RPA Town Hall Meeting: Part 2

COVID-19: Present-Day Societal Challenges in the Local Context

This Town Hall discussion is a follow-up to Part 1 held on January 24th where the topic "Racial Injustice: Understanding Modern Societal Challenges thru a Local Lens" was moderated by Dr. John Stover, local sociologist.

As recently featured in both a Politico Audio Briefing (1/12/21) and an NPR interview (1/19/21), documentary filmmaker Ken Burns identified "three viruses" plaguing America: "a year-old COVID-19 virus, ...a 402-year-old virus of white supremacy [and] racial injustice. ... [and] an age-old human virus of misinformation, of paranoia, of conspiracies." In this three-part series, we will explore questions such as:

• What has been the local impact of these "three viruses"?
• To what extent have they impacted our personal and professional lives?
• Which communities have been most impacted by these challenges and why?
• How do we build community across ideological divides?
• What is the role of empathy and understanding when obvious realities are ignored?

National crises have local impacts and in this gathering we will explore how these events are impacting our communities and practices. Board Members Annie Babin, PsyD and Don Talley, PhD will co-host a guided, facilitated, and supported conversation with RPA members on how the ongoing challenges of COVID-19 has affected our personal lives and clinical work. Returning and first-time participation is highly encouraged as we collectively seek to undercover shared perspectives and constructive responses.

We hope you'll join us in these ongoing opportunities for building understanding and empathy, and anyone planning to attend is highly encouraged to listen/read the following articles:

POLITICO Playbook: America's fourth great crisis (1/12/21)

Ken Burns Says U.S. Has 3 Viruses, by Rachel Martin (1/19/21)

Dr. John is once again looking forward to building community with us all and welcomes any questions or ideas ahead of the meeting. Please reach out with any questions!

Meet our Moderator: John Stover, PhD

Prior to joining Santa Rosa Junior College at Petaluma in 2017 as their first full-time Sociologist, John A. Stover III, PhD, taught in the San Mateo Community College District, the University of San Francisco, and San Francisco State University, among other colleges and universities. In his classrooms Dr. John, as he is known among his students, delivers collaborative, respectful learning environments of dialogue, interaction, and critical thinking across a diversity of student identities. John loves teaching at all levels and has delivered well-received development opportunities on the topics of deconstructing white privilege, promoting strong student engagement pedagogies, and dismantling toxic masculinities. John is a first generation college graduate, earned his MA and PhD from Loyola University Chicago, and published both his thesis and an excerpt from his dissertation. John has been a Californian since 1994, been teaching since 2005, and been swimming, running, reading, and loving pop culture for as long as he can remember. He was not only recently recommended for tenure but also elected as Executive Secretary of the SRJC Academic Senate.