Join us each week for deep, real conversations about how we can all lead the change in our workplaces and communities. In intimate conversations with advocates, activists, and allies, host Melinda Briana Epler provides a safe space to learn, build empathy for each other, and understand tangible actions we can all take to create diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces. To apply to be a guest on the Leading With Empathy & Allyship Show, complete this form.
Stay tuned for more in 2023!
How To Empower Agents Of Change
Natalia Villalobos, VP of Inclusion at The New York Times
“If we can create a learning environment that is a place of curiosity, then there isn’t necessarily a wrong or right; it’s just we’re figuring it out…. That’s a really important place to be in and a place to foster with people so that the fear can drop and action can move forward…. It’s a place of saying, ‘I may not get it right, but I’ll try again….’ If we always stay paralyzed in the face of fear…, our leadership roles may fall flat in terms of what they could really accomplish.”
Reinventing Leadership As An Intersectional Ally
Nina Simons, Co-Founder & Chief Relationship Strategist at Bioneers
“What I found, as I started convening women in the early 2000s, was that there was a quality of connection and ability to see ourselves reflected in each other. When it was a group of only women— but of very diverse women, not only diverse ethnically, but by age…, sexual orientation…, work area…, that I began having experiences that informed me… how powerfully women have the capacity to grow each other’s leadership when we are in intentional allyship.”
Bridging The Generational Divide
Dima Ghawi, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Influencer at Dima Ghawi, LLC
“Talk with each other, be curious about other generations; don’t assume things about other generations and generalize…. It’s a matter of us really being curious about each other, asking questions, learning about each other, and adapting…. It is knowing who we are, knowing who other people are, and adapting to get the best out of them.”
Fostering Inclusive Conversations At Work
David Glasgow, Executive Director of New York University Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging
“Avoidance is where you run away from conversations or stay silent; deflect is where… you change the subject; deny is where you just reflexively shut people down…; then attack is where you really make it personal, so you use insults, sarcasm, eye-rolling…. A real starting point for people is to just do an honest self-examination or self-inventory about, ‘When I have these uncomfortable conversations about identity in my life, what forms of behavior might I be engaging in that are not really the most productive…?’”
Black History: Past, Present, & Future
Daisy Ozim, Founder of DaisyOzim.co
Dr. Angel Acosta, Principal Consultant at Acosta Consulting
Ashantè Fray, Founder and CEO of Synchronized Souls Inc.
“Listen to learn…. As we’re doing the work, and you are listening to the stories of folks of color, you have to understand that those experiences, really processing that pain and that suffering, is what actually causes the transformation necessary to release some of that bias and those thought patterns; it’s a death and rebirth process, having to shed those old thought patterns and those behaviors and step into something new.”
Closing The Gender Wage Gap
Claudia Miller, Career Coach at Claudia T. Miller, LLC
“Ask your manager, by when do they typically have to send a nomination for promotions and salary increases?… You cannot wait till your performance review to tell your manager how great of a job you did; sometimes we need to move that conversation upward…. Even understanding…, ‘what are some of the qualifications or the guidelines or policies in order for someone to receive a promotion?’”
Building Global Inclusion Through Community
Gabriela de Queiroz, Principal Cloud Advocate Manager at Microsoft
“You don’t have to be very knowledgeable about something to give back. Anything matters; you have more to give back than you think…. Just by sharing your experience, your background, that’s enough to give back or to share with someone else…. It’s not like you are only giving back, you are receiving…. We think that it’s very tiring and exhausting…, but it’s so little that you can give that makes a huge impact on someone’s life.”
Driving LGBTQIA+ Workplace Equity & Inclusion
Nick Alm, Founder and Godx of Mossier
“We need to start to recognize that LGBTQ people are not a monolith…. We have a bisexual community that is still completely invisible to most companies, even though they represent 40-something percent of the total LGBTQ pie…. Intersectionality, nonbinary thinking, capacity-building, giving people the skills and strategies to think critically through these issues… that’s the future for LGBTQ inclusion.”
Redefining Professionalism
Pabel Martinez, Founder and CEO of Plurawl
“Because of that pressure [to succeed], a lot of us are comfortable giving up parts of ourselves in order to get to that point of success…. But what I want people to realize is that you’re not going to do your best work until you stop faking it. But we don’t realize that; we just keep telling ourselves, ‘No, we have to do that.’ Because it’s that cycle of ‘All right, nobody looks like me? Assimilate. Then I get tired, then I realize it’s a waste of time.’”
Paving A Pathway To Success For Underestimated Leaders
Donald Thompson, CEO & Co-Founder of The Diversity Movement
“Create your brand and your narrative as somebody whose work ethic is second to none; that doesn’t mean [working] 70–80 hours a week, it just means when you’re working, you’re putting in highly effective and productive time. The second thing… is, don’t be afraid to be bad at something while you’re learning…. The third thing… is really understanding the power of your personal network as you grow in business.”
Everyone’s Role In Creating Accessible Communities
Sunday Parker, Access Technology Program Manager at Microsoft
“Volunteering with a local organization is a good place to start… If you have people with disabilities in your life, finding out… ways you can support them; sometimes that’s just about listening, and other times it could be just finding out what type of different support that they need and seeing what ways that can happen, and also supporting the initiatives that are happening within your local community that are tied to accessibility.”
Understanding The Changing Landscape Of DEI Work
Dax-Devlon Ross, Founder & Principal of Dax-Dev & Third Settlements
“We have to be aware and mindful that as humans living in a hyper-competitive society in which people are often commodified, we can be vulnerable to someone having the same risks in the DEI space…. We are… always exposed to the various harms and toxins that are affecting the society at large, so it stands to reason that they could be affecting our relationships even within our… DEI communities.”
Interrupting Microaggressions For LGBTQIA+ Colleagues
Melinda Briana Epler, Founder & CEO of Change Catalyst
“When we center our own experience…, we start to create an ingroup around that, and we start to define what is normal around that. And anybody who doesn’t fit within that idea of normal is an outgroup, is excluded…. As a result, we can make assumptions about people, like…, their pronouns…, sexual orientation…, their experiences with marginalization. So it’s really important to decenter our experience.”
Ways To Address Interpersonal Conflict At Work
Lisa Gelobter, CEO of tEQuitable
“[For] people who don’t feel like they’re being treated fairly, 80% of them spend significant time basically ruminating on the bad behavior and 48% of them deliberately reduce their efforts. And the problem is it also snowballs; it doesn’t just stop with them; it actually starts to bleed into interactions with coworkers and, potentially, even customers.”
Finding Your Power To Create Systemic Change
Lily Zheng, Consultant at Zheng Consulting
“When I help people understand how to use power as an individual, I have to help them understand that it’s not just about getting [promoted] to manager and then finally you can do something…. There’s an infinite number of things you can do to build, to gain, to use power, to make change as an individual.”
How To Be An Ally For Muslim Colleagues
Rahimeh Ramezany, DEI Practitioner & Founder of Rahimeh Ramezany Consulting
“If you are engaging with a Muslim who also has an immigrant background within one or two generations, they will likely have an immigrant mentality where… [they] might not express to you what their actual needs are…. If you want to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion, you have to have this sense of psychological safety genuinely.”
How To Be An Ally In A Startup
Melinda Briana Epler, Founder & CEO of Change Catalyst
Paula Quintana, Senior Analyst at High Alpha Innovation
“[When] you want a diverse team…, you have to actually work on it: ‘What is my hiring process? How are we unintentionally leaving out underrepresented candidates?…’ If you’re working on equity, look at your compensation equity. Make sure that everybody is equitably receiving compensation, whether that’s pay…, equity, or… promotion; how are you developing a promotion process… that is not going to perpetuate inequity?”
Transforming Our Workplaces Through Emotional Justice
Esther A. Armah, CEO of The Armah Institute of Emotional Justice
“Emotional Justice is saying that we all have emotional work to do in order [to have] a healing that is actually about a full humanity…. The point with Emotional Justice though is that our work is not the same…. Part of my work is saying that you cannot universalize healing when it comes to issues of race; you have to identify who has what work to do and specifically break down what that work is.”
Mindfulness-Based Support For Allyship & Empathy
Rhonda V. Magee, Professor at University of San Francisco
“Mindfulness can help us notice those places in the body where we’re carrying the woundedness that can result from inequity, lack of inclusion, and bias around us…. Mindfulness can be a readily available personal support system, an early warning system…, because as we become aware of the ways we’re carrying this pain, it can help us disrupt that; get the help we need; give ourselves the help and heed off some of the health consequences.”
Creating True Disability Inclusion In The Workplace
Catarina Rivera, Public Speaker, DEI Consultant, Content Creator
John Marble, Founder of Pivot Neurodiversity
“The biggest accommodation, in my view, is mindset. It’s really trying to understand the other person first before you’re understood yourself…. Create that environment where people feel comfortable asking for things and where you proactively make things available.”
Building Psychological Safety And Trust On Teams
Amy Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School
“Psychological safety is not the same thing as a safe space…. A safe space often means a space that is trigger-free, maybe even challenge-free. And oddly, I conceptualize psychological safety as actually a very challenging place… These psychologically safe teams aren’t comfortable, they are energizing…. They are there to get work done well and also, hopefully, to help you learn and grow.”
How To Create Disability Inclusion, Accessibility, & Equity Through Policy
Dr. Victor Pineda, President & Founder of The Victor Pineda Foundation / World ENABLED
“Proactively ask who’s not sitting at the table. The disability community is not one monolithic community, it’s really a tapestry of a lot of different communities that understand that there are barriers…. Those experts should be rewarded and paid for their time.”
Creating A Culture Of Belonging For Latina Colleagues
Gabriela Chavez-Lopez, Executive Director of the Latina Coalition Of Silicon Valley
Maica Gil, Founder of Heroikka
“Get to know our community and stay curious because we have it just on a humanity level, we have a lot in common with our colleagues…. We have families. We have the same demands in the workplace as anyone else. We have challenges. And so, I think really trying to find those connections and those things that we have in common with one another is really a great place to start.”
Inclusive Leadership In A Distributed Workforce
Dr. Nika White, President & CEO of Nika White Consulting
“[Building cultural humility] first starts with individuals accepting ownership…. Part of owning the impact as someone that really cares about inclusive spaces and environments, it requires us to deepen our reach, to make sure we’re doing what we can at the personal level to learn about other cultures to build those solid relationships”
How Exclusion & Epigenetics Shape Our Sense Of Belonging
Rajkumari Neogy, Executive Coach at ibelong
“Language is the most powerful tool that we have at our disposal in which we can leverage rewiring ourselves and others. Every single conversation, we are rewiring someone. And in every single thought that we have, we’re rewiring ourselves…. Learning to speak a new language of kindness, of care, of empathy, will rewire brains, minds, hearts, and the nervous system.”
Leading Global Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
Dr. Rohini Anand, Founder and CEO of Rohini Anand LLC
“We often approach the [DEI] work with our own limiting worldviews…. We come with this set of experiences that’s very antithetical to the outcome that we’re seeking.”
Addressing Disability & Intersectionality Across Global Teams
Eleanor Lisney, Co-founder & Director at Culture Access CIC
Eddie Ndopu, Activist, Humanitarian, & SDG Advocate at United Nations
“We do ourselves a great disservice by failing to recognize that it is in all of our interests to have leaders emerge from marginalized communities… It’s really about seeing, really recognizing, and validating the contributions, the excellence, the brilliance, the insights, and the beauty of marginalized communities…. It’s not just the question of feeling somebody else’s plight, or recognizing somebody else’s plight, but also being able to recognize the full humanity that people have.”
The Impact Of Surveillance Tech On Marginalized Populations
Lydia X. Z. Brown, Policy Counsel, Privacy & Data Project at Center for Democracy & Technology
“Take some time to look up what kinds of apps and software programs you personally use and your company is using. What kinds of information are they collecting, and how can that information be used to passively or actively discriminate against, or harm, vulnerable or marginalized people?”
How Empathic & Highly Sensitive People Can Thrive In The Workplace
Matt Landsiedel, Life & Spiritual Coach at Inspired to Be Authentic
“When you’re highly sensitive, it means that you score high on a temperamental personality trait called Sensory Processing Sensitivity. And basically, what this means is that we have a different structured nervous system than non-sensitive people. Our nervous systems are… more perceptive, they’re highly attuned to ourselves in our environment. So, we’re really able to notice what’s going on in our own experience at a very deep level. And we’re also able to notice what’s going on in other people’s experiences on a deep level.”
How Venture Capital Impacts Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion In Tech
Katelin Holloway, Founding Partner at Seven Seven Six
“If we can change the face of the investors— if we can help bring more perspective to that check-writing position— that will then influence that founder representation, which will then influence the employee pool and that talent development…, which will then in turn impact the people who are actually using these products… Our products will be more inclusive. They will help more people live better lives and make our world a better place.”
Creating Psychologically Safe Workplaces For LGBTQIA+ Folks
Rajkumari Neogy, Executive Coach at ibelong
Valentina Jaramillo, Coach and Co-founder of Rise In Love Coaching
David Ciocca, Learning & Development Partner, Inclusion Programs at Blend
“I remember a particular time here when I moved to the US, in my previous company, and I was advocating for gender-neutral bathrooms…. I was in the middle of a meeting with, like, 20 people who didn’t understand, who thought it was kind of a waste of their time to even be talking about it. And there was a leader who immediately stepped in… to the conversation and kind of cleared what I was trying to say. He gave some other examples… It was like, ‘Hey, you’re not alone. I get you. Let’s make this happen together.’ So I thought that was just incredible.”
How To Be An Ally: Key Learnings
Melinda Briana Epler, Founder & CEO of Change Catalyst
“Allyship is not charity; allyship is being a good human. Allyship helps correct and repair centuries of people not being treated equally, create equal access and opportunity, build better companies, and establish healthier, happier workplaces and communities.”
Finding Freedom Through Vulnerability
Kudakwashe Mushaike, Founder of Below The Surface
“In the journey of reconstructing who you think and who you believe you are, and how you end up showing up to other people— it’s a journey of vulnerability. Vulnerability, now defining it, is showing up in a way where you’re opening up about who you truly are and taking that risk. It really is taking on that risk.”
Racial, Ethnic, & Gender Equity In The Global Workplace
Julia Taylor Kennedy, Executive Vice President of Coqual
“How do employers start to understand who’s marginalized in a market?… The first step is you have to understand your own limitations when it comes to your own lens: what do you understand to mean race and ethnicity? What do you understand about gender? And be ready to question that when you look at a new market.”
The Power Of Empathy & Shame In Creating Sustainable Change
Karla McLaren, CEO of Emotion Dynamics
“Understand that empathy is not a trait; it is an interaction. Learn how to ask questions in a way that shows your sincere and innocent interest in the life of another…, to not assume, but to ask. If anything confuses you, ask.”
The Radical Act Of Choosing Common Ground To Create Change
Nisha Anand, CEO of Dream Corps
“We have to meet people where they’re at in order to make change happen. Until we can show that love, being together, and belonging are more enticing than the fear, division, and hate, it’s going to be an uphill battle… That being said, I think we have to be willing to have those hard conversations.”
How To Hurry History: Moving DEI Forward Faster
Laura Liswood, Secretary General of Council of Women World Leaders
“Understanding exactly what’s going on within your organization… will get more to the basic concept of the elephant and the mouse, which is understanding that dominant groups don’t know much about non-dominant groups, but non-dominant groups know an enormous amount about dominant groups.”
How To Interrupt Subtle Acts Of Exclusion
Doc Jana, CEO and Founder of Doc Jana LLC and TMI Consulting Inc
“If someone is brave enough to… make you aware of yourself, that means they believe in you… They believe that you are better and capable of more than your current behavior may have exhibited.”
Recognizing The Impact Of Current Events On Our Work Lives
LaTricia Frederick, Director of People and Communities at Cisco Systems, Inc.
Jared Seide, Executive Director at Center for Council
“We all have to first acknowledge that there is injustice in the world and that there is pain that many people are experiencing from various vantage points. Sometimes, we may be… not aware of other people’s pain or where they may feel that the world isn’t quite fair to them. And just listen; sometimes we just have to pause and be open to hearing or seeing someone else’s perspective.”
Understanding & Supporting Intersectional Identities In The Workplace
Christina Swindlehurst Chan, Marketing Communications Coordinator & Podcast Co-Producer at Change Catalyst
Renzo Santos, Co-Producer of Leading With Empathy & Allyship at Change Catalyst
“I feel like a lot of these facets or dimensions of our identities actually do complement each other, not just helping ourselves, but also empathizing with others, and understanding perspectives and experiences that we might not necessarily have the opportunity to experience ourselves.”
The Future Of Work For The Rest Of Us
Sherrell Dorsey, Founder & CEO at The Plug | Author of Upper Hand: The Future Of Work For The Rest Of Us
“You just never stop learning. You keep creating strong networks. You constantly continue to subscribe to the kinds of information and publications that will support you, you attend the conferences if you can afford them… I think [the] more important [thing] is to not be intimidated, to know that you can find your place…”
Centering Empathy & Allyship In Support Of Others As We Grieve
Dr. Komal Bhasin, Senior DEI Consultant & Mental Health Expert-in-Residence at bhasin consulting inc. and Founder at Insayva Inc.
“My personal view is that empathy is all about using our human and divine attributes that we all possess to show up in deeper resonance with another being in order to live more fully, to connect more fully, to be more alive, to feel more whole, and to be healing and loving.”
Developing An Inclusion Mindset With A Lens Of Intersectionality
Ruchika Tulshyan, Speaker at Candour LLC
“Inclusion doesn’t just happen when you leave it to chance. It really takes intention. It takes being purposeful, meaningful, and knowing that it’s not just going to happen if you’re left to your own devices.”
Psychological Safety & The Neuroscience Of Trust
Dr. Vivienne Ming, Founder & CEO of Socos Labs
“Incentives, team structure, and engagement – These are the three things we saw consistently increased trust throughout organizations for everyone.”
There Are Seats For Everyone – Finding, Feeling, & Forging Our Power Together
Deepa Purushothaman, Author of The First, the Few, the Only: How Women of Color Can Redefine Power in Corporate America
“Who told us there’s one seat? If there are 12 seats, why is there only one designated for a woman, or half of one designated to a woman of color? Where did that come from?”
The Power Of Neurodiversity In The Workplace
Tim Goldstein, Neurodiverse Communication Specialist
“The concept of neurodiversity is: brains vary between people just like every part of our body varies between people. If your brain is shaped, wired, connected differently, you’re going to perceive, process, and think differently. And we accept that all those different ways of perceiving, processing, and thinking are valid ways of human thinking.”
How To Talk To Your Boss About Race
Y-Vonne Hutchinson, CEO & Founder at ReadySet, Author of How To Talk To Your Boss About Race
“Before you have a conversation with anybody else, think about your social identities, your race, your gender, your age, your ability, your physical disability status. Think about your sexuality, your socioeconomic and class status—all those things and how they impact how you may show up in the room. What you see, but much more importantly, what you don’t see, and what struggles you center…”
Strategies For Supporting Black Leadership In The Workplace
Tonita Webb, CEO at Verity Credit Union
William A. Adams, Technical Advisor at Microsoft, Technologist
“It has to be a culture and a place where people feel like they belong. Many BIPOC people in general, but specifically for Black people, we have been taught to assimilate. So when we walk in the door, we’re not even ourselves from the start.”
How To Heal From Racial Trauma In The Workplace
Minda Harts, Speaker & Author at The Memo LLC
“The first step to healing is acknowledging that we have been harmed.”
Redefining Normal In The Remote/Hybrid Workplace
Lekisha Middleton, Founder of The Good Success Network
Catie Harriss, HR Business Partner Director at Intuit
“It’s going forward to a world that’s really invested into making connections, really invested in innovation and inclusivity, and we have so many more opportunities to hire in different locations that will increase that diversity in all dimensions.”
How Managers Can Practice Allyship & Active Inclusion
Scott Hanselman, Microsoft
“Luck is a construct, luck is opportunity plus being prepared.”
How To Build Allies In Your Workplace
Melinda Briana Epler, Founder & CEO of Change Catalyst
“Just 3% of people are active Deniers. Those are people who are actively opposed to allyship once they learn about the concept. There are certainly more passive Deniers, people who aren’t yet aware, but once they learn, it’s just 3% of people that are actively opposed. They might be really loud in voicing their views and sometimes really toxic too, but they aren’t a large percentage of our workplace population.”
Allyship: Where Do I Start? And Other FAQs
Melinda Briana Epler, Founder & CEO of Change Catalyst
“An apology is worth nothing if you can’t share and show how you’ve understood your mistake and you’re making corrections, because that is the most important part—how are you taking action to correct? If you’re a leader or a manager and you made a mistake publicly, first apologize to that person privately. And then, I would encourage you to also share that you made a mistake publicly and how you’re taking corrective action…. In this way, you’re acknowledging the harm, making it clear that it wasn’t ok, and you’re being a model for your team to learn and correct themselves.”
Blazing Your Own Trail
Rebekah Bastian, CEO & Co-Founder of OwnTrail
Kt McBratney, Co-Founder & Chief Brand Officer of OwnTrail
“Sometimes being an ally to yourself is empathy for your own journey. It’s not always just empathy for someone else’s journey but it’s understanding, owning, and empathizing with your own journey, and helping yourself. Sometimes helping yourself looks like asking for help from others because it can be scary to ask for help, it can take work to ask for help. Sometimes just asking for help is an act of allyship to yourself.”
Moving Beyond Diversity
Rohit Bhargava, Founder of Non-Obvious Company
Jennifer Brown, Founder & CEO of Jennifer Brown Consulting
“I love this word, ‘beyond’, because really what it says to me is that we’re thinking about what’s next. And Beyond Diversity was specifically a book about going beyond the conversation… and to talk about real action. And not just real action for society or civilization but real action for you, for me, for us. What can each of us do to create a more inclusive world, and then how can we collectively impact the organizations that we’re part of whether it’s where we work or the clubs and groups that we are part of to enable that to happen for them as well.”
How Pandemic Trauma Is Showing Up At Work
Sara Wachter-Boettcher, Founder of Active Voice
“When people feel really powerless and go through traumatic experiences, like a pandemic, that breaks your idea of how the world works. It is very natural and normal to look for things that you can control… For a lot of leaders, I found that it’s really helpful to look at what their relationship is to control right now.”
Embracing Anger As A Pathway To Empathy… And Resilience
Meag-gan O’Reilly, CEO & Co-Founder of Inherent Value Psychology INC
“When you’re angry about something, it’s teaching you about your interaction with yourself in the environment. And if we have been taught to suppress that, it’s really interesting that then we don’t have the data from our anger necessary to inform some type of change.“
Creating Transformative Change Through Research
Leila McKenzie-Delis, Founder and CEO of DIAL Global, Author, Activist, Speaker, Podcast Host
“Whilst I do believe diversity and inclusion objectives can be very successful from grassroots up— and that is important at every single layer— we know that diversity initiatives are expedited much faster and more efficiently if they do start at the top and there is full buy-in across the C-suite.”
Addressing Burnout In The Workplace
Erayna Sargent, Founder and H.A.B.C. (Head anti-burnout champion) at Hooky Wellness
Anthony Ware, Principal at AWare Catalysts
Al Dea, Founder of Betterwork Labs
“If I asked for things, for solutions, or for help, then [an ally would] chime up. But they wouldn’t be there to fix me because I wasn’t broken. It’s the human thing, take out all the PR, take out all the constraints, just as an ally, show up human to human.”
How Women Network
J. Kelly Hoey, Author of Build Your Dream Network
“It actually takes much more effort— and we should be putting much more effort— into understanding other people and how we can be of service and connect with them because then we’ll build better relationships, have better connections, and have the strong network that we need for our lives and careers.”
Demystifying Disability
Emily Ladau, Disability Rights Activist, Author, and Communications Consultant at Words I Wheel By
“In order to acknowledge that there’s so much diversity under one umbrella, we have to recognize that disability cuts across all identities…. the reality is we all want different things but what unites us if anything is the common goal of fighting for access, inclusion, justice, and rights.”
Rebuilding Equitable Structures In The Workplace
Ulysses Smith, Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging at Blend
“It’s what you are doing to build that culture of accountability within your executive team because our work— the success of DEI work— hinges on accountability, having the right accountability mechanisms in an organization.”
What Allyship Looks & Feels Like
Ritu Bhasin, Speaker, Author, & Consultant at bhasin consulting inc.
Wayne Sutton, Founder at Icon Project, Co-Founder & CTO at Change Catalyst
Rachel Williams, Head of Equity, Inclusion & Diversity at X- the moonshot factory
Tiffany Yu, CEO & Founder at Diversability
“Moments of allyship stand out for me, but also what continues to stand out are the moments where I needed an ally and I didn’t have one. Those moments haunt me. I am able to use those moments to exercise empathy for others, to understand how I can help other people feel safe and at ease.”
Mental Health & The Icon Ride Across The Country
Wayne Sutton, Founder at Icon Project, Co-Founder & CTO at Change Catalyst
“I think all those things are what it takes to remove the stigma in the Black community – and all communities – around mental health. We have to make it more of a thing that’s cool, and we have to make it like where it is OK to ask and take your time and continue to provide resources.”
The Power Of Storytelling To Create Change
Cynthia Overton, Senior Director of Tech Workplace Initiatives at Kapor Center
“Stories have the power to persuade and change. It’s easy for people to be presented with important statistics. But – in the absence of context, and the absence of a story – statistics are easy to forget. When you tell stories, stories bring situations, problems, challenges, victories, all of that to life.”
Behind The Scenes With Melinda Briana Epler
Ritu Bhasin, Speaker, Author & Consultant at bhasin consulting inc.
Melinda Briana Epler, Founder & CEO at Change Catalyst
“One or two people in a company doing diversity, equity, and inclusion work cannot change it. It takes a critical mass of people working together. We are part of our company cultures, and if we don’t change ourselves, individually, and how we interact with each other, it’s really fundamentally not going to change very much. I realized pretty early on in the diversity, equity, and inclusion work that it is essential to have allies throughout our workplaces to really create that change and create that transformation.”
What The Research Says: Change Catalyst’s State Of Allyship Report
Melinda Briana Epler, Renzo Santos, & Merve Bulgurcu of Change Catalyst
“Our research confirms that allies make a big difference. 92% of people surveyed feel allies have been valuable, and the more allies people have, the more they find allyship valuable. The majority of people – 68% of them – have at least two allies at work. However, 20% have just one ally, and 12% have no allies at all.”
Recognizing & Overcoming Microaggressions – Part 2
Melinda Briana Epler, Founder & CEO of Change Catalyst
“Unintentional harm is still harm. The impact is the key. Microaggressions are experienced and felt regardless of your intent. We must move from unintentional harm to intentional allyship.”
Recognizing & Overcoming Microaggressions – Part 1
Melinda Briana Epler, Founder & CEO of Change Catalyst
“Similar to biases, the key with microaggressions is to develop our empathy skills and to become more intentional so we recognize microaggressions forming and we stop them before they come out.”
Understanding & Correcting Our Biases
Melinda Briana Epler, Founder & CEO of Change Catalyst
“Biases are mental patterns. They are shortcuts that influence our perception about something, someone or a situation. We learn them from our families, from our friends, teachers, media, culture; and we might not be aware of them. They can perpetuate all the things we just talked about: oppression, inequity, and marginalization.”
Why Empathy & Allyship Matter In The Workplace
Melinda Briana Epler, Founder & CEO of Change Catalyst
“Allyship requires self-awareness. Self-awareness of your own presence and perspective, your biases, microaggressions, as well as curiosity, and openness to somebody else’s perspective. Really seeing them, appreciating them for their uniqueness. And having the courage to respond and show your empathy for them and their experience and to really take action.”
How To Be An Ally In The Remote Workplace
Melinda Briana Epler, Founder & CEO of Change Catalyst
“Empathy is different from pity or sympathy. It is really building a relationship. We learn what somebody is experiencing and access our own feelings to connect with them and act in solidarity. It is a muscle and you have to practice it. It can be learned…. Practice building that muscle.”
Why Mentorship & Advocacy Are Key To Career Growth
Sam Sepah, Artificial Intelligence (AI) / Research Product Manager at Google
“Sometimes when you have your ally and they have enough distance from it, they can point you toward the right support you need, the right network, the right way to get what you need because they have played this playbook before. They have seen this movie before. They are able to point you in the right direction and help you chase your dreams.”
Shifting Our Work From Diversity To Equitable Design
Aubrey Blanche, The Mathpath (Math Nerd + Empath), Director of Equitable Design & Impact at Culture Amp
“The first step of equitable design is about asking the question, ‘does this action, does this process, or does this situation create greater equality or equal power or opportunity?’ Just starting with that question – no matter what you are doing, whether you are organizing a career coaching session with a college student to designing a talent review process to building a special event, for example. I think you can ask that question first. And then I use a set of design principles to help me think about it…. ‘how can I or does this create equal power or opportunity?’ and then ‘how do I work from there?’”
How To Address Ageism In The Workplace
Jeff Tidwell, CEO and Co-Founder at Next For Me
“Being vulnerable is hard and that’s why you want allies in the relationships you are developing over time. If you do want to break down about this and, you know, the impact it is having on your family and your mental health and all of that, who can you go talk to about that? If you set-up the network in a healthy way, those people will be waiting for you, and you can do the same for them.”
An Allyship Journey As A Straight, White Man
Jeremy Sussman, Senior Product Manager at Google
“If you are really sorry, it requires more than saying the words ‘I am sorry.…’ It is really about the other person. It is really not about you. Allyship has to be about the other person. You have to be in a place where your desires come down to helping the other person, and it is not about you. If you can’t get there, you are really not being an ally.”
Centering BIPOC Voices In Business & Social Justice
Two Eagles Marcus, Founder of MPWRDX
“If you have people of color in our organization, you know, make sure they know the path to move up the ranks and move them up the ranks. Clear the pathway. If somebody isn’t moving up the ranks, why aren’t they moving up the ranks? Is it because they don’t have a Master’s Degree or additional education? OK. Invest in that education.”
Influencing Your Company To Address Racism
TDo, Senior Solutions Engineer at Gladly
“Expanding the work of anti-racism is the thing that shifts the needle and has the impact around what we are all trying to do when we talk about diversity and inclusion. Understanding these are the systems we exist in, and we need to collectively counteract these behaviors – but it literally requires everyone to do it. I talk a lot about Asana, and a “team of everyone” approach. This D&I work is not work that can be done by one person. Everyone needs to understand it and everyone has a role to play so it can have impact.”
Expanding Anti-Racist Allyship
Sonja Gittens Ottley, Head of Diversity & Inclusion at Asana
“And I think particularly for professionals in this space, you have to approach it in a way that allows you both to prioritize – or to center the groups that are under most harm at a particular moment – but also with the lens of centering, as well as, how can I expand this, or even scale it, if we want to use a business-y term? How can we scale it and take action in support of a particular group that will allow you to impact other groups?”
Designing For Intersectional Inclusion
Frieda McAlear, Senior Research Associate at the Kapor Center
“There’s 574+ federally recognized tribes in the US. Like I said, we are less than 2% of the population. Each of those tribes having their own populations, their own language, history, cultures, cosmologies, and governance, we knew we would have to tailor curriculum to that context and tribes and partner communities. We needed to adapt the curriculum to include goals for sovereignty and the maturation of land in order to make it significant to our children…. That’s what culturally relevant means.”
It’s OK To Make Mistakes As An Ally
Manisha Amin, CEO at Centre for Inclusive Design
“I think cancel culture fits into the notion we have to be perfect and right all of the time. The right comes from whoever has got that righteous anger. There is somebody on the other side who then feels shame and anger, who then becomes righteous in their anger – and the more we do that, the more we push each other away and teach each other we are different and not the same. The more different we are, the less likely we are to come together.”
Engaging Leadership To Improve Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Sheree Atcheson, Author of Demanding More
“One thing that I think is super important in the first instance of bringing anybody on this journey, is understanding the perspectives of why they have the viewpoint they have at the moment. While I may disagree with people and their viewpoints, if I don’t understand it, I can’t truly bring that people along, because I am not tailoring my communication or the initiatives or the strategy or the education that that person needs to bring them on a journey. People are not a monolith.”
How We Can Collectively Address Anti-Asian Hate
Tammy Cho, Co-Founder & CEO of Hate Is A Virus and BetterBrave
“You know, as much as racism is not new, I also do want to highlight that activism is not necessarily new. There has been such an incredible history of solidarity among communities of color as well. And unfortunately, part of it is just that it is not covered in our history books and there is not as much dialogue or amplification of those moments.”
Understanding Privilege & Using It To Create Change
Karen Catlin, CEO of Karen Catlin Consulting and author of Better Allies
“When we understand our privilege, it allows us to be empathetic, which is a part of allyship… and then to take action in support of people who don’t have all of the privileges we have. That’s really why it is so important to understand this. Step one in the allyship journey is to understand the privilege.”
Bridging Racial Divides Through Radical Empathy
Terri Givens, CEO & Founder of Brighter Higher Ed
“You have to understand yourself before you can have empathy for others…. I am trying to model vulnerability because when we’re vulnerable, it is so much more impactful and it also helps build trust.”
Raising Our Children To Be Allies And Advocates For Social Justice
Margenett Moore-Roberts, Chief Inclusion & Diversity Officer of IPG – DXTRA
“Children don’t process differences as a deficiency. How did we arrive at the conclusion that if you are different, if you are not white specifically, somehow you are deficient? Just because it is different doesn’t mean it is a deficiency.”
How To Advance Pay Equity & Reduce The Pay Gap
Sharawn Connors, VP of Diversity Equality & Inclusion at Micron Technology
“When we look at the pay gap, we know that a lot of time the majority group is paid more because of the positions that they are in. They are more likely to be VP and higher and even manager. Our broken rung starts to happen at the manager level. How do we impact that? One way is through hiring but another way is through growing and retaining the talent we have and paying people fairly helps us to do that.”
What Allies Can Do During Black History Month
Rachel Williams, Head of Equity, Inclusion & Diversity at X- the moonshot factory
Lionel Lee, Head of Diversity Engagement at Zillow Group
Almaz Negash, Founder & Executive Director at the African Diaspora Network
“People talk about us without us. We need to be at the table. When people talk about our future, we must be at the table… Where are they talking about the continent, when I am from the continent, and I’m not even at the table?” – Almaz Negaz
How To Use Empathy To Create Change In The Workplace
Kate Johnson, President at Microsoft US
“Empathy is a superpower. And it’s the common denominator for leaders and individual contributors in a successful organization and one that’s high-performing.”
Want To Be Inclusive? Support Women Of Color As Leaders In The Workplace
Deepa Purushothaman & Rha Goddess, Co-Founders at nFORMATION
“We need companies to do what they’re saying they want to do but show up in a totally different way.” Deepa Purushothaman
How To Create A Culture Of Belonging At Work: Put People At The Center
Kat Gordon, CEO and Founder of the 3%
“I think so much of belonging is about having the courage to ask and engage your employees in ongoing conversation about what’s working for them, what’s making them anxious, what do they need.”
Empathic Leadership & Emotional Tax In The Workplace
Andrea G. Tatum Senior Director, Corporate Equity Engagement at Catalyst Inc
“What really makes emotional tax so unique is that it’s not limited to just the workplace. As people of color, this is our experience day in and day out. Everywhere we go, we don’t have the luxury of being able to put aside our skin and say, well, today, I’m not a woman of color. I’m not a Black woman.”
How To Make Disability Accommodation & Inclusion The New Working Norm
Victor Calise, Commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities
“The reality is that people with disabilities aren’t really disabled. It is our environments that disable us. If we can fix those environments so we can live our lives there is no such thing as disability.”
Exploring What It Means To Be An Upstander
Daralyse Lyons, Creator of Demystifying Diversity Podcast
“The bystanders are actually the ones who tend to make up the majority of the social collective and who tend to be the ones who have the ability to, if they will step into that upstander role, these atrocities don’t happen or at least we could stop them a lot sooner.”
Understanding The Effects Of Racism On Black Boys & Men
Dr. Kevin Simon, Board-Certified Adult Psychiatrist / Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Fellow / Addiction Medicine Fellow
“If you’re an ally, particularly to Black and Brown boys, particularly to the persons of color, you should be trying to promote institutions and environments policies that would be protective of that community.”
Pandemic And Parenting: How To Juggle The Impossible
Muna Hussaini, Chief of Staff to Indeed CTO
“We have an opportunity to redefine what success looks like so that the costs that were incurred by the few are now shared collectively and I think if we can redefine what that looks like, we win together.”
Opening Doors For The Disabled Community
KR Liu, Head of Brand Accessibility at Google
“If anything, we want people to feel empowered by us on what we have been able to achieve. That’s really, really important that people understand the contribution that disabled people have made to society.”
Advocating For People With Disabilities
Tiffany Yu, CEO & Founder at Diversability
“When we tell a disabled person that we don’t consider them to be disabled, what it is doing is perpetuating the stigma that being disabled is a bad thing. And when we don’t use words like disabled or disability, it is saying we think it is a bad word, and there is shame around it.”
Amplifying The Latinx Experience In The Workplace
Daisy Auger-Domínguez, CEO of Auger-Domínguez Ventures
“An ally helps you find your way without projecting on you who you should be.”
Supporting Indigenous Power, Leadership & Community
Vanessa Roanhorse, CEO at Roanhorse Consulting
“I don’t want to be the kind of person who only knows Native American issues. I want to be the kind of person who thinks about making sure we have ASL folks and making sure we have people who are providing closed captioning. I want to be the kind of person who can share the statistics of what’s happening to our undocumented community. I want to be that kind of human being that never forgets we are all here and we are all living beings, and without that respect none of this matters and we are just repeating the same harm.”
Host: Melinda Briana Epler
Melinda Briana Epler has over 25 years of experience developing business innovation and inclusion strategies for startups, Fortune 500 companies, and global NGOs.
As CEO of Change Catalyst, Melinda currently works with the tech industry to solve diversity and inclusion together. Using her background in storytelling and large-scale culture change, she is a strategic advisor for tech companies, tech hubs, and governments around the world. She co-leads a series of global solutions-focused conferences called Tech Inclusion, where she has partnered with over 450 tech companies and community organizations and hosted 43 solutions-focused diversity and inclusion events around the world.
Previously, Melinda was a Marketing and Culture Executive and award-winning documentary filmmaker – her film and television work includes projects that exposed the AIDS crisis in South Africa, explored women’s rights in Turkey, and prepared communities for the effects of climate change. She has worked on several television shows, including NBC’s The West Wing.
Melinda is a TED speaker. She speaks, mentors and writes about diversity and inclusion in tech, allyship, social entrepreneurship, underrepresented entrepreneurs and investing. She has spoken on hundreds of stages around the world, including SXSW, Grace Hopper, Wisdom 2.0, the World Bank, Obama White House, Clinton Foundation, Black Enterprise, Google, Indeed, Capital One and McKinsey.
Watch Melinda’s TED Talk
Speaking Engagements
Change Catalyst Co-Founder Melinda Briana Epler has spoken across the globe in hundreds of venues and virtual events. Empathy, Allyship, Advocacy, Microaggressions, Inclusive Leadership, and Building Inclusive Teams are just some of the topics Melinda has spoken on. Let us know about your next speaking engagement needs! Melinda has also spoken on how to build organizational capacity to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion, such as how to lead behavior change or how to build allies and advocates.
Testimonials
The show shaped my scope of reasoning on the dynamics in the corporate world, brand building, harmony across board with team mates. Your series has helped me feel less alone and less daunted by the challenges I face as a leader at a company that is used to moving fast with decisions and making swift progress across the board. I so earnestly want to grow and deepen my perspective when it comes to diversity and allyship; it’s not always clear how to do it. This series has felt like a path I can follow and revisit and draw strength and insight from. Thank you.
This show has given me clear opportunities to learn in the midst of 2020’s numerous social and personal challenges, including engaging remote content. I’ve learned new terms, heard new voices, diversified my interests and internalized personal narratives that have inspired me to get more active.
I watched many of your live shows in 2020, and I learned something from every discussion. They were inspiring on many levels. Early on during the pandemic (especially), the show also provided me with a sense of community that I was sorely needing. Thank you.
