Meet the Keynote Speakers
Dr. Ricky Shabazz
President, SanDiego City College
Dr. Ricky Shabazz is the president of San Diego City College, where he provides executive leadership at one of the most innovative and socially-active community colleges in the nation. He is an enthusiastic, student-centered leader with more than 18 years of executive experience advancing academic achievement, educational equity, diversity, and improving access to higher education. His mother was a teenage parent, and he was the first person in his family to attend college. He is a passionate lifelong learner who is committed to educating a diverse community of learners.
Dr. Shabazz is the former vice present of student services for San Bernardino Valley College, where his responsibilities included providing leadership to offices and programs such as admissions and records, assessment, counseling, financial aid, outreach, student development and student discipline, Associated Student Body, EOPS/CARE, CalWORKs, Disabled Student Services, Federal TRIO programs, Foster & Kinship Care Education, the First Year Experience Program, the transfer center, and graduation. His team opened one of the state's first Dreamer's Resource Centers, and in his last year at Valley College, the college graduated one of its largest graduating classes.
In his previous role as dean of student services at El Camino College Compton Center, Dr. Shabazz helped the college grow from 6,700 students in 2006-07 to approximately 14,000 students in 2012-13, and greatly improved graduation and transfer rates.
Dr. Shabazz earned a Doctor of Education in educational leadership, as well as a master's degree in educational administration from California State University, San Bernardino and a bachelor's degree from the University of California Davis. Dr. Shabazz's research expertise is in increasing college access for underrepresented students.
Mariah Green
Artist, Curator and Archivist
Mariah Green is an artist, curator and archivist who has engaged with the community for the last decade through various forms of storytelling, fostering a greater sense of belonging among Black and Brown communities. The longtime Hemet resident seeks to find the ways that memory can be tied to reparations, and reimagined towards a collective future. Green is passionate about illuminating and rectifying the erasure of Black and Brown narratives. She uses different mediums to share both historical and modern stories relating to the Inland Empire.
Green has curated several local exhibits and is the author of IE ARCHIVES, an online platform that dedicates itself to intentionally telling the historic and current stories of the Inland Empire through artists. Her talks center on her upbringing in the San Jacinto Valley, Afrofuturism, her love of the Inland Empire and more.
Some of her works include 鈥淐hickabiddy in Tha Pool, 2020,鈥� a painting of her younger sister, Jayden, that was featured in her solo show 鈥淔ragmented 1037鈥� at Curated Chronicles in Upland. The piece captures her vision of growing up in a biracial family with the use of black and white oil paint to emphasize her family dynamic.
Green contributed to Afrofuturism with 鈥淧ortals, 2021鈥� which was part of a solo show in Pomona. She used the piece to challenge herself to think outside the 鈥渘orms鈥� of everyday life as a Black woman, considering questions such as 鈥淲hat does liberation look like for the Black community?鈥�
