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WOMEN’S RETREATS

Strengthening gender solidarity to achieve racial & gender equity.

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DEIB EDUTAINMENT™

Teaching “Me to We Skills” using neuroscience, psychology, and the arts

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Trust in Black and White

A gripping documentary on social trust between Black and White women.

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Words Create Worlds

Amplifying voices of writers who inspire inclusion & belonging.

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Submit an inquiry here or email us at info@gettingtowe.org.
We look forward to connecting with you.

Our Why

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Our Why

We believe that within our multiple and intersecting identities, our core identity is that of being human.

We believe that women are gatekeepers of culture and agents for sustainable change.

We believe that developing multicultural living practices provide us with the experiences and competencies necessary to turn us and them into WE.

Our Mission

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Our Mission

Getting to We is a non-profit organization that uses the transformative nature of the arts to help people understand their shared, core identity as humans and relate to each other without fear.

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Our Vision

Our Vision

Ultimately, we want a world where minds are open and human interaction is about making ourselves and each other better friends, families, neighbors, co-workers, and citizens – better humans.

In Getting to We’s Vision,

  • We progress from apathy and insensitivity to understanding and inclusivity, and a nation where social discourse about DEIB and identity is productive and solutions oriented.
  • We embrace empathy and shared responsibility for our fellow humans.
  • We have public spaces where all feel physically and emotionally safe.
  • We experience healthy workplaces where diversity is valued, honest ideas are welcome, and we expand knowledge and understanding of each other to serve the mission and business objectives of the organization.
  • We have educational institutions where environments foster an inclusive experience for all learners.
  • We have a society where all feel empowered to contribute to the greater good.
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Our Values

Our Values

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Connection

Building networks of meaningful relationships across differences

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Curiosity

Moving from certainty to new ways of knowing

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Caring

Being fully and wonderfully better humans for each other

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Empathy

Understanding each other’s feelings without projecting our own onto others

Our Promise

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Our Promise

We don’t promise a perfect humanity.

What we do promise are competency-building experiences, DEIB Edutainment™, research backed resources, and online tools that create a pathway toward a healthier society and organizations that are responsive to a changing job market.

We know how to turn discomfort into learning and how to turn tension into meaningful relationships. We’ve delivered on that kind of effective learning and change process with proven success.

Team Three Column

Getting To We Team

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Deborah L. Plummer
Founder/Executive Director
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Deborah L. Plummer

Founder/Executive Director

Deborah L. Plummer, PhD is Founder/Executive Director of Getting to We, Inc., a non-profit that develops and promotes charitable initiatives and educational projects that turn us and them into we, especially in high conflict, emotionally charged social issues such as racism, sexism, and heterosexism. As a psychologist, university professor, and author, she speaks on topics central to racial equity, inclusion, and mutual respect. An international leader in the field of diversity and inclusion, she brings her deeply humanist and Gestalt-trained skills to workshop participants and readers to examine themselves as social beings in relation to our programmed fear of “otherness.” Her work and writings introduce a relational model for managing differences that support the development of the competencies necessary to live authentically out of one’s core identity as a human being and master the challenges of diversity dynamics.

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Jo Salvatore
Finance and Operations
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Jo Salvatore

Finance and Operations

Jo aspires to do at least one act of kindness each day

With a professional background in education and grocery retail management, Jo served as a business executive for over 20 years of in procurement and supply chain management for Chevron before utilizing her strong business acumen to manage all operational and financial aspects of Getting To We. As a leader, she most enjoys working with, empowering, and advocating for team members to achieve a mission and meet business objectives.

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Leah Hough, PhD
Administrator
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Leah Hough, PhD

Administrator

Dr. Leah Hough is a trauma-informed education & educational equity specialist living in Cleveland, OH, teaching graduate courses in Cambridge, MA, and supporting organizations world-wide in their endeavors to cultivate safe and supportive environments. Leah is an avid reader, sourdough baker, full time mom, and wife to a fellow Cleveland educator.

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Lori Stevic-Rust
Women's Social Trust Movement
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Lori Stevic-Rust

Women's Social Trust Movement

Lori Stevic-Rust, Ph.D. ABPP is a clinical health psychologist, news media consultant, author, and award-winning keynote speaker for women’s empowerment, gender solidarity, bias, and racial equity along with topics related to the health benefits of courage and gratitude. Her strong advocacy for women and seniors, earned her the outstanding leadership award in the field of Adult Abuse, Awareness & Prevention by the Western Reserve Area on Aging. She was honored as a Woman of Achievement from the YWCA and inducted into the KSU Hall of Fame as a distinguished Alumni. She has written six books on topics ranging from depression, heart disease and wellness, a personal memoir on the art of aging with gratitude, and women’s empowerment. Her children’s book focuses on inclusion and the importance of being an upstander.

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Colleen Jackson
Director/Acting Coach
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Colleen Jackson

Director/Acting Coach

Colleen is a Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion officer,  professional actor, and educator for the city of Shaker Heights, Ohio. Prior to coming to Shaker, she was at The Cleveland Play House where she was the Director of Community Partnerships and Programming. During her time at CPH, Colleen was part of the team to develop and implement the CARE program (Compassionate Arts Remaking Education). CARE uses theatre education to teach Social Emotional competencies and to increase English Language Arts scores in the K-12 student population. She is still actively involved in the ongoing expansion of the program which is now being taught in schools nationally.

Colleen is a Certified Trauma Professional and she holds a certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University. She centers her IDEA and Trauma Informed work around helping communities, organizations and educational institutions.

Colleen is an active member of Actor’s Equity and continues to work as both an actress and director. She lived in New York City for ten years and has worked on stage there, toured nationally and performed in regional theaters across the country. Her work in the theatre and commitment to youth development make dismantling oppressive systems within the field of theatre, institutions of learning and residential communities a top career priority. Colleen holds an MFA in acting from Kent State University.

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Erica Merritt
DEIB Scholarship & Strategy
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Erica Merritt

DEIB Scholarship & Strategy

As Founder & President, Erica Merritt (she/her/hers) is the vibrant compass of Equius Consulting Group. She leads Equius and creates the conditions for her team and clients to thrive. She expertly balances a blend of challenge and support with her clients and team. Erica pushes clients to have the tough conversations that are essential to reaching their desired outcome, bringing in all perspectives, believing we are better together and that the sum of us creates something magnificent.

Her passion for co-creating a world in which all humans flourish is rivaled only by her love of all thing science fiction. One of Erica’s favorite quotes is from the poet Lucille Clifton, “we can’t create what we cannot imagine.” She believes unwaveringly that imagination is one of our most powerful tools for transforming ourselves, organizations, and even the world.

A Gestalt-trained leader, Erica Merritt has extensive experience leveraging organizational development practices to drive change, designing, and facilitating leadership programs and applying an equity lens to create workplaces and communities that work for everyone. By skillfully creating brave spaces to explore challenging topics and have difficult conversations, Erica helps groups build trusting relationships and achieve powerful breakthroughs. As a sought-after consultant, speaker, and coach, she builds the capacity of leaders to grow personally, develop professionally and transform organizations.

Erica holds a Bachelor of the Arts Degree in Public Relations from Ursuline College and a Master of the Arts Degree in Psychology with a certification in Diversity Management (NTL) from Cleveland State University. She also holds coaching certifications from the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland and the Center for Credentialing Education. Before launching Equius Group, Erica served in leadership roles in the non-profit and higher education sectors.

As an active Board member for the Cleveland international Film Festival and the Women of Color Foundation, she’s a driving force for change. As a cornerstone of her impact, she co-founded of Black Women Werk a sanctuary and social network for Black Women in Northeast Ohio that provides small grants for entrepreneurs and hosts “10 Dope Black Women You Should Know.”

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Jeannine Gaskin
DEIB Edutainment
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Jeannine Gaskin

DEIB Edutainment

directing a world premiere play at Cleveland Public Theatre called “not for profit (or the equity, diversity, and inclusion play) by Francisca Da Silveira. Other directing credits include “Hype Man-A Break Beat play by Idris Goodwin, “Stonewallin” by Kari Barclay “Trouble in Mind” by Alice Childress, the Cleveland premiere of “The Light” by Loy A. Webb, “Insurrection: Holding History” by Robert O’Hara, “Trade Flowers for Salt” by India Nicole Burton, “Devised Blues: Uncut & Funky” at Baldwin Wallace University and co-directed “Until the Flood” by Dael Orlandersmith with Craig Joseph.

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Jon Frew
Research & Thought Leadership
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Jon Frew

Research & Thought Leadership

Jon Frew, PhD, ABPP (American Board of Professional Psychology) is co-director of and a senior trainer for Gestalt Therapy Training Center NW in Portland, Oregon. He maintains a private practice offering supervision, clinical consultation, organizational consulting and therapy services. He is Professor Emeritus having retired from full time teaching at Pacific University in 2017. He is an Associate Editor of the Gestalt Review and has over 40 years of experience training Gestalt therapists in the US and internationally. He is the author of Contemporary Psychotherapies for a Diverse World and was the co-editor with Deborah Plummer of a special issue of the Gestalt Review dedicated to A Gestalt Perspective on Diversity and Inclusion.

Jon was born and raised in Erie, Pa and completed his PhD at Kent State University. He received extensive training at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland from 1977 to 1981before moving to the Pacific Northwest in 1982. One of his specializations as an organizational consultant has been to work with non-profit Boards to enhance communication, teamwork and to encourage members to mobilize differences in the service of the organization’s goals and mission.

Team 5 Column

Board of Directors

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Susan Berger
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Susan Berger

A lifelong advocate for children, Berger joined Positive Education Program in 2000 following successful stints in development at Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, United Way and several political campaigns. PEP is one of Northeast Ohio’s child-serving organizations. Berger’s portfolio at PEP includes fund development, board development, communications and government relations. She is a graduate of Kenyon College – an institution where she remains deeply involved, having served as a trustee and as president of the alumni association. She is a member of the 2007 Leadership Cleveland class, an active board member of Canopy Child Advocacy Center and Getting to We, past president of the board of the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, a recipient of Crain’s Cleveland Business’ 40 under 40 recognition and recipient of the 2007 Athena Award.

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Kimberly Chapmon-Wynne
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Kimberly Chapmon-Wynne

Kimberly has been dedicated to building bridges between people from different backgrounds since high school when she walked between the Black and White student tables in the cafeteria. This passion continued throughout her career as a Human Resources leader and executive in several Fortune 500 corporations and business startups, including Ford, TRW, BP/formerly Atlantic Richfield Company, and ARAMARK.

Wanting to balance her career and being a mom, she took her skills to independent consulting. She helped companies develop strategic plans, redesign their organizations, conduct climate surveys, implement recruitment, onboarding, and training programs, and support nonprofits in fundraising. Throughout her career, she continued to work to build bridges with people of varying cultures, religions, and ethnicities.

After decades of living in Los Angeles, Kimberly returned home to Cleveland, Ohio, with her family. It wasn’t long before she felt like she had moved 35 years backward in time racially. This became even more apparent when her young daughters began asking questions, including, “Mommy, why is everything about being Black and White?” She refocused her efforts on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB).

As a DEIB consultant, she develops tailored programs and processes, facilitates conversations to foster multiethnic awareness and cultural intelligence, addresses issues like unconscious bias, and works with various organizations, including corporations, nonprofits, religious groups, schools, and colleges. After the pandemic, she decided to bring her expertise in-house to serve as the Senior Director of Race, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the United Way of Greater Cleveland and now as the Chief Human Resources Officer for the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center.

She has served on several boards and committees including Society Human Resource Management DEIB committee, Zonta International, the Elimination of Prejudice Foundation, University Hospitals Family Patient Hospice Partnership Council, The Lillian and Betty Ratner School, Garfield Memorial United Methodist Church Leadership Council and Multiethnic Conversations Leader, and Santa Monica – Malibu Intercultural Equity and Excellence Advisory Committee.

Kimberly holds an MBA with a concentration in Marketing and Human Resources from Indiana University and a BA in Psychology and Communications from the University of Cincinnati. She also has a certificate in Fundraising and Nonprofit Development from UCLA. The Cultural Intelligence Center certifies her as a practitioner and trainer in cultural intelligence and unconscious bias.

Inspired by Maya Angelou’s words, “We are only as blind as we want to be,” Kimberly is committed to helping everyone improve their understanding and compassion for one another, allowing everyone to live authentically.

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Jon Frew
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Jon Frew

Jon Frew

Jon Frew, PhD, ABPP (American Board of Professional Psychology) is co-director of and a senior trainer for Gestalt Therapy Training Center NW in Portland, Oregon. He maintains a private practice offering supervision, clinical consultation, organizational consulting and therapy services. He is Professor Emeritus having retired from full time teaching at Pacific University in 2017. He is an Associate Editor of the Gestalt Review and has over 40 years of experience training Gestalt therapists in the US and internationally. He is the author of Contemporary Psychotherapies for a Diverse World and was the co-editor with Deborah Plummer of a special issue of the Gestalt Review dedicated to A Gestalt Perspective on Diversity and Inclusion.

Jon was born and raised in Erie, Pa and completed his PhD at Kent State University. He received extensive training at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland from 1977 to 1981before moving to the Pacific Northwest in 1982. One of his specializations as an organizational consultant has been to work with non-profit Boards to enhance communication, teamwork and to encourage members to mobilize differences in the service of the organization’s goals and mission.

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Andres Gonzalez
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Andres Gonzalez

Andrés Gonzalez has successfully created and implemented community engagement, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and supplier diversity programs for a number of the country’s most respected health care organizations. His teams have positively affected their organization by penetrating diverse markets and make a substantial impact on thecommunities they serve, ensuring patients receive culturally and linguistically competent care that can lead to better health outcomes. They proactively address community health needs through innovative programs and partnerships that improve population health and reduce disparities.

Gonzalez joined Froedtert Health in 2015. He currently serves as the Vice President for Community Engagement and Chief Diversity Officer for the health network, which includes 11 hospitals, over 2,000 physicians and more than 45 health centers and clinics in Wisconsin.

Gonzalez served from 2012 to 2015 as the Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer for Baystate Health in Springfield, MassachusettsFrom 2007 to 2012, Gonzalez was the Director of Diversity & Community Outreach and Interim SupplierDiversity Director at Cleveland Clinic Health System.

Gonzalez began his career as an alcohol and drug prevention specialist and was promoted to Executive Director of the community-based Hispanic Urban Minority Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Outreach Program (UMADAOP) in Cleveland. He also served as Executive Director of El Barrio, a workforce development agency in Cleveland.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s degree in education (M.Ed.) with a concentration on community agency counseling, both from Cleveland State University. He also completed the certification program at Cornell University’s Industrial and Labor Relations Department and earned a Cornell Certified Diversity Practitioner/Advanced Practitioner (CCDP/AP) certificationHe is a member of the faculty at Elevate, an education andcareer-development partnership with University of California-San Diego Rady School of Management.

Gonzalez is a graduate of Cleveland Public Schools, is a German Marshall Fund Fellowand a graduate of: Esperanza (Cleveland); Cleveland Bridge Builder’s Flagship Program; Leadership Cleveland; and Next Generation Executive Leadership Program (The Partnership Inc., Boston).

Gonzalez serves on the national boards of American Heart/Stroke Association’s Diversity Leadership Committee and Health Equity TaskforceAmerican Leadership Council for Diversity in Healthcare (ALCDH), American Hospital Association Institute for Diversity and Health Equity’s Equity of Care Committee, CDO PowerCircle, Institute for Corporate Productivity’s CDO Board and National Hispanic Corporate Council’s Latino DEI Collective.

He is a member of the National Association of Latino Healthcare Executives (NALHE). He also serves on the following local boards: Employ MilwaukeeHispanic Collaborative; La Causa, Inc.; Milwaukee Repertory TheaterNational Association of Latino Healthcare Executives Wisconsin Chapter; Nativity Jesuit AcademySixteenth Street Community Health Centers; YMCA Metro Milwaukee and Waukesha County Land Conservancy.

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Robert (Bob) Hartl
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Robert (Bob) Hartl

Robert (Bob) Hartl, Associate Professor of Management, is Director of the MBA in Leadership & Change at the College of St. Scholastica (CSS), an avant-garde graduate management program based on organization development principles. He is recipient of the Max H. Lavine Award for Teaching Excellence, the highest academic recognition given by CSS. In 2019, Bob was a seminar leader on the principles of organization development at the internationally-known Cape Cod Institute, in Eastham, MA.

Bob began his career in municipal government where he rose through the ranks to become the Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Duluth. He then moved into the health care industry, serving as Vice President of Human Resources & Organization Development for the St. Mary’s/Duluth Clinic Health System (now Essentia Health System). He became Chair of the Management Department at St. Scholastica in 2001.

Bob began his organization development (OD) consulting practice in 1987. When not teaching, he is CEO and Senior Partner at Hartl Pearson Consulting, LLC. He works in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors, frequently with health care organizations, government agencies, and in higher education.

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Tomica Holmes
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Tomica Holmes

After spending several years as an Emergency Room Charge Nurse and a Pediatric Nurse, she advanced her clinical expertise thorough local and national travel nursing assignments. Her career highlights include receiving nominations for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Nursing Excellence Award and the March of Dimes Nurse of the Year Award, to name a few. She holds a number of professional certifications in Healthcare Compliance, Nursing Informatics (board certified), and Healthcare Information Security and Privacy. She is currently Director of Compliance and co-chair of the Diversity & Inclusion council at a large healthcare system in Atlanta.

Tomica jumpstarted her career in 1998 as a Registered Professional Nurse and graduate of Georgia Baptist College of Nursing at Mercer University in Atlanta, Georgia. Her natural skills for leadership emerged during college, where she led the Cultural Diversity Student Organization and served as Chief Newsletter Editor. Her educational achievements were honored with an induction into the Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society and with the Davidson-Mckie-Newton Award for Nursing Excellence. Tomica’s service extends beyond her profession and into her community. She has served as a Fulton County Court Appointed Special Advocate on behalf of children in custody of the Department of Family and Children Services, a Board Member of the Case Management Society of America’s Atlanta Chapter and a volunteer at Hillside Chapel and Truth Center. She has travelled internationally alongside Ambassador Andrew Young to South Africa to bridge healthcare and economic relationships, and with the late Bishop Dr. Barbara Lewis King to her village in Ghana to furnish schools with books, supplies, and computers. She is also charter member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. – Alpha Alpha Phi Omega chapter.

Tomica lives in Atlanta, where she enjoys running, traveling, listening to music, and reading.

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Elaine Martin
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Elaine Martin

Elaine Martin joined the Countway Library as the Director and Chief Administrative Officer in 2016. Under her direction she oversees and manages a complex organization with one of the largest collections of both current medical research materials and historical and rare collections in the world, holding more than 630,000 volumes. The Countway Library serves both academic and practicing physicians at Harvard Medical School, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and the Massachusetts Medical Society.

At Countway, Elaine is responsible for providing leadership in strategic planning, development and the promotion of library resources and services. Under her leadership, the Countway Library just concluded an 18 million dollar building renovation, that brought the Countway Library into the 21st century. For the first time in Countway’s history, the library welcomes the surrounding community into new collaborative spaces and provides access to extensive health information resources.

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Deborah L. Plummer
Ex-Officio
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Deborah L. Plummer

Ex-Officio

Deborah L. Plummer, PhD is Founder/Executive Director of Getting to We, Inc., a non-profit that develops and promotes charitable initiatives and educational projects that turn us and them into we, especially in high conflict, emotionally charged social issues such as racism, sexism, and heterosexism. As a psychologist, university professor, and author, she speaks on topics central to racial equity, inclusion, and mutual respect. An international leader in the field of diversity and inclusion, she brings her deeply humanist and Gestalt-trained skills to workshop participants and readers to examine themselves as social beings in relation to our programmed fear of “otherness.” Her work and writings introduce a relational model for managing differences that support the development of the competencies necessary to live authentically out of one’s core identity as a human being and master the challenges of diversity dynamics.

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Kathleen Q. Powers
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Kathleen Q. Powers

Kathleen Quinn Powers currently serves as the Vice President, Academic Strategy for the Beth Israel Lahey Health System and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

Over the course of her career, Kathleen has served in various executive level positions for not for profit organizations including hospitals, health systems, universities, and a membership advocacy organization.

Prior to joining BILH, Kathleen was the Executive Vice President for Administration and Finance at the NVNA and Hospice where she oversaw patient accounts/accounts receivable, accounting, accounts payable, payroll, information technology, clinical applications, and patient access in addition to leading the strategic planning and strategy deployment efforts at the Agency. Kathleen joined the Agency in 2018 as Vice President, Strategic Partnerships and Integration.

From 2011- 2017, Kathleen was the Vice President, Physician and Network Development at South Shore Hospital/Health System. Kathleen worked closely with senior administrative and medical staff leadership on program development with clinical affiliates including Boston Children’s Hospital, Brigham Health, and Dana Farber Cancer Institute with the goal of expanding local access to academic level health care.

Kathleen has held leadership positions with the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, University of Massachusetts Boston, Caritas Christi Health Care System (now Steward Health Care), The Catholic Health Association of the United States, and St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center of Boston.

Kathleen Powers is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and earned her MBA from the Questrom School of Business at Boston University.

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Evan Richard
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Evan Richard

Mr. Evan Richard is a strategic thinker, currently working for Blank Rome LLP, an AmLaw 100 firm located in 15 US markets and Shanghai, to operationalize the firm’s DEI initiative. Through cross collaboration with the firm’s affinity group network, recruiting team, HR team, professional development, marketing, events, business development, C-suite leadership and firm management Evan’s team is able to provide insights on organizational development that aligns with the firm’s values and meet client needs.

EID Consulting: Independent Consultant, Gilmour Academy, a co-ed K-12 Preparatory School, Bunker Hill Community College, largest community college in Massachusetts, with more than 16,000 students enrolled annually, Woodside Energy, a global energy company, and the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business, a world class business school with programs ranked in the top 10 nationally.

Association of Legal Diversity Professionals: member of the 1-3 year DEI professionals planning committee and panelist on 2023 Common DEI Practices, Programs, and Policies for 1-3 Year DEI Professionals.

Civic Roles: member of both the Epsilon Lambda and the Houston Alumni chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated, general member of the Houston Rodeo and Livestock Black Heritage Committee.

Evan has been engaged in the DEI space since 2014 and believes that the combination of learning and development opportunities to increase organizational and individual knowledge of DEI combined with economic advancing opportunities through business development creates a path forward for organizations to create sustainable, equitable, and inclusive DEI initiatives.

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Donna Skurzak
Chair
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Donna Skurzak

Chair

Donna is a Director of Diversity and Inclusion at Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio. Donna joined Cleveland Clinic in 2007 providing consultation, coaching, strategic input for the D,E, I business case, health equity in the workforce and at the bedside. She has held senior leadership roles across the healthcare continuum as a practitioner, administrator and executive director in hospital, home care/hospice, private practice and consulting roles. Donna drives strategic initiatives to impact effective culture change.

Her expertise includes systems thinking and strategic visioning, organizational effectiveness, end of life care, healthcare disparities, bioethics, cultural and emotional intelligence. She is a D.E.I practitioner, and licensed provider of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). She has been actively working with the impact of unconscious bias in the workforce and at the bedside, conducted research in workplace inclusion and is developing application of cultural intelligence in a global organization. She pursues the best patient care and employee relations to achieve positive outcomes in patient and employee experience at Cleveland Clinic.

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Lorraine Shoto
Treasurer
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Lorraine Shoto

Treasurer

Lorraine Shoto is an attorney who lives in Chicago, Illinois and works for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, focusing her practice on regulatory law, enforcement litigation and troubled asset workouts. She has 23 years of legal experience and has dedicated her career to public service. She was previously an Assistant State’s Attorney with the Cook County, Illinois State’s Attorney’s Office; counsel with the Chicago Transit Authority; and bar counsel with the Illinois Supreme Court Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission. Lorraine earned her Juris Doctor degree from The Ohio State University. She serves as a pro bono attorney with Chicago Volunteer Legal Services, is an active member of St. Katharine Drexel Catholic Church, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and a long-time member of the Chicago International Film Festival’s Black Perspectives Committee. Lorraine enjoys opera, theater and art. She is an avid traveler who is always looking for her next adventure.

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Teri Trautwein
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Teri Trautwein

A born and raised Wyomingite, Teri attended Sheridan College and University of Nevada Las Vegas where she was a team captain in both basketball and track & field. After graduation, Teri decided to spend three months on a backpacking trip across Europe and completely fell in love with travel.

After her time abroad, Teri spent eight years in Las Vegas working for Cintas Corporation in a variety of sales and leadership roles. She moved to Boston in May of 2013 as a VP of Retail Operations to help lead Citizens Bank through a two-year project preparing the organization for IPO. Teri ran national sales strategy at Brightview Landscaping before landing the job of her dreams at EF Educational Tours where she is a Senior Director of Sales overseeing the Eastern United States—blending two of her loves—people development and travel!

Philanthropy and community involvement have always played important roles in Teri’s life. During her time in Las Vegas, Teri was a Founding Board Member for Dress for Success Southern Nevada. During her four years with DFSSN, Teri was responsible for creating on-job training seminars as well as establishing a professional women’s group for the clients at Dress for Success. Teri also partnered with other board members to create a sustainable giving campaign for the organization that is still being used today. When Teri moved to Boston, she joined United Way’s Executive Women’s Leadership Council and served for 9 years, stepping down this past spring. During her time at with United Way, Teri helped found WINGS (Women Investing in the Next Generation)—a mentorship and giving campaign to start philanthropic giving among young professionals to lead them to the “Women United” giving level of $1000 or more a year. Teri also developed a United Way Ambassador Program helping companies use their development dollars to gift United Way as their staff gained leadership and philanthropic development.

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Katerina Uribe
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Katerina Uribe

 is a supply chain leader consulting organizations on strategic purchasing, contracting practices, creatively exploring procurement and supply chain operations to transform organizations achieving the best total cost and streamlining operations. Katerina’s experience covers a broad spectrum of functions including strategic planning, project management, operations, supply & trading, business development across energy sectors of the economy.

Prior to consultancy, Katerina was a senior director of supply chain & procurement at Golden Pass LNG, joint venture of Qatar Energy and Exxon Mobil, focused on growing the supply chain function and orchestrating all procurement, warehousing, contracting and material management activities. She has over 20 years of hands-on international business expertise working at Chevron, ABB, international oil & gas major capital projects in APAC, Russia, and the United States.

Katerina is a diversity and inclusion champion, passionate about coaching, mentoring, and developing talents, has deep appreciation of cultures and is recognized for her lasting contributions to the advancement of organizations.

Katerina is a mother of two children and one grandchild. For leisure, Katerina likes tennis, horse-riding, and time with her family.

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About Bridging & Bonding Conversations

We believe that gender solidarity is key to addressing the inclusion and equity challenges of our time and that many of you share our widely ambitious goal of eradicating racism and gender inequities. Bridging and Bonding Conversations are strategic dialogue sessions designed to heighten awareness about racial equity issues that matter while strengthening gender solidarity. They are powerful conversations where women engage in candid discussions about race, trust, accountability, and action. They reveal the complexities of building trust and understanding across racial lines, as well as the shared responsibility to dismantle systemic racism and gender inequality.

Interested in having a Bridging & Bonding Conversation facilitated in your organization or community? Contact info@gettingtowe.org

Resources

Resources

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In My World Exercise

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Telling Your Racial Identity Story

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Isms Matrix

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Isms Matrix Completed for Racism

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Community Experience Exercise

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Community Experience Exercise Facilitator’s Guide

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Diversity Petal Diagram

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Diversity Petal Exercise Facilitator’s Guide

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Social Trust Exercises

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Getting To We in the Political Space

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Women Supporting Women in Democracy Organizations

Thought Leadership Papers

Online Assesment Tools

Online Assessment Tools

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What’s Your Antiracist Style?

There’s more to being an antiracist than aligning yourself with its value and endorsing its principles. Take this antiracist self-assessment tool to determine how effectively you work to dismantle racism in systems and within yourself.

Antiracist Style Indicator (ASI)

Take The ASI
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What’s Your Racial Identity Status?

Living in an increasingly multiracial society, achieving healthy racial identity resolution and understanding ourselves as racial beings is complex. The RISSA supports you to understand your racial identity resolution process and how it is manifested in your personal and professional lives.

Racial Identity Status Self-Assessment (RISSA)

Take The RISSA
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DIBS (Diversity Inclusion Belonging Survey)

An assessment tool designed especially for arts organizations, firms, agencies, non-profits, small businesses and corporations that captures data on member engagement and their sense of belonging, the inclusive characteristics of the organizational culture, and the degree to which diverse groups experience inclusion.

 

Learn More

Contact Us

Let’s Talk

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Testimonial

What Our Participants Are Saying

In our Impact Evaluation, 100% of participants reported they would recommend this conference! (no rounding up necessary!)

Learning for a Lifetime

“This was a learning for a lifetime. This experience gave me a lot to think about and much to do moving forward.”

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One of the Best Conferences

“Truly one of the best conference–regardless of topics, that I have attended. Each of the sessions was equally informative and entertaining. 
Each of the sessions left a lasting impact.”

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Truly an Amazing Experience

“It was truly an Amazing experience! That word is the best way to describe this conference. I have never experienced anything like it.”

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Learning for a Lifetime

“This was a learning for a lifetime. This experience gave me a lot to think about and much to do moving forward.”

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One of the Best Conferences

“Truly one of the best conference–regardless of topics, that I have attended. Each of the sessions was equally informative and entertaining. 
Each of the sessions left a lasting impact.”

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Truly an Amazing Experience

“It was truly an Amazing experience! That word is the best way to describe this conference. I have never experienced anything like it.”

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