I advocate for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging.
Identifying and advocating for systemic change to cultivate diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging has been a priority throughout my career. Given the complex scope of DEI&B work, I’ve included multiple examples of my initiatives here. Read about three of them by clicking on the menu arrows items to the right. Scroll to read about collaborative professional development workshop I led.
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As a member of the DEI committee in the department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota, I helped revise the department’s strategic plan. We drew on DE&I best practice and data from students, staff, and faculty to identify actionable changes to admissions, instruction, and advising to cultivate a culture of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.
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Our school partners came to us at the University of Minnesota to help resolve a workforce gap. They had a diverse pool of teaching assistants who were exceptional and desired to become licensed parent educators. However, tuition costs were prohibitive. When the state’s Grow Your Own model proved out of reach, we got creative and designed our own fellowship, which still exists today. Our first recipient, a Somali-American woman, was recently honored with an Emerging Leader award by the Minnesota Association for Family and Early Educators.
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Workforce equity gaps in early childhood and family education are wide and multifaceted. In 2021 and 2022, I served in an advocacy leadership role with MNAFEE in partnership with the University of Minnesota, which helped to secure $2M in state funding for higher education to close equity gaps in early childhood and parent education. The fellowship initiative described above was integral to including the parent and family education teaching license in this bill.
ECFE for Equity Workshop
Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) is a state-wide, dual-generation, universal access program that provides parent education, home visiting, and early childhood programming to families in more than 330 school districts throughout Minnesota.
When MNAFEE heard from its stakeholders that training was needed around creating more inclusive and welcoming experiences for diverse families and staff, they set out to create a workshop that would be directly responsive to this unique program.
We needed a workshop that would provide tangible tools and strategies as well as create an opportunity to examine and challenge biases and mindset.
I collaborated with a diverse team of parent educators and early childhood teachers to design this state-wide virtual workshop using a blend of my Reflective Dialogue method and exploration of relevant resources they could use in their program.
This was one of the highest attended virtual workshops hosted by MNAFEE. Participant feedback provided evidence that we met our objectives, AND made it clear they wanted to go even deeper into the specific topic of racial bias.
What Participants Shared
“I liked hearing what others had to say who saw things differently than I did. It reminded me that parents and colleagues can see things very differently from me and from each other.”
“I gained more insight into my own biases as a leader as I was able to observe inequities play out in a different setting.”
“While we did get to the topic of race, it seemed to be more of the subplot of the clips used. It would have been nice to have that topic be more at the center of the conversation.”
Racial Bias Workshop.
In response to the request for a more direct focus on racial bias, I worked with a smaller group of educators to design a new workshop through my company, Hourglass Perspectives. We hosted our own events, presented at conferences, and contracted with schools for staff development.
Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and deeply moving. Scroll through the quotes below to hear about the impact directly from participants.