Mount Holyoke Office of Diversity

Kijua Sanders-McMurtry: Mount Holyoke’s first chief diversity officer

Kijua Sanders-McMurtry: Mount Holyoke’s first chief diversity officer

BY ANNAMARIE WIRE ’22

Mount Holyoke’s first chief diversity officer Kijua Sanders-McMurtry began her work with diversity at an early age. Raised in Pasadena, California, her parents were activists who belonged to an organization that was in part responsible for the founding of Kwanzaa. “I really feel like my parents being in this very radical organization, [that was] honestly misogynistic in the way it treated women, made me really question and interrogate [...] differences, culture and diversity,” she said.

Mount Holyoke hosts triennial Black Alumnae Conference

Mount Holyoke hosts triennial Black Alumnae Conference

BY ANNAMARIE WIRE ’22

Over the weekend, Black Mount Holyoke alumnae from across the country and around the world returned to campus to participate in the Alumnae Association’s 15th triennial Black Alumnae Conference. This conference was of special importance this year, as it coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Association for Pan-African Unity (APAU), formerly the Afro-American Society, and of the founding of the Betty Shabazz Cultural Center. It was also the first-ever Black Alumnae Conference live-streamed internationally to countries in Africa and the Caribbean, as well as in the U.S.

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