Fielding to Host State of Diversity Summit on Feb 21

2023 has been a year of tremendous change both nationally and internationally. As we move through 2024, our university’s 50th Anniversary, we will find that Fielding’s work in advancing inclusive excellence continues to transform and grow in new and innovative ways.   

Please join us on Wednesday, February 21, 2024, 8-9.30 a.m. P.T./11 a.m. – 12.30 p.m. ET, for the State of Diversity Summit.   

The State of Diversity Summit will offer insights into where Fielding has grown in the past two years, where we are now, and where we are headed as we face the headwinds of national and international change. The event will be an opportune time to learn more about our direction as an institution, particularly as it relates to student success, academic engagement, and our overarching commitment to social and ecological justice through a human rights lens. 

Invocation and Statement “The Power of Love”: Phillipp Whiteman Jr, Peace Chief of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe   

Phillip Whiteman Jr.

Northern Cheyenne traditional Chief Phillip Whiteman Jr, Heove ve’keso (Yellowbird), comes from a long line of chiefs and horse people, who are caretakers of horse medicine and songs. 

Phillip Whiteman Jr. is a two-time World Champion Saddle Bronc Rider in the Indian National Finals Rodeo (INFR) in 1985 and 1999. He qualified 26 times for the INFR and held the highest mark ride of 86 points for 34 years. He won the Open Northern Rodeo Association (NRA) title twice in 1991 and 1993, and was a seven-time world finalist at El Paso, Texas under the North American Rodeo Commission (NARC). 

He became a champion in the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA) and was selected to join their first All American Rodeo and Wild West Show to Europe, organized by Jerome Robinson. As a PRCA member he became the first European tour champion in Helsinki, Finland, with a score of 91, besting the champions of the time, including three-time PRCA world champion, Monty (Hawkeye) Henson. He competed on the same tour in Paris, France, in 1991. 

For 15 years he put on rodeo schools for indigenous and non-indigenous children in his home community on the Northern Cheyenne reservation with PRCA Hall of Fame legends, including: Shawn Davis; Charlie Sampson; Bruce Ford; Donny Gay; and Gary Leffew. 

He competed as an old-style grass dancer often winning in both the professional rodeo and powwow arenas at the same time, including at Navajo Nation Fair; the Shoshone Bannock Festival; Crow Fair; and Oglala Fair. He is also a traditional storyteller and flute player and award-winning recording artist, including winning an Indian Summer Music Award and Native American Music Awards (NAMA) nominations. He served as culture and language advisor for the Hollywood A-List movie Hostiles. 

Chief Phillip Whiteman Jr. has been committed to giving back to Indigenous children and youth, including in his home community. He also offers trainings across North America through his organization Spirit Seeker Solution combining his lifetime of experience and his ancestral teachings to connect horse, human and spirit. 

Guest Speaker: Mike Goldstein, J.D. 

Michael B. Goldstein, Esq.

Mike Goldstein is a Managing Director at Tyton Partners, a strategy consulting and investment banking firm focused on the education vertical. Prior to joining Tyton, he led the higher education law practice at global firm Cooley LLP and predecessor Dow Lohnes, and previously served as Associate Vice Chancellor and Associate Professor of Urban Sciences at the University of Illinois-Chicago and Assistant City Administrator and Director of University Relations for the City of New York. He serves as chair of the Board of Trustees of Vermont College of Fine Arts and is a Board member and past chair of Fielding Graduate University, which awarded him a honorary Doctor of Humane Letters for his contributions to experiential learning. He is a Director of the University of the District of Columbia Foundation and of The Washington Center, Vice Chair of the Board of The Washington Ballet and was formerly a Director of the American Association for Higher Education and a Trustee of Mount Vernon College, as well as a long-time member of the Friendship Fire Association. He has a BA in Government from Cornell University, a law degree from New York University and was a Loeb Fellow in Advanced Urban and Environmental Studies at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.