Rejecting the Pale, Male and Stale Leadership Pipeline: A Roadmap to Building Inclusive Organizations
Session Type(s): Panel
Starts: Saturday, Jul. 16 2:30 PM (Eastern)
Ends: Saturday, Jul. 16 3:45 PM (Eastern)
It’s not good enough to have all cis-white male leadership in organizations that do social justice work. Many youth organizations have figured out how to center people of color, queer folks and women who are directly affected by the issues we work on as leaders, volunteers and staff. While some organizations have gone through elaborate processes to achieve equity and inclusion, others have centered their core mission and values to uplift the new American majority and have successfully grown their membership. Join this workshop to hear best practices around our approach to changing organizational culture, leadership and membership to reflect the people we serve.
Moderator
Panelists
Hemly Ordonez
Hemly specializes in working with non-profits across the US and around the world to bridge emerging technologies to challenge inequality and positively impact local communities. She has led engagement strategies that center communities of color and low income communities to meet them at the intersections of their lives both online and offline for over 10 years.
Prior to joining Fission, Hemly was the State Strategies Manager at Advocates for Youth. She worked with local, state-based, and national organizations mobilizing the rising American electorate across digital platforms to advocate for cultural and policy changes that improve and value young people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Hemly is originally from Carson, California and proudly represents South Los Angeles in the fight for health, dignity, and justice.
Other sessions: Wise Latinxs: How to Build Power for 2016 and Beyond, Letting Members Lead: The Mess and Magic of Distributed Organizing, Chewbacca Mom Takeover: The Future of Online Organizing
Angela Peoples
Angela Peoples is a strategist, trainer, and social justice economists focused on building movements for gender justice and Black liberation. Born and raised in Ypsilanti, MI, Angela started organizing in 2006 as a student activists with the USSA. She is CoFounder of the South — a brand where unapologetic Black culture defines political power. She is also Principal Strategist of MsPeoples and has worked on campaigns like No Justice, No Pride, #ForUsNotAmazon, and with organizations like The Groundwork Collaborative, and All Above All.
The subject of the “Don’t forget: White Women Voted for Trump” viral photo, Angela believes direct action as a platform for art and creative expression to engage uncomfortable truths and challenge systematic oppression.
Catalina Velasquez
Catalina is the Executive Director of the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN). She holds a M.A. in Feminist Studies from the University of Washington and Bachelors of Science in International Politics: International Law, Norms, & Institutions from Georgetown University. As a Doctoral Candidate in Feminist Political Economy at the University of Washington, Catalina’s research focuses on transnational relations, decolonial methodologies, following forced migration patterns, pursuing refugee justice, across-difference solidarity building, historicizing U.S. and Latin American foreign policy, engaging transgender and queer theory, and tracing political economies.
Other sessions: Wise Latinxs: How to Build Power for 2016 and Beyond
Jamal Watkins
Jamal R. Watkins currently serves as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Advancement at the NAACP. Jamal previously led the Association’s efforts to maximize the African-American community’s participation and representation in our democracy as the Vice President of Civic Engagement at the NAACP.
Mr. Watkins previously served as National Outreach Director for the AFL-CIO. In this role, he was responsible for strengthening and growing national strategic partnerships with the labor movement across a range of priority campaigns and program work.
Prior to joining the AFL-CIO, Mr. Watkins held leadership positions in a number of organizations dedicated to community organizing and civil and human rights. These include Deputy National Political Director at Service Employees International Union; Chief of Staff at the Center for Social Inclusion; Managing Director for Campaigns for Amnesty International, the world’s largest grassroots human rights organization; and, Deputy Director and Interim Executive Director of City Year Los Angeles, a national non-profit AmeriCorps organization.
Mr. Watkins has worked in several distinct arenas, including politics, campaigns, communications, education, human resources, and fundraising. He played key roles as a National Recruiter for the DNC, Fundraising Canvass Director for Grassroots Campaign, Florida State Director of the Young Voter Alliance during the 2004 Presidential Election, Regional Coordinator on the “Yes on Proposition 79” Campaign for Health Access of California, and most recently developing a voter mobilization and engagement field strategy for the 2014 mid-term election cycle.
A native of California and a resident of Washington, D.C., Mr. Watkins earned his B.A. in Philosophy, with a minor in Political Science, at Stanford University and completed graduate-level work at New York University for Speech and Interpersonal Communication. As a proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., his motto is “onward and upward.”