My journey to creating Resilient Resource Groups started about 15 years ago. My awareness of the ways in which White supremacy and other systems of oppression permeate all areas of life was beginning to grow. During that time, I also worked closely with an organizational psychologist who expanded my view of the kind of work I could do in the world. Under their mentorship, I grew interested in shaping workplaces into places where other people from communities pushed to the margins could be treated equitably and feel safe at work.
I started off as an academic researcher. Trained by social psychologists and management scholars, I researched the impact of people’s preferences for hierarchical systems of power on racial discrimination in hiring. While I loved the intellectual stimulation and rigor of the research process, I found myself itching to have a more direct impact on how those research insights were applied.
After receiving my PhD in Management and Organizations at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, I decided to make the leap from research to application. I joined DEI consulting firm, Paradigm, where I led hundreds of workshops on workplace bias and inclusive leadership for organizations across industries, from Everlane and Snapchat to Yale University and New York Times. Later, wanting to stretch myself in designing thoughtful trainings on these topics, I joined Praxis Labs - a startup focused on creating immersive learning experiences for employees. I designed, from scratch, the research-backed curriculum for their 6-month immersive learning journey, Pivotal Experiences. It focused on providing employees with the skills to identity, empathize with, and respond to injustices in the workplace. Thousands of employees from organizations like Uber and Etsy have completed this learning journey, and many have shared how it has helped them.
While I enjoy witnessing people shift in their understanding of systemic oppression and bias in the workplace, I began to question how well I was still aligned with my goal of shaping workplaces with people from the margins in mind. I remember the moment a Black woman employee asked me, “when is there going to be something for us?” The work I was doing was focused on educating a broad cross-section of employees on the ways oppression operates and how they can do their part to create meaningful change. While that is important work, it wasn’t centering the needs of impacted communities. That was the missing piece. Centering the needs and desires of employees from communities that have been historically pushed to the margins is also important work. I believe that employee resource and affinity groups can be powerful spaces to pour into these communities. And I am committed to doing what I can to elevate them to places of true community, refuge, and inspired action.
