Season of Nonviolence
Inspired by the work of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., César Chávez, and Chief Wilma Mankiller, the annual Season for Nonviolence honors these leaders’ visions for an empowered, nonviolent world. Colleges and universities throughout the country celebrate the Season of Nonviolence by bringing together community partners to educate and empower communities on how to use non-violent methods to create a more peaceful world.
Central Oregon Community College has been hosting programming to honor the Season of Nonviolence since 2008. The programming is co-presented by The Nancy R. Chandler Lecture Series and the College's Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
The Chandler Lecture Series and COCC's Office of Diversity and Inclusion completed an incredible season of programming to honor the Season of Nonviolence in March. We want to thank all of our speakers, panelists, facilitators, attendees and sponsors for making this important programming a success!
2022 Programming
Livestream Author Event
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Join us for a talk with Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of UO Common Reading selection Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.
Monday, January 24 at Noon
FREE & OPEN to the public
Presented by the UO Common Reading Program
The Green Path Ahead: Indigenous Teachings for the Next Economy
Winona LaDuke – Native American Economist, Environmentalist, Writer, and Executive Director of Honor the Earth
Tuesday, February 1, 6:00 - 7:30 p.m. PST - Virtual Presentation
FREE and OPEN to the public.
Winona LaDuke is a global leader and an economist focused on issues of culturally based sustainable development strategies, renewable energy, water protection, and sustainable food systems. Drawing upon her work in these areas, LaDuke strongly believes there is a clear path forward towards our shared economic future. LaDuke will share her vision for this transition, one that is just and equitable for all, including Mother Earth.
About Winona LaDuke
Winona LaDuke is a rural development economist and author working on issues of sustainable
development, renewable energy, and food systems. She lives and works on the White
Earth reservation in northern Minnesota, and is a two-time vice-presidential candidate
with Ralph Nader for the Green Party.
As Executive Director of Honor the Earth, she works nationally and internationally on the issues of climate change, renewable energy, and environmental justice alongside Indigenous communities. In her own community, she is the founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project, one of the largest reservation-based non-profit organizations in the country. She is also the co-founder (along with the Indigo Girls) of Honor the Earth, a grassroots environmental organization focused on Indigenous issues and environmental justice.
A Conversation with Winona LaDuke - A Student Event
Tuesday, February 1, 4:00-5:00 p.m. PST - Virtual Discussion
Program was FREE & OPEN to all COCC STUDENTS
COCC students are invited to join an informal virtual conversation and Q & A with acclaimed Native American environmentalist, Winona LaDuke before her public presentation. LaDuke lives and works on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota, and is a two-time vice-presidential candidate with Ralph Nader for the Green Party. She is also the co-founder (along with the Indigo Girls) of Honor the Earth, a grassroots environmental organization focused on Indigenous issues and environmental justice.
Examining Inequalities in Central Oregon
A Panel Discussion
Tuesday, February 22, 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. PST - Virtual Discussion
FREE and OPEN to the public.
We did not record this panel discussion. You must have attended live.
Please join us for a conversation and panel discussion with three equity activists to talk about inequalities in Central Oregon.
Panelists:
Dray Aguirre: (he/him/his/el) is a first-generation pre-nursing student at Central Oregon Community College.He is a food and housing-insecure student advocate. Dray is a homeless student who gives back. He identifies as Native American and Latino.
Jamie Bowman: (she/her/hers) has a bachelor’s degree from OSU-Cascades in Social Science with an emphasis on Community Development and Leadership. She spent five years as the president of an LGBTQ+-focused nonprofit called Human Dignity Coalition. She is a co-founder of the Central Oregon Transgender Health Coalition as well as an independent contractor with Allyship in Action, LLC.
Kerani Mitchell:(she/her) is a founding partner at Allyship in Action, LLC and a longtime Central Oregon community member involved in issues related to health equity, education, and social justice. She is passionate about co-creating a community where we all have resources and opportunities to flourish.
In recognition of Black History Month during February 2022, COCC was honored to welcome speakers and programs that highlight Black triumph. We celebrated the past and present triumphs of the Black community while continuing our efforts to challenge oppressive systems and strive toward a more equitable future.
Events were FREE and OPEN to the public.
View Black History Month Events
Housing and Belonging 
A Virtual Community Conversation with Facilitator Paul Susi
Two virtual conversations to choose from:
Tuesday, March 1, 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. PST
or
Wednesday, March 2, 6:00 - 7:30 p.m. PST
FREE and OPEN to the public. Space is limited.
We did not record these conversations. You must have attended live.
Housing and houselessness are visible and divisive issues in local media, in politics, and across different communities within our state. Many of us were experiencing housing instability and economic uncertainty even during the “boom” times before the COVID-19 crisis. This conversation will explore common assumptions and perspectives about the experience of houselessness and how many make snap judgments about who ‘belongs’ in our neighborhoods. We will seek to answer the questions, How do we decide who ‘belongs’ in our community? And what actually makes us feel ‘safe’?
This is a Conversation Project program sponsored Oregon Humanities. The Conversation Project brings people together to talk about their beliefs and experiences around timely and important issues and ideas.
About Paul Susi
Paul Susi is a theater artist, social services professional, educator, and community
activist born and raised in Portland. From 2015 to 2020, Paul worked as a lead shelter
host, shift supervisor, and ultimately manager for six successive Transition Projects
shelters, specializing in opening and establishing best practices for new emergency
homeless shelters throughout the Portland area. In March of 2018, Paul was recognized
as a RACC Juice Award honoree for outstanding contributions to the performing arts
community. In the fall of 2018 and again in 2019, Paul toured a production of Denis
O’Hare’s An Iliad to more than twenty different prisons, schools, community centers, and religious
communities—the first time a touring performance succeeded in knitting together these
unique constituencies throughout this state. Paul currently works as a site supervisor
for the Outdoor School with the Multnomah Education Service District, where he goes
by the camp name “Badger.”
Inequity in Healthcare: Seeking Mental Health Services after Experiencing Healthcare Discrimination
Dharma Cortés, Ph.D & Ana Progovac, Ph.D. - Assistant Professors in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School & Senior Scientists, Health Equity Research Lab at Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA)
Thursday, March 3, 5:30 p.m. PST – Virtual Presentation
FREE and OPEN to the public.
Professors Cortés and Progovac will provide an overview of their work and guide the audience through one of their cornerstone research projects. Their research seeks to understand how experiencing healthcare discrimination impacts peoples’ preferences for and willingness to seek mental health services as well as how that prior discrimination can impact their current dialogue with providers. Cortés and Progovac will share patient and provider narratives and discuss key patient-provider communication elements that contribute to equitable healthcare.
Dharma Cortés, Ph.D
Ana Progovac, Ph.D
About Dharma Cortés, Ph.D
Dr. Dharma E. Cortés, a native from Puerto Rico, received her Bachelor’s degree in
Psychology from the University of Puerto Rico, a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology
from the University of Puerto Rico, and a Doctorate degree in Sociology from Fordham
University. She also completed post-doctoral training in Medical Anthropology at Harvard
Medical School’s Department of Social Medicine. She is the Director of Latino Projects
at Environment & Health Group, a research company seeking technology solutions for
global health.
For more than twenty-five years Dr. Cortés has been conducting community-based research with Latinos in the U.S., focusing on acculturation, health, mental health, obesity prevention, and access to healthcare, including health insurance coverage. As a public health researcher, she has devoted her professional career to study and address health disparities.
About Ana Progovac, Ph.D.
Since joining Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School in a full-time
role in 2017, Dr. Ana Progovac’s research has combined mixed-methods, implementation
science, and community participatory research methods to study ways to improve mental
health for underserved populations.
Three main areas of her research are: transgender and gender diverse (TGD) mental health care; integrated, team-based, and/or measurement-based psychiatric care; and community participatory research to understand ways to improve mental health delivery for racially and ethnically diverse U.S. populations. At Cambridge Health Alliance, she provides research expertise as a member of the LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equity Committee. She is an active member of the Harvard Medical School Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE) working group.
Community Book Conversations
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of
Plants
by Robin Wall Kimmerer
As a citizen of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and a botanist, Kimmerer embraces plants and animals as our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, she brings her two lenses of knowledge together through her memoir of living in the natural world and practicing heart-centered science. Drawing on her life as an Indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices.
COCC Sustainability Committee
Fridays 12:00-1:00 p.m. beginning 1/7/2022
contact Noelle
The COCC Madras & Prineville Book Group
Mondays 12:00-1:00 p.m. beginning 1/10/2022
contact Michelle
The Environmental Center & COCC Redmond
Wednesdays 5:00-6:00 p.m. beginning 1/12/2022
contact Priscilla
Trinity Episcopal Church
Wednesdays 3:00-4:00 p.m. beginning 1/12/2022
contact Betsy
COCC Barber Library
Tuesdays 12:30-1:30 p.m. beginning 1/25/2022
contact Cat
Cascades Academy
Wednesday 1/26/2022 5:30-7:00 p.m. & Thursday 2/24/2022 6:00-7:00 p.m.
to register Cascades Academy Education Series
Climate Justice as Freedom
Julie Sze, Ph.D. - Professor of American Studies, UC Davis and Founding Director, Environmental Justice Project for UC Davis’ John Muir Institute for the Environment
Thursday, March 10, 6:00-7:30 p.m. PST - Virtual presentation
FREE and OPEN to the public.
Julie Sze, Ph.D. believes that climate justice is a freedom struggle: one involving both negative and positive freedoms. Climate justice activists use the term “frontline” to make issues of race, class, indigeneity, citizenship, and gender more prominent and to highlight the disparities of who is most impacted and most responsible. Sze will discuss how frontline climate justice movements focus on well-informed radical hope and visions that help bring us into an emancipatory future.
About Julie Sze, Ph.D.
Dr. Julie Sze received her doctorate from New York University in American Studies. Sze's research
investigates environmental justice and environmental inequality; culture and environment;
race, gender and power; and urban/community health and activism and has been funded
by the Ford Foundation, the American Studies Association and the UC Humanities Research
Institute. Sze’s book, Noxious New York:The Racial Politics of Urban Health and Environmental Justice, won the 2008 John Hope Franklin Publication Prize, awarded annually to the best
published book in American Studies. Her second book is called Fantasy Islands: Chinese
Dreams and Ecological Fears in an Age of Climate Crisis (2015). She has authored and
co-authored 39 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on a wide range of topics
and has given talks in China, Abu Dhabi, Canada, Germany, France and Italy.
Thank you to our 2022 Season of Nonviolence Sponsors!
Brooks Resources Corporation
Associated Students of COCC
Cascades Academy of Central Oregon
The Casey Family Fund of Oregon Community Foundation
The Cushman Family Fund of Oregon Community Foundation
Central Oregon Community College
COCC Sustainability Committee
Deschutes Cultural Coalition
The Environmental Center
Maybelle Clark Macdonald Fund
St. Charles Health System