Two Spirit & LGBTQ Community Advisory Council

Mission Statement | Initiatives | Accomplishments | Members | Links | Advisory Councils Home

The Two-Spirit & LGBTQ Community Advisory Council is a group of community members that work collaboratively with university leadership with the goal of promoting the well-being of all gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer identified people and those affected by discrimination based on gender identity and expression. The Advisory Council provides community support to create a safe and inclusive environment for UA.

Mission Statement

The Two-Spirit & LGBTQ Community Advisory Council is dedicated to actively building, sustaining, and strengthening efforts to bridge the University of Arizona and Tucson communities by utilizing an intersectional and culturally humble approach (http://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/newsletter/2013/08/cultural-humility.aspx). To lead in a developing inclusive excellence (http://diversity.arizona.edu/odiex) to improve the experiences of people of all gender identities and sexual orientations while providing students, staff, faculty, and community members the ability to thrive and grow.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns or want to get involved please contact us.

Ivy K. Banks, M.Ed., J.D. 
Associate Vice Provost, Diversity & Inclusion 
Office of Diversity & Inclusion 
Email: ivybanks@arizona.edu 

Denise TrimbleSmith
Program Director, Diversity & Inclusion
Office of Diversity & Inclusion
Email: dtrimblesmith@arizona.edu 
 

Charlinda Haudley
Program Coordinator Senior, Office of Multicultural Advancement
Division of Equity, Inclusion
Email: chaudley@arizona.edu(link sends e-mail)
T 520-621-8266

You can sign up for our LGBTQ Community Council here listserv here:  https://list.arizona.edu/

Initiatives

• Advocate for healthcare for transgender faculty and staff, and their families and dependents. 
• Achieve the University of Arizona’s goal of Inclusive Excellence. http://diversity.arizona.edu/odiex
• Update the Campus Pride Index, and work to improve rankings.  The most recent Index can be found here at https://www.campusprideindex.org/campuses/details/221?campus=university-of-arizona.
• Advise department leads on areas LGBTQ issues.

Accomplishments

• Study.com ranked the University of Arizona as Top 10 LGBTQ Friendly School - May 2021
• Our Campus Pride Index was 4.0 in 2013.
• Our Campus Pride Index has increased to 4.5 stars in 2016.

MEETINGS

The council members are alumni, educators, retirees and community members who are interested in helping the university achieve its goal of embracing our diversity as a strategic source of strength. The council meetings are open to community members. If you are a community member who is interested in joining or attending the LGBTQ CC meetings, please contact Office of Diversity & Inclusion at inclusion@arizona.edu for more information. 

MEETING ARCHIVE

• Monday, May 7, 2018 – Agenda (Agenda | Minutes)
• Monday, April 2, 2018 – Agenda & Guest: Sabrina Vazquez, Senior Director, UA State Relations (Agenda | Minutes)
• Monday, March 5, 2018 – Agenda & Guest: Michelle Sun, UA Campus Pantry Advisor (Minutes)
• Monday, February 5, 2018 – Agenda & Guest: (Agenda | Minutes)
• Monday, January 8, 2018 – Agenda & Guest: (Agenda | Minutes)
• Monday, November 6, 2017 – Agenda & Guest: (Agenda | Minutes)
• Monday, October 2, 2017 – Agenda & Guest: Marla Franco, Director, SAEM/AISS Assessment and Research (Agenda | Minutes | Survey)
• Monday, September 11, 2017 – Agenda & Guest: Jesus Trevino’, Vice Provost for Inclusive Excellence and Senior Diversity Officer (Agenda | Minutes)
• Monday, August 7, 2017 – Agenda & Guest:  Dr. Monica J. Casper, UA Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Inclusion, Social and Behavioral Sciences  (Agenda | Minutes)
• Monday, June 5, 2017 Agenda & Guest:  Helena Rodrigues, UA AVP Human Resources and Thomas McDonald Chief of Staff/Operations Manager, Business Affairs and Human Resources  (Agenda | Minutes)
• Monday, May 1, 2017 – Agenda & Guest:  Glenn Matchett-Morris, Ph.D., Associate Director, UA CAPS, David Salafsky, M.P.H., Director, UA Health Promotion and Preventive Services   (Agenda | Minutes)
• Monday, April 3, 2017  -  Agenda & Guest:  Shawna Larson, Co-Chair, UA Social Justice and Residential Life Education, Rosalinda Rodriguez, UA Housing Assignment Manager (Agenda | Minutes)
• Monday, March 6, 2017 – Agenda & Guest:  Syndric Steptoe, Associate Director, UA Athletics, Lacey John, Assistant Director, UA C.A.T.S. Life Skills (Agenda | Minutes)
• Monday, January 23, 2017 – Agenda & Guest: Chief Brian Seastone, UAPD (Agenda | Minutes)

Links

• LGBTQ Affairs
  http://lgbtq.arizona.edu/
• Institute for LGBT Studies
  https://www.lgbt.arizona.edu/
• Culturally humble - ability to maintain an interpersonal stance that is other-oriented (or open to the other) in relation to aspects of cultural identity that are most important to the [person].
• Inclusive Excellence - a strategy for transforming the University of Arizona into an institution that conceptualizes inclusiveness and excellence as one in the same, makes inclusiveness ubiquitous, assigns responsibility for inclusiveness to everyone on campus, and utilizes a broad definition of diversity and inclusiveness.

Resources 

• Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) Organizational Chart  
• University of Arizona Leadership Organizational Chart