Celebrating Black History and Black Excellence
February 13, 2025
In commemorating Black History Month, the FSA acknowledges the importance of learning about Black history and also celebrates the work being done by organizations and by individuals within and outside of our membership. Today’s blog highlights this year’s insightful and inspiring Diversity Circles event “Celebrating Black Excellence”, hosted by FSA faculty member Orrett Morgan — in recognition of both Black Excellence Day (which falls on January 15), and February’s Black History Month. Read about Orrett’s thought provoking conversations with special guests Erin Reddick, AI Developer and Founder of ChatBlackGPT, and Yannick Craigwell, CEO of TREATSANDTREATS INC.
In our January 31 edition of the FSA Bulletin, we acknowledged Black History Month and we linked to Black History Month resources and articles that we published in previous years. We should have been clearer in explaining that our intention in linking to materials from previous years was not to minimize the importance of current reflections or understate the need to actively engage in learning and dialogue in our community and with our Black members.
Member Orrett Morgan is a leader who has elevated awareness of Black Excellence and who continues to lead innovation and student success as the Program Head for the Technology Support Professional program. His stimulating discussions with guests Erin Reddick and Yannick Craigwell at this year’s January 22 event highlighted the dimensions of their personal and professional success.
Erin spoke about her journey through companies such as Meta and Microsoft and her realization of racial biases in AI platforms. She became a certified ChatGPT Expert and Prompt Engineer and ultimately created ChatBlackGPT to address these biases, offering an alternative AI platform which is more inclusive and which centres Black culture and lived experience.
Yannick described a fascinating journey growing a local business into a national enterprise and how his personal approach to excellence fuelled this journey, including blending business strategy and innovation, personal drive and building great teams.
Orrett’s skillful moderation of these conversations reflects his own experience leading innovations in the Technology Support Professional program and creating what he calls “Brave Spaces for learning”, empowering students with holistic skills in wellbeing, critical thinking, and technical knowledge.
Diversity Circles (DC), now part of the BCIT Respect, Diversity, and Inclusion (RDI) Office, was originally founded by FSA board members, receiving major SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council) funding for its launch based on the partnership of the FSA and BCIT. The DC initiative, now in its 10th year, as part of its goal to support equity and diversity awareness, has led many events over the years on Anti-Racism and Black Excellence, including Moving Forward – Let’s talk Anti-Racism and the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.