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March 3, 2022 Dear William Paterson Community, I am pleased to invite you all to the 2nd Annual President’s Diversity Lecture with Deborah A. Santiago, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Excelencia in Education, America’s premier authority on efforts to accelerate Latino student success in higher education, on Thursday, March 31st, from 4:00-5:30 p.m. on Zoom. Please click here to register for the event. Deborah Santiago’s talk, “Codifying the ‘S’ in HSIs: Serving Latino Students with Intentionality,” will speak directly to a critical priority for William Paterson that I have talked about often – our need to move beyond being an institution that simply enrolls Latinx students to one that fully serves them. My hope is that this event is just one of many steps that will move us closer to making this a reality.

Specifically, Deborah will discuss how serving students—especially Latinx students—requires intentionality, and she will share strategies that build on students’ strengths and opportunities guided by evidence-based practices and leadership commitment. The event will include a Q&A session. I hope you can join us for what promises to be an engaging and informative discussion, including actionable strategies that we should consider as we continuously work to better serve WP students, with a particular focus here on the Latinx student community.

Deborah A. Santiago

More About Deborah A. Santiago: Deborah Santiago co-founded Excelencia in Education in 2004 to inform policy and practices to accelerate Latino student success in higher education. Her work focuses on federal and state policies, financial aid, Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), and effective institutional practices for student success. She has been cited in numerous publications for her work, including The New York Times, Washington Post, The Economist, Forbes, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. She serves on the Board of Visitors for the University of Mary Washington, her alma mater, and on the advisory board of TheDream.US.

Sincerely, Richard J. Helldobler, Ph.D. President

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