Annual Civil Rights Conference

Civil Rights Conference 2025

Keynote Speakers
Dr. Helen Fagan from Helen Fagan & Associates
Joshua Barr, MS, JD, from Raising the Barr, LLC

May 8, 1–4:30 p.m.
May 9, 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

Nebraska Innovation Campus
2021 Transformation Dr, Lincoln, NE 68508

Call 402-441-7624 or email lchr@lincoln.ne.gov for details.

Dr. Helen Fagan

Dr. Helen Fagan is a leadership, emotional intelligence, and cultural competency scholar and practitioner. She is the founder of Helen Fagan & Associates, which provides consulting and leadership coaching to organizations, communities, and executives. A 2020 Inspire Leadership Excellence in Education award recipient and a 2021 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Fulfilling the Dream award recipient, Dr. Fagan thrives on developing the potential in leaders to create positive impact. She has also served as a faculty member at University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

In addition to a PhD in Human Sciences with a specialization in leadership from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Dr. Fagan holds multiple certifications in emotional intelligence and is a trained executive coach. She is a Qualified Administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory, which she has used with developing thousands of leaders and healthcare providers. From 2014 to 2019, Dr. Fagan was invited as a faculty member of the Qatar Institute for Intercultural Communication, providing workshops for faculty, staff, and graduate students working at six US universities in Education City in Qatar. Dr. Fagan's expertise in developing leaders, organizations, and communities has enabled her to speak in multiple nations and, at last count, four continents. Her book, Becoming Inclusive: A Worthy Pursuit in Leadership (2021), has gained popularity and provides a road map for leaders endeavoring to create environments where every team member can thrive. In 2023, she and her team launched the Guided Journey to Becoming Inclusive. The twelve-month development process enables leaders to dive deep into their own life experiences and perspectives and develop the skills and attributes of leaders who truly empower others. The journey includes a monthly focus with readings, activities, reflections, and discussions that intentionally engage the participant in raising their level of emotional intelligence to leverage differences.

Before academia, Dr. Fagan created and led diversity and cultural competence initiatives at Bryan Health in Lincoln, NE. Her programs were considered so innovative that they gained national recognition and were featured in a Joint Commission (hospital accreditation body) publication. During that time, she played a key role recruiting and resettling nurses from the Philippines to address the nursing shortage in Nebraska. Dr. Fagan also worked diligently to address the employment and healthcare needs of refugees and immigrants. She held a strong voice for eliminating the use of children as medical interpreters in healthcare settings. As an international student from Iran who arrived in the United States as an unaccompanied minor at age fifteen, Dr. Fagan has experienced a tremendous number of challenges during her life. She has used each of those challenges to inspire others, especially women, and, as a result, has received numerous awards for her contributions to the lives of others, including a key to the city of Lincoln.

In 2018, Dr. Fagan served as a Consulting Producer on a short film, The Healing of Harman. The film was directed by the Academy Award-nominated Director Seth Pinkster. This film has been used to create discussions with leaders about how communities can foster a spirit of welcoming people and embracing their healing. The film won Morehouse College's Best Human Rights Short Film in 2020.

Joshua Barr, MS, JD

Joshua V. Barr is an Emmy and national award-winning transformational leader from South Carolina with an MBA and Juris Doctorate who has trained people on human rights, diversity, equity, and inclusion issues from all 50 states and five continents. From 2010 to 2012, Joshua worked in Colombia, South America, conducting investigations on institutional corruption and leading the English language immersion program at Javeriana University Cali, teaching marketing, law, and other business classes to Colombian college students. Upon returning to the United States, Joshua practiced civil rights law with the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission, laying the foundation for the state civil rights department to be more aggressive in its enforcement of civil rights violations. During his time with the Commission, Joshua retrained the investigations staff, assisting them in finding more than sixty probable cause discrimination violations in 2015, the highest number of reasonable cause cases in South Carolina history at that time.

In 2015, Joshua became the director of the Des Moines Civil and Human Rights Commission, where he transformed a department on the verge of being shut down a year earlier into an integral part of the Des Moines municipal government. During his time as director, he increased the number of complaints filed in the office by 170% and the number of probable cause discrimination cases by 500%. One of Joshua's proudest accomplishments was the Bridging the Gap initiative, where the Commission conducted community dialogues throughout the city, determining what could be done to increase opportunity and make a safe, more just community for all. Through the Bridging the Gap project, Joshua and his team were able to craft, develop, and implement nearly 30 new city policies and practices designed to improve community-government relations and help residents move up the socioeconomic ladder. Because of his hard work, Joshua was named Public Servant of the Year in 2019 by the Des Moines Neighborhood Associations and was the Greater Des Moines 2020 Martin Luther King, Jr. Make-A-Difference Award winner.

In 2020, Joshua debuted his Emmy award-winning documentary Breaking Bread, Building Bridges, where nearly 40 strangers were matched up based on their differences to have dinners over a few months. Joshua served as the creator, director, and executive producer of the documentary/project. The documentary won the 2020 Governor's Emmy Award from the Upper Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The Governor's Emmy Award is the most prestigious because it is the only one voted on directly by the Academy's Board of Governors, representing all media professionals from TV stations and various other platforms across a five-state region.

In 2020, Joshua won the Traeger Award, listing him as #5 of the top 100 influencers in local government in the United States by Engaging Local Government Leaders (ELGL) organization in part for his article A Better Way: 50+ Action Items to Fight Against Racism In Your Community. In 2021, Joshua was selected as one of the country's Top 100 Corporate Executive Leaders Under 50 by Diversity MBA.

Civil Rights Conference Awards

Gerald Henderson Human Rights Award

2024 Winner — Renee Cox

Renee Cox revolutionized Lincoln Literacy (LL). Since 1972, Lincoln Literacy has served New Americans and native-born Americans to improve their ability to speak, read, and write English. We believe that education is a human right and assisting people to their fullest potential as our highest calling.

In her six years at LL as a volunteer tutor and Associate Director of Adult Skills, she introduced the next step - moving from literacy to maximizing potential. Renee’s career pre-Lincoln Literacy spans social work and developing careers in human resources.

When she started volunteering for LL in 2018, Adult Skills was a small part of our work inclusive of GED Prep and Driving in the USA Prep. She saw a gap - at LL she was meeting highly skilled and/or educated refugees and New Americans unable to utilize their potential in Lincoln. Instead, they were working at entry level positions across the City in fast food, manufacturing, and construction. There is nothing wrong with these jobs, however, Lincoln also needed, and still needs, nurses, engineers, accountants and more.

Renee developed the first Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) Prep class along with former Director Clay Naff and funded by the Community Health Endowment (CHE). This class changed Lincoln Literacy because we realized that we can be the ladder to further certification, diploma, and higher paying jobs. CNA Prep, at its core, eliminated the gap between foreign-trained healthcare professionals to enter into SCC or Bryan Health’s CNA classes. The gap existed because the LL students had a proficient level of English but they did not know how to take the class or the technical vocabulary in English - but they knew it in their language(s). Our class taught students how to take a Scantron test (don’t X the oval, fill it in), to use a pencil (not a pen), and all the small aspects of American test taking along with a class taught by a retired nurse.

Since 2018, dozens of LL students have graduated from CNA prep and gone on to healthcare careers. Nigora, from Sudan, a graduate of the original class, is now in the neonatal ward at Bryan Health and comes back to LL classes to speak about her experience. Another students, Hamasa, from Afghanistan, is about to embark on her Associates in Surgical Tech after she returns from maternity leave. In the most recent CNA prep class, we had a group of students that developed a tight bond - a bond unlikely outside of Lincoln Literacy as it included people from Burma, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Ukraine, and Russia.

With the success of CNA Prep, LL was awarded the Woods Charitable Fund Breakthrough Grant in 2020. This three-year $500,000 grant allowed LL to create the Bridgeway to a Better Life. Under Renee’s leadership, we now offer a Healthcare Pathways class (to introduce people to all healthcare careers), CNA Prep, Teacher Prep (to help people into LPS in food service or paraeducator and eventually to become teachers), individual Career Navigation, CDL, GRE, Driving in the USA (with a simulator), and the growth of our workplace classes to teach at eight different businesses in 2023 to improve the skills and knowledge of promotion opportunities in manufacturing, healthcare, and hospitality.

We do not do this work alone. Renee developed excellent relationships with the refugee resettlement agencies Lutheran Family Services and Catholic Social Services and partner agencies such as Good Neighbor Center, Asian Community and Cultural Center, and many more.

In 2023, the number of students served in Adult Skills doubled from 300 to 600 students. Overall, Lincoln Literacy served a record-shattering 1,663 students from 75 countries in 2023 - many of which plan to take Adult Skills courses as their English progresses.

Renee is retiring at the end of March. She will pass the torch to Julie Grives, current Assistant Director, and our new Assistant Director Dr. Nancy Jerez. Dr. Jerez is a Venezuelan immigrant and earned a Master’s and PhD from UNL. She has walked the road that our students are beginning. The future is bright at Lincoln Literacy for students to maximize their potential and it is thanks to the leadership of Renee Cox.

Past Winners

2023 Kevin Abourezk
2022 No Award
2021 No Award
2020 Dr. Eric A. Evans
2019 Dr. M. Dewayne Mays
2018 Edward D. Wimes
2017 Olga Kanne
2016 Thomas Christie
2015 Wendy Francis
2014 Amir A. Azimi
2013 Kit Boesch
2012 Linda Willard
2011 Larry Williams
2010 Pastor Janet Goodman-Banks
2009 No Award
2008 Annie & Leroy Stokes
2007 Beatty Brasch
2006 Florine Joseph
2005 Judi M. gaiashkibos
2004 Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest, Inc., Director Milo Mumgaard
2003 Jose Soto & The Division of Affirmative Action, Equity and Diversity of Southeast Community College
2002 No Award
2001 Cecilia Olivarez-Huerta
2000 Dan Williams