Webinar: A Discussion About Race, Part 1 - Building a Better Understanding

This workshop is the first in a series of three. Each session includes a combination of dialogue, facilitator-led discussion and group participation. Registrants are strongly encouraged to participate in all three sessions.  We welcome individuals, work teams and/or your entire staff to attend. There has never been a more relevant time to help individuals and organizations strengthen their understanding around issues of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Part 1 – Building a Better Understanding - explores some of the foundational and fundamental aspects of race and racism in America. The workshop will specifically address the following themes/topics:  

• Guiding Principles of Equity
• Defining Conflated Terms (ex. Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging, Equity…etc.)
• Resources for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous & People of Color) and their allies.

The next two programs in this series are:

• June 18, 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. - Operationalizing Equity
• June 24, 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. - A Historical Analysis

Presenters:

Stephenie K. Smith, MSW is co-founder and managing partner of Sophic Solutions.  She is a lead authority on operationalizing equity, executive project management, organizational structure & design and operations improvement, and serves as a key community leader throughout the entire Kansas City region. With over 20 years’ experience, Stephenie has leveraged her social work background to explicitly focus on the effects of poverty and oppression. In so doing, community revitalization, change management and diversity, equity & inclusion have taken center stage.
 
Dr. Rodney D. Smith is co-founder and managing partner of Sophic Solutions. He is a lead authority on issues related to diversity, equity and inclusion. Over the course of a 25-year career his scholarly interests have taken aim at the implications of race and racism in American society. Dr. Smith recently wrote and published Are We Really Crabs in a Barrel: The Truth and Other Insights About the African American Community as well as a chapter in an anthology entitled The Trayvon Martin in Us: An American Tragedy.