Keynote Speakers

Inclusion. Inspiration.

DR. KUSH K. BHARDWAJ
DIRECTOR OF RACIAL EQUITY AND JUSTICE @ OPEN BUFFALO

Building Relationships. Dismantling Oppression.

Wednesday, April 23 @ 9:00am

Recognizing & Respecting Differences

Award-Winning educator Dr. Kush K. Bhardwaj challenges NY Alliance 2025 Conference Participants to “think about how they’ve been trained to think.” Imploring managers and leaders to foster an understanding of the challenges faced by our DSPs, “Dr. B” informs and inspires audiences to not stay silent regarding injustice and barriers to equity for our employees and the individuals we serve.

Dr. B will tie key themes together such as “You can’t respect what you don’t understand” and “It’s all about the services” to motivate participants to fully engage in the conference and to turn this time in April into concrete action that will transform our communities and companies for the betterment of all.

About Dr. B:

After decades of community impact as an educator, lecturer, speaker and advisor, Dr. Kush K. Bhardwaj was named the first Director of Racial Equity and Justice at Open Buffalo, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing racial, economic and ecological justice. “Dr. B”, as he is affectionately called generations of students and audience members, is the only person in the history of Erie County to do three things:

Three time winner of the Milton Plesur Distinguished Teaching Award (at UB)
Named the top African American Studies professor in the NATION by the national student website ratemyprofessor.com [out of 8,000 in the national database]
Delivered a TED talk (October 2016) titled “Does African American Studies Matter?”

Dr. B was named Eric County Citizen of the Month in February 2018 and was recognized in a Special Session of the Legislature. Dr. B has earned impressive recognition for his dedicated efforts as an educator and mentor. Having taught at SUNY Brockport, NU, Houghton, Medaille, NCCC and UB, Dr. B has revolutionized teaching African American Studies, American Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, Political Science, Global Gender Studies and American Pluralism. At his position at Open Buffalo, Dr. B is responsible for the development, curriculum and teaching of the Race, Power and Privilege (RPP) Program, which strengthens local businesses and institutions who are seeking to be drivers of community progress.

In 1993, Dr. Bhardwaj became the founding Social Studies teacher at the now-defunct KIPP Sankofa Charter School and was a transformational educator for students in the 5th - 8th grade. He went on to teach Latin, Civics and African American Studies at Oracle Charter School. His transformational work with Buffalo Charter School Students became the subject of various film documentaries, including the Award-Winning The Forgotten City (2006) and The Experience (2010).

His unwavering passion for building relationships and dismantling oppression have earned Bhardwaj a reputation as a trusted transformational educationalist. He seeks to apply his personal paradigm of generating “interest, excitement and inspiration” for identifying the problems and developing the solutions integral to racial equity and justice.

RICK GUIDOTTI
FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR @ POSITIVE EXPOSURE

Beauty and Richness. Human Diversity.

Friday, April 25 @ 8:00am

Rick Guidotti, an award winning photographer, worked in NYC, Milan, Paris and London for a variety of high profile clients including Yves St Laurent, Revlon and L’Oreal. His work has been published in newspapers, magazines and journals as diverse as GQ, People, the American Journal of Medical Genetics, The Lancet, Spirituality and Health, the Washington Post, Atlantic Monthly and LIFE Magazine.

Rick founded POSITIVE EXPOSURE after a chance encounter in 1997 with a young lady living with albinism at a bus stop in New York City.  (Albinism is a genetic condition that results in the reaction or absence of pigmentation in the hair and skin.) As an artist, Rick was taken by her extraordinary beauty. In a quest for a better understanding of albinism, Rick sought out medical textbooks, where he was affronted by the dehumanizing images depicting disease, lacking all humanity. It was this experience which forced Rick to turn his lens from the more traditional ideas of beauty, to the beauty and richness of human diversity.

Rick has since spent more than twenty five years collaborating internationally with advocacy organizations/NGOs, medical schools, universities and other educational institutions to effect a sea-change in societal attitudes towards individuals living with genetic, physical, behavioral or intellectual difference.