Event Planning Portfolio
Dr. Davi Kallman brings over a decade of event planning experience across higher education, nonprofit, and community settings. Her events are known for their strategic coordination, inclusive design, and meaningful engagement with diverse audiences. From national speaker series to high-impact campus conferences, her portfolio reflects a deep commitment to accessibility, equity, and intersectional dialogue.
Signature Higher Education Events
Disability and Intersectionality Fall Speaker Series (2021)
Creator and lead coordinator of a six-event national speaker series hosted by the WSU Access Center and Disabled Students and Allies Club. This virtual series highlighted the voices of disabled scholars, activists, and professionals across race, gender, religion, and class. The series included sessions with Rain Dove, Reyma McCoy McDeid, Sophie Poost, and more.
Disability and Intersectionality Virtual Book Club (2021–2022)
Founder of a recurring book club that connected students, staff, and faculty through facilitated discussions on disability literature, including Sick by Porochista Khakpour and Care Work by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha.
Disability Awareness Symposium: Fitness for All (2021)
Led a weeklong symposium attended by over 1,000 students, staff, and faculty. The event featured inclusive fitness workshops, adaptive workouts (e.g., yoga, boxing, Zumba), and a keynote by Wesley Hamilton of Disabled But Not Really and Netflix’s Queer Eye.
Post-Tenure Pathfinders (2019)
Planned a professional development retreat for newly tenured faculty in collaboration with NC State’s Dr. Joy Gaston Gayles.
Presentation by: Dr. Joy Gaston Gayles, NC State University
This workshop was designed for newly tenured Associate Professors to identify the challenges associated with post-tenure life and to better understand the diverse pathways that faculty members can take after winning tenure. In this workshop, we create a space where newly tenured faculty members can pause and intentionally reflect on future possibilities.
Participants learned:
- The most common mistakes new faculty members make in their first post-tenure year
- The NCFDD process for choosing their post-tenure pathway
- How to create a new mentoring network and support system to ensure success in the next chapter of their career
PowerPlay Bias Awareness and Intervention Lab (2018)
Coordinated in partnership with ADVANCE at WSU and the Carson College of Business. Brought together 150+ faculty and staff for an interactive, improvisational bias intervention training led by the nationally recognized PowerPlay team.
The Professional Development Initiative (2016-2018)
The Professional Development Initiative (PDI) is organized by the WSU Graduate School and the Graduate and Professional Student Association (GPSA) and has received support through many partnerships and colleges across campus. This initiative provides a range of programs, training opportunities, and resources to graduate and professional students that will help prepare them for academic and career success. The goal of PDI is to ensure that all graduate and professional students have the skills, knowledge, and mindsets necessary to succeed both professionally and academically.
Through PDI, students can work on the following core competencies:
ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT: Research/scholarship; Effective teaching strategies; Critical thinking and problem solving; Transferable skills; Academic job strategy
CAREER DEVELOPMENT: Critical thinking and problem solving; Resumes and Transferable skills; Professional competitiveness; Career strategy; Interviewing and Negotiating
COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION: Effective communication; Mentoring relationships; Interpersonal understanding; Team-building; Networking; Conflict management
LEADERSHIP AND PROFESSIONALISM: Goal and milestone planning; Professional ethics; Leadership styles; Problem solving strategies and solutions; Evaluation and feedback; Applicable presentation skills
PERSONAL WELL-BEING: Financial planning; Mindfulness and mental health; Relationship management; Physical wellbeing
As a Graduate Assistant to the WSU Graduate School, Dr. Kallman coordinated over 75 workshops across two academic years, serving more than 1,400 graduate students and faculty. Topics ranged from academic writing and research development to leadership, mental wellness, and career readiness. Through her assistantship, she coordinated and implemented a total of 33 university-wide workshops and events for the Fall 2016 and Spring 2017 semesters and coordinated 45 university-wide workshops and events for the Fall 2017 and Spring 2018 semesters.
News and Articles about PDI
Grad Cougs Get a Leg Up Through PDI
Graduate School Holds Events for Professional Development
Regional Approaches to Women’s Leadership in STEMM Conference (2018)
Led planning for a regional conference through WSU ADVANCE that gathered over 100 higher ed professionals to address systemic barriers and promote women’s leadership in STEMM fields.
Increasing numbers of women in STEMM faculty and leadership in higher education is a challenge requiring capacity building and problem solving within and among educational institutions at all levels, involving graduate students, postdoctoral trainees, faculty, and administrations. This regional conference built (1) competence and motivation to pursue leadership roles, and (2) organizational systemic strategies for increasing support to women in STEMM. These goals were accomplished through leadership training, gender in STEMM/academia presentations, and break-out groups aimed at enhancing capacity in grant writing and instruction, specifically addressing early career challenges.
Wiley Research Exposition (2014-2015)
Organized a campus-wide research exposition featuring over 300 student presenters and awarding $23,000 in scholarships. Featured keynote: Eric Nyberg of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
The Wiley Research Exposition was an initiative started in 2009 by the Graduate and Professional Student Association (GPSA). The Expo gave graduate and professional students a chance to share independently developed research projects, along with communicating and networking with alumni.
News and Articles about the Wiley Research Expo
Student Research on Display at Wiley
Students to Show, Tell About Research
UTEP and El Paso Community
Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Celebrity Spaghetti Dinner (2010)
As Event Coordinator, Dr. Kallman organized a high-profile fundraising dinner for Las Americas, a nonprofit serving immigrant and asylum-seeking communities in El Paso. The event hosted 400+ guests and raised $16,000 for legal services.
UTEP Homecoming Pageant (2008-2009)
As Vice President of the Student Government Association, Dr. Kallman led planning for the annual Homecoming Pageant and weeklong festivities, a longstanding tradition bringing alumni and students together through themed events and campus-wide engagement.
