Gov. Whitmer appoints WSU Dept. of Communication faculty, Alicia Nails, to Michigan Black Leadership Advisory Council
Alicia Nails, director of Wayne State University's Journalism Institute for Media Diversity, has been appointed to the Arts, Culture and Communications Committee of the Michigan Black Leadership Advisory Council.
Created by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer through Executive Order 20-663 in 2020, the Michigan Black Leadership Advisory Council (BLAC) acts in an advisory capacity to the governor and develops, reviews and recommends policies and actions designed to eradicate and prevent discrimination and racial inequity in Michigan.
“I'm looking forward to being involved in conversations around the artistic expression of the Black experience in our state. I am impressed by this validation that journalism — the form of expression I represent — is, indeed, an art,” said Nails, a professor in the College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts’ Department of Communication. “It is an invaluable mode of capturing and communicating the lived experiences of so many who contribute to, or who are challenged by, the full range of social impacts of being Black at this time and in this place. It is an artistic form of witnessing for the culture.”
The Arts, Culture and Communications Committee is one of six committees charged with identifying and proposing policy solutions to BLAC. The other commitees are: Business Leadership, Community Safety and Justice, Education, Health, and African Diaspora. As a member of the Arts, Culture and Communications committee, Nails will play a role in shaping BLAC’s policy recommendations.
The council is made up of 16 gubernatorial appointees from communities throughout Michigan and a representative from the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, which is BLAC’s home in state government. To read BLAC’s most recent policy report to Gov. Whitmer, please click here.