The 4th Annual  

Social Justice Leadership Conference

April 21, 2012

Mission

The Social Justice Leadership Conference (SJLC) is a collaborative effort which provides a space for students, student groups, community members, alumni, faculty, and staff to discuss social justice and to learn and refine leadership skills. SJLC seeks to empower its participants to create change by applying the skills and knowledge acquired during the conference.

Students, student groups, alumni, community members, faculty and staff facilitate sessions in their area of interest or expertise. Sessions focus on leadership skills that may be applied to any social movement and on the many manifestations of injustice and how participants can be involved in creating change.  SJLC provides participants with resources and opportunities for engagement on campus, in Middletown, in Connecticut and across the globe.

2012 Highlight

The conference is proud to announce Mark Masselli as this years Keynote speaker. Along with a small group of Wesleyan University students and community activists, Mark founded CHC as a Free Clinic in 1972 and worked with the National Free Clinic Council based in San Francisco in promoting the development of free clinics across America. Like most Free Clinics of its time, CHC’s early days saw limited public support, as community-organized health services were strongly opposed by the medical community and received little in the way of governmental support. With a personal commitment that health care is a right and not a privilege, Mark brought an entrepreneurial spirit to his non-profit organization, building a network of CHC sites that met the highest standard in both care and environment, to respect the dignity of those they serve.

Mark has played an important leadership role as a founding member of many health and human services initiatives in Middletown, including New Horizons Battered Women’s Shelter, Nehemiah Housing Corporation, and Oddfellows Youth Playhouse. In addition to local issues, Mark has worked on a range of international human rights issues. He has worked with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and has traveled in Tibet, Nepal, India and China working on the issues facing the Tibetan people. He also was active in 1980’s the development of the Bishop Tutu Refugee relief agency during the critical years fighting the apartheid system in South Africa. Mark is currently a board and executive committee member of Connecticut Health Information Technology Exchange Authority, and board member and treasurer of the Goodspeed Opera House. Mark was honored with a Doctorate of Humane Letters by Wesleyan University in 2009 for his work in the Health Care field.

To see this years Conference schedule, click here.

To see the 2011 Conference schedule, click here. 
To see the 2010 Conference schedule, click here.
To see the 2009 Conference schedule, click here.

For more information, email us.