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C05 Session: Dialogue on Cultural Competency Relating to Race/Class/Power

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Dialogue on Cultural Competency Relating to Race/Class/Power

Friday, July 15 11:00am - 12:30pm

Track: Cultural Competency and Community Capacity

Presenters

Makani Themba-Nixon, The Praxis Project; Cynthia Parker, Interaction Institute for Social Change; Omowale Satterwhite, National Community Development Institute

Description

Presenters will offer a concise summary of: A) the values they bring to their work; B) how they came to their perspective and intention on the importance of embracing cultural identity in nonprofit capacity building; and, C) the core elements of their approach to ensuring cultural competency and responsible means of addressing race/class/power issues in their work strengthening nonprofits.

About the Presenters

Cynthia Parker, Interaction Institute for Social Change

Cynthia Silva Parker is a Senior Associate with the Interaction Institute for Social Change, Cynthia delivers training, consulting, coaching, and facilitation services, leads new product development efforts, and coordinates IISC’s internal learning agenda. She has led efforts to build collaborative skills, address specific workplace issues, develop strategic plans and design multi-stakeholder planning processes in a variety of community, nonprofit, and public sector settings. Cynthia’s prior leadership experience includes serving as Director for Boston Freedom Summer, the Ten Point Coalition’s faith-based youth leadership and community development project and Project Administrator for The Algebra Project, Inc., a nonprofit civil rights and mathematics education reform group with projects across the nation. Recent clients include: the Barr Foundation, Metropolitan Area Planning Council, and Annie E. Casey Foundation. Cynthia holds a B.A. from Harvard-Radcliffe Colleges, and a Master of City and Regional Planning from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Omowale Satterwhite, National Community Development Institute

Dr. Frank J. Omowale Satterwhite is a management and community development specialist who completed an undergraduate degree at Howard University, a Master's Degree at Southern Illinois University and a doctoral degree at Stanford University. He is the founding President of the National Community Development Institute which was established in 2000. For the past twenty years, Dr. Satterwhite has served as a management and community development consultant providing technical assistance to over 1,000 organizations in thirty-two states. He has received numerous awards for his professional and public service including a Kellogg Foundation National Fellowship and community service awards from the National Council of Negro Women, Peninsula Community Foundation and KQED Television in San Francisco, California.

Makani Themba-Nixon, The Praxis Project

Makani Themba-Nixon is Executive Director of The Praxis Project, a nonprofit organization helping communities use media and policy advocacy to advance health equity and justice. Current projects include Policy Advocacy on Tobacco and Health (PATH)— a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative to build tobacco control policy advocacy in communities of color; as well as numerous tools and resources that help people translate local problems into progressive, effective policy initiatives. Makani was previously director of the Transnational Racial Justice Initiative (TRJI), an international project to build capacity among advocates to more effectively address structural racism and leverage tools and best practices from around the world. While at TRJI, she co-authored and edited a "shadow report" on institutional racism. Prior to that she directed the Grass Roots Innovative Policy Program (GRIPP) a national project to build capacity among local organizing groups to more effectively engage in media and policy advocacy to address institutional racism in welfare and public education. She was a staffer for the California State Legislature, served as media director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference/Los Angeles, and worked five years for the Marin Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Other Drug Problems, including three years as director of its Center for Media and Policy Analysis. She is co-author of “Media Advocacy and Public Health: Power for Prevention,” a contributor to the volumes “We the Media, State of the Race: Creating Our 21 st Century,” along with many other edited book projects. Her latest book is “Making Policy, Making Change,” which examines media and policy advocacy for public health through case studies and practical information. The book is available from Jossey-Bass publishers.