Oscar Palacio

Developed and taught courses centering student engagement:

• · Contemporary Practices and Identities
• · Contemporary Practices and Latinidad in the U.S.
• · Contemporary Practices and the Archive

• Created and developed charter for EDIJ@LA+D Committee,
• Created and developed structure for EDIJ@LA+D Subcommittees
• Led initiative and conversations in Faculty Affairs and Academic Policy Committee to create university core faculty policy for inclusive hiring
• Participated in restructuring of LA+D Curriculum Committee to create charter and establish chair and member term limits, and create more inclusive curriculum structure and design
• Launched new award called Rising Artist/Designer Award, given to two rising students who represent voices and world views of people historically under-represented communities
• Created inclusive hiring survey to better understand what mattered to LA+D community, and use findings such as hiring more diverse faculty to reflect the changing demographic of student population to improve equity, diversity and inclusion at LA+D
• Developed rigorous scaffolding around annual Senior Student Awards of Excellence to ensure maximum amount of visibility for all students
• Created a robust rubric for both nominating and selecting students to mitigate selection bias that favors some while minimizing contributions of others
• Mentored faculty group from AICAD (Association of Colleges of Art and Design) member institutions about Decentering Whiteness in Art and Design Curriculum program as part of Mellon Foundation grant
• Led underrepresented LA+D student listening forum to address faculty bias in LA+D. Deans implemented reported policies and procedures recommendations to improve college climate for minoritized students

Founder of BIPOC Belong at Lesley ERG:

• Promote advancement of Lesley faculty and staff who self-identify as BIPOC,
• Create space for community building and promote belonging at Lesley University

• Scheduled courses and faculty for Spring semester offerings
• Managed Photography Department $10,000 budget
• Mentored and advised 40 students in program
• Supervised department's 5 adjunct faculty

Workshops provided opportunities for all teacher participants to reflect and interrogate their own identities:

• Critically engaged with Latinx Studies frameworks and methodologies
• Develop inclusive pedagogies and community-building practices
• Centered Latinx students' history, experiences, and identities

• Reimagined and developed 10 years old Photography Department curriculum
• Updated course content for Photography majors
• Created Photography program mission and student objectives for university catalog

• Identified criteria for culturally responsive professional practices
• Examine participants’ beliefs, feelings, and behaviors about and toward people from culturally diverse backgrounds
• Considered implications of cultural responsiveness and social justice in curricular and co- curricular experiences for Lesley faculty, staff and students, Identified and developed resources to enhance social/cultural perspectives in courses and programs
• Identified and developed resources that enhanced social change and cultural perspectives in courses and programs
• Solidified community of scholars who nurtured their own growth and supported colleagues in their discovery and learning about dynamics of “self and others; “within societal systems of oppression
• Created plan to strengthen culturally responsive professional practices in individual school and Lesley University as whole, through curriculum pedagogy, relevant programming and on-going reflection

• Served as faculty senate representative for College of Arts and Sciences
• Taught both graduate and graduate students
• Served as faculty mentor and advisor to graduate students in thesis development and exhibition

• Managed $150,000 department budget
• Supervised one staff member and 10 student workers
• Assessed department resources to meet demand for technology to support work of students, faculty, and staff
• Purchased and coordinated smart classroom technology for entire College
• Created inclusive policies and procedures for department operations

• Worked closely with digital lab staff at Light Work to scan and print creative work from 'Unfamiliar Territory' and 'American History Revisited' series
• Focused uninterrupted time to photograph Underground Railroad sites in area

• Collaborated with Teacher in Residence, Writer in Residence, and Educator in Residence to create two collaborative projects:
• Home and City', photography and writing project with Elementary School students who were predominantly of Latinx backgrounds,
• 'No Place Like Home', photography project about everyday lives of Lawrence High School students,
• Built community with parents and local community by creating and distributing students' self published books, and co-creating student exhibitions at Lawrence Historical Society, and Essex Art Center respectively