My hardest and certainly one of the most cherished professors throughout all of my educational experiences was the late Dr. Tobe Johnson, the former Chair of the Political Science Department at Morehouse College. …

A question that has been coming up for me more and more: can aspects of design be merged with “DEI, JEDI, DEIBA, DEIBAJ, etc”? Should it be? NOTE — a quick reference guide: d = diversity, e = equity, i = inclusion, b = belonging, a = accessibility, j =…

In just a couple of weeks, I’ve gotten feedback like the following: “We had a team meeting on DEI to plan for 2021 year efforts. I got the deck the day before, and was able to refer to it for some generative inspiration. One of the cards was actually spot…

A lot of people have been asking me “how do you use or “play” Racial DeckEquity?” In a word, it’s flexible and evolving. This card deck is designed to be used by organizations who engage in social impact work and who wish to improve in their DEIRJ practices. There are…

Back in 2017 I wrote a Medium post called “Operationalizing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Your Nonprofit”. Having worked on a number of corporate and non-profit D & I initiatives previously, fresh from a series of racial equity and community organizing trainings from spaces like Race Forward and Chicago Freedom…

It is not uncommon to start a new initiative with the idea of “…if we build it, they’ll come.” What if, instead, we started the process with the end-users in mind, and built solutions tailor-made to their needs? Join Alvin Schexnider, Erie Neighborhood House’s Senior Director of Operations, and Host Valerie F. Leonard, to learn how human-centered design can bridge the needs of those closest to the problem (clients/users) with those who have the power, privilege, and resources to design policy and initiatives in organizations and in communities.

I wrote this article almost three years ago for Greater Good Studio based on my work and learnings across multiple public and private organizations in equity, diversity, and inclusion, which I’ve also leveraged closely alongside operations and social innovation design. Based on recent events, perhaps these approaches are still relevant for the social sector. Nothing here is a silver bullet or a TED talk-style big idea, just actionable approaches to integrate into your organizational values, strategies, and practices if you’re truly willing to invest and do the long term work. Because that’s what its really going to take. That said, there’s no time like the present to start.