelsea public housing projects and attended Rice High School in Harlem. 

Along with Carter, Zapata spoke about how Fordham is working on addressing racism within its ranks. 

“At Fordham, we have … one of the oldest and widely respected African and African American history programs in the country … But not everybody’s going to be an African and African American studies major,” said Zapata. “What we’re trying to do at Fordham is [figure out]how do we integrate substantively and authentically issues of race throughout the curriculum in introductory classes? It can’t be an extra class, a one-credit class, or a zero-credit class. It has to be integrated into the curriculum.”

Achieving meaningful change is a process, said Zapata. 

“What people think are the solutions are usually just the beginnings, and that includes hiring a chief diversity officer. That includes even getting a diverse student body, which we have not achieved yet. We’re still working on diversifying the faculty and administration and staff, which we’re working on. It’s a slower process. But we can’t pat ourselves on the back,” said Zapata. “We’re not there yet. And we have a long way to go.”

Watch Carter and Zapata’s full conversation in the video above. 

Denzel Washington, FCLC ’77, received the inaugural Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee Living Legends Award from the Crossroads Theatre Company in New Brunswick, New Jersey, on October 19 during a ceremony that, perhaps more than any other in the celebrated actor’s career, highlighted his deep connections to Fordham University.

Presenting Washington with the award was Fordham Trustee Anthony Carter, FCRH ’76, the president of Crossroads’ board of trustees.

“Forty-six years ago on the Fordham University Bronx campus, a place we called 80 acres of paradise, our home away from home, is where I met our honoree Denzel Washington, and where our friendship began,” Carter said during the ceremony at the State Theatre New Jersey.

He praised Washington for his “stellar body of work” and for taking “acting and the industry far beyond where anyone else has.” But he also honored Washington in deeply personal terms. “I see you beyond being a great actor. I see you as a man of principle; determined, focused and disciplined. … I know you to be a great man and a great friend who just happens to be great at what you do. And we all cherish that.”

In his acceptance speech, Washington spoke to his faith, saying, “Man gives the award; God gives the reward.” He said he was “grateful, honored, and humbled” by the recognition, and “blessed to have a strong family.”

“But the reality is, I’m just beginning. The rest of my life is dedicated to glorifying God, to being a living witness of the grace of God, the mercy of God, the patience of God.”

He thanked Crossroads for recognizing Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and others “who helped to teach me to be the actor I’m trying to become,” adding, “I am hopeful and humbled by the possibilities to come, on the stage and in the world.”

Washington, whose first stage role was in a 1975 Fordham Theatre production of The Emperor Jones, said later that those possibilities might include returning to Crossroads to star in or direct a production.

David Alan Grier hosted the ceremony, and various other luminaries paid tribute to Washington through performances and speeches, including Courtney B. Vance, This Is Us star Susan Kelechi Watson, Phylicia Rashad, and Stephen McKinley Henderson.

Rashad and Henderson are former holders of the Denzel Washington Endowed Chair in Theatre at Fordham, a professorship Washington established with a $2 million gift to the University in 2011. That same year, he also made a $250,000 gift to establish an endowed scholarship for Fordham Theatre students, 12 of whom attended the ceremony in New Brunswick.

Carter gave the Fordham students a shout-out during the ceremony and saluted Washington for his commitment not only “to the generation of actors here and around the world who stand successfully on your shoulders” but also to “the next generation of great actors.”

The Crossroads Theatre Company, which opened in New Brunswick in 1978, focuses on telling stories of the African diaspora, and in 1999, it earned the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. After two years on the road, the company, which is the only professional black theater company in New Jersey, has settled in as a resident member of the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center.

Such was the advice of Anthony Carter, FCRH ’76, former chief diversity officer at Johnson & Johnson, who made an impassioned case on Oct. 19 that the Gabelli School of Business is the best place for business students looking for a diverse and open environment.

Cura Personalis is in our DNA

His lunchtime speech, to prospective and current MBA students at the Lincoln Center campus, was part of the college’s second annual Diversity and Inclusion Summit. Mixing in personal anecdotes about his 40 years in business, as well as his time as an undergraduate at Rose Hill, Carter made an explicit connection between Fordham’s commitment to cura personalis and the importance of fostering a space where people of all genders, races, and sexual orientation can thrive.

This is particularly true given the current political climate, where homophobia, racism, gender inequity, and disregard for veterans and people with disabilities are very much real, he said.

This makes it very easy to focus on all the things that are wrong today, he said, but what we’re not quick to embrace is “the reality of what’s right about us.”

Being able to bring your whole authentic self to institutions is liberating, he said, and indeed, it’s at the heart of all pedagogy.

It’s also important when striving to better understand others, he said. As an example, he asked audience members what their first impression might be of a black man in the subway wearing a suit. Answers included “going to work,” “businessman,” “job interview,” and “banker.”

Carter noted that other people might peg him with more nefarious plans, like “scammer.” And they’re able to make this sort of assumption, he said, because they haven’t learned that man’s story.

“Your story is the reflection of your diversity, and I’m not talking about what you look like. The diversity of background, religion, geography, sexual orientation; you name it, I don’t know that by looking at you,” he said.

“But I know we represent the gorgeous mosaic of untold stories, and in these untold stories, we have the opportunity to really penetrate our souls. Our stories are also relevant to how business grows, because if you’re real marketers, you’re studying your customer base, and your customer base is diverse.”

A Place Where All Feel Welcome

Bliss Griffin, a second year MBA student; the inaugural fellow for diversity, equity, and inclusion; and president of the black and Hispanic MBA association at Gabelli, also addressed the students. After 10 years of acting, she said, she was attracted to business school. She didn’t feel like she fit in with “a lot of blue suits” at other schools, but the Gabelli School’s subway ads that touted the slogan “Privilege with Purpose” spoke to her.

And indeed, she said that once she enrolled, professors such as Sertan Kabadayi, Ph.D., professor of marketing, and Ben Cole, Ph.D., holder of the William J. Loschert Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship, have encouraged her to speak up. Griffin said Gabelli School Dean Donna Rapaccioli was likewise receptive when she approached her with a concern related to diversity and inclusion.

“I thought ‘You’re not going to fit in, this is a nuisance, people don’t want to hear this.’ And what she said was, ‘Can you come into my office? We’re doing this. We have these outside consultants who are helping us. Can you help us out on this?’”

“All of the things that I identify as dimensions of diversity in which I am a minority in this space are the reasons people were looking for me, and seeking my advice and my input,” she said.

“Give this institution an opportunity to rise to the occasion for you in the way that it absolutely rose for me, because those things about you that make you nervous are your value, and we want it in the room with you. We want to learn and grow from the insight that you have from being a minority in this space.”

“One of the things that Fordham does well is manage a constant flow of new talent onto the Board of Trustees,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the University. “The board’s diversity of expertise and points of view enables us to respond to strategic opportunities and challenges in a timely and effective way. I am deeply grateful to our board members—ably led by Bob Daleo—for their generosity and dedication to Fordham.”

Some of the trustees, like financial services executive James Rowen, practically grew up on Fordham’s campus, beginning with Fordham Prep. Others have ties that bind to family, like attorney Maryanne Lavan, who has honored the memory of her late brother, a Fordham graduate, with an endowed scholarship. For others, the Fordham mission is a mission shared with family. Real estate executive Jorge B. San Miguel started his term as a trustee just a month after his brother, Luis E. San Miguel, completed his service on the Fordham board.

 The new trustees will bring both arts and science perspectives in addition to their primary expertise. Investor James Buckman is a former board member of the New York Philharmonic, and Gregory C. Chisholm, S.J., a Harlem pastor, holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from MIT.

Most bring perspectives on contemporary civic issues and ethics from a variety of fields. Insurance executive John Lumelleau is a champion of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Kansas City. Andrew Hinton served as a federal prosecutor focusing on white-collar crime. Anthony Carter is a nationally recognized expert on diversity and inclusion. And Michael Dowling’s rise from hardscrabble Irish immigrant to leader of New York’s largest system of hospitals and long-term care providers reflects that of Fordham’s own Irish-immigrant founder, Archbishop John Hughes.

Here, in brief, are their biographies:

James E. Buckman, FCRH ’66, PAR ’05
Buckman is the retired vice chairman of York Capital Management, a New York-based hedge fund firm with approximately $14 billion under management. Currently a private investor, Buckman had a long career as a corporate general counsel, much of which he spent in the hospitality industry, particularly with the Cendant Corporation. After Cendant’s dissolution, he became a board member of the Wyndham Destinations, Inc., one of Cendant’s spinoff companies, and continues to serve as director of Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, Inc. Earlier in his life he served as a first lieutenant in the Connecticut Air National Guard, the Georgia Air National Guard, and the United States Air Force Reserve. He is also a former board member of the New York Philharmonic, where he and his wife, Nancy, have endowed a chair in the orchestra for a cellist. He is a trustee of Fordham Preparatory School, where he is also a member of the Hall of Honor. At Fordham, the Buckmans have an endowed a chair in the theology department—the James and Nancy Buckman Applied Chair in Christian Ethics—and the James and Nancy Buckman Endowed Scholarship. Buckman co-chaired the University’s Excelsior Campaign and in 2009 received the Fordham Founder’s Award. The Buckmans have three daughters, Elizabeth, Anne, LAW ’05, and Julia.

Anthony P. Carter, FCRH ’76, PAR ’15
In 2015, Carter retired as vice president, Global Diversity & Inclusion, and chief diversity officer for Johnson & Johnson. Under his leadership, the company was consistently named one of the top 10 among the 50 best American companies for diversity by DiversityInc magazine, earning the number one position in 2009. Carter has been recognized by Black Enterprise magazine as one of the top chief diversity officers in America.  At Fordham, Carter served as chair of the University’s search committee for a chief diversity officer, was a member of the University’s Diversity Task Force, and was Fordham’s executive champion while he was at Johnson & Johnson. In May of 2017, Carter was the speaker for the Gabelli School of Business diploma ceremony and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Fordham. He also served on the University’s President’s Council and supports Fordham’s CSTEP program. Carter grew up in the South Bronx in a family of 10 children whose parents died when he was young. He and his wife, Wendy, have three children, Austin, Ashley, and Dayne, FCRH ’15.

Gregory C. Chisholm, S.J.
Father Chisholm is currently pastor of the Parish of St. Charles Borromeo, Resurrection and All Saints in Harlem.  He is also dean of the Central Harlem region of Roman Catholic parishes. He joined the New England Province of the Jesuits in 1980 and was ordained a priest in 1993; he now belongs to the USA Northeast Province of the Jesuits. Father Chisholm received his doctorate in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and taught mechanical engineering at the University of Detroit Mercy.  Since 1998 he has been in full-time parish ministry in Los Angeles and New York City, serving largely African-American and Latino communities. He has served on the governing boards of several universities as well as Cristo Rey New York High School. He currently is on the board of Xavier High School. Father Chisholm grew up in Harlem, where his family attended St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church. He attended Catholic schools in Harlem and the Bronx.

Michael Dowling, GSS ’74
Dowling is president and CEO of Northwell Health, the largest system of hospitals and long-term care providers in New York and the largest private employer in New York state. Dowling was instrumental in the merger of North Shore and Long Island Jewish hospitals. Before joining Northwell Health in 1995, he was a senior vice president at Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Dowling also served in New York State government for 12 years, seven of which were spent as state director of Health, Education and Human Services and deputy secretary to the governor. He was also commissioner of the New York State Department of Social Services. Before his work in public service, Dowling was a professor of social policy and assistant dean at the Fordham Graduate School of Social Service (GSS) and director of the Fordham campus in Westchester County. In May of 2017, he received a doctor of humane letters and spoke at the GSS diploma ceremony. Dowling is the oldest of five children; he grew up in a home in Limerick, Ireland, without electricity, running water, bathrooms, or heat—but, he says, his family always had plenty of books. He and his wife, Kathy, have two children, Brian and Elizabeth.

Andrew J. Hinton, LAW ’89
Hinton currently serves as vice president of global ethics and compliance at Google, where he spearheads efforts to identify and mitigate compliance risk and expand upon the company’s core values. He joined Google in 2006. After receiving his J.D. in 1989 from Fordham Law, where he was a member of Fordham Law Review, Hinton worked as a litigation associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York, with concentration on commercial litigation and white collar criminal defense. He went on to work at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York as a federal prosecutor, focusing on white-collar crime. He serves on the Ethics Research Center Board of Directors and has lectured at the Compliance & Ethics Institute. Hinton has remained connected to Fordham Law, serving on the Class of 1989’s 25th Reunion committee in 2014. He lives in Palo Alto, California, with his wife, Joy, and their two children, Sarah and Eric.

Maryanne Lavan
Lavan is senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary at Lockheed Martin Corporation. She joined Lockheed Martin in 1990 as an attorney and served in increasingly senior positions within the legal department. The company’s first female general counsel, she is responsible for managing the corporation’s legal affairs and law department. Lavan became involved with Fordham University after her youngest brother, Matthew Lavan, FCRH ’98, passed away in 2003. She supports the Matthew J. Lavan Endowed Scholarship at Fordham, established by Matthew’s classmate, and has given generously to the Global Outreach Program at Rose Hill, which Matthew participated in as a student. In September 2014, Lavan joined the President’s Council Executive Committee. Several members of her family are Fordham graduates, including her father, Thomas Lavan, UGE ’57, and late mother, Ann Lavan, UGE ’54, who met at Fordham. She and her husband, Larry Harris, have two children, Mikayla and Zachary.

John Lumelleau, FCRH ’74
In 2017, Lumelleau retired as the president and CEO of Lockton, the world’s largest privately held independent insurance broker. Under his leadership, the Lockton team grew to become a global organization with more than with 85 offices worldwide and more than $1.4 billion in fiscal revenue in 2017. He now serves as an adviser to the board. Lumelleau has been a supporter of Fordham Athletics programs for many years. In recognition of his consistent support of the Fordham Football program, Lumelleau, a former player at Fordham, was honored with the Walsh Award in September 2015. Lumelleau joined the Executive Committee of the Fordham President’s Council in August 2015. Outside of Fordham he has long been involved in civic issues, serving previously on the Board of Directors of the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers; the Board of Overseers of the St. John’s University School of Risk Management & Actuarial Sciences; and as an ambassador for the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Kansas City, an organization he supports together with his wife, Loretta. The Lumelleaus have three children, Ryan, Matthew, and Anne.

James S. Rowen, FCRH ’86, GABELLI ’98
Rowen is the chief operating officer at Renaissance Technologies, LLC, a New York-based registered investment adviser. His career spans 25 years in the financial services, including the equity derivatives, prime brokerage, and structured finance businesses. Rowen holds positions on the Founders Council at the Managed Funds Association, where he previously served as vice chairman. Before Renaissance, he was the chief financial officer of hedge fund firm SAC Capital Advisors LLC. Prior to that he was responsible for Deutsche Bank’s Global Equity Finance and Prime Brokerage business. In addition to his two degrees from Fordham University, Rowen is a 1982 graduate of Fordham Preparatory School and has served as chairman of that school’s board. He has also served as a member of the Fordham College at Rose Hill Alumni Board. He and his wife, Diane, have two children, James and Kaitlin.

Jorge B. San Miguel, GABELLI ’82
San Miguel is the president of the San Miguel Foundation, where he is responsible for fundraising, investment, and portfolio management at the family foundation. During his thirty-year career, San Miguel served as executive vice president and chief information officer of Florida East Coast Industries and as chief financial officer of Codina Group, Inc., a South Florida based real estate development company. Prior to that, San Miguel worked at Ernst & Young, where he developed a Latin America mergers and acquisitions group. San Miguel resides in Key Biscayne, Florida. He currently serves as treasurer of Miramar United Elite FC youth soccer academy and coaches both soccer and football at his high school alma mater, Immaculata-La Salle High School in Miami.

Indeed, many of the participants at the conference, which included students, business executives, and government leaders, sought to continue that correction by expanding the definition of diversity to go beyond race and ethnicity in what Father McShane called a “very conflicted” nation.

“I reflect with you on the day that we have this gathering, because when we look back and listen with fresh hearts and ears to what he said, we touch base with his dream, which is the American dream corrected,” said Father McShane. “This is an inflection moment in our history once again,” he said.

Expanding the Definition of Diversity

Martha Jackson, assistant commissioner at the New York City Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, stressed the importance of making students aware of their role in effecting positive change.

“The students are our future and if we have any chance of getting it right, it’s with them,” she said. “They’re going to be the ones who create the change in the systems and make diversity first in everybody’s mind.”

Maria Aponte, assistant director of global diversity and inclusion at Fordham, said the conference was organized to help students become aware of companies that offer major diversity programing. NBC sent six members from their diversity team, while several representatives from Bronx arts and community organizations, including Niño de la Caridad, En Foco, and The Point, served as panelists.

“We need to develop skills to care for each other and that has to go to the workforce,” said Aponte.

Stephen J. Casey, a managing director at BNP Paribas in North America, noted that diversity isn’t always easily perceived. He said diversity includes people who have disabilities that are “invisible,” like those on the autism spectrum.

“You have people dealing with mental health issues and it’s not always apparent,” he said.

He added that the unemployment rate for people with disabilities in the New York area stands at an “appalling” 77 percent.

“Something needs to be done,” he said. “People with disabilities have amazing talents and a number of firms are actively seeking them out.”

Inclusion as a Business Strategy

Anthony Carter, FCRH ’76, a member of the President’s Council, agreed that diversity makes good business sense. Carter, a retired chief diversity officer at Johnson & Johnson, sits on the University’s Task Force on Diversity. He called diversity “the gorgeous mosaic of different cultures and backgrounds, sexual orientation, geographies, and religion.”

“Diversity is who we are and inclusion is how we work together,” he said. “Diversity is a business imperative. But, to get the brightest and the best you have to invest.”

As such, he said that any major organization, such as a university, needs to create an environment that “celebrates differences and similarities,” adding that just as in business, investment at Fordham is key to reaching the University’s goals and objectives.

“If the university is looking at diverse students who they can potentially bring to this organization, it requires an investment,” he said. “When we look at the Faith and Hope campaign for example, we’ll need to look at how that scholarship money will be disbursed so we can capture all elements of that gorgeous mosaic.”

Liying Wei, a first-year student from New Jersey, was one of more than 175 students attending the event. She said her family moved to the U.S. from China when she was four years old. The main reason she came to Fordham was to live in New York City where “there’s people from all over the world.”

“Even though Fordham can seem to be its own little bubble inside the Bronx, I was really surprised to see how many different cultures and international students we have here,” she said. “We need to continue opening up scholarship opportunities for people from all sorts of backgrounds, especially for the disadvantaged.”