It鈥檚 9 a.m. one morning in May and Caprice Hollins, a clinical psychologist and co-founder of a race-relations consulting firm, is gearing up for a full day of workshops. In a classroom packed with faculty and staff in 91探花Bothell鈥檚 Founders Hall, she will share stories of her multiracial family and of growing up in Seattle. Then she will invite her audience to reflect on their own stories.
Through the participants鈥� personal narratives, Hollins guides them to examine how their experiences have shaped their worldviews, values and beliefs. The workshop, Cultural Competence: Addressing Race Relations in the 21st Century, was one in a pilot series last spring for staff and faculty through the 91探花Race & Equity Initiative. Hollins, Greg Taylor of Community Connection Consulting, and diversity trainer Rosetta Lee led over 20 workshops on the Seattle, Tacoma and Bothell campuses. The workshops, which filled up in the first few days of registration, provided employees with a foundation for understanding racial equity, bias and history, an important step in confronting the barriers to change at the University.
By the time the pilot series wrapped up in July, more than 450 91探花employees had taken part. The Race & Equity Initiative, which 91探花President Ana Mari Cauce established in 2015, comes with three major goals: to help members of the 91探花community confront individual bias and racism, to transform the University鈥檚 policies and practices, and to accelerate change. 鈥淗ollins, Taylor and Lee were asked to lead the initial workshops based on similar work they have done with local school districts and other public institutions,鈥� says Jeanette James, manager of strategic initiatives and projects with the office of Minority Affairs & Diversity. Hollins鈥� workshop aimed to open a dialogue and expose participants to alternate perspectives regarding bias, history, culture and race. Taylor鈥檚 work focused on cognitive bias and dissonance. And Lee tackled cross-cultural communication and microaggressions. 鈥淚f we aren鈥檛 identifying the unconscious biases we bring to work and examining dominant culture鈥檚 norms and beliefs, we are not guiding [our students, faculty and staff in ways that help them be effective in their fields,鈥� says Hollins. 鈥淲e have to learn to interact differently.鈥�
91探花employees joined the trainings for a range of reasons. Anastasia Mendoza, 鈥�06, an executive assistant in Marketing & Communications, wanted to support the Race & Equity Initiative. 鈥淭hese dialogues are diffi cult to have, but the workshop creates a safe and comfortable place to talk about issues,鈥� Mendoza says. 鈥淗aving people from across the 91探花community share their personal and professional stories advances the conversation. It鈥檚 good to hear perspectives from people you may not see on a day-to-day basis.鈥� Because of the demand, the Race & Equity Initiative steering committee is planning to expand the workshops in 2016-17. Participant evaluations from the pilot series will shape the design of the future programs. 鈥淲e have a responsibility to move these conversations forward,鈥� says Hollins. 鈥淎nd we all have a lot of work to do, no matter our professional role.鈥�