The State College Borough and Centre County Community Conferencing teamed up to plan a community conversation on the intersection of policing and race. The event will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, October 25, at the State Theatre in downtown State College.

The discussion features various local panelists, including members of the State College Police Department, criminal justice reform activists, and several university faculty members. Notably, Iris Richardson, director of diversity, equity, and inclusion for the Penn State University Police and Public Safety, along with Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, the associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion at Penn State, will be in attendance.

The conversation will be moderated by Sue Marshall and Jason Browne. Marshall is a trained restorative conferencing facilitator and also serves as the secretary of the Centre LGBTQA Support Network. Browne is a 3 Dots board chair and is also the owner of several other businesses.

Members of the community are encouraged to submit questions via an online registration form and survey. Questions that are submitted will be discussed and answered by the panelists.

A follow-up breakout discussion will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, October 27, in the State College Municipal building. The discussion is open to anyone who would like to continue the dialogue from Tuesday evening’s event.

Tuesday’s community conversation is the first talk in a series of events that the State College Borough and Centre County Community Conferencing will hold. The goal of these talks is to encourage residents to discuss topics that are relevant to the State College community while also learning from one another.