Pitt-Greensburg’s Growth through Knowledge Speaker Series Continues with LGBTQ Presentation

Pitt-Greensburg’s Growth through Knowledge and Understanding Speaker Series continues with an event on Wednesday, Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. which promotes LGBTQ inclusivity and hopes to highlight harmful legislation.

Al Thiel, director of the student center and student involvement, is chair of the series and has spearheaded it for the past four years. He is responsible for coming up with the presentation topics and reaching out to prospective speakers.

“I’m here to learn as I’m going through all this, too. And so that’s why with this series, my goal is to find experts, find people who know what they’re talking about so that I can listen to them as well,” Thiel says. 

The series is a collaboration between Pitt-Greensburg and the Westmoreland Diversity Coalition. The series events are conducted online via Zoom meetings—an intentional decision on Thiel’s part. According to Thiel, Zoom meetings suit the series’ interests more since they tend not to leave room for the presentations to become a Q and A session. 

“I really want their focus to be on the presenter and the topic that’s happening,” Thiel says.

The Oct. 25 presentation focusing on LGBTQ people and their experiences will be led by Coley Alston, program director of the Hugh Lane Wellness Foundation.

“I want to give people a good starting point,” Alston says, “it’s definitely not a one-and-done situation.”

Thiel says the presentation will focus on informing people about hate crimes, bias, and lead to an open discussion about what is impacting members of the LGBTQ community and try to foster a conversation about how people can advocate for others. 

Alston says, “(The goal is to) actively undo harm we are causing to others.”

In particular, this presentation will focus on recent legislation that has passed that is greatly affecting a certain subset of the LGBTQ community. 

“They’re really going to be talking about some of the trans legislation that’s getting passed in some states,” Thiel says, about Alston’s presentation, “They’ll be talking about how that’s impacting people, and what’s driving that.” 

As a whole, the Growth Through Knowledge and Understanding Speaker Series is designed to illuminate the stories of groups of people that are often overlooked and underrepresented like veterans, victims of hate crimes, and racial bias. Through events like the LGBTQ presentation on Oct. 25, Pitt-Greensburg and the Westmoreland Diversity Coalition hope to promote an environment for conversation and growth through knowledge.  

Thiel says, “My goal with this is: how do we get people to listen?”

Register for Pitt-Greensburg’s Growth Through Understanding Speaker Series here: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Xw-fLcN0TkWlVpYcl402Zg?fbclid=IwAR2EeavebLmcemH1eu393ydyyNF1fyG_64ur4mctJixGbhLqPAds3CqTdr0#/registration