Fundraising boosts third edition of GLBTI Symposium

Highly successful fundraising has given a boost to the third annual GLBTI Faculty Council Symposium, which is well on its way to reaching capacity for registration.

CU Denver’s Troyann Gentile and the School of Medicine’s Lindsay O’Connell, co-chairs of the Faculty Council GLBTI Committee, said this marks the first year the committee has pursued fundraising to support the event.

“We collected nearly $12,000,” Gentile said. “We received donations from deans, chancellors, vice chancellors, academic departments – and the support was overwhelming. I think that speaks volumes.”

Because contributions exceed the event’s cost, the committee will put the surplus funds toward scholarships, “which we’ve never been able to do in the past,” Gentile said.

Health Equity at CU is the theme of the event, which is set for 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 7 in the Trivisible Room, Research Center 2, at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus.

The symposium is free and open to all CU faculty, staff and students; space constraints will limit registration to about 150. It’s described as a forum for exchanging ideas and learning new strategies for inclusiveness throughout the university. Click here to register.

Feedback from participants last year led organizers to hold this year’s symposium at CU Anschutz as a way of boosting attendance from faculty, staff and students on the campus. Early registration indicates that has worked, Gentile said. The event also has been shortened from a daylong schedule, partly in response to those who attended in the past.

Gentile said the theme of this year’s event “definitely ties into the location, given the medical focus. It’s really aimed at all of the health disparities for the LGBT population.” CU benefits including health plans and tuition waivers, and how those function for the LGBT population, will be specific topics of conversation, she said.

“This is on people’s minds,” Gentile said. “With same-gender marriage in Colorado and the court decisions nationally, there are a lot of implications. So the symposium is coming at a really neat time. It’s an opportunity for people to come and get an idea of what’s going on at CU.”

Highlights from the schedule:

• Free Safe Zone Training for all interested faculty and staff from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., includes lunch.
• Keynote Speaker: Angela Sauaia, M.D., associate professor of Public Health, Medicine and Surgery, University of Colorado, and author of “The Quest for Health Equity.”
• Other speakers include One Colorado and Brenda Allen, Ph.D., associate vice chancellor, diversity and inclusion.