Join us for an online masterclass and learn how to create an inclusive communication strategy! Get ready to develop effective skills that prioritize inclusivity, foster understanding, and enhance collaboration. #InclusiveCommunication #DiversityandInclusion
ABOUT THE MASTERCLASS
This masterclass supports participants to cultivate the courage necessary for having challenging conversations. Participants will be empowered with practical skills to courageously communicate in conversations about overt and implicit equity conflicts. Participants will be invited to try on their new courageous communication skills by role playing scenarios that call for courage in intra-group accountability, leadership power dynamics, and collaborating across differences within a team context. Through learning and practicing courageous communication, participants will be better equipped to effectively intervene when they are called to take action in the face of bias or disparities.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Learn practical skills for courageously communicating in challenging conversations
- Practice courageous communication when navigating equity conflicts
- Deepen capacity to effectively intervene in the face of bias or disparities
ABOUT THE FACILITATORS
Tenisha “Ava” Williams is an experienced diversity, equity, and Inclusion consultant, speaker, and facilitator with over a decade of experience with organizational assessment, strategic planning, and equity-centered change management. Ava has led project teams focusing on identifying and addressing inequities for various leaders and executives at over 100 organizations. She is known for introducing frameworks and tools beyond conventional DEIA discussions – urging audiences to imagine how their work can build an organizational culture that strives for belonging for all and deliver tangible and measurable outcomes for communities affected by structural inequities.
Recent projects include supporting the reopening planning and implementation team at Tulsa Public Schools as they navigated the competing demands of re-envisioning transformative and equitable educational structures amidst the pandemic and leading teams of consultants to uncover and address the root causes of systemic inequities through equity assessments and strategic plans for Teach for America’s national office, Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network, West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church, and County of Summit, Ohio.
Gabrielle Roffe works to understand the unique ways people connect to and protect their environments and, through transformative community practices, redefine environmental stewardship. She has spent the past 13 years leading in DEI work to amplify voices of underrepresented communities to advance equity, inclusion, and belonging in the access and design of cities, neighborhoods, and other public spaces and services.
Gabrielle has partnership and DEI capacity-building, community engagement, and creative placemaking expertise. She enjoys leading equity committees to develop innovative strategies and tactics to address internal and external organizational DEI needs. She takes a multidisciplinary and intersectional approach to authentically build holistic community-centered solutions when leading staff, community, executive leadership, and board members. Gabrielle is bilingual as a heritage Spanish speaker. Recent projects include leading DEI assessment and planning efforts with Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network, Baltimore Port Authority, Tech Goes Home, and the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Rachael Reichenbach is a consultant and facilitator dedicated to significant, systemic change. They use tools and practices from deep equity and systems thinking to support organizations through the process of moving toward their deepest aspirations. Over the past ten years, they have facilitated and collaborated on social change processes in various settings – from political education and organizing to antiracism culture shift to community food systems activation and network weaving.
In this time of simultaneous multi-system transformation, they bring the skills, experience, and wisdom to help you address the root causes of the increasingly severe and complex challenges we collectively seek to solve. Their facilitation work focuses on supporting organizations and networks through strategy development, visioning, action planning, group dynamics, culture shift, and stakeholder engagement. Their approach to facilitation is rooted in the Training for Change school of thought and deeply influenced by their teachers and mentors Joseph McIntyre, Miles Gordon, Yotam Marom, and Annabel Membrillo Jimenez.
