This year's keynote speaker was Ronke Olawale, professor of social work at Grand Valley. In her talk, "The Subversive Steep: Tea, Resistance, Healing and the Architecture of Care," Olawale spoke about the history of women's labor and resistance movements across the world. Reflecting on that history "helps us honor the invisible labor and sacred architecture of care that women before us built, in solidarity to resist oppression and cultivate global healing," she said.

Olawale touched on different women throughout history, including Abigail Adams, the wife and close advisor of President John Adams, and Frances Willard, an American educator and women's suffragist from the late 1800s. She also spoke about the first female scholars who taught at Nigeria's prestigious University of Ibadan and Hajia Gambo Sawaba, a Nigerian women's rights activist, politician and philanthropist. Sawaba was a "pioneering activist who revolutionized the role of women in Northern Nigeria," said Olawale.

Also highlighted at EqualiTEA was NIARA, a student group supported by the CWGE. NIARA "creates space for women of color and gender expressive students to connect, support one another and grow together," said Amani Hurt, a GVSU sophomore and NIARA member. The word "NIARA" comes from the Swahili language and means "of utmost purpose," she said.