3rd Annual Inclusive Impact Conference

2026 Conference Theme: The Ground Beneath Us: What Holds Us When Everything Shifts

Theme Description and Guiding Questions:

We are living through another season of disruption. Institutions are evolving. Leadership is transitioning. The conditions that once felt stable, in our organizations, our communities, our country, our world, are in constant flux. And yet, we show up. We tend to our work. We find each other.

The Ground Beneath Us: What Holds Us When Everything Shifts guides us to where the ground still holds, helping us better weather our storms. Rooted in the practices of art, community and healing, this gathering moves through three arcs: roots, practice, and power. We begin by asking where we come from. We then move into the work of tending—to ourselves, to one another, and to our communities. Finally, we close with a question about where we are going and what grounded, healing communities can grow together.

In a garden, the ground holds when it has been tended- nourished, rested, cared for over time. Farmers have a word for this kind of rest: fallow. Ground left unplanted for a season recovers what it has given. And yet we almost never let ourselves go fallow in this work. Depleted ground cannot hold what gets planted in it, no matter how good the seeds are.

We ask:

• What have you been rooted in and what has made it hard to stay there? What survival strategies have you had to carry just to remain in spaces that were never fully built for you?
• For some of us, the ground has never been stable. What does it mean to build belonging on stolen land, on colonized ground, on places that were never meant to hold us?
• What does stable ground mean for those that have come here seeking safety, survival and new beginnings?
• Introspection and community building are not separate practices: you go inward to show up outward, and you show up outward and it changes what you find within. What does it look like to do both at once- to materialize community through art, music, and poetry while doing the internal work that brings you home to yourself?
• Communities have always been the ones holding institutions together while simultaneously questioning and dismantling unjust and oppressive systems. What does it mean to tend that ground, and to sustain the people doing that invisible labor without losing ourselves in the process?
• What does it mean to be healing and feel powerful through various individual and collective practices? How do grounded communities move and expand?

Yomaira C. Figueroa-Vásquez is an Afro-Puerto Rican writer, teacher, and scholar from Hoboken, NJ. She is Professor of Africana, Puerto Rican, and Latino Studies and is the Director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies (CENTRO) at CUNY Hunter. She is author of the award-winning book Decolonizing Diasporas: Radical Mappings of Afro-Atlantic Literature (Northwestern University Press, 2020; translation, Editora Educación Emergente, 2023), and the forthcoming book, The Survival of a People (under contract with Duke University Press). Her published work can be found in Hypatia, Decolonization, CENTRO Journal, Small Axe, Frontiers Journal, Hispanofila, Contemporânea, Diálogos, and Feminist Formations.

A first-generation high-school and college graduate, Dr. Figueroa-Vásquez is passionate about mentoring underrepresented and first-generation students. She earned her BA in English, Puerto Rican & Latino Studies, and Women’s & Gender Studies at Rutgers University, New Brunswick (Douglass College) and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Comparative Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley. At her former institution, Michigan State University) she founded the Mentoring Underrepresented Students in English Program (MUSE), the Womxn of Color Initiative, #ProyectoPalabrasPR, and the award-winning digital/material project Taller Electric Marronage. She is the PI of the 2022-2027 “Diaspora Solidarities Lab,” a $4M Mellon Higher Learning project focused on Black feminist digital humanities initiatives that support solidarity work in Black and Ethnic Studies and leads the CENTRO “Rooted and Relational” Initiative, a $6.48M project supported by the Mellon Presidential Initiatives.

Instagram:

Joshua Doss is a pollster, data scientist, and political strategist at the forefront of understanding how culture, identity, and public opinion intersect in modern America. As the founder of Discourse Media and a senior leader in national research and strategy spaces, his work has shaped messaging, campaigns, and narrative frameworks for some of the country’s most influential organizations and movements. Blending rigorous data analysis with cultural fluency, Joshua specializes in uncovering the deeper psychological and structural forces that drive political behavior—particularly among young voters and communities of color. His research has informed national conversations on democracy, economic mobility, and social change, and he is widely recognized for translating complex data into compelling, accessible insights. Beyond his research, Joshua has built a powerful media presence, reaching millions across platforms with content that bridges politics, culture, and storytelling. His work has been featured on major national outlets, and he is known for his ability to connect academic ideas to real-world experiences in ways that resonate across generations. At the core of his work is a simple but urgent question: how do people build a democracy that people actually feel a part of? Through his research, media, and public engagement, Joshua challenges institutions to rethink how they listen, communicate, and respond to the communities they serve.

The Inclusive Impact Conference is an annual professional development initiative aimed at bringing together MSU campus partners with local, statewide, national and global community members for a full day to expand education opportunities and advance inclusion. The conference is led by the Inclusive Campus Initiative working in partnership with a planning committee of volunteers. This conference is open without preference or restriction based on personal protected identity.

The first conference was hosted at Michigan State University during the summer of 2024.

Cost for MSU participant $75.00.

Non-MSU participant is $100.00

Registration covers Breakfast Buffet, Lunch, snacks, dynamic speakers, breakout sessions and more.

Reserve a hotel room at conference venue.

Kellogg Center Home Page | Kellogg Center

Address: 219 S. Harrison Road, East Lansing, MI 48824

Front Desk: 517-432-4000 | Reservations: 800-875-5090

Thank you to our sponsors!

Executive Sponsors

• Office of Executive Vice President for Administration
• Residential & Hospitality Services

GOLD $3,000+

• Office of the Provost
• The Graduate School
• University Health & Wellbeing

SILVER $1,000+

• Broad College of Business
• College of Agriculture & Natural Resources
• Inclusive Excellence and Impact
• International Studies & Programs
• Lyman Briggs College