Keynote Speaker - Friday, October 25th

Nzingha S. Dugas

Executive Director
Umoja Community Education Foundation (UCEP)

Nzingha Dugas

Nzingha Dugas, is the Executive Director of the Umoja Community Education Foundation (UCEP), a critical resource dedicated to enhancing the cultural and educational experiences of California Community College students with a laser focus on academic achievement and successful matriculation to four-year universities.

Prior to this role, she served as the Director of the Oakland Unified School
District’s (OUSD) inaugural African American Female Excellence Initiative
(AAFE); an initiative dedicated to accelerating academic achievement among African American girls and young women in OUSD by addressing disparities in educational and social outcomes for Black girls and young women from preschool through high school.

In higher education, Nzingha was one of the directors in the Multicultural Student Development Offices the University of California, Berkeley from 2005 - 2016. There, her work focused on the retention and matriculation of Black students through academic support, community development, multicultural student coalition building, and social and cultural engagement for undergraduate and graduate students.
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In addition to student academic development work, Nzingha is a consultant in the restoration and recovery of the culture, identity and ways of knowing and being of African diasporic people. She had taught classes in Black relationships for over 15 years and is a researcher who believes we must be the ones to write and tell our stories. Her primary areas of research include: culture, identity, complex relationships, race and resistance, history, the long-term psychological impact of oppression, political and social movements, and student leadership and
academic development. In 2014, Nzingha was awarded a Fulbright research scholarship to examine how Afro-Brazilians use culture as power, post African enslavement. She is also an adjunct professor in Africana Studies at Contra Costa College in San Pablo, and Laney and Merritt Colleges in Oakland, California, teaching courses in Psychology, African American History, Humanities and Relationships.

Keynote Speaker - Saturday, October 26th

Luis Godoy

Cardiothoracic Surgery Resident
University of California, Davis

Luis Godoy

​Luis Godoy was born in Michoacan, Mexico. He immigrated to this country with his family as a young boy and grew up working on the farms of Northern California picking and cutting fruit. By the age of seven, he would come home from school and work with his parents. There was no time or energy for homework and barely enough to learn English. He worked hard and did his best but always felt like he was falling behind. He struggled mightily in school and at one point he dropped out to avoid gang activity that would have set his life off on the wrong foot. He became a father during his senior year of high school. Becoming a teenage father changed his life forever. Commitment, dedication and passion became more than words to him; they became his way of life. Even though he struggled to juggle work, family and school, he managed to graduate high school on time. After graduation he worked as a cook, a mechanic, a medical assistant, and eventually an X-ray tech.
 
It was not until he was in his mid-twenties that he built up the confidence to go back to school to pursue his dream of becoming a doctor. He attended Solano Community College, transferred to UC Davis where he earned a degree in biology — and then got accepted to the School of Medicine.
 
He could not have made it through such a long and difficult journey without conferences like this. It was at conferences like this where he heard of others journeys and where he became inspired to continue his path. It is where he met some of his strongest and most influential mentors and advocates. He is a strong believer of the power of mentorship and has experienced it firsthand as it helped him keep his dream of a medical career alive. He now strives to be that example for others and to help lift others up to achieve their dreams as well.
 
Today, he is a Cardiothoracic Surgery resident at UC Davis. He is a member of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons where he serves on a committee for Diversity and Inclusion. He has been inducted to the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society and the Gold Humanism Honor Society. He is also a recipient of the UC Davis University Medal and has received numerous teaching awards as a resident.