The Center for Professional Development administers the Diversity Certificate for faculty professional development. This certificate is considered a continuous learning goal and should serve as the beginning of a life-long learning process in issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. Faculty are welcome to work on completing the Diversity Certificate multiple times over the course of their professional development at BSU.

Beginning academic year 2021-2023, the IFO contract outlines that each faculty member should engage in professional development aimed at reducing the equity gaps for our students and working towards a Diversity certificate gives faculty a tangible goal to fulfilling this contract requirement. 

To earn a Diversity Certificate faculty should:

  • Attend 15 hours of programming (in person or online) in DEI areas of professional development
  • Within the 15 hours – 3 hours of focus on a particular theme like anti-racism, or Native American issues etc.
  • Faculty can include “working towards Diversity Certificate” as a goal in your PDP
  • CPD will track attendance and provide a certificate at the end of the year to include in your PDR
  • CPD will conduct programming and identify other opportunities on campus which fulfill the Diversity Certificate requirements through the year

For more information, contact CPD Faculty Fellow for DEI in curriculum and pedagogy – Dr. Hillary Barron hillary.barron@bemidjistate.edu 

Diversity Certificate-Eligible Events

If you attend and/or have attended any of the events listed here, you may count them as time toward your Diversity Certificate.

Past events that have counted toward the Diversity Certificate include: 

  1. Honors Lecture – “Culturally Responsive Undergraduate Science Education: A Model for Equitable Science Teaching in Academic Biology,” Dr. Hillary Barron on September 28, 2022.
  2. “Sweetgrass Method: Culturally Responsive Approaches for Educators,” Dr. Mark Standing Eagle Baez on October 24, 2022.
  3. “Who Needs Diversity?” Dr. Rucha Ambikar on October 26, 2022.
  4. Honors Lecture – “Callous Cruelty and Blow Back: ICE Facilities, Riskscapes and Community Transmission of COVID-19,” Dr. Michael Lengefeld on November 1, 2022.
  5. “Conscious Culture: Clinical Psychology in Private Practice,” Dr. Anita Mihecoby on November 7, 2022.
  6. “Native Women Visibility in Contemporary and Historical Perspectives,” Amber Midthunder and Sarah Winnemucca, November 10, 2022.
  7. “Bemidji – Treaties, Strategies, and Traditionalism,” Dr. Dennis Fisher on November 29, 2022.
  8. “Louis Armstrong & Beethoven: Application and Demystification of Critical Race Theory,” Three experts in Critical Race Theory on December 8, 2022.
  9. Bemidji State University Title IX Panel, speakers Britt Lauritsen, Kristen McRae, Emma Terres-Sobieck, and Abbie Disbrow, on February 1, 2023.