Utah State University Presents Diversity Awards

The recipients of the 22nd annual Utah State University Diversity Awards have been named. The recipients for the 2015-16 school year are Leon Anderson, Justin Bergeman, Kami McNeil, Ana Caballero and Luz Maria Carreno. The awards recognize individuals and/or organizations on campus and in communities served by USU who have made significant contributions to affirmative action, equal opportunity and diversity.

Administrator

Leon Anderson serves as department head of sociology, social work and anthropology in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHaSS), where he has developed strong connections among diverse populations, particularly with the indigenous, homeless and mentally ill.

To focus on solutions, other than incarceration, for offenders who suffer from chronic mental health issues, Anderson has served on the planning committees for the USU Intermountain Health Court conference that brings together professionals from varied legal and clinical and social areas to work on this issue. He also serves as a board member with USU’s Center for Persons with Disabilities, and is the first faculty member from CHaSS to serve on the board.

To promote diversity with the Native American population at the university, the Cache Valley community, as well as the state of Utah, Anderson recently developed, promoted and organized the 2015 CHaSS Tanner Lecture Series featuring Native American poet, novelist and filmmaker Sherman Alexie. The sold-out event was broadcast to the entire USU Regional Campus system and was attended by 80 Native American students and mentors from the Ute, Paiute and Navajo tribal schools. The USU Native American Student Council also had the opportunity to meet with Alexie. The event coincided with USU’s first Native Aggies Day, a student recruiting event attended by more than 200 students.

Faculty

Justin Bergeman is a faculty member at the USU Eastern Blanding campus who developed the Certified Technical Education (CTE) program, as well as the Department Certificate/Applied Associates in trucking and heavy equipment. The program has a 90 percent graduation rate and a growing enrollment.

Bergeman worked closely with the Navajo Department of Workforce Services (NDWS) to secure a total of $250,000 in scholarship funding allowing 32 Navajo Americans to enroll in USU Eastern’s comprehensive trucking program with most students earning both the CTE certificate, as well as the associate’s degree. The success of the partnership benefitted the NDWS with an educated workforce, while also boosting enrollment at USU Eastern in Blanding.

By providing the opportunity for education and skills training, Bergeman has tailored his programs so that Native American students coming from the varied and unique learning styles of the Ute, Navajo and Hopi tribes located in the Four Corners area can flourish. To promote the opportunities that USU Eastern Blanding provides, Bergemen regularly attends job and career fairs and has also sponsored activities to recruit potential students from the area.

Staff

Kami McNeil works as a staff assistant in USU’s Department of Biology where her formal role is to assist the department head and graduate students with travel and administrative matters. However, McNeil has taken an additional role of supporting international students new to USU and making them feel welcome.

McNeil has been an avid supporter and encourages student participation with the Society for the Advancement of Hispanics/Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). Her diligence and work to promote the society allowed USU to develop a presence and steady attendance at the national SACNAS conference where, in 2013, it would establish a local chapter on the USU campus.

In October 2014, McNeil arranged for a cohort of six faculty and eight students to attend the SACNAS national conference in Los Angeles, California. When two faculty members had to drop out at the last minute due to family emergencies, McNeil volunteered to step in and travel to the event where she manned one of the USU booths at the annual conference with an attendance of nearly 4,000. Without McNeil’s willingness to help out at the conference, the group of students from USU would not have been able to attend.

Student

Ana Caballero is a doctoral student in audiology in the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services. She holds an MD, doctorate of medicine from Escuala Latinoamericana de Medicina, La Habana, Cuba.

Caballero’s early years were spent in El Salvador, where her parents were both medical doctors. It was during El Salvador’s civil war in 1989 that her family fled to America. After becoming inspired by her parents to earn her medical degree, Cabellero decided to focus on audiology. In Utah, she has worked with the Hispanic community to create awareness for early hearing detection through an outreach program that she created, and has also provided free hearing screenings for athletes in the Special Olympics. She currently works and trains volunteers to work for intervention programs in the Cache Valley community, including El Centro de las Familia, The Family Place, Up-to-3 Early Intervention Program and the Counseling Workshop for Hispanic Families with Children with Hearing Loss.

Caballero’s work received recognition from the Oticon Foundation in Denmark for the USU Academy of Audiology Humanitarian work where she received a grant that allowed the group to provide services to 2,000 children and donate 200 hearing aids in El Salvador. She has also donated her service time in Vietnam, Ghana and other countries in South America. In 2015, Caballero was named “Trainee of the Year” by USU’s Center for Persons with Disabilities.

Community

Luz Maria Carreno is an AmeriCorps VISTA member who works with Cache Valley area refugees facilitating collaborative services and programs between the USU Center for Civic Engagement and Service Learning office, the USU Access and Diversity Center and the Cache Refugee and Immigrant Connection. Her work provides connections for individuals and families to businesses and organizations in regards to jobs, education, health care and social services. Carreno personally volunteers her time to assist refugees with legal papers, school letters, bills and other types of documents.

Invested in the youth of the community, Carreno oversees an afterschool program at Logan High School for refugee and immigrant students called the Galaxy Club that assists students with homework, the college application process, ACT test preparation and service projects. She also volunteers with the group Smart Girl, a group of Latinas at Logan High School.

Furthering her efforts to bring opportunities to young women, Carreno corroborated with USU students, staff and faculty to create an after school program called “Girls Go Outside” that allows members to participate in outside fun, as well as leadership activities created to build confidence and friendship between cultures. Another program, BLOOM, was recently created by Carreno to help motivate participants to tell stories through art, poetry and dance.

Contact: Stacy Sturgeon, 435-797-1266, stacy.sturgeon@usu.edu