Speaker Series: Naming What We Know

This talk weaves together personal narrative, scholarship on cognitive inertia, and practices of meaning-making to explore how individuals and systems resist change. Rather than centering relatability or trauma, the session invites reflection on advocacy as a practice of naming what we know, translating lived experience into shared language, and gently but persistently challenging the belief that inequitable systems are inevitable.

DL McKinney (they/he) is the Director of the Milt Ford Legacy Collective | Rainbow Resource Center at Grand Valley State University, where they lead LGBTQIA+ student support, education, and community-engaged programming grounded in equity, care, and belonging. A Grand Rapids resident and self-described Laker for a Lifetime, DL brings an interdisciplinary background spanning business, public administration, health, and higher education leadership.

In addition to their campus leadership, DL is deeply engaged in community-based work across West Michigan, collaborating with educators, nonprofit leaders, healthcare professionals, and youth advocates to strengthen pathways…