IU alumni will discuss their educational and professional careers Wednesday evening at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center in a Black Excellence Alumni Panel.
The event is part of a series of Black History Month events by the Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs. It will take place at 5:30 p.m. in the Neal-Marshall Bridgwaters Lounge.
Three alumni will be at the event: Crystal Taliefero, professional musician and director of IU Soul Revue; Muhammad Saahir, a counselor at IU Health Center’s Counseling and Psychological Services; and William Shrewsberry, president and CEO of Shrewsberry & Associates, an Indianapolis engineering firm. Redgina Hill, director of diversity and inclusion at Bethel College, will send a video to be shown because there were unexpected familial complications that will prevent her from attending.
The alumni will discuss their experiences and triumphs they overcame throughout their careers, said Aggrey Sam, the media contact for the Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Multicultural Affairs.
“Obviously, they’ll also be talking about their time at IU,” Sam said.
This is the first Black History Month at the Neal-Marshall Center under the direction of Monica Johnson, who accepted the director position last March., who said this will be the first Black Excellence Alumni Panel to be held at the center.
Johnson said having four people with very different careers provides a variety of experiences for people to learn from.
“The intention behind it is that we wanted to bring real people to talk about real experiences,” Johnson said.
She said the alumni will discuss their years at IU and the first years after they graduated. The panelists will describe what influenced them and caused them to choose their respective career paths.
Johnson said she wanted to make sure students were getting genuine advice from people who could relate to the students' own experiences.
Taliefero was a member of IU Soul Revue when she attended IU in the 1980s. She went on to produce and tour with John Mellencamp, Billy Joel and other famous musicians before returning to direct IU Soul Revue at the beginning of the 2016-17 academic year.
IU Soul Revue is one of three arts ensembles operating under the African American Arts Institute.
Saahir graduated from IU in 2011 with a master's degree in higher education and student affairs and again in 2013 with a master's in counseling and counselor education, according to his profile on the health center’s website.
Hill became the director of diversity and inclusion at Bethel College, a school in Mishawaka, Indiana, in July 2015 after working in the school’s admissions office since 2010. She completed her undergraduate studies at IU.
Shrewsberry founded his company in 2001. He was deputy mayor of Indianapolis and had other public offices, according to the company’s website. He has a bachelor’s degree in business management from IU.
