About the OMA

The Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) provides the necessary support and guidance needed to encourage students to become members of a community respectful of differences. OMA assists students to grow into individuals willing to take a proactive stance against oppression in all its forms. OMA offers one-on-one support for students of color at Syracuse University. OMA reaches out to students of all colors who are struggling with mixed messages they may receive in dealing with the issues of race and diversity in their own communities.

Staff

On July 1, 2001, Dr. James K. Duah-Agyeman (a.k.a. Dr. D.) began a new chapter in his administrative career at Syracuse University when he was appointed Director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) a part of the Inclusion, Community, and Citizenship portfolio in the Division of Student Affairs. He currently serves as the Chief Diversity Officer on behalf of the Chancellor and President, Nancy Cantor, representing the University on the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education of which Syracuse University is a Founding/Charter Member.

Dr. Duah-Agyeman holds a Ph.D. degree in Mathematics Education and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Cultural Foundations of Education and teaches Intergroup Dialogue on Race and Ethnicity [SOC/WSP 230] which is part of the national Multiversity Intergroup Research Project. He has been at Syracuse University since 1982 assuming a fulltime employment position in 1986 as assistant director/counselor of the Office of Supportive Services. He was subsequently named director of the Center for Academic Achievement, and interim associate vice president and director of the Division of Student Support and Development which included Summer Institute for Incoming First year Students, Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program, Learning Disability Services, the University-wide Tutoring Center, Higher Education Opportunity (HEOP) and Student Support Services Program (SSSP).

Dr. D’s favorite proverb is: “All things come to the person who is modest and kind in a high position” (I. Ching). With that in mind, he aspires to create a healthy working environment for his staff and a safe and welcoming environment for all students. “OMA,” he says, “is our students’ home-away-from-home.”

Tae-Sun Kim is associate director of Syracuse University's Office of Multicultural Affairs. In addition to designing and supervising the assessment projects of the office, Kim also coordinates the WellsLink Leadership Program, Syracuse University chapter of the N.A.S.P.A. Undergraduate Fellowship Program (NUFP), chairs the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Committee, and develops and coordinates the office's various diversity trainings and workshops in the community.

Before joining SU, she served as a Retention Specialist for Michigan State University's S.U.P.E.R. Program (Summer University Program Excellence Required), a summer bridge program for historically underrepresented first-year students. She also taught courses in cultural anthropology and Asian American studies. Kim was a Fulbright U.S. Student Fellow in Zimbabwe, where she conducted research on the Chinese diasporic communities of Southern Africa as well as working as a community liaison and translator for the South Korean Embassy in Harare. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology with an emphasis on comparative Black Studies from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin., and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from Michigan State University focusing on White racial identity formations among transnationally and transracially adopted Korean Americans. Though born in Seoul, South Korea, Kim considers Portland, Oregon her hometown.

Tremayne D. Robertson
Associate Director
trrobert@syr.edu

Tremayne D. Robertson, associate director, has for the past two and half years worked with OMA as diversity education specialist for the Multicultural Living Learning Community (MLLC). In his new role he will provide leadership and direction for the Multicultural Living Learning Community (MLLC), the Multicultural Empowerment Network (M.E.N.), and the Conversations About Race and Ethnicity (CARE) Dialogue Program. Additionally, he will assist in providing direction for the WellsLink Leadership Program.

Robertson served as a residence director for the Office of Residence Life from 2002-06. He is the former adviser and co-founder of A Men's Issue (AMI); a recognized student organization at Syracuse University that advocates for ending men's violence against women.

Robertson is a faculty co-facilitator in the Multiversity Intergroup Dialogue Program at Syracuse University, where he co-facilitates Intergroup Dialogue courses on gender and sexual orientation. He received a bachelor's degree in psychology and master's degree in educational policy and evaluation from the University of Virginia. He is a doctoral student in SU's Cultural Foundations of Education program.
Please join OMA in congratulating Tremayne D. Robertson in his new and challenging role within the Division of Student Affairs.

Regina A. Jones, Assistant Director, Office of Multicultural Affairs, is a member of the Oneida Nation. The Oneida Nation is part of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy. The Iroquois are located in and around New York State and include the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora tribes. She resides and grew up on the Onondaga Nation territory located south of Syracuse.

She has been with Syracuse University for 17 years, where she will also receive her Bachelors of Science degree in Child and Family Studies in the College of Human Services and Health Professions. Jones has been with the Office of Multicultural Affairs since July of 2000 and also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Native American Studies and The Consortium for Children's Services, Inc. in Syracuse, New York. With an unprecedented number of incoming Native students to Syracuse University, Regina will direct the newly formed Native Student Program of the Office of Multicultural Affairs beginning August 1, 2006. It is with honor and respect that Regina accepts new responsibilities in the new program and looks forward to continuing to work with Native students, faculty, staff, and families on new initiatives. Initiatives will help Native students transition into college and remain connected with their heritage, which can be key to the retention of Native students in higher education. The Native Student Program will exist with the same home-away-from-home theme that is central to the Office of Multicultural Affairs. She is a single parent of four and grandmother of seven.

Cedric T. Bolton joins the Office of Multicultural Affairs from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities where he was an Educational Specialist in the African American Learning Resource Center. He chairs the Black History Month committee, instructs the spoken word poetry program Verbal Blend, and facilitates the Black Men's and Women's Think Tank.

Cedric was born in Pascagoula, Mississippi and was raised in Paterson, New Jersey. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from Western Washington University. He is a published poet with a chapbook of poems and a CD both entitled, The State of the Ghetto Address. Cedric values and understands the importance of active community involvement and created the community organization, Poetic Black Fusion, as a way of connecting published and unpublished poets to literary resources. His works have been published in the Minnesota Spokesman Recorder and the Minnesota Saint Cloud Times.

Jossette A. Otero
Coordinator of Budgets and Multicultural Relations
jaotero1@syr.edu

Jossette Otero coordinates the grants and awards associated with the Office of Multicultural Affairs that include the Diversity Programming Grants, The Chancellor’s Feinstone Grants for Diversity Initiatives and the Irma Admirall-Padamsee La Fuerza Community Enhancement Awards. In addition, she coordinates Dimensions, OMA's peer mentoring program for first-year women of color and is chair Latino Heritage Month.

Jossette is also involved in community engagement initiatives with various organizations including The Boys and Girls Club, The Association of Neighbors Concerned with Latino Advancement and the Spanish Action League.

Marissa Willingham of Syracuse, N.Y., a Program Assistant in the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA). Before joining the University, Willingham was a program assistant with the Community-Wide Dialogue to End Racism, a program of the InterFaith Works of Central New York, where she coordinated logistical details of the Community-wide Duck Race to End Racism. She was also instrumental in recruiting people from diverse backgrounds to participate in racial/ethnic dialogues within the Syracuse community.

Willingham attended Onondaga Community College in 2001 where she took classes in Computer Information Systems. She will be pursuing bachelor’s degree in human resources management at Syracuse University.

Because of her close connection to the Syracuse community, Willingham's role includes identifying and developing collaborative initiatives between OMA and a Community-Based Agency in response to Chancellor Cantor’s vision of Scholarship in Action.

Claudette Browne-Smythe
First-Year Academic Consultant for the WellsLink Leadership Program
cabrowns@syr.edu

Claudette Browne-Smythe is a Graduate Assistant in the Office of Multicultural Affairs, where she works as an Academic Consultant with the nationally recognized WellsLink Leadership Program. In her position, Claudette engages in academic advising, counseling and leadership training for students of color. Her background is in Social Work and Education, fields in which she has worked for over twenty years in her homeland of Jamaica. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Social Work and M.S.W. from the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, completed the Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling dual master’s degree program at Syracuse University and is currently enrolled in the Certificate of Advance Study in School of Education Counseling and Human Services Department. Claudette envisions herself returning to her homeland to continue her work in education advocacy and counseling with the aim of ultimately going into private practice. As an international student from the land where it is always summer, a land where the sun meets the sea against the backdrop of pulsating reggae music, laughter, fun and greater community spirit, she enjoys cooking, listening to music, community outreach, reading and watching movies.

Antoinette Duffey
Diversity Education Specialist for Multicultural Living Learning Community (MLLC)
aduffey@syr.edu

Antoinette Duffey joined the Office of Multicultural Affairs in Spring 2009 as the Multicultural Living Learning Community (MLLC) Graduate Assistant. In the role of Diversity Education Specialist, she plays an integral part in advising the MLLC Ambassadors, overseeing MLLC Committees, and empowering the MLLC Citizens to become more culturally competent as they seek to infuse scholarship in action and strive to embrace diversity education inherent in the MLLC.

Antoinette graduated from Texas A&M University with a B.A. in English and from University of Texas at Arlington with a M.Ed. in Leadership and Policy Studies with Principal Certification. Prior to her enrollment as a doctoral student in the Department of Cultural Foundations at Syracuse University, she served as an elementary after-school program coordinator for one of the fastest growing Texas school districts and a general community advocate. As a native Texan, educationist, and social justice advocate, Antoinette aspires to the promises of a quality education for all. Throughout her fifteen years of teaching at the K-12 and higher education level, Antoinette has strived to facilitate the educational process in a way that unites social responsibility, personal delight, and collaborative communities to both critique and develop a more genuinely democratic world.

Raphael T. Richard, Jr.
Diversity Education Specialist for C.A.R.E.
rtrich01@syr.edu

Raphael joined the Office of Multicultural Affairs in Fall 2009 as the Diversity Education Specialist for Conversation About Race and Ethnicity (C.A.R.E.).

Raphael T. Richard, a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a 2009 graduate of Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana. Although his undergraduate degree is in Urban Studies and Public Policy, his active undergraduate career and passion for student affairs inspired him to join the Higher Education Department as a Masters’ student. Additionally, Raphael holds a fellowship with the Melton Foundation. The Melton Foundation is an international network in which he participates in inter-cultural training, leadership development, global education through symposia, travel, and social service projects with students from India, China, Chile, and Germany. He is also a Brother of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc and a volunteer with the United Negro College Fund’s (UNCF) National Pre-Alumni and Alumni Council’s.

Despite the drastic climate change, Raphael is excited about joining the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Syracuse University community.

Mone't A. Kendall
First Year Academic Consultant for The WellsLink Leadership Program
makendal@syr.edu

Mone't A. Kendall is a First Year Academic Consultant for The WellsLink Leadership Program. Within this capacity, she provides continuous support to her advisees in all of their endeavors whether academically or in terms of helping them transition into their first year successfully. She was part of the WellsLink Cohort of 2006 and ever since, she has found her second home away from home.

Mone't graduated from Syracuse University with a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology, and she is currently pursuing her Masters of Science in School Counseling Program of Syracuse University's School of Education.

Cortland Bradford
First Year Academic Consultant for The WellsLink Leadership Program
cbradfor@syr.edu

Cortland Bradford is a Master’s student in the Information Management program at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies. He is pursuing a specialization in Information Security and a certificate of advanced study in Information Security with a focus on how it impacts the management of business operations and government policy. He has a minor in Chinese Studies and spent six months studying Mandarin Chinese and Chinese history at City University of Hong Kong, where he also taught English as a Second Language (ESL) classes. While in Hong Kong he worked as a Project Manager for The Conference Board, a non-profit global business organization whose membership consists of 1,600 companies representing nearly 50% of the Fortune 500. He envisions himself working professionally in a number of different capacities including: Information security governance in East Asia providing insight on internet, organizational, enterprise architectural securities. Cortland enjoys studying and speaking Mandarin Chinese, practicing Jiujitsu and Shotokan karate and reading and studying about Chinese history.

Karla E General
Academic Consultant for Native Student Program
kegenera@syr.edu

Karla General (Kawenniiostha) is an academic consultant with the Native Student Program, providing academic and social support for the undergraduate Native student population, and, more specifically Haudenosaunee Promise students.

Karla is deer clan and a citizen of the Mohawk Nation, born on the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory in northern New York. She is enrolled in a joint JD/MA (Sociology) program at the Syracuse University College of Law and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. She currently serves as the President of the Indigenous Law Student Association at the College of Law, Senior Desk Editor for North America for Impunity Watch (an online law review), and on the National Native American Law Student Association’s Executive Board as the Area Six Student Representative.

Karla’s primary research interest is the role of domestic and international law in Indigenous social, political, and cultural movements. More specifically, she enjoys studying law and policy as it pertains to Indigenous nationalism and identity, land claims, and environmental justice issues. She plans to pursue a career in international Indigenous law and policy upon graduating in May 2010 from Syracuse.

Karla graduated from St. Lawrence University in 2007 in Canton, New York, where she majored in Government and Sociology, and minored in Native American Studies.

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