Community Diversity Breakfast slated for January 18 at Benham Inn with featured speaker Dr. Shawn D. Long

The Community Diversity Breakfast, sponsored by the Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College Office of Diversity/Inclusion and the Upward Bound/Math Science Program along with the colleges Academic Advantage Program, will be held Saturday, Jan. 18 at 9 a.m. at the Benham School House Inn.

The annual event, open to the public, will feature an address by Dr. Shawn D. Long, a professor and chairman of the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. Long is a Harlan County native having been born in Harlan. He attended Harlan High School and was graduated from Tennessee State University. He earned his Ph. D. from the University of Kentucky.

A tenured professor at UNC-Charlotte, Longs teaching and research spans the disciplines of organizational communications, organizational sciences, virtual work, diversity communication, virtual-team assimilation and socialization and health communication. He has written, presented and published several peer-reviewed papers around issues of organizational technology, diversity, virtual work in organization, health communication and organizational culture. He has appeared as a featured guest on several media outlets including National Public Radio and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

Dr. Long has written two books, Communication, Relationship and Practices in Virtual Work and Virtual Work and Human Interaction Research. He is currently guest editor of a special issue of the Journal of Information Technology Research, and he serves on a number of journal editorial boards. Dr. Long is past chairman of the African American Communication and Culture Division of the National Communication Association.

Prior to his arrival in Charlotte, Long was a Southern Regional Educational Board Doctoral Scholar and the Lyman R. Johnson Doctoral Scholar at the University of Kentucky. Additionally, he has been recognized with several professional awards including the 2012 Outstanding Service Award and honors issued by the National Communication Association, African American Communication and Culture Division/Black Caucus, 2011 Southern States Communication Association Outreach Award, 2009 Organizational Science Outstanding Service Award. He is also recipient of the esteemed Chancellors Award for Outstanding Teaching at the University of Kentucky. He is also listed among the Whos Who of American Teachers.

Carolyn M. Sundy, Southeasts vice president for Diversity/Inclusion, applauded the selection of Dr. Long as the 2014 Community Diversity Breakfast presenter. We are undoubtedly privileged to have Dr. Shawn Long as our speaker and are eager to hear his message, she said. We have sponsored this event for a number of years and each year it continues to grow and to be well attended.

The event will begin with a breakfast buffet at 9 oclock that is priced at $10.

For further information, contact Ms. Sundy at 589-3052, Jennifer Brackett at 589-3060 or Amanda Creech at 589-3115.