Queensborough Partners with AAC&U
In Fall 2021, the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) selected Queensborough Community College to host a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center. The only college or university in New York City to host a TRHT Center, Queensborough will lead a multi-year initiative to educate, prepare, and inspire the next generation of leaders to transform limiting narratives about race and beliefs in the hierarchy of human value.
At its core, the AAC&U TRHT effort is about providing a platform for the dialogue that is needed to identify and repair institutional structures, practices, and processes that are producing racial inequities in outcomes. While dialogue and relationship building are central to the TRHT framework, a core commitment of the initiative is to leverage the dialogue that the centers generate into action that advances broader institutional DEI goals.
Every TRHT Campus Center has a unique identity with goals specific to the needs of the communities they serve. Queensborough's TRHT Campus Center aligns all of its activities with the equity goals outlined in the College's 2021-2026 Strategic Plan.
TRHT Goals
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Transform the educational and institutional culture of the College
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Deepen Queensborough’s understanding of our students and their experiences
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Provide a safe space for dialogue
TRHT Mission, Vision, and Values
Mission: We promote a deeper understanding of the diverse racialized experiences of Queensborough's students, staff, and faculty and develop new ways to practice relationship building and social solidarity.
Vision: We envision an inspired campus community that is actively engaged in ongoing personal and collective self-reflection about race, respect, and what it means to belong. The sum of these personal transformations leads to policies, practices, and processes that produce equitable outcomes.
Values: The center is committed to transparency, inclusivity, diversity, and authenticity.
TRHT Planning Committee
- Dr. Danny Sexton, Associate Professor, English Department
- Dr. Laura Cohen, Executive Director of the Kupferberg Holocaust Center
- Ms. Amaris Matos, Assistant Vice President for Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging
- Dr. Mercedes Franco, Professor, Mathematics and Computer Science Department
Racial Healing Circles
Racial Healing Circles are a core tool of the TRHT framework. Circle participation is never mandatory and always volunteer-based.
"The process most often involves an experience called a racial healing circle. These begin
with a group, typically no more than 30 people, coming together to share individual truths,
history and stories. A healing circle’s purpose is to reaffirm the humanity in all of us.
And, it lifts up what unites us rather than what divides us; while discovering, respecting
and honoring the unique experiences of each person. A trained racial healing practitioner,
or a pair, facilitates the circles, leading the dialogues with a provocative question that can
lead to generative conversations throughout the process."
Excerpt from Restoring to Wholeness: Racial Healing for Ourselves, Our Relationships, and Our Communities
Racial Healing Circle Facilitators

Dr. Laura Cohen (she, her, hers)

Dr. Melissa Dennihy (she, they)

Dr. Maria Mercedes Franco (she, her, hers)

Dr. Heather Huggins (she, her, hers)

Ms. Amaris Matos (she, her, hers)

Dr. Trevor Milton (he, him, his)

Dr. Danny Sexton (he, him, his)
