Watch the 2022 ODI Hall of Fame Awards Ceremony
For its Second Annual Hall of Fame Awards, ODI selected the following four members of the Ohio State community as our inductees into the 2022 ODI Hall of Fame.
These honorees have contributed through exemplary and sustained leadership to the ideals of diversity, equity, inclusion, and community engagement.
Our 2022 Honorees
Frederick Aldama, PhD
Born in Mexico City, Frederick Aldama became a pop culture professor who worked tirelessly to expand educational opportunities for Latine students. Across his 15 years as an Ohio State professor, Aldama created the Latinx Space for Enrichment and Research (LASER) pathways program, internship programs for Latine students and the SOL-CON Latine comic fest. Inspired by his mother who taught the children of migrant workers, Aldama is the author of dozens of scholarly books focused on Latine media earning the nickname “Professor Latinx.”
Judge Yvette McGee Brown
Born in 1960 to a teenaged single mom, Yvette McGee Brown became the first Black woman to sit on the Ohio Supreme Court. A Moritz College of Law graduate, McGee Brown was a juvenile court judge for nearly a decade starting innovative program like family drug court and a school truancy intervention program. Later, McGee Brown created the Center for Child and Family Advocacy at Nationwide Children's Hospital before returning to public life as a Lt. Governor gubernatorial candidate and trailblazing Ohio Supreme Court Justice.
Quinn Capers IV, MD
Born in Cleveland, Dr. Quinn Capers IV became a cardiologist who sparked a revolution that threw open the doors of medical schools to prospective doctors of color. While serving as associate dean for admissions at Ohio State's College of Medicine, Capers remade the admissions process, doubling the number of first-year students of color. A key component of the overhaul were proactive steps to combating unconscious bias, a model soon emulated by dozens of medical schools across the country. During his 13 years at Ohio State, Dr. Capers also gave an annual lecture on racial health disparities to first-year doctors.
Mónica Ramírez, JD
Born into a family of migrant workers in Fremont, Ohio, Mónica Ramírez became a lawyer who created the world's first legal project focused on sexual harassment and other forms of gender discrimination against farmworker women. Ramirez's activism made a leap to the national stage in 2017 when her “Dear Sisters” letter of solidarity supporting actresses enduring sexual violence in their industry sparked the Time's Up movement in Hollywood. In 2021, Ramirez was named to Time Magazine's Next 100 of influential people for her lifelong dedication to greater justice for farmworker women.