Award Winning Trainings for DEI & Team Building

My award-winning systems specialize in facilitating teams to co-design measurable outcomes for products, programs, and organizational cultures through design thinking, futurist visioning, collaboration, and experiential learning.

My diversity, equity, and inclusion work is known for being welcoming, vulnerageous, interactive, fun, and enlightening. Check out testimonials from alumni in the footer below.

• User Experience

• Customer Experience

• Product Inclusion

• Neuroarchitecture

Futurist Thinking Four Step Process:

1. Learn

Understand the historical context of the problem to solve

3. Design

Un-design & reimagine solutions aligned with futurist trends

Resources for Allies

Non-Racist Vs Anti-Racist:

• Non-Racist means you aim not to participate in racist actions.

• Anti-Racist means you understand what racist actions are, use your voice to name it, and put words into action.

• Allies are Anti-racist, actively educate themselves, speak up, check on their friends who are impacted, have uncomfortable conversations with friends, families and co-workers, don't post pix of dogs and frivolous topics during uprisings and most importantly DO NOT STAY SILENT. Allies may also be defined as accomplices and co-conspirators for justice.

What Anti-racist Action Looks Like:

• Name It - Verbally acknowledge a racist act when you witness it. (This can be uncomfortable because we have been socially conditioned to not talk about race in America but it is imperative to embrace your brave voice with friends, families, co-workers and strangers because silence perpetuates the problem. When experiencing these moments ask yourself "Is my uncomfortability more important than justice?")

• Hold Accountability - Recognize the silence of people in authority to name a racist act that has impacted your immediate or larger social community and communicate that you expect them to acknowledge the reality of harm impacting you and your peers. (It is important to communicate that said authority cannot expect normal work ethic or concentration when people are experiencing trauma and the lack of acknowledgement of said trauma perpetuates the harm. This often applies to schools and workplaces.)

• Read Books - Books for kids, adults, and educators SocialJusticeBooks.org, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, White Fraigility by Robin D'Angelo, So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Olua, For White Folk Who Teach in the Hood and the Rest of Y'all Too by Chris Emdin, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria by Beverly D. Tatum, Unraveling the Model Minority Stereotype: Listening to Asian American Youth by Stacey J. Lee, Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh, A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins, Eloquent Rage by Brittany Cooper, Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon, How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde, The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin, Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad

• Watch Films/TV - 13th directed by Ava DuVernay, When They See Us directed by Ava DuVernay, Selma directed by Ava DuVernay, American Son directed by Kenny Leon, American History X directed by Tony Kaye, Dear White People directed by Justin Simien, See You Yesterday directed by Stefon Bristol, If Beale Street Could Talk directed by Barry Jenkins, The Hate U Give directed by George Tillman Jr., Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975, Clemency directed by Chinonye Chukwu, Fruitvale Station directed by Ryan Coogler, Crash directed by Paul Haggis, Just Mercy directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution

• Listen to Podcasts - 1619 by New York Times, About Race, Code Switch by NPR, Intersectionality Matters by Kimberle Crenshaw, Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast, Pod For The Cause by the Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights, Pod Save the People by Crooked Media, Seeing White

• Conferences to Attend - Tech Inclusion, Tech Intersections, AERA- American Education Research Association, T4SJ- Teachers for Social Justice, NCORE- National Conference on Race and Ethnicity, NABJ - National Association of Black Journalists

• Research Allies To Know - Yuri Kochiyama, Jeff Chang, Grace Lee Boggs, Tim Wise, Peggy McIntosh, Jane Elliott, Noel Ignatiev, Robin D'Angelo, Junot Diaz ... research your local community

• Join, Volunteer & Donate to Activist Organizations- BlackLivesMatter.com, A4BL Asians 4 Black Lives,  M4BL Movement 4 Black Lives, Conspire for Change, Antiracism Center, Audre Lorde Project, Black Women’s Blueprint, Color of Change, Colorlines, Dream Defenders, The Conscious Kid, Common Ground Foundation, Equal Justice Initiative, Families Belong Together, The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights, MPowerChange, Muslim Girl, NAACP, National Domestic Workers Alliance, RAICES, Showing Up for Racial Justice, SisterSong, United We Dream, Code 2040, ACLU (find your local chapter)... search for organizations in your local region using keywords "justice, movement, ally etc."

• Peaceful Protests - If you choose to join the front lines in solidarity with communities who have been harmed, be mindful that any of your actions during the protest will reflect back on the community as a whole and the community that was originally harmed will take the blame for any misconduct performed

• Political Action - Call and write your local law makers and vote in all elections, not just presidential elections. Prepare by reading materials and speaking to neighbors, young people, and people outside of your immediate circle to understand the lived experiences and perspectives of people who share your local community.

• Public Resources for Allies - Conspire for Change, WhiteAccomplices.org, Solidarity Protocals

Definitions

• Allyship - The actions of a person from a non-marginalized group who uses their privilege to advocate for a marginalized group

• Performative Allyship - The actions of a person in a position of privilege that participates in activism when it is convenient for them, and serves their own benefit such as entertainment or clout. (People who wear a safety pin to show they are an ally — we would know you were an ally by your actions, the safety pin is for you to feel good about yourself and does not further our movement. People who share a #BlackLivesMatter post, wears a Pink Pussy Hat, or attends a Gay Pride parade but does not call out homophobic language/racism/sexism etc or check on gay friends after a gay night club shooting, or Black friends after a viral police brutality video circulates the media are examples of performance allies).

• Privilege - Privilege is a right, advantage, or immunity granted or available to a particular person or group. (White/Male/CIS/Able-bodied/Christian people are in the highest positions of privilege.)

• White Privilege - unseen and unconscious advantages that benefit White people (White people who are not racist still experience White Privilege. White Privilege is separate from one's income or effort. White people who have experienced financial and social hardship, still hold White Privilege. Examples: The ability to walk into a room and feel a sense of belonging without having to search hard for others who look like you. The ability to obtain an education with a curriculum that reflects your cultural heritage in positions of power, references authors who have shared your lived experience, and is taught by people who look like you. The ability to buy "Flesh" colored Band Aids and have it match your skin. Research Peggy McIntosh, Jane Elliott, and Tim Wise to learn more

• Whiteness - inherent advantages possessed by a white person on the basis of their race in a society characterized by racial inequality and injustice. Conscious and unconscious assertions made by a white person to maintain the advantages that uphold the white status quo.

• White Supremacy - the belief that white people are superior to those of all other races, especially the black race, and should therefore dominate society

• White Fragility - discomfort and defensiveness on the part of a white person when confronted by information about racial inequality and injustice. Research Robin D'Angelo, Peggy McIntosh, Jane Elliott, and Tim Wise to learn more

• Bias - prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair

• Unconscious Bias - Learned stereotypes that are automatic, unintentional, deeply ingrained, universal, and able to influence behavior. (Examples include moving to the other side of the street when you see a Black man walking towards you, preferring candidates with certain names etc.)

• Prejudice - preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience with a person or entity

• Discrimination - the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex

• Cognitive Dissonance - the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change. (Example: Having the belief that the police treat everyone fairly because you have personally never had a negative encounter with the police. This erases the reality of inequities that other people experience outside of your personal lived experience.)

• Erasure - the removal of all traces of something; obliteration (When someone shares or takes credit for a piece of work, contribution or topic without giving due credit to its original creator. Examples: When a person quotes a poem but does not name the poet or when news outlets say “A Black man was killed here today, without saying the name of the Black man, it reduces him to a figment of the imagination instead of humanizing him.)

• Appropriation - the action of taking something for one's own use, typically without the owner's permission. (This often occurs in cultural aesthetics such as wearing Native American headdresses to Coachella or Kim Kardashian calling cornrows Bo Derek braids.)

• Colorblind - a problematic term that asserts a person or society does not see race and therefor does not conduct behaviors in accordance to one’s racial classification. It is not good to claim colorblindness because it demonstrates erasure of a person or society’s ethnic and cultural experiences, traditions, and needs. One should aspire to see color in order to behave in an equitable manner that meets the specific needs of a person’s ethnic heritage.

• Equality vs Equity - Equality mean everyone gets the same treatment. Equity means everyone gets the best treatment for their specific needs. (For example if Sally is hungry and Mark is thirsty and Jimmy gives them both a hamburger, Mark will still be thirsty because he received food and not a drink when he was thirsty. If Sally is hungry and Mark is thirsty, and Jimmy gives Sally a hamburger and Mark a soda, they both will be satisfied because their individual needs were met.

• Racism - prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior

• Systemic Racism/ Institutionalized Racism - a form of racism expressed in the practice of social and political institutions. It is reflected in disparities regarding wealth, income, criminal justice, employment, housing, health care, political power and education, among other factors

• Microagressions - brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative prejudicial slights and insults toward any group, particularly culturally marginalized groups (Examples include telling someone they speak well for a Black person, they are pretty for a Black person, or are a credit to their race.)

• Code Switching - the practice of alternating between two or more languages or varieties of language in conversation (An example is when someone changes the way they speak with their friends and loved ones compared to how they speak at work)

• Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome - coined by Dr. Joy DeGruy - PTSS describes a set of behaviors, beliefs and actions associated with or, related to multi-generational trauma experienced by African Americans that include but are not limited to undiagnosed and untreated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in enslaved Africans and their descendants.

• Feminism - range of social movements, political movements, and ideologies that aim to define, establish, and achieve the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes (True feminism centers the intersectional experiences of womxn of color and not white women as the experiences of white women still obtains a level of privilege not afforded to women of color. For example when the 19th Amendment was passed, the right for women to vote only applied to white women, not women of color, especially if they were Black.)

• White Feminism - an epithet used to describe feminist theories that focus on the struggles of white women without addressing distinct forms of oppression faced by ethnic minority women and women lacking other privileges

• Homophobia -  a range of negative attitudes, feelings , or actions toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Homophobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence, anger, or discomfort felt or expressed towards people who do not conform to sexual orientation expectations

• Transphobia - range of negative attitudes, feelings or actions toward transgender or transsexual people or transsexuality in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence, anger, or discomfort felt or expressed towards people who do not conform to social gender expectations

• Ableism - discrimination and social prejudice against people with disabilities or who are perceived to have disabilities. Ableism characterizes persons as defined by their disabilities and as inferior to the non-disabled.

• Ageism - stereotyping and/or discrimination against individuals or groups on the basis of their age. This may be casual or systematic

• Intersectionality - Coined by Dr.Kimberle Crenshaw - Intersectionality is the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage

• Prison Industrial Complex - the attribution of the rapid expansion of the US inmate population to the political influence of private prison companies and businesses that supply goods and services to government prison agencies for profit. (AKA prison labor)

• School to Prison Pipeline - the disproportionate tendency of minority students to become incarcerated, because of increasingly harsh school and municipal policies that target disadvantaged demographics

• Red Lining - the systematic denial of various services by federal government agencies, local governments as well as the private sector, to residents of specific, most notably black, neighborhoods or communities, either directly or through the selective raising of prices

• Voter Suppression - a strategy used to influence the outcome of an election by discouraging or preventing specific groups of people from voting

• American Meritocracy - The myth that economic success is a sole result of individual work ethic without considerations for systemic disadvantages designed to restrict the advancement of minorities in America