Take the first step to creating genuine, meaningful change
Throughout the past year, high-profile instances of racial injustice and mounting public pressure to address change have rocketed diversity, equity, and inclusion to the top of the priority list for many organizations. These discussions are necessary and long overdue, but they aren’t always as productive as they could be due to fear of judgment or hesitancy to be genuinely vulnerable.
In that spirit, we hosted a complimentary virtual discussion series, Inclusion Conversations: a guilt-free, no-judgment space to examine institutional and implicit biases that impact Scholars and our community. Thank you for showing up ready and willing to unlearn with us.
Though the discussion series is over (for now), we hope that you will continue to do the work and continue to have these difficult conversations – with your family, friends, and colleagues. This is a lifelong journey, and we’re thankful you could join us on it.
About Our Speakers
Kiera Penpeci, Psy.D
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Consultant
Dr. Kiera Penpeci helps organizations foster inclusion of employees from all walks of life. Her approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion is creating opportunities through internal and external community building and using data-driven insights to create interventions that cultivate positive cultural shifts toward unbiased recruitment, promotion practices, and the increased sense of belonging for employees. She is a strong believer that stakeholders from every level of the organization should be brought along on the DEI journey, and she partners with all of them in practicing anti-racism and inclusion.
Dr. Penpeci holds a master’s degree and doctorate in Organizational Leadership Psychology and her area of research is in emotional labor and the sense of belonging.
Ashlee Jeannot
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Consultant, Creator and Strategist
Ashlee Jeannot has expertise leading change in both the corporate and educational spaces. She is a coach for executive leaders on complex and difficult conversations related to Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, and the founder and CEO of letsSTARTtogether, a DEI consulting firm that focuses on the education sector with the goal of enhancing teachers, staff, and students’ awareness of issues related to racial equity, equity, inclusion, and diversity. She is also the author of, “Knowing How to Discuss Race in the Classroom,” a guide for white educators to develop and understand racial literacy. Ashlee brings a range of experience in racial equity, diversity and inclusion programming, curriculum design, and project development. She is a believer that change should always be impact-driven, rather than result-driven, and that education is the place where the waves of change can start. Ashlee received her master’s degree from Tufts University in Diversity and Inclusion Leadership and served as a Diversity and Inclusion Fellow for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
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Regardless of whether you joined the conversations or not, we encourage you to watch these two videos. Both tie into the themes we discussed, and are also a good place to start if you’re unsure of which way to turn.
