Recognizing individuals or groups who have demonstrated a significant commitment to enhancing diversity and inclusion at The Ohio State University.
Quinn Capers
Associate Dean for Admissions
College of Medicine
Quinn Capers is an example of a community member who embraces diversity in a contagious fashion — people want to be a part of the history he is making in the area of diversity.
Capers is the first African American to be associate dean of admissions in The Ohio State University's College of Medicine, and he utilizes the position to promote diversity in the medical community. He aggressively recruits from the major historically black colleges and universities and Hispanic-oriented universities to attract College of Medicine applicants. Capers also updated the Admissions Committee’s vision statement to reflect a significant focus on giving a wide range of students the opportunity to be a part of the College of Medicine.
Expanding beyond campus boundaries, Capers takes his message of prevention and personal health awareness everywhere he can. He promotes diversity through participating at the local United Way. He both founded and organizes the United Way Key Club/Ross Heart Hospital “Healthy Heart Forum,” an event that educates local African American community leaders on heart disease and healthy, preventative lifestyles.
Capers also hosted his own radio show, “Heart to Heart with Dr. Quinn Capers IV,” on WVKO radio from 2004-06. The program focused on educating inner-city African Americans on health topics such as high blood pressure and diabetes and high-tech topics like vascular surgery and heart transplant. Clearly, Capers uses his medical expertise to serve all members of the Columbus community.
Summarizing his commitment to diversity, one nominator wrote, “Dr. Capers has a phenomenal work ethic and is of great service to the university and regional community. In addition to healing and saving lives, his mission is to reach out and help others from diverse backgrounds achieve their greatest potential.”
Douglas E. Crews
Professor
Department of Anthropology
Douglas Crews’ activity in diversity enhancement over the past 20 years is what his colleagues regard as a perfect practice: The ability and desire to both seek out and promote diversity in every aspect of one’s professional life.
Throughout his 19 years in the Department of Anthropology, Crews has directed much of his scholarly research toward exploring diversity and health issues among ethnic groups such as African and Native Americans. It is through this extensive research that, according to one nominator, “he developed the profound understanding of why diversity enhancement is so essential to his profession and to society in general.”
Crews uses this expertise and passion for diversity to contribute positive changes to the Ohio State governing community. He serves on a staggering four University Senate committees — the Faculty Hearing Committee, Rules Committee, Steering Committee and Diversity Committee — on all of which he acts as a significant and respected voice of the specific needs the committees address.
Perhaps his most influential contributions have been to the Diversity Committee, on which he has served the past five years, including for three years as its chair. During his time in the group, Crews has been influential in catapulting the committee from a secondary to a prominent role in the university’s diversity efforts. He did this through encouraging participation from people interested in specific issues and by making each member of the committee, from student to staff, feel valued.
“The senate Diversity Committee is the only entity in university governance that is formally concerned with diversity, and during Dr. Crews’ time as chair its essential role in the consideration of all matters relating to diversity at OSU was restored,” wrote a nominator.
Kathy Seward Northern
Associate Professor, Associate Dean
Moritz College of Law
Kathy Northern has been described as an educator whose “personal character — calm, quiet yet commanding — provides an excellent model of professional conduct for Moritz students in general and diverse students in particular.”
Northern is renowned among the Moritz community for her specific service to a diverse student community. As a professor, Northern has held hundreds of student counseling and tutoring sessions and provided a sounding board for students dealing with diversity-based issues. Numerous student stories can attest to Northern’s commitment to personal mentoring of future lawyers.
“Kathy Northern recognizes students’ special potential, helps them gain the confidence that they could succeed and provided the encouragement they needed when they faced formidable hurdles,” wrote a nominator.
Beyond the dedicated personal attention Northern provides to students, she also has served as a faculty advisor to many diverse student groups, including the Hispanic Law Students Association, the Middle Eastern Law Student Organization, the Asian-Pacific American Law Student Association and the Christian Legal Society. As a professional leader of all of these student groups, Northern promotes diverse student activism in the Ohio State and law communities.
Northern also attempts to break down diversity barriers for youth in the urban areas of Columbus surrounding Ohio State. She acts as the coordinator of Moritz’s Law and Leadership Institute, which promotes positive development of eighth- and ninth-grade students from low-income families and under-served schools. As one of her former students noted, Kathy Northern’s commitment to diversity enhancement of youths, college students and the local community is truly a “life cycle” approach.
Herbert W. Ockerman
Professor
Department of Animal Sciences
Herbert Ockerman’s passion for food stretches far beyond his work as a professor of meat science at Ohio State. The educator also has dedicated his 47 years in academia to promoting food and agricultural studies in diverse areas of the world.
Beyond teaching courses, Ockerman has been continually invested in encouraging innovative approaches to learning about agriculture. Along with introducing American students to diverse cultures through study abroad, Ockerman also is dedicated to helping international students. He has been an advisor to 95 international graduate students from 35 countries and 86 post-doctorate and visiting scholars from 24 countries.
“He knows no boundaries when it comes to giving support and help to international students so that they realize the full potential of their educational and life experience at Ohio State,” one nominator wrote.
Even after his international students have professional careers, Ockerman creatively finds ways to continue to promote food and agriculture education. He sends out a daily listserv to his international alumni to provide them with meat industry news produced during a 24-hour period.
Ockerman also provides educational information to his international students’ communities. In one of his most generous and innovative projects, Ockerman collects and distributes books, which he sends to his alumni for their various university libraries. According to a nominator, his to-date book donations add up to an amount of more than $500 million.
For Ockerman, the world is his classroom. As one nominator wrote, “Although others are involved in the international agriculture arena because it is their occupation, Dr. Ockerman serves in this capacity because it is his life.”
Ketwana Schoos
Coordinator, Multicultural Affairs
Ohio State Mansfield
Ketwana Schoos truly embraces her responsibility as an Ohio State educator devoted to promoting diversity, even at areas of the university outside of Columbus.
Schoos’ role as Multicultural Affairs Coordinator at Ohio State Mansfield began with the creation of the position in 2007, making her responsible for developing the campus’ diversity plan through the Office of Multicultural Affairs. “In this role, she has demonstrated vision, leadership and strong organizational skills,” a nominator wrote.
On the Mansfield campus, Schoos also promotes diversity through teaching courses in Multicultural Perspectives, African American Studies and psychology/study skills. Outside of the classroom, Schoos has led efforts to rejuvenate African American groups on campus such as the Black Student Union and the Sisterhood of African American Students.
Expanding beyond the university, Schoos participates in an array of organizations aimed at bettering the diverse Mansfield community. She both volunteers with Habitat for Humanity and serves on the organization’s board of directors. At the Culliver Reading Center, Schoos tutors and mentors diverse students along with developing fundraising events as a member of the Center’s board.
Finally, Schoos utilizes her skills as a coordinator to help develop local outreach programs aimed at empowering students of color to view college as a positive, realistic option. Her programs teach diverse Mansfield high school and middle school students the value of a college education.
Of Schoos’ extraordinary activism in the Mansfield community, a nominator wrote, “Our work on OSU’s regional campuses often takes us into the community to make connections, and Ketwana has obviously embraced this commitment and gone above and beyond the call of duty.”
