DEISJ Curriculum Development Certificate Program

The purpose of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Social Justice (DEISJ) Curriculum Development Certificate program is to help faculty and others involved in teaching SUNY General Education learn the knowledge and skills necessary to create course content that meets the SUNY DEISJ Gen Ed student learning outcomes. A group of SUNY DEISJ faculty fellows and SUNY staff developed the program framework. All courses are six-weeks, asynchronous online and take 2-4 hours each week to complete. The courses are interactive with instructor feedback to participants and capped at 20 registrants.

Intended Audience

• Faculty

• Adjuncts / Part-time Faculty

• Librarians

• Graduate & Teaching Assistants

• Staff with Instructional Responsibilities (Instructional Designers, Student Affairs, Diversity/Equity/Inclusion Office)

Sponsored by the SUNY Center for Professional Development (CPD)

Learning Objectives

Those who complete the program should be able to:

Design and teach courses in their discipline that meet the SUNY DEISJ general education requirements. To achieve this learning outcome, participants will
- Understand how the DEISJ LOs intersect with their disciplinary LOs;
- Create course learning outcomes, selecting appropriate content, and creating effective assignments and assessments; and
- Develop strategies to help students engaged with the content and achieve the DEISJ LOs.
Understand and articulate the key terms, research, and scholarly conversations in the content areas related to the SUNY DEISJ learning outcomes. These include the following:
- Historical and contemporary societal factors that shape the development of individual and group identity involving race, class, and gender;
- The role that complex networks of social structures and systems play in the dynamics of power, privilege, oppression, and opportunity; and
- The relationship between principles of rights, access, equity, and autonomous participation to past, current, or future social justice action.
Reflect critically on how the instructor’s own background shapes their approach to helping students learn about DEISJ

Program Completion Requirements

To earn the DEISJ Certificate, participants must complete three courses. Digital badges will be awarded for each individual course as well as an overall completion digital badge.

2025 Course Dates

SPRING 2025
- Foundational Concepts in DEISJ (Jan. 7 -Feb. 17)
- Select Topics in DEISJ (Feb. 18-March 31)
- Building your DEISJ Curriculum (April 1 – May 12)
SUMMER 2025
- Foundational Concepts in DEISJ (May 13 – June 23)
- Select Topics in DEISJ (June 24-Aug. 4)
- Building your DEISJ Curriculum (Aug. 5 – Sept. 15)

Course 1: Foundational Concepts in DEISJ

Instructors: Emily Estrada

Course Description: The purpose of this course is for participants to gain the tools necessary to design their courses to meet the SUNY General Education Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice (DEISJ) student learning outcomes. The course utilizes a social justice education framework, an approach that emphasizes a critical understanding of how inequality operates and how actors can create positive social change towards a more equitable and inclusive society. The course explores topics such as implicit biases, intersectionality, and institutional inequality.

Learning Outcomes:

Upon successful completion of the course, participants should be able to do the following:

Define, describe, and analyze topics related to the SUNY DEISJ Gen Ed student learning outcomes including these:
- The historical and contemporary societal factors that shape the development of individual and group identity involving race, class, and gender;
- The role that complex networks of social structures and systems play in the creation and perpetuation of the dynamics of power, privilege, oppression, and opportunity;
- The principles of rights, access, equity, and autonomous participation to past, current, or future social justice action;
Begin to apply these concepts & theories to developing the curriculum for a DEISJ course.

Course 2: Select Topics in DEISJ

Instructors: Milo Obourn

Course Description: This course offers a “deeper dive” into several areas of DEISJ content. Because there is so much to cover and participants have diverse interests and preexisting knowledge bases, this course offers three “tracks” all leading to the same final projects—1. a class exercise or assignment and 2. an annotated bibliography for a course you might like to teach in your area of study. Our tracks follow the DEISJ general education outcomes to some extent focusing on 1) Gender, Race, Class and their Intersections; 2) Equity as a concept directly tied to systems of Power that create and recreate Oppression and Privilege; and 3) Diverse models of Social Justice Formations in theory and action.

Learning Outcomes:

Upon successful completion of the course, participants should be able to do the following:

Articulate how issues related to “gender,” “race,” “class,” and “intersectionality” OR
“equity vs. equality,” “equity and power,” and “equity and material justice” OR “social
justice,” “principles of rights,” and “access and accessibility” shape and inform your
curriculum.
Identify, describe, and discuss diverse approaches to teaching gender, race, and class OR
principles of equity OR social justice movements.
Understand, identify, and analyze the historical and current social constructions of race,
class, and gender OR historical and current debates about equity OR historical and
current formations of social justice movements.
Revise elements of a current course or develop resources for a new course related to:
societal factors that shape the development of individual and group identity involving
race, class, and gender OR the role that complex networks of social structures and
systems play in the creation and perpetuation of the dynamics of equity, power,
privilege, oppression, and opportunity OR the principles of rights, access, equity, and
autonomous participation and their relation to past, current, or future social justice
action.

Course 3: Building Your DEISJ Curriculum

Instructors: Emily Estrada & Lauren Diamond-Brown

Course Description: Participants will, through reflective exercises and guided conversation, revamp an existing course or create a new one to fulfill DEISJ SLOs. In this course, participants will use the broader DEISJ context they have examined in the previous two courses to re-see their own disciplinary content. 

Learning Outcomes:

Upon successful completion of the course, participants should be able to do the following:

Design or redesign one or more courses in their discipline that meet the SUNY DEISJ general education requirements. Courses should demonstrate:
- how the DEISJ LOs intersect with their disciplinary LOs;
- appropriate course learning outcomes, content, effective assignments, and assessments; and
- strategies to help students engage with the content and achieve the DEISJ LOs.
Reflect critically on how their own background shapes their approach to helping students learn about DEISJ.

Course Pricing

CPD Member

$300 Per Course

Discounted course pricing when registering for three courses at one time

$260 per course

Non-CPD Member

$350 Per Course

Discounted course pricing when registering for three courses at one time

$310 per course

Non-SUNY

$400 Per Course

Discounted course pricing when registering for three courses at one time

$360 per course

Group Discounts Available

Additional discounts are available to groups of the following size attending the same program:

5-9 people = 10% discount
10-19 people = 15% discount
20-29 people = 20% discount

Please send your group request to cpdinfo@suny.edu at least 30 days prior to the start of the course/program.

How to Pay

Available payment methods are:

Credit Card (Mastercard or Visa)
CPD General Points
Campus Check
Journal Transfer

FULL payment is required 30 days from the date of registration.

CPD Points: Check if your campus is a member . Prior approval is required. If points are denied, the registrant is responsible for the payment.

Journal Transfer (State Operated campuses only): An account number with authorizing signature for Journal Transfers is required within 48 hours. You must print and return the invoice that is included with the registration confirmation email.

Meet the Instructors

Lauren Diamond-Brown

Lauren Diamond-Brown, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Sociology and Criminal Justice Department at SUNY Potsdam and Coordinator of the Human Services Minor. Lauren received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Boston College and her B.A. in the Social Sciences from Chapman University. She teaches core courses in the sociology department as well as elective and general education courses focused on health and illness, diversity, human services and social inequality. Some of her courses include Reproductive Justice, Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies, Speaking about Diversity: Women and The Body, and Mental Health and Illness. Her past research examines power dynamics in the context of childbirth, and she is currently working on a project to study people’s experiences of perinatal care in St. Lawrence County and Akwesasne. At SUNY Potsdam Lauren is Chair of the Diversity Attribute Review Committee, a member of the Culture or Respect leadership team to reduce sexual violence, and a member of the North Country Birth Coalition which is a grassroots group of advocates working for reproductive justice in her community.

Emily Estrada

Emily P. Estrada, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of sociology at The State University of New York at Oswego. She has over ten years of experience teaching courses related to diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice including Introduction to Sociology, Race and Ethnicity, Boundaries of Whiteness, and Contemporary U.S. Immigration Policies. She incorporates inclusive learning environments and assessments into her classroom, focusing on the ways are experiences and interactions in life are shaped by our intersecting social locations. Her research areas include race, immigration, privatized immigration control, and the prison industrial complex.

Milo Obourn

Milo Obourn is Chair of Women & Gender Studies, Professor of English, and Coordinator for the Disability Studies Minor at SUNY Brockport. They teach courses in gender, disability, and literary studies with a focus on social justice movements and intersectionality including “Introduction to Intersectional Disability Studies,” “Gender, Race, Class,” and “Trans, Racial, and Disability Justice.” Their research examines the paradox of social identity as a tool for liberation and of oppressive power. Recent scholarship includes Disabled Futures: A Framework for Radical Inclusion (2020; Temple UP), and editorial work on the DSQ’s special issue “Disability and Sex Work” (2022). Dr. Obourn’s service focuses on equity, access, and community building. They currently serve on Brockport’s Committee on Accessibility, Center for Gender and Sexual Diversity Advisory Board, Faculty & Staff of Color Interest Group Planning Committee, and Restorative Champions team; on the MLA’s Committee on Gender and Sexuality in the Profession; and as a board member for the Center for Dispute Settlement in Rochester, NY and the Opening Doors Institute. Milo Obourn received their PhD from New York University in English with a focus on multicultural literatures of the United States and their BA from Tufts University with majors in English and French.

Contact Us

The SUNY Center for Professional Development (CPD) supports a wide range of professional development opportunities for the academic, technical, and leadership communities across the SUNY System.

Phone: 315-214-2440

Email: cpdinfo@suny.edu