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Social work professor wins 2016 Anti-Racism Legacy Award

Posted April 28, 2016

Social work professor wins 2016 Anti-Racism Legacy Award

Pictured: Interim President Devinder Malhotra, Robert O’Conner and Paul Spies.

Robert O’Connor, faculty, Social Work Department, is the 2016 recipient of the Anti-Racism Legacy Award. Metropolitan State’s Anti-Racism Leadership Team (ARLT) presents the award to an individual whose leadership has had a lasting impact toward helping Metropolitan State manifest its urban mission and vision of becoming an anti-racist learning community.

O’Connor was nominated by Daniel Abebe, faculty, College of Individualized Studies, for being a consistent advocate of an inclusive and anti-racist university from his first day. O’Connor has co-chaired the ARLT and the anti-racism education sub committee, co-authored the anti-racism campus climate survey, and is a leadership team member on the Diversity Council, among many other roles.

In addition to being a professor at Metropolitan State for the past 15 years, O’Connor is the founder of the Transracial Adoption Network, a subject matter expert in culture and diversity issues in out of home placements and has been interviewed by national media outlets on transracial adoption issues.

O’Connor was honored during the 2016 Employee Awards ceremony on April 14.