SHU Honors Martin Luther King at Annual Celebration

Alum Aisha Losche, keynote speaker, tells audience she lives by the theme, ‘It Starts with Me’

The Sacred Heart University community gathered recently to celebrate the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The event followed the theme, “It Starts with Me: What Meaningful Change Requires.”

During opening remarks, office for inclusive excellence team members discussed the importance of living each day according to the event’s theme. Maurice Nelson, chief diversity & inclusion officer, and Robert Johnson, executive director of multicultural affairs, also said individuals must realize that sparking change takes effort.

“Real effort is going to be uncomfortable and challenging,” said Nelson. He added that the day’s theme of leading change calls attention to each individual’s responsibility to advance inclusive excellence by moving ideas from paper to action and “putting our money where our mouths are.”

John J. Petillo, Sacred Heart University president, said change starts with self-recognition. “Change is a common word often used as a throwaway, but it calls for something different: a transformation and a rebirth,” he said. “When we call for change, we are really calling for a transformation within ourselves and a commitment to reflect on our core beliefs, language and actions.”

SHU alum Aisha Losche ’07 gave the keynote address. She is chief diversity officer at Draper Laboratory, a nonprofit engineering innovation company based in Cambridge, MA, and she has more than 15 years of experience strategizing and implementing diversity, equity and inclusion programs. She graduated from SHU with a degree in business administration and earned her MBA from Curry College in Milton, MA. She then completed a diversity and inclusion certificate program at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.

Losche said the event’s theme resonated with her because it has driven her forward in various aspects of her life. From petitioning the sisters of a Catholic school to allow girls to wear pants to class, to running for office in her town and holding senior leaders accountable for completing a pay equity study, she said she has always had the mindset that “it starts with me.” There are many ways to lead change, she added. For her, it meant being the third woman and first Black person elected to her community’s town council.

“During my time on an all-male board, I had to find my voice to speak up about things that I did not believe were in the best interest of the town or my district overall,” she said. “There were folks on the board who were born and raised in town and had much more experience than [I had], yet I had to come into the room with confidence and make decisions that were focused on our future.”

After Losche’s keynote address, she sat down with Johnson for the fireside chat portion of the event. Losche told Johnson that nothing about working toward equity and inclusion would be convenient; that people fighting for change would have to give up time, money and sometimes comfort. But she emphasized that people should do what they can within their spheres of influence, starting with an attainable goal.

“Dr. King spent years and years advocating for basic human rights and dignities that we see outlined in our founding documents—life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” said Losche. “While we all cannot be at the front lines, Dr. King knew that there was more power in numbers.”