Campus Pride

Aneesah Smith is a Queer, Christian, Cisgender, woman of color who is OUT and proud in all aspects of her life. She is a proud graduate of West Chester University (WCU), obtaining a B.S. in Health Education and M.S. in Counseling/Higher Education. She is a national speaker, activist and social justice educator who inspires those she meets to live O... UT loud. Her purpose in life is to use her story to save lives, her passion to raise awareness through education and her privilege to uplift the voices of the oppressed. She is currently the Director of Diversity Equity & Inclusion at Penn State Abington. Her career experience includes serving for 5 phenomenal years as the Director of LGBTQA Services at her alma mater WCU, Health Educator at Temple university and Peer Mentor Coordinator at Community College of Philadelphia. Her presentations and keynote speeches have been featured at a variety of conferences including; Creating Change, NASPA, Mid Atlantic LGBT Conference and the Philadelphia Trans Health Conference. She was also a faculty member for the Campus Pride Advisor Academy, where she leads a weeklong camp for collegiate advisors who serve LGBTQ students. She just recently served as one of the four elected co-chairs for the National Creating Change Conference on LGBTQ Equality which was held in her home city of Philadelphia. Additionally Aneesah is a serial Entrepreneur advocating for small and black owned businesses through her brand Black Food & Dessert Expo. She is also the owner of The Kupcake Bar specializing in gourmet cupcakes infused with your favorite adult beverage. When she is not out changing the world, Aneesah enjoys traveling and beach time with wife Surera, nephew Jace, son Avery and puppy KoKo. For students that fit into multiple marginalized communities, the consequences of unconscious bias can quickly compound even from well-meaning campus offices and programs. Intersectionality a term floating around academia outlines how an individual may face multiple types of overlapping discrimination ...Read More