CAIR-Chicago’s Outreach Coordinator Gerald Hankerson Featured in UIC Black History Month Podcast
CAIR-Chicago’s Outreach Coordinator Gerald Hankerson was invited to participate in a podcast series, “28 Days of Black Excellence” launched this month by the University of Illinois Chicago. Hankerson is one of 28 featured inspiring stories of Black students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends in celebration of Black History Month.
Hankerson shared his story of challenges and successes as a Black UIC undergraduate communication major and how he persevered in fulfilling his purpose to serve his communities. He currently serves as a member of the African American Advisory Council at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), which aims to maintain and increase recruitment and retention efforts for students of African and African American descent. He is also a founding member of the first UIC Alumni Association affinity network, Umoja: Black Legacy Alumni Coalition. Umoja, or UBLAC, engages Black alumni of UIC. Umoja, which means “unity” in Swahili, aims to provide networking and community to UIC alumni, support student recruitment and retention, honor history and build traditions.
Listen to Hankerson’s podcast and read the transcript here: https://today.uic.edu/podcast/28-days-of-black-excellence-gerald-hankerson.
Each day in February, a new episode will be released on the UIC today website, as well as the Google, Spotify and Stitcher podcast apps. The podcast series was developed by Dr. Aisha El-Amin, associate vice chancellor for equity and belonging in the Office of Diversity, Equity & Engagement. El-Amin leads conversations with luminaries, visionaries and waymakers about their journeys and what it means to give back to the university and community while creating impact in Chicago and beyond. Podcasts guests include UIC graduates from 1975 to 2017 who are now engineers, academics, social workers, nonprofit leaders, authors, military veterans and more.
“For decades in Chicago, UIC has been an integral part of the university experience for generations of Black and African descent students, faculty and staff. The UIC Black Excellence series lifts up these stories,” said El-Amin, who also hosts the podcast. Tariq El-Amin edited and was a consultant for the podcast. “It brings the promise of today into conversation with a rich history of excellence that made today possible.”