Equity by Design Panel:
A conversation on the role of design for a more equitable Portland
Thursday, August 6th, 2020
What happens when we use equity as a core design principle during systemic redesign?
Join our featured panelists and moderator for a discussion about the potential of design. Hear from representatives from social enterprise, philanthropic, and government / civic space. Gain insight into the current conversation, best practices, and challenges of equity-based design.
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Design can often lead to exclusion. In order to support inclusive design across the places where we live, work, and play, we need to better understand how to integrate equity-centered design into existing systems and processes — especially those that govern (literally) our neighborhoods and city. Attending this event will give insight into the practices within those in the public and social innovation sector, providing insight into the current conversation, and furthering the conversation through the open discussion of best practices and challenges of applying equity-centered design across the public and private sectors.
featured panelists
Shari dunn
CEO/Principal at ITBOM, LLC
Attorney, news anchor, CEO, professor, thinker, agent of change, and game show winner. Shari is an innovator, educator, and thinker helping organizations and individuals to "change their thinking and change their lives/organizations." Shari has a degree in Philosophy and believes as Carl Jung is alleged to have said, that; "until we make the unconsciousness conscious it will direct our lives, and we will call it fate." This means that individuals and institutions must fully understand and embrace the ways we act out "old stories" to clear a path to re-imagine a new life, a new path, a new course forward.
Mary Li
Director of Multnomah Idea Lab (MIL), Department of County Human Services
Mary Li is the Director of the Multnomah Idea Lab (MIL) at the Multnomah County Department of County Human Services. Mary has worked for the County since 1990, and describes herself as a proud bureaucrat! She believes that it’s an absolute responsibility for government to address the role that policies, practices, and investments have played in creating the inequities experienced by our communities today. By intentionally centering race in our work, we can take action that makes a difference in the journey towards justice.
Desiree Williams-Rajee
Owner at Kapwa Consulting
Desirée founded Kapwa Consulting as a means to advance healing at the intersection of equity, sustainability, and community. Leveraging 20 years of systems transformation work across all sectors, her unique interdisciplinary approach combines organizational development, change management, and social justice organizing. She has become nationally renowned for developing strategies that move organizations and teams towards equitable solutions - solutions that reclaim our human connection with one another. From helping government staff to see dismantling institutional racism as a performance strategy to dismantling internalized oppression as a community empowerment strategy, her role is to help others navigate towards sustainable solutions that build a better future.
Panel moderator
Susana ArellANO
Project Officer International Urban Cooperation Program | Co-founder Agenda28
Susana Arellano is the USA Project Officer for the European Union’s IUC (International Urban Cooperation Program - North America), which pairs European and North American cities to share solutions to major societal and environmental challenges. In this role, she identifies opportunities for collaboration between cities, coordinates the Integrated Local Action Plans and facilitates international cooperation so cities can achieve their sustainable urban development goals. Susana is also the co-founder of Agenda28. Created at the Harvard Innovation Lab and currently based in New York City and Mexico City, Agenda28 helps social enterprises, non-profits and government and international agencies increase the impact of social initiatives.
Panel host & organizer
Erin Stevanus
Innovation + Strategy | b:ask
Erin Stevanus leads innovation and strategy at the b:ask collective, a movement that works across the private, nonprofit, political, and philanthropic sectors. She is also the founder of the Social Impact Lab, an immersive learning experience in equity-centered denizen design. She loves to work with leaders and their teams to explore complex systems and find creative ways to increase agency and multiply impact. She firmly believes in the profound potential of creative problem-solving to exponentially scale systems-level change.
PANEL & DISCUSSION SPONSORED by b:ask collective
Join us for our next design event
Thursday, September 10th