Womxn of Color Celebration a Wonderful Success, Again!

The 19th annual Womxn of Color Celebration was successfully held online on March 8th. An event for and by womxn of color was a coming together to find community and share stories and experiences from around the campus to build a stronger future.

Polly Olsen, Director DEAI & Decolonization, Tribal Liaison at the Burke Museum and Charlotte Cote, łuutiis Charlotte Coté (Tseshaht/Nuu-chah-nulth), Ph.D.; Associate Professor, Department of American Indian Studies joined this celebration to share stories and their research to shed light on the difficult history of the region and the land we stand on and circled back to resilience and restoration for the indigenous peoples of this land.

Spring 2022 DEI Forum: registration now open!

After a successful first Tri-Campus DEI Forum in autumn 2021 around the theme of Community, volunteers from the UW Professional Staff Organization (PSO) and departments across UW’s three campuses are once again joining together to organize and facilitate a virtual 2-half-day Diversity Equity Inclusion (DEI) Forum, this time focused on Action. The DEI Forum is developed by staff, for staff, but open to faculty and students as well. It will take place via Zoom on April 20-21, 2022.

The goal of the event is to create an intersectional space for those interested in advocating for equity to come together to share ideas, network, and build coalitions to advance anti-racism and social justice efforts across UW and beyond. This includes intersecting aspects of identity such as race, ability, age, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and religion.

You can now register for this event through the Whole U.

We also encourage UW employees and community members with a connection to UW who are doing DEI work in this area to submit proposals for sessions here. Proposals that are action-oriented and interactive are particularly sought!

More information here: https://www.washington.edu/pso/get-involved/pso-events/2022-dei-forum/. If you have any questions or would like to get involved, please email us at psoboard@uw.edu.

2021 DEI Forum Recap

In late October, for 2 half-days, collaborators including the PSO, UW Tacoma Staff Association, Foster School of Business, Department of Surgery, Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, Whole U, and others, put on University of Washington’s first-ever DEI Forum. Supported in part by the UW Diversity Council Seed Grant program and featuring professional staff from across the university discussing topics broadly ranging from title IX to antiracism workgroups to bringing an equity lens to student experience, the Forum brought together hundreds of staff, as well as faculty and students, over Zoom, on October 20 and 21.

Beginning and ending each half-day with opportunities for reflection and discussion on the community mural board, the Forum sought to center the needs, perspective and priorities of professional staff at UW, creating an intersectional space to share ideas, to network, and to build collective capacity to advance anti-racism and social justice efforts across UW and beyond: including intersecting aspects of identity such as race, ethnicity, ability, age, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and religion.

The DEI Forum grew out of the PSO’s annual Diversity Forum, held since 2018. Originally a one-hour event, every instance of the Diversity Forum brought more staff together than the last, and always ended with calls to have more such spaces at UW for discussing issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Shared one attendee, “we hold so much knowledge across our departments and campuses, and the opportunity to gather and share resources and experiences is invaluable.”

The DEI Forum was thus designed to provide not one but 8 hours of opportunity to share, ask, learn, and discuss topics such as White Supremacy culture, emergent strategy as a model for collaboration, and many others.

Session videos, slides, and shared resources are being posted on the DEI Forum event page, and we encourage all to explore them.

And, in recognition of the continued need to hold space for these conversations, the planning team–and anyone else who’d like to get involved!–is getting started on the next event: the 2022 DEI Forum will be held April 20-21, so save the date, and please reach out to psoboard@uw.edu if you’d like to get involved in planning! https://www.washington.edu/pso/get-involved/pso-events/2022-dei-forum/

UW Community Circle

On behalf of our colleagues at the Population Health Initiative, the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity, Race & Equity Initiative, and the School of Public Health Office of the Dean, the PSO would like to share the opportunity for professional staff to participate in the newly launched UW Community Circle:

Are you in search of a space to be in solidarity with other UW faculty and staff about the recent losses and ongoing trauma we are experiencing collectively? If so, we invite you to join us on October 28 for a virtual community circle guided by the work of Resmaa Menakem and his book, “My Grandmother’s Hands.”

The purpose of the community circle is to come together as a UW community to remember the relatives we are still losing to the pandemic of covid and racism, acknowledge the collective trauma we are still experiencing, and gather together to highlight lessons we have learned in the past 20 months and integrate them into our work as professionals in population health and higher education.

As we move forward to try to co-create a “new normal”, we strive to intentionally approach that work with an anti-racist, socially just, and equitable lens. This community circle is intentionally created for UW faculty and staff to span the academic year to allow us time to build together to live and work in a healthier space physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

Part of this circle is a journey with the book, My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem, which focuses on how we can build a community of care together by addressing our embodied trauma. E-books are available via UW Library. This opportunity is open to all UW faculty and staff and created in partnership between the Population Health Initiative, the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity, Race & Equity Initiative, and the School of Public Health Office of the Dean. See flyer here for more information.

Register for our virtual conversation launch by Monday, October 25th here: https://catalyst.uw.edu/webq/survey/salazar6/412538

A zoom link will be sent to you before the event.

If you have registration questions, please contact Andrea Salazar-Nuñez at alazar6@uw.edu

If you have questions about the event, please contact Arti Shah at artishah@uw.edu

The University of Washington is committed to providing access and reasonable accommodation in its services, programs, and activities. Accommodation requests related to a disability should be made by October 14th to Population Health Initiative, Arti Shah, artishah@uw.edu.

PSO, staff partners across UW to host DEI Forum in October

The UW Professional Staff Organization (PSO) is joining with staff across the campuses of UW to host a forum, by staff & for staff, on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion at UW and beyond. Taking place on October 20-21, the event goal is to create an intersectional space to come together to share ideas, to network, and to build collective capacity to advance anti-racism and social justice efforts across UW and beyond: including intersecting aspects of identity such as race, ethnicity, ability, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and religion. The primary audience of the DEI Forum will be staff from UW. Faculty and students are welcome to attend!

The DEI Forum will include various sessions, panels, and workshops on aspects of the topic, hosted by professional staff from all over UW. Learn more and register!

Jamilah Williams, Sustainable Seattle’s Board Chair and professional staff at UW, answers questions from the Diversity Forum

Last month, the PSO hosted the 4th annual Diversity Forum. This year’s event, attended by over 360 people, focused on “(re)building cultures of diversity, equity, and inclusion through policies, procedures and budgets”. We were thrilled by the conversations and engagement; you can read our overview here. After we formally wrapped up, more questions came through the chat from our community. Panelist Jamilah Williams, Board Chair of Sustainable Seattle, and Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications at UW’s College of Built Environments, shared her answers to some of those questions. We are grateful to share her thoughts with professional staff:

Diversity Forum Attendee: Something that I’ve become more passionate about recently is the intersection of mental health and DEI, particularly the ways in which women and BIPOC folks are underserved in that space. I think an area that is going to need more attention is the ways in which our systems do not serve neuro-diverse populations, and I’m wondering whether this is something the panelists have begun to…

Jamilah Williams: I agree that there is much more work to be done. Personally, I know I have a lot of room to grow in terms of accessibility. At Sustainable Seattle, we’ve also recognized that representation and inclusion of the disability community lacks in the sustainability space and in our organization as well. We’re working to build those authentic relationships and continuing to learn.

DFA: How do you as BIPOC women survive these organizations? How do you keep pushing for this work? And when do you know when it’s time to walk away?

JW: Find your people, find your community. Surround yourself with people you trust and who you can go to for advice, to vent, and have your back. Knowing when to walk away is hard, especially as someone committed to EDI work, but you also have to take care of yourself. Walk away when you are giving your all, but not seeing any change or movement.

DFA: We need spaces for BIPOC staff working in a predominantly white institution!

JW: Agree! Having these spaces can help you find those people who you know will have your back. It also shows a commitment on the part of the institution when they are supportive of these types of spaces.

DFA: How can we make sure, when hiring staff, to have reached the most diverse group of candidates? We would like to make sure that the pool is as inclusive as possible and the mainstream channels are not always the best ones.

JW: There are great local job boards and groups. Ask your staff what groups/communities they are part of and have them share the job. One note in regards to job postings, is to include the salary range. Here is some great language ReproJobs on job postings, salaries, and equity:

We know that cis women are paid less than cis men for doing the same job, women of color are paid even less than white women, and disabled people and trans people earn even less than abled and cis people (for example: we know that a third of Black trans people earn less than $10,000 a year). Refusing to be transparent about salaries and benefits is a huge contributor to these inequities and puts candidates of color and trans candidates at a disadvantage in the negotiating process. Additionally, by basing a salary off of a person’s previous salaries and not disclosing what your actual budget is, candidates with marginalized identities are unable to earn a living, thriving wage, particularly if it’s always based on past underpaid wages. Do you really want your organization to be part of perpetuating this problem? By posting the salary, your organization can be part of the solution to ensure all candidates are paid wages that reflects the compensation they deserve.

Listing the salary also puts you and the candidate on more equitable negotiating grounds. If the candidate doesn’t know what the salary range is, the organization holds all the power. Candidates are left guessing about what salary to ask for, and sometimes they’ll ask for a lower salary because that’s what they’ve been lowballed previously or because they don’t know what they should asking for. It’s also becoming increasingly illegal for interviewers to ask a candidate for their salary history. So, don’t do that either!

Reporting Anti-Asian Hate Activity–resources shared by the Seattle Chapter, Japanese Americans Citizens League (JACL)

FOR IMMEDIATE POSTING—REPORTING ANTI-ASIAN HATE ACTIVITY

To: Communications Officers of Puget Sound School Districts and Higher Education Institutions

From: Seattle Chapter Japanese Americans Citizens League (JACL)

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States has witnessed the rise of racist anti-Asian hate incidents. The incidents have occurred across the country and have ranged from outright violent attacks to various forms of verbal harassment and discriminatory exclusion. Asian students have been cyberbullied during their on-line school experiences. Anecdotal reports indicate some Asian students are apprehensive about returning to in-person learning. Several incidents of anti-Asian hate and bullying have taken place in the local Puget Sound area recently.

Police and governmental officials in Seattle, Bellevue and other localities have encouraged individuals experiencing or witnessing incidents to report all hate crimes, including verbal harassment, so that an accurate picture of anti-Asian hate activity can be created. Call 911 immediately in order to report instances.

In addition to reporting incidents to local law enforcement, the Seattle JACL has gathered a list of resources for families to access for support:

Seattle Office for Civil Rights
This office upholds laws that protect you against discriminatory harassment in housing, employment, or public places within Seattle city limits.
King County Office of Civil Rights
This office has authority to handle discrimination complaints only for King County government and for employers, housing providers, and businesses in the unincorporated parts of King County (outside the cities).
Washington State Human Rights Commission
Under the law, everyone has the right to be free from discrimination at work, in housing, in a public accommodation, or when seeking credit and insurance. Any individual who believes that he or she has been discriminated against based on protected class status may file a charge of discrimination for employers, housing providers, and businesses.

Non-government/non-police reporting tools and resources are also available. Community members can report the incident to one of the following entities to help educate the public on what’s happening and shape policy:

StoptheHate.Community
At the start of the COVID-19 crisis, the Washington State Commission on Asian-Pacific American Affairs (CAPAA) worked with community leaders and the Attorney General’s Office to develop a non-governmental reporting tool for victims of hate and bias incidents, as well as a map to track bias incidents reported through the tool.
King County Coalition Against Hate and Bias
The Coalition is a community-led initiative to address hate and bias incidents by strengthening and networking communities who experience racist and bigoted treatment and all forms of oppression. The Coalition Partners are also the administrators of the Hate and Bias Incident Response Survey to collect data from communities affected by hate and bias.
Stand Against Hatred
Asian Americans Advancing Justice is tracking incidents of bias. By sharing what you experienced or witnessed, you can educate the public, empower others, show service providers where help is needed, and strengthen advocacy efforts for hate crimes response and prevention. Forms available in English, Chinese (traditional & simplified), Korean and Vietnamese.
AAPI Hate Incident Form
OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates is dedicated to advancing the social, political, and economic well-being of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs). Submitting hate incidents through this form will help us OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates monitor hate towards AAPIs across the country.
Stop AAPI Hate
Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON) and Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) have launched this reporting center to allow community members to report incidents of hate they have experienced. Individual information, including personal identification details, will be kept confidential and will only be shared with permission. In the aggregate, the information will be used for assistance, advocacy and education. Forms available in English, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Khmer, Thai, and Japanese.

Finally, being a victim of hate and discrimination can affect mental health as much as physical health. Please encourage victims of anti-Asian hate crimes and harassment to reach out to friends and family for emotional support. The following organizations can assist with emotional/mental health resources:

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) also has a guide for victims of hate crimes: What to Do If You’ve Been The Victim of a Hate Crime.

The Seattle JACL requests that school districts post these resources in a prominent and accessible location on their websites for families, staff and students to refer to if needed.

Questions can also be directed to the Seattle Chapter JACL: info@seattlejacl.org

Dr. Kyle Kinoshita

Board member and Civil Rights Committee Co-Chair

Seattle Japanese American Citizens League (JACL)

4th Annual PSO Diversity Forum Event Recap

More than 350 professional staff attended The PSO’s 4th Annual Diversity Forum held on March 3, 2021. The event, presented by the Professional Staff Organization in partnership with the Whole U, centered on the theme of (Re)Building Cultures of Equity and Inclusion through Policy, Procedures and Budgets.

The remote venue allowed for an engaging discussion between attendees and panelists, who included leaders from the non-profit, private, and academic sectors:

Annette Anderson, Office of Diversity and Equity, UW-Bothell, and member and ex-officio president of the PSO Board
Ebonee Anderson, Diversity Recruiter, UWHR, University of Washington
Mariasol Hill, Global Intern Program Manager, Microsoft, and former Administrator for Residential Life at UW’s HFS
Jamilah Williams, Board Chair of Sustainable Seattle, and Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications at UW’s College of Built Environments
Moderated by Deci Evans, Harborview Medical Center Trauma, Burn and Surgical Critical Care and longtime PSO Board member and chair of our events committee.

Full bios of the panelists can be found on the event web page, and you can watch the event recording on YouTube. (Unfortunately we were unable to capture the chat transcript, but have followed up with the panelists and hope to highlight their thoughts to some of the additional questions in a future post.)

Panelists shared their experiences and offered valuable insights as to how necessary it is for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work to be explicitly included in discussions of institutional policies, procedures, and budgeting. Some of the takeaways that the PSO Board left with include the following ideas:

Representation is important, and it does not mean just offering a seat at the table if the table was designed to exclude you: it means creating a new table.
Bring an equity lens to all budgeting–because DEI work needs to be funded/paid work and not “stuff we expect people to do for free in addition to their regular job”
Collaboration and working together is often at odds with the dominant white culture value of the individual. Doing independent work without including other people can be exclusionary, and it leads to a lack of accountability where folks can agree to do something then never show up. Additionally, groups of people who are super focused on getting work done at the exclusion of making connections often don’t look good (or safe). On the other hand, groups of people who work well together, with respect, look inviting; moreover, they are able to develop more robust and inclusive policies and solutions.
Institutions need mechanisms for sharing DEI resources across the organization. One of the great places this is happening at UW is on the Department of Surgery’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council website, an effort co-led by Deci, our panel moderator. Relatedly, during the event, the PSO made a request to UW-IT to add a DEI event tag to their cross-campus Trumba calendar platform, for more effective sharing of such events. We hope this change happens and will follow up accordingly!
We must all work to be antiracist and to work toward justice, regardless of our job descriptions or areas of expertise – this is not just the purview of folks working in DEI offices.

The event was a huge success – the panelists were generous with their time and stayed beyond the scheduled hour to answer additional questions and share their thoughts. A huge thank you to the panelists, the attendees, and Whole U. We are so glad to have been able to be in conversation with you all. And we’d love to hear your thoughts – please let us know what aspects of the event resonated with you!

Based on the level of engagement both in the chat and via email after the event, it’s apparent to the PSO Board that many professional staff as well as others across the UW are eager to continue this conversation. We are already planning the next one! We invite you to participate in continuing this conversation – reach out to the PSO Diversity Equity and Inclusion committee to get involved.

Additionally, we invite you to tell us about DEI work that is taking place across campus – each month, we highlight DEI activities from book clubs to discussion groups to campus initiatives in our PSO member newsletter, and we’d love to amplify your work. Email psoboard@uw.edu!

UW-HR shares DEI trainings, support for teams

The PSO and UW Human Resources were both pleased to see that Executive Order 13950 Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping that limited DEI-related trainings was rescinded by President Biden on January 20, 2021. UW-HR shared the following:

If your department paused DEI-related training efforts, please consider advancing the conversation on diversity, equity and inclusion in your department by working with POD on customized training or encouraging staff to explore POD’s affordable courses that explore the many dimensions associated with race, building a sense of belonging and creating inclusive workplaces and communities.

Upcoming DEI-focused online offerings

  *   Working across Generations<https://ucs.admin.uw.edu/pod/Course/Details/Q0730> (Feb 3): Learn about the characteristic values, behaviors and assumptions of the multiple and varied generations in today’s workforce, and how to work together for optimal performance and satisfaction.

  *   Exploring Cultural Competence<https://ucs.admin.uw.edu/pod/Course/Details/Q1200> (Feb 24 & Feb 26): In a nonjudgmental setting, explore methods for addressing the interpersonal issues that can arise from differences in age, gender and ethnicity among people at the UW.

  *   The Erosion of Empathy<https://ucs.admin.uw.edu/pod/Course/Details/Q1670> (March 2 & 4): Measure your own Empathy Quotient, and develop your ability to confront and redirect behavior, attitudes and actions that reflect an absence of empathy.

  *   Exploration of Race in the Workplace: A Guide for Self-Study<https://ucs.admin.uw.edu/pod/Course/Details/QA002> (on demand): Through text, videos and interactive components, explore bias, empathy, inequity and workplace transformation.

UWHR’s leadership team has been working through the Exploration of Race in the Workplace<https://ucs.admin.uw.edu/pod/Course/Details/QA002> course over the last few months, blending the engaging self-paced portions with reflective group conversations. While we are still on the journey of completing the course, it has brought fresh insights and deepened our internal conversation as HR leaders seeking to foster a workplace culture in which all understand policies and resources and contribute to an inclusive working environment.

If you are interested in developing a cost-effective training plan for your team, please contact alliance@uw.edu<mailto:alliance@uw.edu>.

Nominate staff for the Together We Will Awards

The UW Staff Together We Will Awards were created to celebrate outstanding staff contributions made during the extraordinary challenges of 2020. The awards will serve as a temporary replacement for the Distinguished Staff Award program, which will be back in Oct. 2021. Please help recognize your amazing colleagues, by nominating them for this prestigious honor.

Consider:

Essential staff and front-line workers who kept our patients as well as students living in campus housing safe.
Staff who made the quick pivot to online learning and remote work possible.
Staff in research and patient care roles who are rightfully called our healthcare heroes.
Staff participating in anti-racism efforts to ensure the UW’s programs are inclusive and equitable.
Staff who have gone above and beyond in ways big and small to support their colleagues and our greater community.

Nominate a UW staff member with a written statement or by submitting a video nomination between November 1 and December 31, 2020.

Nominees will be celebrated online and will receive a copy of their nomination materials. All nominations will be reviewed by a selection committee that will award up to 20 $1,500 awards. Learn more here.