Episode Details

Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak are joined by Dr. April Harris Akinloye, the former Chief Diversity Officer and Title IX Coordinator at Vanguard University. Together they take part in a Courageous Conversation, which is an initiative that was launched to bring the community together to have a safe place where they could discuss very uncomfortable topics that touched upon things that were happening throughout society and our country at large. They predominately discuss how to navigate representation, right, and resources as parents.

Dr. April Harris Akinloye

A diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) professional with 18+ years of experience leading teams into strategic analysis of practices, policies, and communication. Facilitates institutional culture change by bridging intercultural and intergenerational perspectives through critical analysis, organizational accountability, and collaboration. Delivers DEI initiatives that are practical, measurable, and manifest representation of all constituents. Known for exceptional communication skills that cultivate trust and influence across all roles and functions.

Key Points

• The model of three Rs, representation, right, and resources can be used as a starting place to evaluate yourself and others.
• Being an ally is speaking up for those without a voice. You are speaking through your actions: what you do, how you act, who you interact with, and who you bring alongside you in whatever environment you’re in.
• Bettering our society when raising kids that are part of a structure where they enjoy a privilege, can start as basic as teaching them to treat others the way they want to be treated.
• The more we begin to value each other in the different ways that we have expertise and resources, the more we can become inclusive and develop authentic give and take relationships.

Resources

• What is Juneteenth and When is It?
• CCCU Magazine: Diversity Matters
• Healing Racial Trauma
• Is Christianity the White Man’s Religion? by Antipas Harris
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehesi Coates
• The Cross the Lynching Tree by James Cone
• Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
• I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
• The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

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