Speaker Series: Naming What We Know

We're excited to announce the next installment of our Speaker Series, this time featuring our dear friend and all-around amazing human DL McKinney! This talk weaves together personal narrative, scholarship on cognitive inertia, and practices of meaning-making to explore how individuals and systems resist change. Rather than centering relatability or trauma, the session invites reflection on advocacy as a practice of naming what we know, translating lived experience into shared language, and gently but persistently challenging the belief that inequitable systems are inevitable. DL McKinney (they/he) is the Director of the Milt Ford Legacy Collective | Rainbow Resource Center at Grand Valley State University, where they lead LGBTQIA+ student support, education, and community-engaged programming grounded in equity, care, and belonging. A Grand Rapids resident and self-described Laker for a Lifetime, DL brings an interdisciplinary background spanning business, public administration, health, and higher education leadership. In addition to their campus leadership, DL is deeply engaged in community-based work across West Michigan, collaborating with educators, nonprofit leaders, healthcare professionals, and youth advocates to strengthen pathways of access, care, and representation. They are a frequent facilitator and speaker on topics including intersectionality, LGBTQ+ inclusion, systems change, and story-driven leadership, known for creating spaces that invite honesty without spectacle and challenge without harm. Across roles and settings, DL remains committed to creating spaces where people can live more fully, speak more honestly, and imagine futures that are not limited.