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DEISJ Curriculum Development Certificate Program

The purpose of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Social Justice (DEISJ) Curriculum Development Certificate program is to help faculty and others involved in teaching SUNY General Education learn the knowledge and skills necessary to create course content that meets the SUNY DEISJ Gen Ed student learning outcomes. A group of SUNY DEISJ faculty fellows and SUNY staff developed the program framework. All courses are six-weeks, asynchronous online and take 2-4 hours each week to complete. The courses are interactive with instructor feedback to participants and capped at 20 registrants. 

Intended Audience 
• Faculty 
• Adjuncts / Part-time Faculty 
• Librarians 
• Graduate & Teaching Assistants 
• Staff with Instructional Responsibilities (Instructional Designers, Student Affairs, Diversity/Equity/Inclusion Office)


Learning Objectives


Those who complete the program should be able to: 

  • Design and teach courses in their discipline that meet the SUNY DEISJ general education requirements. To achieve this learning outcome, participants will
    • Understand how the DEISJ LOs intersect with their disciplinary LOs;
    • Create course learning outcomes, selecting appropriate content, and creating effective assignments and assessments; and
    • Develop strategies to help students engaged with the content and achieve the DEISJ LOs.
  • Understand and articulate the key terms, research, and scholarly conversations in the content areas related to the SUNY DEISJ learning outcomes. These include the following:
    • Historical and contemporary societal factors that shape the development of individual and group identity involving race, class, and gender;
    • The role that complex networks of social structures and systems play in the dynamics of power, privilege, oppression, and opportunity; and
    • The relationship between principles of rights, access, equity, and autonomous participation to past, current, or future social justice action.
  • Reflect critically on how the instructor's own background shapes their approach to helping students learn about DEISJ

Program Completion Requirements:

To earn the DEISJ Certificate, participants must complete three courses. Digital badges will be awarded for each individual course as well as an overall completion digital badge. 


2024 Course Dates

  • Foundational Concepts in DEISJ       June 18 - July 29, 2024
  • Select Topics in DEISJ                         September 3 - October 14, 2024
  • Building your DEISJ Curriculum         October 15 - November 25, 2024

Course 1: Foundational Concepts in DEISJ

Course Dates: Jun 18 - July 29, 2024

Instructors: TBA

Course Description:  The purpose of this course is for participants to gain the tools necessary to design their courses to meet the SUNY General Education Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice (DEISJ) student learning outcomes. The course utilizes a social justice education framework, an approach that emphasizes a critical understanding of how inequality operates and how actors can create positive social change towards a more equitable and inclusive society. The course explores topics such as implicit biases, intersectionality, and institutional inequality.   

Learning Outcomes:  

Upon successful completion of the course, participants should be able to do the following: 

  • Define, describe, and analyze topics related to the SUNY DEISJ Gen Ed student learning outcomes including these:
    • The historical and contemporary societal factors that shape the development of individual and group identity involving race, class, and gender;
    • The role that complex networks of social structures and systems play in the creation and perpetuation of the dynamics of power, privilege, oppression, and opportunity;
    • The principles of rights, access, equity, and autonomous participation to past, current, or future social justice action;
  • Begin to apply these concepts & theories to developing the curriculum for a DEISJ course.

Course 2: Select Topics in DEISJ

Course Dates: September 3 - October 14, 2024 

Instructors: TBA

Course Description: This course gives program participants the opportunity to focus on one of the three components of the SUNY general education DEISJ gen ed learning outcomes: race/class/gender, equity, or social justice frameworks. A full description and learning objectives for this course is forthcoming.

Learning Outcomes: TBA


Course 3: Building Your DEISJ Curriculum

Course Dates: October 15 - November 25, 2024

Instructors: TBA

Course Description:  Participants will, through reflective exercises and guided conversation, revamp an existing course or create a new one to fulfill DEISJ SLOs. In this course, participants will use the broader DEISJ context they have examined in the previous two courses to re-see their own disciplinary content.    

Learning Outcomes:  

Upon successful completion of the course, participants should be able to do the following: 

  • Design or redesign one or more courses in their discipline that meet the SUNY DEISJ general education requirements. Courses should demonstrate:
    • how the DEISJ LOs intersect with their disciplinary LOs;
    • appropriate course learning outcomes, content, effective assignments, and assessments; and
    • strategies to help students engage with the content and achieve the DEISJ LOs.
  • Reflect critically on how their own background shapes their approach to helping students learn about DEISJ.



Course Pricing

CPD Member

$300 Per Course 


Discounted course pricing when registering for three courses at one time

$260 per course 

Non-CPD Member

$350 Per Course


Discounted course pricing when registering for three courses at one time

$310 per course 

Non-SUNY

$400 Per Course


Discounted course pricing when registering for three courses at one time

$360 per course 


Group Discounts Available

Additional discounts are available to groups of the following size attending the same program:

  • 5-9 people = 10% discount
  • 10-19 people = 15% discount
  • 20-29 people = 20% discount

Please send your group request to cpdinfo@suny.edu at least 30 days prior to the start of the course/program.


Register for Fall 2024

How to Pay 

Available payment methods are:

  • Credit Card (Mastercard or Visa)
  • Campus Check
  • Journal Transfer
  • CPD Points

FULL payment is required 30 days from the date of registration.

CPD PointsCheck if your campus is a member. Prior approval is required. If points are denied, the registrant is responsible for the payment.

Journal Transfer (State Operated campuses only): An account number with authorizing signature for Journal Transfers is required within 48 hours. You must print and return the invoice that is included with the registration confirmation email.


Meet the Instructors

Headshot of Lauren Diamond-Brown

Lauren Diamond-Brown

Lauren Diamond-Brown, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Sociology and Criminal Justice Department at SUNY Potsdam and Coordinator of the Human Services Minor. Lauren received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Boston College and her B.A. in the Social Sciences from Chapman University. She teaches core courses in the sociology department as well as elective and general education courses focused on health and illness, diversity, human services and social inequality. Some of her courses include Reproductive Justice, Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies, Speaking about Diversity: Women and The Body, and Mental Health and Illness. Her past research examines power dynamics in the context of childbirth, and she is currently working on a project to study people’s experiences of perinatal care in St. Lawrence County and Akwesasne. At SUNY Potsdam Lauren is Chair of the Diversity Attribute Review Committee, a member of the Culture or Respect leadership team to reduce sexual violence, and a member of the North Country Birth Coalition which is a grassroots group of advocates working for reproductive justice in her community.

Headshot of Carla DuBois-Simons

Carla DuBose-Simons

Carla DuBose-Simons, PhD is an Assistant Professor of History in the Humanities Department at SUNY Westchester Community College where she teaches colonial American, 20th Century American, and African American history classes. Carla earned her doctorate degree in History from The Graduate Center of the City University of New York and her Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics and Africana Studies from the College of Arts and Sciences of New York University. Her research interests include New York City history, African American history, history of community formation, and the history of social justice movements. At SUNY Westchester Dr. DuBose serves as the faculty advisor for the Black Student Union, serves on the General Education and Diversity committees of the Faculty Senate, has coordinated assessment of Student Learning Outcomes for American History classes, and participated in implementing the college’s General Education program among other duties. Dr. DuBose-Simons is Assistant Editor of the Ethnic Studies Review, University of California Press and co-chaired the inaugural Teaching History Writing Conference in March 2021.

Headshot of Naomi Edwards

Naomi Edwards

Naomi Edwards, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the department of English at SUNY Suffolk County Community College. Her teaching focuses on multiethnic literature and composition, and she recently developed a new course for Suffolk, “Multiethnic Literature of the United States,” which meets the new SUNY DEISJ learning outcomes and ran for the first time in Fall 2023. Dr. Edwards's research focuses on contemporary Asian American literature at the intersections of racial melancholia, trauma studies, and gender and sexuality studies. Her forthcoming article, “Race in the Classroom and the Problem of Hope,” will appear in Race in the Multiethnic Literature Classroom (eds. Gary Totten and Cristina Stanciu, University of Illinois Press). Dr. Edwards’s service is both student- and DEISJ-centered, including advising the Asian Culture Appreciation Club and serving on her campus’s Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, for which she recently helped develop a Student Social Justice Award to recognize students’ outstanding work in social justice education and action in our communities.


Headshot of Emily Estrada


Emily Estrada

Emily P. Estrada, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of sociology at The State University of New York at Oswego. She has over ten years of experience teaching courses related to diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice including Introduction to Sociology, Race and Ethnicity, Boundaries of Whiteness, and Contemporary U.S. Immigration Policies. She incorporates inclusive learning environments and assessments into her classroom, focusing on the ways are experiences and interactions in life are shaped by our intersecting social locations. Her research areas include race, immigration, privatized immigration control, and the prison industrial complex.

Headshot of Himanee Gupta

Himanee Gupta

Himanee Gupta is a Professor of Historical Studies at SUNY Empire State University, where she teaches courses in history, religion studies, ethnic and diaspora studies, food studies, political philosophy, and social justice. She also serves as Empire States's academic coordinator for Historical Studies and in that capacity curates the curricular content of nearly 40 online courses in history and religion. She is author of Muncie, India(na): Middletown and Asian America (University of Illinois Press, 2018) as well as several articles on the intersections of farming, spirituality, and settler colonialism; Hip Hop and storytelling as radical praxis; and South Asian American identity and community formations. Her capability to teach and write across a broad interdisciplinary platform stems from her academic training in American Studies and Political Science as well as her past professional work as a journalist. She is a 2023-24 SUNY Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Social Justice Fellow and also serves on the boards of the Ndakinna Education Center, Weave News, and Saratoga Farmers Market Association. She is an active farmer and yoga practitioner, and is currently completing her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Certification through the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health.


Headshot of Milo Obourn

Milo Obourn

Milo Obourn is Chair of Women & Gender Studies, Professor of English, and Coordinator for the Disability Studies Minor at SUNY Brockport. They teach courses in gender, disability, and literary studies with a focus on social justice movements and intersectionality including “Introduction to Intersectional Disability Studies,” “Gender, Race, Class,” and “Trans, Racial, and Disability Justice.” Their research examines the paradox of social identity as a tool for liberation and of oppressive power. Recent scholarship includes Disabled Futures: A Framework for Radical Inclusion (2020; Temple UP), and editorial work on the DSQ’s special issue “Disability and Sex Work” (2022). Dr. Obourn’s service focuses on equity, access, and community building. They currently serve on Brockport’s Committee on Accessibility, Center for Gender and Sexual Diversity Advisory Board, Faculty & Staff of Color Interest Group Planning Committee, and Restorative Champions team; on the MLA’s Committee on Gender and Sexuality in the Profession; and as a board member for the Center for Dispute Settlement in Rochester, NY and the Opening Doors Institute. Milo Obourn received their PhD from New York University in English with a focus on multicultural literatures of the United States and their BA from Tufts University with majors in English and French.


Contact Us

The SUNY Center for Professional Development (CPD) supports a wide range of professional development opportunities for the academic, technical, and leadership communities across the SUNY System.

Phone

315-214-2440