- Author: Jodi Azulai
Three opportunities are being offered to improve our diversity, equity and inclusion skills – an understanding unconscious bias workshop, intercultural competence program and a 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge.
Vice President Glenda Humiston encourages participating in activities such as these to support the ANR Strategic Plan 2020-2025 goal to develop a more inclusive and equitable workplace.
Understanding Unconscious Bias: Awareness, knowledge and competency development
Bias, in its most simplistic definition, is having a preference for one thing over another. Also, biases come into play in our impressions and judgment of people, especially those whose identities and experiences are different from our own.
Mikael Villalobos, associate chief diversity officer in the Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at UC Davis, and Eric Sanchez, diversity and inclusion educator at UC Davis, will lead the workshop.
Objectives:
- We will explore how we make snap judgments about people by understanding how socialization informs our biases.
- Participants will be introduced to theory and language in understanding implicit and explicit bias.
- Using personal reflection, experiential exercises and case studies, participants will gain greater awareness when they engage in bias and gain essential knowledge and skills (tools) in how they recognize and mitigate biases in both personal and professional domains.
Who should attend:
- Employees who work with clientele, volunteers or provide support to others in ANR.
- Priority will be given to people who have not had previous access to this learning topic.
- There will be a waiting list for those who are interested, but regularly engage with bias-related topics.
Each of the two-hour workshops will be tailored to job roles, but you are welcome to sign up for the session that fits your schedule. Each session will be limited to 35 participants.
Academic coordinators, UCCE advisors, UCCE specialists, community educators, UCCE field workers, REC and staff research associates and other employees who deliver programs to clientele
- Thursday, March 3, 10 a.m.-noon
- Wednesday, April 7, 9 a.m.-11 a.m.
- Tuesday, June 1, 9 a.m.-11 a.m.
- Monday, June 7, 10 a.m.-noon
Volunteer coordinators, managers and other employees who work with volunteers
- Thursday, March 4, 9 a.m.-11 a.m.
- Monday, May 10, 10 a.m.-noon
Administrative and support staff who provide support to others in ANR
- Monday, March 15, 10 a.m.-noon
- Thursday, May 20, 10 a.m.-noon
To register for Understanding Unconscious Bias, visit https://ucanr.edu/survey/survey.cfm?surveynumber=32980.
Take the 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge
UC ANR employees are invited to participate in the Food Solutions New England 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge. The challenge timeframe is April 5-25, 2021, so sign up before March 29.
The challenge:
- will raise your awareness, change your understanding, and potentially shift the way you behave,
- goes beyond individual or interpersonal racism by helping to demystify structural and institutional racism and white supremacist patterns that are sometimes invisible to people, and
- inspires you to act, on your own or with others in your organization, business or group, to dismantle these systems.
Why you should participate:
- The 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge led by Food Solutions New England is designed to increase personal awareness and address cultural competency, implicit bias, and other relevant topics that are critical to deliver programs and to address needs of the people California.
How this works and your commitment:
- Each morning of the Challenge, you'll receive an email "prompt" from Food Solutions New England with a short reading, video or audio file. You are encouraged to spend 10 to 15 minutes each day with the material in the prompt.
- You are encouraged to participate in weekly discussion groups for this challenge. You can be placed in a group based on your registration responses or form your own group. These conversations require vulnerability and a safe environment. Guidelines will be available to help your group preserve both.
To participate, please complete both online forms as outlined below before 8 a.m. Monday, March 29.
- Register here to participate to receive email prompts from Food Solutions New England.
- Complete this form to share with ANR that you will participate and to receive assistance with discussion group placement.
Increase your intercultural competence
UC ANR's Intercultural Development Inventory Qualified Administrators team invites you to participate in a professional development opportunity to increase your intercultural competence and demonstrate our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, and growth as professionals.
An ANR-wide cohort of 10 to 12 individuals will participate in an intercultural competence professional development activity that uses the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI).
As a member of the cohort, you will:
- Take the Intercultural Development Inventory,
- Receive individualized coaching by an IDI Qualified Administrator, who will review your confidential results and help guide you to increase your intercultural competence, including your personalized intercultural competence plan.
- This process is confidential
In addition, to support your intercultural competence professional development, you will have the opportunity to participate in several structured learning opportunities with other UC ANR professionals and video trainings. In these interactive and participatory sessions, you will engage in open dialogue and deep reflection on issues related to your work.
The commitment begins March 2021 and extends through August 2021, with an IDI Conference in February 2022. The $150 registration is paid for by ANR Learning & Development. Priority will be given to people who have no or little experience with the work of diversity, equity and inclusion.
By participating in this intercultural competence program, you will:
- Increase understanding of how the development of our individual and collective intercultural competence is connected to the UC ANR mission and core values
- Increase understanding of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to strengthen your intercultural competence; understand how people perceive cultural similarities and differences and learn strategies to begin to bridge these differences.
- Understand how people perceive cultural similarities and differences and learn strategies to begin to bridge these differences.
If you would like to participate in this professional development opportunity, please fill out the IDI Interest Survey by March 12, 2021.
For more information, contact the Intercultural Development Inventory Qualified Administrators Team:
Dorina Espinosa, dmespinoza@ucanr.edu
Maria de la Fuente, medelafuente@ucanr.edu
Russell Hill, rdhill@ucanr.edu
Car Mun Kok, cmkok@ucanr.edu
Keith Nathaniel, kcnathaniel@ucanr.edu
Lynn Schmitt-McQuitty, lschmittmcquitty@ucanr.edu
Liliana Vega, live@ucanr.edu
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- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
VP Glenda Humiston has appointed 11 ANR people to an initial two-year term as founding members of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Advisory Council for UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. This appointment is effective retroactively from Nov. 1, 2020, through Oct. 31, 2022.
In a Jan. 29 ANR Update, Humiston wrote:
I am convening this advisory council to support DEI efforts that UC ANR staff and academics have undertaken to improve working environments within UC ANR, as well as to improve quality of life for marginalized populations living in the state of California. Diversity is one of our core values and developing an equitable and inclusive society is one of our public values. This Council is a commitment by UC ANR leadership to take division-wide action on the existence and impact of longstanding discrimination within our Division, as well as in our efforts throughout the state.
I am asking the founding members to recommend a formal charter to document the objectives, organization and functions of the council. While the initial appointment for all founding members is two years, the intent is for members to have staggered appointments to allow for turnover and continuity. I ask that the Council work to develop the Charter and an agenda for an initial meeting with myself, AVP Powers and AVP Tran by June 30, 2021.
Council members include
- Elaine Lander
- Esther Mosase
- Fadzayi Mashiri
- Gail Feenstra
- Katherine Soule
- Keith Nathaniel
- Laura Snell
- LeChé McGill
- Mohammed Yagmour
- Ricardo Vela
- Ron Walker
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
The Native American Community Partnerships Workgroup is requesting everyone affiliated with ANR – including staff, academics and administrators – to please complete their needs assessment/research survey by Feb. 6. The goal of this survey is to assess ANR's current and potential engagement with Native American communities in California.
Even if you do not work with Tribes, everyone in UC ANR is strongly encouraged to complete the survey at https://ucanr.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_39Q44yj08MeQNsF.
Did you know that California is home to more than 100 federally recognized tribes and has the highest Native American population of any state, with 720,000 tribal members, comprising 12% of the total U.S. Native population? Did you also know that the entire land grant system, including UC, was founded upon expropriated Native lands? Because ANR is the part of the university that connects the power of the UC to local communities, it is important for us to better understand our efforts to improve the livelihood of all Californians, including Native communities.
Your input will help the workgroup identify the challenges and successes of ANR conducting research and outreach with Native communities and opportunities for shared learning. Your input will help ANR move forward with uniquely tailored trainings and professional development opportunities. The survey results will also help add to the small and growing body of research nationwide on extension activities with Native American communities. We seek to compare California data with data for other land-grant colleges across the U.S. to assess how effectively we are serving Native American audiences and how we can do better.
For more information, please contact Native American Community Partnership co-chairs Chris McDonald at cjmcdonald@ucanr.edu and Jennifer Sowerwine at jsowerwi@berkeley.edu.
Thank you for completing the survey https://ucanr.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_39Q44yj08MeQNsF by Feb. 6.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
February is Black History Month, an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing their central role in U.S. history. Mark your calendar for Wednesdays starting at 2 p.m. in February to celebrate with ANR colleagues. UC ANR Black and Allied Staff in collaboration with UC ANR Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Alliance will host speakers and other activities are being planned.
Feb. 3, 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. – Keynote speaker Sonia Lewis
Feb. 10, 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. – Virtual tour of the National Museum of African American Culture & History
Feb. 17, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. – Virtual tour of Yisrael Family Farms
Feb. 24, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. – Black Farmers Panel Discussion with Q&A
Register at https://ucanr.edu/survey/survey.cfm?surveynumber=32671.
For more information or to offer suggestions, contact Esther Mosase, climate smart educators based in San Diego County, at enmosase@ucanr.edu.
UC ANR and the entire UC community are dedicated to helping create the open and equitable society to which we are all entitled. As we stand with the global outcry against the senseless, tragic murders of Black Americans, we are exploring new paths we can take to support our communities during this time and into the future.
To help us discover those new paths, resources have been created and compiled by colleagues throughout UC to promote dialog, understanding, connection and healing. You can find UC ANR resources on our Diversity • Equity • Inclusion webpage. There, you can also find resources for confronting gender and sexuality bias. We are working to add resources that address the breadth of diversity, equity and inclusion challenges in our organization.
We welcome suggestions for additional resources to include. Please email suggestions to DEI@ucanr.edu.
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