The Days-Massolo Center (DMC) will celebrate its history and 10-year anniversary throughout the 2021-22 academic year. Students, faculty, staff, and alumni will collaborate on a celebration that will pay tribute to DMC’s founders while examining the progress and future for the Center. The DMC began as a student-led Social Justice Initiative and has evolved into a cultural and equity center with a new student-generated mission, vision, and future intentional work.
“Our goals are to celebrate and share the history of the Social Justice Initiative, whose work contributed to the center’s creation, and pay tribute to the legacy of our namesakes, who have long championed cultural and equity issues and the center’s work,” said Paola Lopez, director of the DMC.
The year-long anniversary celebration for the Hamilton community will kick off this fall with cultural education programs, lectures, workshops, and celebration of the DMC's founding and opening.
The DMC’s mission is to enhance the academic, intellectual, social, cultural, and leadership dimensions of the Hamilton community. It serves as a resource for exploring intersectionality among gender, race, culture, religion, sexuality, ability, socioeconomic class, and other facets of human difference. The Center’s vision is to be a catalyst for social change and a resource for shared experience at Hamilton.
A steering committee will help plan and support the anniversary celebration. Members include:
CO-CHAIRS
Robyn Gibson ’10
Robyn Gibson is the founder and principal consultant for REG Solutions and an MBA candidate at Howard University. She has 10 years of experience working with nonprofit organizations on development, organizational change, strategy, and equity and inclusion. She develops partnerships and funding for projects, executes health campaigns, and builds BIPOC research teams. As a Hamilton student, she was a Posse Scholar and served on the e-board for the Black Student Union, La Vanguardia, and co-founded the Social Justice Initiative.
Paola Lopez
Paola Lopez joined Hamilton in 2019 as director of the DMC. A native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, she spent nearly a decade at her alma mater, the University of Oklahoma, leading the development of its first diversity, equity, and inclusion strategic plan. She helped increase underrepresented student enrollment as an admissions director and helped establish the Multicultural Center for the Advancement of Students. Besides serving as a diversity officer at OU, Lopez taught as an adjunct professor in the Department of Human Relations. At Hamilton, Lopez has worked with students and campus partners to establish the DMC as Hamilton’s cultural and equity center.
STUDENTS
Alex Medina ’22
A Hispanic studies major and creative writing minor, Alex Medina hails from Los Angeles and works for the DMC as a student ambassador and an intern for the new ALEX advising program. He is president of La Vanguardia and has served as co-chair of the Gender & Sexuality Union board. In LA, he wrote articles in English and Spanish for the newspaper Boyle Heights Beat and interned with the local LGBTQ+ nonprofit Mi Centro.
Madison Lazenby ’23
A creative writing and women’s and gender studies major, Madison Lazenby is from Northern Virginia. Last year, she served on the DMC’s Women’s History Month planning committee. She is editor-in-chief of the Hamilton College Monitor, a First-Year Orientation leader, a first-year course mentor, and was a hub coordinator for Sunrise Movement Hamilton College, advocating for climate justice policy.
Josue Herrera Rivera ’24
Josue Herrera Rivera is a QuestBridge Scholar from Houston and plans to major in economics or anthropology. He serves on the e-board for Hamilton’s QuestBridge chapter and is a member of Humans of Hamilton and On the Move. As a first-generation student of color, Rivera is committed to making Hamilton a welcoming environment for all.
Taliyah James ’24
Taliyah James is a QuestBridge Scholar from Columbia, Miss. She plans to major in biology and minor in public policy.
ALUMNI
Torrence Moore ’92
Torrence Moore is an entrepreneur and finance professional with over 25 years of experience in private equity, consulting, alternative investing, commercial banking, and economic and community development at several multinational institutions. He is the founder and partner of TMA Consulting, which focuses on assisting nonprofits, entrepreneurs, and small businesses in the areas of project finance, technical assistance, and program administration. An economics major at Hamilton, he earned a master’s in urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Corinne Bancroft ’10
Corinne Bancroft learned to be an activist and organizer through her involvement with the Social Justice Initiative while at Hamilton. After graduating with a degree in comparative literature, she worked with No More Deaths, an organization that provides humanitarian aid to those who cross the U.S. Mexico border. Bancroft earned her Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and is assistant professor of English at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. Her research focuses on the narrative strategies that authors use to help readers engage in questions of social justice.
Jazmin Gatto-Torres ’02
At Hamilton, Jazmin Gatto-Torres participated in the Black and Latin Student Union, as president of La Vanguardia, and as a member of the Multicultural Recruitment Committee in Admissions. Following graduation, she continued as an admission volunteer as a member of the Hamilton Alumni Recruitment Team. She also worked in the non-profit sector for organizations serving both international and local needs. Gatto-Torres serves as chair of the Multicultural Alumni Relations Committee.
Geoffrey Forrest Hicks ’09
Geoffrey Forrest Hicks is a humanities teacher working in secondary education. He also writes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, and is skilled in historical research, public speaking, community outreach, choral music, editing, and leading creative writing workshops.
Alma Bradley (missing)
FACULTY & STAFF
Emily DiBari
Associate director of identity and affinity programs at Hamilton, Emily DiBari previously worked in Congress, on Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, and in President Obama’s administration for eight years. As the White House liaison for Obama to the Department of Health & Human Services, she appointed a group of diverse doctors and health professionals to serve on the 200 health-related committees that are appointed by the president.
Maria Genao-Homs
As Hamilton’s associate dean for diversity and inclusion, Maria Genao-Homs oversees international students and accessibility, the Days-Massolo Center, and the office of the chaplain. She also oversees and leads the response to bias incidents involving students, advises the Questbridge Scholars Network, and serves as the liaison for the Hamilton Posse Scholars program.
Nhora Lucía Serrano
Originally from Colombia, Nhora Lucía Serrano is associate director of digital learning and research in LITS. A medieval and early modern comparative literature scholar, she has expertise in technology-enhanced learning and educational innovation, history of book history/print culture, digital humanities, visual studies, and Latin America/Latinx. Her essays and articles have appeared in a variety of publications. In 2018, she was selected to be a Mellon Press Diversity Fellow at the MIT Press/MIT.
Community members who wish to participate in the DMC 10-Year Anniversary Celebration are invited to contact the steering committee and center through email: dmc@hamilton.edu. Opportunities for further engagement will be available through future subcommittee positions.
