Happy New Month to my CNHS Ubuntu Family. Welcome to our March 2025 Newsletter.
Authentic community building and community engagement can empower people to change their lives and the communities they live in. To me, community development is about fostering stronger, more resilient communities through collaborative efforts, addressing needs, and empowering members to shape their own futures.
Community engagement, on the other hand, is both the process and the outcome of working together to address issues and build relationships. Both lead to better collaborative decision-making strategies that center on the needs of the community and can contribute to healthier, happier communities.
The fact is, we cannot remain in our comfort zones and still build the community of humanity and resilience that we all yearn to have or engage in collaboratively. With this in mind, I had the opportunity to join our FAM food drive at Spare Time to benefit the Rally Cat Cupboard this month. For those of us who don't know, FAM stands for Finding Affinity and Mentorship, a transformative initiative aimed at supporting BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) students in our nursing, medical, and allied health programs. During this time, I was happy to meet new friends who shared how they are diving deep and using the new framework of Ubuntu (which I introduced to them through this newsletter) in their mentorship programs and workplaces.
Through its emphasis on humanity, compassion, and social responsibility, Ubuntu (“I am because we are”) has the potential to facilitate solutions to, and avoid conflicts between, individual rights and public health. This month, I was reminded of how the use of Ubuntu shifts the moral reasoning and ethics of decision-making from a philosophy shaped by the global North to the everyday values, decision-making, and practices of people in much of Africa. Indeed, Ubuntu can be applied to tackle conflicting ethical problems in public health and medicine. My time with FAM and REACH members was memorable, and I’m sure Kaleidoscope will learn a lot from them as we continue to work collaboratively. Below is a picture of our time together.
(Photo above: Sefakor G.M.A. Komabu-Pomeyie with members of FAM.)
Also, I must say, despite all odds and uncertainties, I am empowered and encouraged to learn and share with my community, especially my students, some of the things we can still do globally wherever we find ourselves. As a well-known disability rights advocate, I joined the global community this month virtually to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995). The sixty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women took place at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 10 to 21 March 2025 and I was privileged to present on this platform. Representatives of Member States, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world were invited to attend the session. The main focus of the sixty-ninth session was the review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcomes of the 23rd special session of the General Assembly. The review included an assessment of current challenges that affect the implementation of the Platform for Action and the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and its contribution towards the full realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
In our team, we focused on the topic of “Centering Women and Girls with Disabilities in Gender Equity Efforts: Beijiing+30 and Beyond”. I am so glad to connect my students to the global world so that they can have different lenses to see the world.
(Photo above: Flyer with speakers for the “Centering Women and Girls with Disabilities in Gender Equity Efforts: Beijiing+30 and Beyond” event.)
With my best wishes,
Sefakor G.M.A. Komabu-Pomeyie, Ph.D.
Director of IE/Lecturer
What Has Been Done
CNHS’s partnership with LCOM and UVMHN is becoming real, and our annual calendar will soon be out…stay tuned!
We have received at least one speaker from each department from faculty level and I am still waiting to hear from the staff and students' level to share their ideas for activities so that they can be included on the calendar.
CIE Section: A Message from the Chair
Dear CNHS Faculty, Staff, and Students,
It is impossible to compartmentalize our work as a committee from what is happening all around us and in the greater context. Just this morning in class, a student shared with me that her mom, an infectious disease researcher partially funded by the CDC, lost her job.
As we read the news, such as yesterday's abrupt cancellation of $12 billion in federal grants for infectious disease, mental health services, addiction treatment, and other urgent health issues, we see how these events impact all of us—from the work we do, to our students' career options, to their parents' ability to support them, and to our stated mission as a college.
Our mission at CNHS is to advance health equity for all, which means ensuring that everybody is included, represented, and welcomed here. The only way we can do this work is by doing it collectively. We need to embed our values continuously in our classrooms, in our everyday work, and especially in our interactions with each other. The work of this committee is the work of us all.
Love and strength, Noah Barclay-Derman
Staff Corner
CNHS staff are working on building a college-wide structure that supports equity of voice and inclusive excellence for ALL staff members. Our next meeting is on April 8th, 11am – 11:45am in Rowell 301, including an outline of the proposed structure and other agenda items, including proposed speakers. Look for an Outlook Meeting invitation from Meredith Grasso that includes the agenda.
Where are you in this picture?
(Photo above: Mosaic Center Director Ahmed Khanani and staff.)
Faculty Corner
On Friday March 7th, faculty from BHSC hosted a breakfast in the Mosaic Center for Students of Color. We cooked the typical breakfast fair and Eyal’s mom (Majic Spoon Bakery) provided some delicious homemade pastries. I want to encourage each CNHS department to sign up to provide one of these breakfasts. It felt so good to share community with my colleagues and support these students who were so appreciative. At a more personal level, I saw two of my students who I recognized from class but have not been able to connect with. Seeing each other at breakfast was a great icebreaker which I believe will open the door to a more productive learning environment.
By: Kenneth Allen M.B.A., Ed.D., Senior Lecturer Department of Biomedical and Health Sciences
Student Corner
Kaleidoscope has continued revising CNHS’s Inclusive Excellence strategic action plan and is nearing completion. In February and March, we invited CNHS faculty to share their thoughts and areas of interest to be incorporated into the action plan. We are grateful for the insightful feedback and are using it to ensure the plan reflects diverse perspectives within our community. We look forward to sharing the updated action plan and continuing the conversation around fostering inclusiveness in CNHS.
By: Dylan Rhymaun (He/Him) College of Nursing and Health Sciences
Kaleidoscope meets on Mondays at 2-3 PM in 301 Rowell Building.
What's Happening
Speak up for Public Health: April 11th, 11am – 1pm at the Montpelier State House. Questions: Ella.Kenney@uvm.edu
Zeigler Keynote: May 7th, 8:45-9:45 at the Davis Center. Learn more here.
QTPiE Emerging Scholar Grant: Proposals for emerging scholars interested in queer and trans education research due Friday, April 25th. More information here.
Health Equity Summit: Share your ideas, experiences, or projects to improve health care for all. More information here.
Culture & Connect Series: May 19 & 21. A new series led by Carly Duran-Marrero, DOIE's inclusive excellence educator, intended to bring foundational awareness to key concepts of identity, culture, and influence. There are two remaining sessions coming up in May. Though not required, attendance at both sessions is encouraged. Please RSVP separately for each event and complete the pre-assessment. Contact Carly Duran-Marrero for details.
Backus, Brace and Shiman Scholarships: It is time once again to please encourage your students to apply for these scholarships that will be offered by UA this Spring. UA awards these scholarships to students who demonstrate an active commitment to community service, especially in pursuit of social, economic or environmental justice. Scholarship descriptions, requirements and the online application are available on the UA Student scholarship web page. Applications are due April 30, 2025.
