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Mohammed Soriano-Bilal is a seasoned diversity and inclusion consultant, strategist, poet, and award-winning producer of music and film. He gained widespread recognition as the voice of reason on MTV's "Real World San Francisco." In his capacity as an Inclusion & Belonging Specialist, he currently serves as the Director of Inclusion, Equity, and Access in a Learning Environment at Stanford University's President & Provost Office. Here, he oversees the implementation of Stanford University’s largest equity-focused organizational change initiative, IDEAL.
Bilal's extensive experience in facilitating diversity and inclusion presentations and trainings at educational institutions across the nation positions him as a leader in fostering inclusive environments. He co-instructs a course at Stanford University with Professor Hazel Markus, focusing on intergroup dialogue in higher education. His workshops are designed to provide practical strategies and frameworks that enhance inclusivity and cultural transformation, with positive feedback from institutions such as Northwestern University, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Barstow School. Additionally, his research as a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley School of Education explores how DEI-centered Communities of Practice influence senior higher education leaders.
As a multi-disciplinary artist, Bilal has collaborated with artists such as Santana, Public Enemy, Ben Harper, De La Soul, Danny Glover, and Mos Def, and his music has been featured on NBC, the CW, and at the Sundance Film Festival. His film "Towards Excellence," examines diversity and equity in independent schools, offering insights for building vibrant and inclusive communities. Previously, as the Executive Director of the African American Art and Culture Complex in San Francisco, he led significant creative place-making developments. Bilal continues to impact diverse audiences through his strategic and thoughtful approach to organizational development and inclusive leadership.
Speech Topics
Toward Excellence
This presentation starts with a viewing of Toward Excellence, a short film that explores diversity and equity at American independent schools. It looks closely at the problematic 80’s, when many private schools intentionally/experimentally increased admittance of African-American students to meet self-imposed quotas. Through interviews with some of today’s top administrators—Al Adams (Lick-Wilmerding High School), Lucinda Lee Katz (Marin Country Day School) and others—the film offers valuable insights for building vibrant and inclusive school communities. Director Mohammed Bilal, who attended, taught and lead independent schools, facilitates the interactive Q & A, vicariously using the film and personal narratives as tools to unravel power and privilege, race, gender and space.
Preference & Prejudice
Do you prefer pink or blue, car or bike-- black man or white woman? When choosing A over B- how do preconceived socio-cultural notions affect our daily choices and what role does prejudice play in our preferences? Preference & Prejudice is a fun, insightful examination of preference and its role in the ways we move toward and away from one another. Using his own personal narrative, Mohammed Bilal blends scholarship, rap and spoken word into a playful exploration of preference and desire, elucidating everyday methods for open interactions.
LoveLife: The Disempowerment of AIDS
How do we disempower HIV/AIDS? This lecture attempts to displace the negative stereotypes and mindsets attached to HIV/AIDS, and replace them with positive archetypes and empowered mindfulness. The main aim is to educate the spirit, to burst through the statistical ritual, and learn, at the most basic level, what HIV/AIDS means and how it lacks any real power to destroy love and happiness. The disempowerment of HIV/AIDS is most important for youth, who are developing (almost daily!) ways to look at themselves and the world. This lecture blends facts, figures, narratives, poetry, and hip-hop story-telling.
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