Last night, I played FACTUALITY with Skidmore College’s President’s Cabinet & Board of Trustees and the session went exceptionally well. 

I haven’t slept much over the last few days, solely due to overwhelming feelings of excitement 🤩

(Pictured left to right: Vice President for Strategic Planning and Institutional Diversity, Chair of the Board of Trustees, lil ol’ me, President of Skidmore)

Was your last diversity training this fun?

Today, I facilitated the Baltimore version of FACTUALITY for the Business Volunteers GIVE Fellowship program. Here's some of the feedback from the session:

And a few pics from the session:

I collaborated with Geoff Stack to build out a three hour session that truly enriched the the facilitation. We engaged in active listening exercises, written reflections, and conversation to appease to the varying processing styles in the room. 

Last week, I returned to American Heart Association's national office to facilitate FACTUALITY for 35 of their most senior executive leaders.

The debrief questions were tailored to encourage conversation around their strategic goals and the conversations were fruitful.

And... before the session concluded, I spoke with several of the attendees about future sessions!

It was such an honor to present FACTUALITY at the Reginald F. Lewis museums (one of my favorites) in partnership with the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights. 

The facilitation supported the event "Baltimore After Freddie Gray." I used my recently developed Baltimore boards, which allowed participants to better understand the history of housing segregation in Baltimore and it relationship to the city's current state. 

Consider FACTUALITY to support your museum activities and initiatives. 

My friends came out to play!

And a former student Abby Jacobson and her mom, the Beth Jacobson came out to play as well.

I love all types of support and especially love seeing familiar faces in the crowd.

In November, I facilitated FACTUALITY at Bryn Mawr school for a collaborative parent diversity initiative for local NAIS institutions and select administrators. 

Following a really insightful session, Pete Kwiterovich, Gilman School headmaster, invited me to facilitate FACTUALITY for the ENTIRE faculty and staff at Gilman School. Thank you, Pete for the opportunity to assist with diversity and inclusive initiatives at Gilman School. 

After packing away my supplies and thanking Pete for the opportunity to engage his community, I encountered this group of factuality and staff. They shared that their conversations from the game trickled over into.. happy hour! 

At the close of every session, I tell the participants that my visit will not be useful if the experience do not leave the room. In the hour that followed the close of the facilitation, I had numerous conversations about inequality with various Gilman staff members. I'm feeling really great about their next academic year.

Evan and Willow got up together to speak during the debrief which really grabbed my attention as the participants typically get up individually. 

Evan, who played my transgender character stated during game play that he believed people should just “stay the same.” He asked at his table, “why would someone choose* all of those challenges… ruin your family if you could just stay the same?”

He then passed the mic to Willow who disclosed that she was transgender and explained how hurtful his comments were during game play… Willow was too emotional to continue speaking and passed the mic back to Evan. 

Evan shared that he struggled but continued to immerse himself in the life of his character, while simultaneously immersing himself in a conversation with Willow. He revealed that the pairing conveyed the importance of allowing people to be their authentic selves and that by the end of the session, the only thing worth questioning were his own beliefs. 

Towards the middle of game play, Dr. James Ball, President of Carroll Community College shows up. I later learned that his Director of Communications left the session to find him and request that he drop in to observe FACTUALITY's impact.

And then... as I was closing out the session, one by one the attendees began to stand... the session concluded with a standing ovation. 

Many, many thanks to Morgan Sommerville for recommending FACTUALITY to her colleague and friend Jen Milliam at Carroll Community College; this was one of my most impactful sessions to date. 

Follow up email from my host: “And of course the story at the end with Willow and I think it was Evan was so impactful and touching! Definitely one of those “this is why we do what we do” moments.”

I'm from Massachusetts, so I always love the opportunity to return home. During this visit, I facilitated FACTUALITY at Babson College. I facilitated FACTUALITY for over 150 people, which serves as my largest facilitation to date.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to facilitate my work for all of your incoming student leaders and members of your professional staff.

​It was so great to meet the staff, connect with the students, reconnect with an old student turned colleague, and meet my newest intern, Jackson Stewart. 

Consider FACTUALITY to support the diversity, equity, and inclusion needs of your organization. Many thanks to the Jewish Women's Giving Foundation Baltimore for choosing FACTUALITY to engage members and affiliates in such meaningful dialogue. ​

To date, I have worked with Mount St. Mary's University's Orientation Leaders, Peace Leaders, Social Justice Leaders, the Division of Student Life, and most recently their Residence Life Team.

I truly appreciate your commitment to cultural competence and empathy; thank you so much for your continued support.