Equity & Diversity Conference

About

BD Wong is a celebrated actor and activist with over three decades of excellence on stage, on television, and in film, appearing in such hits as Bird Box, Law & Order: SVU, American Horror Story, Gotham, Jurassic Park, and Jurassic World. His Broadway debut inM. Butterfly earned him a Tony Award, Outer Critic’s Circle Award, Theatre World Award. Clarence Derwent Award, and Drama Desk Award – making him the only actor to ever win all five major New York theatre awards for a single role. BD has also received an Emmy nomination for his role as Whiterose and Minister Zhang in USA Network’s Mr. Robot. His experiences as an openly gay Asian-American actor in Hollywood have shaped his career and inform his ongoing advocacy work. Having faced rejection, typecasting, racism, and homophobia in his journeys through the entertainment industry, he has a sharp perspective on the importance and necessity of diversity and representation in the media and beyond.

Abstract

A transgender native Hawaiian teacher and cultural icon who brings to life Hawaii’s traditional embrace of mahu — those who embody both male and female spirit. Her documentary, Kumu Hina, traces Hina’s evolution from a timid high school boy to her position as a married woman and cultural director of a school in one of Honolulu’s grittier neighborhoods. As she contemplates who should lead the school's all-male hula troupe in their final performance, a surprising candidate presents herself: Ho’onani, a sixth grader who is proud to be seen as a mixture of boy and girl. As Kumu Hina helps Ho’onani to negotiate the mixed reactions of her classmates and her family, the power of culture to instill a sense of pride and acceptance becomes clear

About

Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu (Kumu Hina) is a kanaka maoli (Native Hawaiian) teacher, cultural practitioner, and community leader. Born in the Nu’uanu District of Oʻahu Island, Kumu Hina was educated at Kamehameha Schools and the University of Hawaii. She was previously a founding member of Kulia Na Mamo, a community organization established to improve the quality of life for māhū wahine (transgender women), and Cultural Director at a public charter school dedicated to using native Hawaiian culture, history, and education as tools for developing and empowering the next generation of warrior scholars. Kumu Hina is currently a cultural advisor and leader in many community affairs and civic activities, including Chair of the Oahu Island Burial Council, which oversees the management of Native Hawaiian burial sites and ancestral remains. In 2014, Hina announced her bid for a position on the board of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the first transgender candidate to run for statewide political office in the United States.

About

Neil Foote is an associate dean, research, external affairs, and community engagement. He formerly was a principal lecturer at UNT’s Mayborn School of Journalism. His primary role is to help market and promote UNT’s New College and establish strategic partnerships with businesses and organizations to support our students and faculty.

Foote, a member of the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame as recently inducted into UNT’s Mayborn School of Journalism C.E. Shuford Hall of Honor, is author of Principles of News (Kendall Hunt, 2020) and a contributor to the textbook, Race, Gender, Class, and Media: Studying Mass Communication and Multiculturalism (Kendall Hunt Publisher, 2011, 2017). Foote has worked at The Miami Herald, The Washington Post, The Dallas Morning News, the Belo Corporation, the Tom Joyner Morning Show and ASNE (now, News Leaders Association).

Foote has taught classes in media entrepreneurship, business journalism, media management and multimedia storytelling. He also was director of the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference, one the nation’s premier conferences for writers.

Foote is secretary for the Commission on Public Relations Education and is a member of the Council of Presidents for the National Black Public Relations Society, Inc. He is board chair for Forefront Living, a life trustee at The Lamplighter School, past chairman of the National Kidney Foundation Serving North Texas, and a past board member of the National Association of Black Journalists.

He grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. and received his B.A. in government from Wesleyan University, a M.S.J. from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, and an M.B.A. from SMU’s Cox School of Business.