Hortense Parker Celebration

The annual Hortense Parker Ceremony is the official ceremony honoring the legacy of the first known student of color to graduate from Mount Holyoke College and first African American to attend Mount Holyoke College. This event celebrates and inspires students, faculty, staff, and alum of color, both past and present. All are welcome to attend and join in this celebration. This year's ceremony will include: Keynote Address: Bearing Witness: Building Community through Testimony in Liminal Spaces by Dr. Destiny Williams Dobosz ’19. Stories have the power and promise to change lives. In this talk, Dr. Williams-Dobosz will share her experiences building community for students in and out of academic settings, conducting humanizing research, and the transformative power of witnessing.PerformancesPeople’s Choice Creation ContestAbout the Keynote Speaker: Dr. Destiny Williams-Dobosz ’19, professionally known as Dr. Destiny, is a nationally recognized researcher, educator, advocate, and consultant with a decade of experience in the field of higher education. Her academic foundation is rooted in a multidisciplinary background, having earned a B.A. in Chemistry from Mount Holyoke College along with a M.S. and Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Currently, she works as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Boston College within the Department of Educational Leadership and Higher Education. In this role, she contributes to the academic community not only through her specialized research but also through her instruction of advanced coursework. She is responsible for teaching graduate-level students in key areas such as Qualitative Research Methods and the complexities of Gender and Higher Education. Through her teaching and guest lectures, she prioritizes rigorous instruction through process-oriented learning activities and humanizing pedagogies for whole-person development.