Erika Ruedinger

Program Assistant, EXCEL Center

About me… The biggest and most exciting thing about me right now is that we just welcomed our second daughter this August!

I am very passionate about the topics of race and diversity. I love to spend time with my husband and daughter, enjoy food in any capacity, and love nothing better than wonderful conversations with my family & friends.

I LOVE to read. It is something I do with my daughter on a daily basis and we enjoy it so much! I finished up The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson last semester and enjoyed those tremendously. There are some children’s books on race and diversity I don’t know what I would do without! My daughter and I have read them all several times; they are my go to books and I love sharing them with others:

· Colors Come from God Just Like Me by Carolyn A. Forche

· Girls Hold Up This World by Jada Pinkett-Smith

· Black, White, Just Right! by Marguerite W. Davol

· All the Colors of the Earth by Sheila Hamanaka

· The Colors of Us by Karen Katz

· black is brown is tan by Arnold Adoff

· The Skin I'm In: A First Look at Racism by Pat Thomas

· I Love My Hair! By Natasha Anastasia Tarpley

· What I Like About Me! By Allia Zobel Nolan

· Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges

A couple adult books that offer suggestions and strategies for raising healthy, happy and strong biracial children are:

· I'm Chocolate, You're Vanilla: Raising Healthy Black and Biracial Children in a Race-Conscious World by Marguerite Wright

· Does Anybody Else Look Like Me?: A Parent's Guide To Raising Multiracial Children by Donna Jackson Nakazawa

Who doesn’t love cuddling up and watching a movie or a favorite television show? There are certainly some TV shows that I DVR and can’t miss. Some I enjoy with my husband like Criminal Minds, Sons of Anarchy, House, The Closer, and even Castle. Others I have to watch on my own, which is okay too! HawthoRNe, Rookie Blue and anything on the Food Network!

And then there are movies—How can you even begin to pick favorites? I do love a nice suspense movie like the classic Silence of the Lambs. I also love the movies Precious, Ray, Freedom Writers, The Blind Side and another classic for me is How Stella Got Her Groove Back!

Music is something I don’t know what I would do without. I listen to so many different types of music, too; from Bach to Tupac. Really depends on my mood and my company as well. Lately some of my most played on my iPod are Mary Mary, Zac Brown Band, Jason Aldean, and thanks to my daughter---Justin Bieber!!!

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