The DEI Lifecycle: Creating Sustainable Change Within Organizations

 Thursday, July 29 at 10:45 AM-12:00 PM  

This workshop is for organizations and individuals who want to be more actively anti-oppressive but are stuck. Maybe you hired a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion consultant for a few trainings or initial consultations but the work ended there. Or, you’ve personally attended a few DEI workshops but don’t know what to do now. We’ve developed a holistic process to address systemic oppression for organizations and individuals. In this workshop, we’ll introduce the concept of the DEI Lifecycle (choosing your plant, planting the seeds, watering and maintenance, harvesting, and replanting). These phases come out of our experience working with organizations and, during the workshop, we will share case studies to describe the importance of each phase in the overall process. We will also emphasize the need to do this work holistically both in terms of stakeholder engagement and in terms of the phases we describe above. During the workshop, organizations will have time to do a self-analysis of their current phase(s) of this work. Our experience is that most organizations focus on the first two phases and then get distracted from the work by competing priorities. We hope to move organizations from one day of dedicated training sustained commitments to anti-oppressive practices. To do that, our approach is an intersectional, anti-oppressive framework using an applied theatre praxis. We draw heavily from critical race theory as a core foundation of our work.

Presenters

Mary C. Parker

Mary C. Parker is an African-American cis-gendered woman, applied theatre practitioner, and comedic actor. She holds a MA in Applied Theatre from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, a BA in Sociology from Emory University, and is an International Coach Federation (ICF) Professional Coach creditialied through Duquesne University Palumbo Donahue School of Business. Mary's business, Just Collaboration (www.justcollaboration.org Links to an external site.) supports clients to deepen humility and disrupt fragility through playshops, consulting, and coaching that apply humor to dismantle oppression. Mary has worked with community based organizations to create diversity, equity, and inclusion statements, address inclusion with boards of directors for nonprofits, and led several workshops on implicit bias. She also has seven years experience virtually facilitating dialogue sessions so folx can learn how to approach differences constructively and lead with empathy, to thrive in an interconnected world. Mary’s research areas include how stand-up comedy can serve as an applied theatre practice to elevate the voices and identities of black women and how structural racism and oppressive practices become evident in the fabric of academia. 

Liz Foster-Shaner

Liz Foster-Shaner is a White, cis-gendered woman, educator, and civic artist. She holds a Ph.D. in Theatre Research from UW-Madison where she studied applied theatre for social change and the development and representation of community both on and off stage. She carries that analysis of community into her work with individuals and organizations. With funding from Heinz Endowments, the Three Rivers Community Foundation, and Remake Learning, Liz is developing programs that reimagine our opportunities for change as active citizens of our communities and places of practice. Liz is a DE&I consultant for Inclusant and DLJ & Associates, a Teaching Artist with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, and a founding member of Theatre of the Oppressed Pittsburgh. Recently, Liz facilitated workshops for the Urban Redevelopment Authority, Carlow University, Carnegie Mellon University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and Sojourner House.

 

 

If you require an accommodation to participate in this event, please contact the Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at  diversity@pitt.edu  by July 21