Facilitated by:

Shelley Paul and Jacinta Williams

Shelley Paul

Shelley Paul provides professional coaching, creative and strategic consulting, process design and facilitation for leaders, teams, organizations and communities. Before launching Second Circle, she most recently served as Head of Research and Learning Design at Atlanta International School.  With more than 20 years of experience in independent/international education and adult learning, she brings a unique background and deep expertise in collaborative leadership, participatory problem-solving, stakeholder engagement, strategic process design and skillful facilitation to her work and engagement with clients around the world.  Shelley is committed to her own intercultural learning and to engaging in practices and actions that advance equity, inclusion, and anti-racism. She is a Stanford d.school trained design thinker and team mentor. She models and facilitates ways of working that are trusted, responsive, humane, effective, and sustainable. She will draw you a stick figure version of anything you request.

More about our work  / Contact: jacinta@cultureedcollective.com & shelley@secondcircle.io 

Jacinta Williams

Jacinta Williams is a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) practitioner with over 17 years of experience in education and 10 years of experience in leading and facilitating DEI strategy. In her most recent role as Head of Equity and Inclusion at Atlanta International School, she collaboratively led the community in implementing a school-wide approach to strengthening intercultural competence across all stakeholder groups -- faculty and staff, parents, students, and Board members. As a former teacher, instructional coach, a DEI leader at a national and local non-profit organizations, and DEI consultant, she brings a wealth of context and experience with engaging individuals, teams, schools, and organizations in strategically addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion, including concepts of intercultural competence, anti-racism and justice, and incorporating it into systems and structures as well as programming and practices.  

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE 2021 PROGRAM:

Day 1: 8am USA EDT - Plenary Session: Belonging in A Divided World

Unfortunately, many people don’t feel like they belong. Whether through policies or more subtle encounters, messages of exclusion work their way into our minds and social fabric. Some of the strongest of these messages are based on aspects of our social identity, such as race, gender, and religion.

During the plenary, we will strengthen our relationships through conversations where we share our own experiences and stories about belonging.

We share our stories and experiences with the intention of creating a safe space for people of diverse backgrounds to connect, come together, and work to create actionable solutions that increase belonging and bridge divides in our world.

Day 2: 8am USA EDT and repeated again at 6pm USA EDT- Session 1: Culturally Responsive Communication: Discover Your Conflict Styles

How we respond to disagreements matters when leading and working in a diverse school community. As we accelerate our journey on the necessary yet challenging work of becoming anti-racist, equitable, and inclusive school communities, engaging in difficult conversations with colleagues, parents, and community members is a step in that journey. 

In this session we will use the Intercultural Conflict Styles Inventory to increase cultural self- and other- understanding of various communication and conflict resolution approaches and begin to name and notice patterns of conflict and how that impacts the advancement of diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and anti-racism work in your school community.

You will leave this session with tools and resources to engage, manage, and resolve conflict in culturally responsive ways.

+ Time zone friendly Home Group synchronized session membership and time to be determined based on participants

Day 3: 8am USA EDT and repeated again at 6pm USA EDT- Session Title: Getting Real About White Supremacy 

In this session, we will unpack white supremacy and the ways it shows up both interpersonally and organizationally.  We will engage in dialogue about how to name it when it shows up in life, in your work, and in the broader international school community.

You will leave with a more nuanced awareness of how white supremacy functions as well as strategies to challenge it and make meaningful and collective change towards a more equitable and racially just school and world.

+ Time zone friendly Home Group synchronized session

Day 4: 8am USA EDT and repeated again at 6pm USA EDT- Session Title: Moving from the Talk to the Walk: Designing for Equity

Equity by design is an approach to addressing differences in experiences and moving towards meaningful, systems-level change in organizations, including schools. In this session, we will explore the principles of Equity by Design as a lens in day to day practice and in solving community challenges.  As a part of this session, you will bring an equity challenge that is impacting your community (this session will have about 15 minutes of pre-work). 

You will leave with both a framework and an initial set of tools to practice Equity by Design principles in your school community’s context to uncover and solve DEI challenges.  

+ Time zone friendly Home Group synchronized session

Day 5: 8am USA EDT – Closing Session: Where to next?

This will be a reflective session engaging participants on thoughts going forward in reference to their plans for the new school year and how AISH can better support them