Let’s Collaborate!

Overview of Workshops

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Partnership Possibilities (Who, How, What?)

Community Engagement + Institutional Outreach Partnerships

Healthcare Events + Structural Competency Trainings

Anti-ISMs + Mental Health Workshops/Curricula

Who?

Here are some of the people and institutions I partner with regionally, nationally, and globally:

• Healthcare providers in hospital systems and Area Health Education Centers

• Faculty, staff, and students in universities, colleges, and K-12 schools

• Ethical businesses’ and creative industries’ employees and public outreach programs

• Community-based and nonprofit organizations, and grassroots movements

How?

At each site, I interview client partners and then design compelling content that shapes meaningful participation and mobilization for more just, joyful environments. 

My work enlivens our shared pathways to social equity, via in-person and online professional development, continuing medical education, arts-driven curricula, and community engagement initiatives. We can partner for:

• A 1-time workshop, event, or production

• A series of workshops or repeated programs over the course of several weeks

• A multi-month or longer-term research, design, + cultural programming initiative to reshape or start anew your internal engagement or public outreach programs — including a review of current programs, interviews with key stakeholders, a final report and closing celebration, program launch, or other participatory event for actualizing key learning outcomes

What?

I specialize in creating and hosting memorable, interactive learning opportunities to:

• Identify gaps and lay groundwork to enact strategies for anti-oppression education (where participants learn how “isms” work and how to shift their own internal organizational culture in sustained ways amidst racism, sexism, classism, ableism, heterosexism, ethnocentrism, religious supremacism, + more)
  

• Actively intervene on situations of conflict arising from cultural or institutional norms in workplaces, clinical settings, and schools — through bystander intervention trainings and mental health support trainings
  

• Practice with members of dominant groups (e.g., white people, cis-gender people, administrators, clinical providers, among others) how to center, respect, and act on the wisdoms of targeted, most-affected groups (e.g., Black, Indigenous + People of Color, gender non-binary + transgender people, employees + students, patients + families, among others)
  

• Rehearse tangible plans for goals like sharing power across intra-group + inter-group difference, implementing listening-based leadership to transform conflict, improve inter-professional communication across roles, and make short- and long-term roadmaps for internal growth on issues of equity + justice
  

• Foster community engagement through memorable, applicable, and participatory initiatives that authentically link institutions to populations they hope to serve; this necessarily collaborative work helps guide shared visions for change with tailored research, outreach, and compelling communication

Research, Design, + Cultural Programming Partnerships

Direction or shared management of participatory research partnerships, design + leadership for festivals + cultural arts programming, facilitation of tailored workshops + capacity building events on commission. Examples of institutional partnerships for community engagement:

Community-led, story-driven, grant-supported programming like ArtPlace America’s The Lilies Project: Addressing Coal Ash through Arts + Parks, which engages local histories of Black-led, multiracial rural organizing for racial, educational, health, + environmental justice. Our partnerships have manifested in:

• Cultural arts festivals (see festival coverage for Fired Up for the Cove)

• Community history celebrations (see intergenerational story workshops like Celebrating Courage)

• Testimonies for regulatory agencies and stakeholder and/or resident-requested press conferences and state and federal policy hearings (see oral history interview-based organizing for DEQ Testimonies or US Commission on Civil Rights Testimonies)

Community-based, multidisciplinary research programs I co-led with partner organizations like

• Malawi Center for Human Rights and Rehabilitation + UNC -CH on burns + trauma

• University of Nairobi + UNC-CH on multinational titanium mining + internal displacement of ethnic minority groups

Community-engaged Festivals like the Triangle Dance Festival for AIDS that cultural arts mentor + global luminary Dr. Baba Chuck Davis + I co-founded in 2006, with:

• Thematically commissioned performances from professional, community, and student groups across performance genres, drawing crowds up of up to 800 annually to raise funds + build capacity for local + global movements to end AIDS

• A convened Community Advisory Board linking regional leaders in cultural + performing arts programming with regional business leaders, interfaith leaders, health researchers + health equity leaders including from Centers for AIDS Research at UNC, Duke, RTI International, FHI 360, to guide creation of the educational emcee script, service-learning fair + gala following the festival, + decisions about fund recipients

Commissions for Arts, Education, + Clinical Partners

Longer Term Curricula (multi-month or year long)— with groups of 10-100 participants at a time from among larger institutional bodies

• Overall: Curricula will help participants learn to “use our power for good”, implement “harm reduction” principles and activate accountability for social groups in dominant positions within an organization; in what we co-create, paying for and centering the expertise of BIPOC, LGBTQ+, dis/abled partners is vital

• Short-term: Workshop series of applied “rehearsal” activities for small groups, hosting interactive “on your feet” dialogue sessions (Forum Theater, InterPlay, Popular Education methods that put theory into action)

• Mid-term: Co-creating curricula for active bystander intervention, anti-oppression ethics implemented across an institution (readings + activities, workshops with funded community partners + area experts)

• Long-term: Focus on strategies for transformation, co-development of accountability measures with institutional leadership, addressing power dynamics (e.g., admin/employees, educators/learners, inter-professional collaborators)

Keynote Events on Structural Competency + Area Health Education Centers — Keynotes and interactive trainings on commission

• Charlotte AHEC and Levine Cancer Center’s Treating Health Inequities with New Knowledge

• Greensboro AHEC and Cone Health’s Focusing on Social Determinants of Health

• Mountain AHEC and UNC Cancer Network’s Coping with Cancer, and more

1 hour workshop series (3-6x per site), with culminating 1—1.5 hour keynote on clinical education and Structural Competency — Mixed methods, 100-300 participants, on commission, e.g.,

• “Structural Competency: Applying Theory to Clinical Practice”

• “Getting the Whole Picture: Mental Health Support for Healthcare Providers”

• “Flipping Cancer: Patient Advocacy for Health Justice”

• “Collateral Damage: Environmental Health Knowledge in Clinical Practice”

• “Healthcare Storytelling: InterPlay Support Methods for Clinician and Patient Dialogue”

Professional facilitator with Theater Delta

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

• Duke University Neurosciences and Duke School of Nursing (DUSON)

• Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) Foundation Clinical Scholars, and dozens more

2.5—3 hour workshops on anti-ISMs + bystander intervention skills — with 30-300 participants guided in small + large groups

• Research-based forum theater model with Theater Delta on issues such as “Addressing Power Dynamics” or “Solutions for Critical Issues in Equity + Design” or “That Just Got Awkward: Challenging Conversations”

• Tailored for clinical educators, faculty, students, employee groups to move from passive ally-ship to active bystander intervention, strategy-building, and anti-discrimination ethics that shape shared environments

1.5—2 hour workshops on mental health support skills — with 30-300 participants in duos + large group

• Research-based interactive theater scenes with actor teams from Theater Delta, such as “Don’t Worry, I’m Fine” on mental health or “Health Equity: Living, Surviving, or Thriving?” on clinical care

• Multi-methods skills-building and tailored training activities to be “mental health supporters” or “health equity advocates” within institutions or shared work and learning environments