Our department is co-sponsoring a campus presentation by Wade A. Davis II about Overcoming Homophobia in American Sports on Monday, March 5, 2018 starting at 5:30pm in the ULA Love Doughty Carousel Theater (1704 Andy Holt Avenue, Knoxville TN 37916-3702).
In 2013, Mr. Wade came out and publicly spoke about what it was like to be closeted and gay in the NFL. Since then, he has been an advocate for inclusion in American sports.
Former NFL player Wade Davis is a thought leader, public speaker, and consultant on gender, race, and orientation equality. Wade is the NFL’s first LGBT inclusion consultant and currently consults for numerous professional sports leagues on issues at the intersection sexism, racism and homophobia. Wade creates league-wide inclusive leadership strategies, leads inclusion-training sessions for coaches and players, and builds and launches national engagement initiatives.
In addition to his work in sports, Wade is currently consulting for Google and advising Fortune 500 companies in co-creating transformative solutions to build inclusive corporate cultures. Wade coaches senior leaders to adapt their leadership styles to include and address a more diverse employee population.
Wade is a UN Women Global Champion for Innovation, part of the 50thAnniversary Advisory Council for the National Fair Housing Alliance, and is a founding member of VICE’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory board with Gloria Steinem, Roberta Kaplan and others. He has partnered with Planned Parenthood, the Ms. Foundation and Huffington Post Women, separately launching unique initiatives and PSA’s to define, establish, and achieve the political, social and economic equality for women and men.
Understanding the importance of engaging men in the dialog of gender equity and equality, Wade built a six-session Men’s Gender Equality Development program that will launch with the United Nations and other organizations in February. His work to engage, educate, and help men understand what actions to take towards gender equality include a partnership with the Ms. Foundation and Ebony Magazine where he launched the #BlackMenAndFeminism campaign and with the Ms. Foundation’s #MyFeminismIs campaign. Wade’s first TEDx Talk, The Mask of Masculinity, has been viewed over 15,000 times and he looks to continually engage men across multiple platforms to become more self-reflective and divest from patriarchal practices.
A former national surrogate for President Obama, Wade has taught at both NYU and Rutgers, and received an honorary Doctor of Public Service from Northeastern University.