OGDEN — Weber State University’s annual Diversity Conference is celebrating a major milestone with a sporting legend this week.

The 25th annual Diversity Conference, to be held Thursday and Friday, is set to focus on neurodiversity and will feature a keynote address from former soccer star Tim Howard. Howard is set to speak at WSU’s Shepherd Union Ballroom at 9:30 a.m. Friday. The event is open to the public.

Adrienne Andrews, vice president of equity, diversity and inclusion at WSU, told the Standard-Examiner that Diversity Conferences have become an important part of WSU’s culture.

“Every year, we have an annual Diversity Conference that’s always focused on one aspect, or intersecting aspects, of equity, diversity and inclusion,” she said. “We are always trying to look at it through a variety of perspectives — what does it mean to explore these concepts and consider these ways of living or being?”

She noted that this year is going to be a very special conference.

“This is our 25th annual Diversity Conference,” she said. “That speaks to Weber State’s long-held conviction that identities matter and understanding each other is critical to the work that we do of teaching and learning with and from each other at the university.”

In addition to a keynote speaker, the conference includes various panels and breakout sessions for students and faculty over the course of two days.

Andrews said this year’s theme was an opportunity to tackle a facet of diversity that isn’t always as outwardly obvious.

“This year’s theme is ‘Celebrating Neurodiversity,’ and our previous years’ surveys have indicated this is a topic that a variety of different audiences really wanted us to address on a deeper level,” she said. “People are really stuck on concepts of race and ethnicity as being the only component of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) when the right reality is that equity, diversity and inclusion includes ethnicity and race but is not limited or constrained to these constructs. We’re also talking about abilities and disabilities; we’re talking about gender; socioeconomic status; sexual identity, orientation or expression; political affiliation; belief systems; all of these different components which help us to navigate the world both in how we understand and perceive it as well as how other people understand and perceive and experience it.”

Andrews said that there have been elements of past conferences that have addressed neurodiversity topics, but this is the first time it will comprise the overarching theme of the conference.

Howard reportedly was a popular choice among conference organizers to keynote this year’s conference.

“We had a rousing push for Tim Howard to be this year’s keynote and I was just thrilled to learn about him and his soccer history and how he has navigated the world with his own struggle with Tourette Syndrome and how that affected his personal life and his ability to be an athlete,” Andrews said. “I thought it was a good opportunity for us to engage this content.”

According to a press release on the event, “Howard, who holds the record for most saves by any goalkeeper in a single game in World Cup history, was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome at a young age. He works with several Tourette organizations and published an autobiography, The Keeper: A Life of Saving Goals and Achieving Them, chronicling his career and life with Tourette Syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder.”

Andrews said Howard’s keynote speech will be a little bit different than most.

“One of the interesting things we’re doing at (Howard’s) request is we’re facilitating it as an interview session,” she said.

The interview session will be conducted by WSU athletic director and former soccer coach Tim Crompton and Stacy Bernal of Awesome Autistic Ogden.

For more information on this year’s WSU Diversity Conference, visit https://www.weber.edu/.

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