The National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) recently recognized the University of Montevallo chapter with its Presidential Chapter Award. NAME is a non-profit organization that advances and advocates for equity and social justice through multicultural education.
Led by Dr. Courtney Bentley, chapter president, the UM organization has increased its membership dramatically and now includes students. The group works with departments within the university as well as outside organizations to co-sponsor events such as Social Work Advocacy Day and social justice movie nights. They also partner with Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, as a tier one site for piloting their new Perspectives curriculum. They joined with the Alabama Birth Coalition in February 2013 to sponsor speaker Jennie Joseph, an advocate for improved perinatal outcomes for African American women, as a part of Black History Month observances.
The chapter has hosted the regional NAME conference for the past three years and will do so again in 2014.