The "DEI is:" Podcast

Diversity. Equity. Inclusion. Belonging. Access. Justice. In our current climate, these words are configured and reconfigured seemingly endlessly, but the throughline for whatever acronym you prefer, is trying to have a positive impact on the way that we work and of course, live with one another. To that end, such efforts are constructed with capital “S” Society in mind—that is, everyone. Or is it? Most conversations around DEI revolve around one embedded assumption: the context we’re talking about is the USA. So, just HOW diverse, equitable, and inclusive is DEI? Join host Enrico E. Manalo and special guests, Abbiola Ballah, Founder & CEO of Phern Education Studios LLC, and Kaumudi Goda, Founder of The Human Conversation. ***

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And, if you missed our last podcast, you can catch the replay on our social media accounts OR by finding us on your favorite source for podcasts!

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Dr. Nikki Lane is an interdisciplinary scholar trained as a Cultural and Linguistic Anthropologist, working along the edges of academia making contemporary critical theory accessible, using common sense, everyday language that anyone can understand. Dr. Lane is an Assistant Professor at Duke University and is an advisor for DiVerity.

So, what IS “intersectionality” anyway? A lot of people have attached their own ideas to the term since Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term in 1989 and while language of course changes as people use it, when there’s money to be made companies and organizations often add their own twist on things. But to what end? Join our conversation with Dr. Nikki Lane exploring that very question!

Join us  as we explore what we as DEI consultants can do to ensure that DEI efforts are not checkbox exercises! We’re drawing on the experience, expertise, and hard-earned wisdom of two of DiVerity’s advisors, Cornell Verdeja-Woodson (He/Him) and Tara Robertson.   Cornell Verdeja-Woodson is Founder & CEO of Brave Trainings LLC (http://bravetrainings.com/), whose mission it is to provide a starting point for organizations to unpack sensitive diversity topics through authentic dialogue and consistent action.   

Tara Robertson brings nearly 15 years experience leading change in open source technology communities and corporate spaces, including 3 years leading Diversity and Inclusion at Mozilla. Tara now partners as a consultant with technology, engineering and media leaders to help drive systemic change. Her work has been included in Harvard Business Review, Forbes and other publications. Head to Tara Robertson Consulting Inc. or https://tararobertson.ca/ to learn more!  

So, how can we move beyond “going through the motions” in our DEI efforts to really get some traction on creating positive social change, not only in the workplace, but beyond it? For the answer to that question and more, stay tuned! We’ll be talking about moving beyond the performative/virtue-signaling that so often happens with organizational DEI efforts, but also about accountability—not only for our clients, but for us as DEI professionals as well! 

📜Transcript - bit.ly/DEIisTranscriptEp9  

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Dr. Pushpa Iyer is a strategically minded executive and thought-leader, with 25+ years of experience championing international education, racial equity, and peacebuilding efforts. By drawing on a critical-thinking approach and a background leading capacity-building projects, Dr. Iyer empowers the communities she works with to facilitate social change and has extensive experience supporting vulnerable populations and low-income communities. Over the course of her career, Dr. Iyer has come to the conclusion that while courage is instrumental to accomplishing social change, courage alone is not enough; in fact, what is needed is BOTH compassion AND courage.

So what does that mean when it comes to how we approach Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion? For one, it means that having the courage to point out what people or organizations aren’t doing/or are getting wrong is simply not enough. In fact, if we fixate ONLY on what’s wrong or missing without compassion, we run the risk of shutting people down in ways that leave us all worse off.

As a multiethnic, neurodiverse, visibly Muslim American woman, and a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Intercultural Practitioner, Rahimeh Ramezany has found her calling in addressing the experiences of marginalized religious, ethnic, and racial communities in the United States, in order to create change on individual, interpersonal, and institutional levels. While religious identities that are also ethnic identities have always been part of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion efforts, there is still discomfort among many in squarely taking on religion or including it as part of DEI work. Why is that? And what do people really mean when they talk about religion in the context of DEI?

Join Rahimeh Ramezany and host Enrico E. Manalo as they unpack what religion in DEI means!

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Alysha M. Campbell is a multiple award-winning, best-selling author and a highly respected Strategic HR Leader with a decade of experience that encompasses all facets of Human Resource Management. From executing successful multi-million dollar workforce recruitment and optimization projects to spearheading employee culture initiatives, Alysha has truly seen and done it all in the HR space.

Why is it so important for us to really think through our connections to the communities as we scale our businesses? Part of the answer is that cultures emerge from communities—not the other way around! Stay tuned to tap into Alysha M. Campbell’s wealth of insight, depth of experience, and hard-earned know-how!

Erin-Kate Escobar (Erin-Kate Escobar Consulting) has a Vision where People are able to navigate and challenge oppression as whole humans. They work to accomplish that through their Mission: To build more inclusive workplaces where people can thrive through developing and implementing DEI strategies that include healing, and anti-racist practices. Erin-Kate has previously developed DEI initiatives in STEM communities, including Caltech, NASA, and Nobel Prize-winning LIGO scientific collaborations. These days, you can more often find them partnering with small businesses, museums, schools, and nonprofits to create more diverse and equitable team environments. Erin-Kate navigates the world as a non-binary, queer, Latinx(e), white, multi-ethnic, and non-Zionist Jewish person of color and is passionate about supporting personal growth and institutional social change towards greater equity. You can go to their website to be the first to know about their toolkit to build transformative Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) in the workplace: 

Valerie Williams is a diversity champion and community builder with over 16 years of experience advocating for fairness and equity in the workplace. Prior to launching Converge, Valerie served as Global Head of Inclusion & Diversity at Stripe, and helped create the foundational Diversity and Belonging program at Airbnb. Valerie has extensive executive, business and technical recruiting experience at Google, Airbnb, and Russell Reynolds, as well as four years of supply chain and operations experience at Hewlett Packard.

Valerie joined The DEI is: Podcast to explore how we can harness “hockey stick moments'' for real growth—the “hockey stick moments'' in question being 1) an inciting incident followed by 2) a sharp uptick in interest around DEI followed by . . . well, not too much of anything! So, how do we move from commitment to DEI work to making real strides in those efforts? Tune in to find out!

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