Fighting Defensiveness in Equity Conversations

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Please note: This is an interactive experience. Please come expecting to engage with your colleagues! Over the past decade, there's been a noticeable rise in organizations prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Many times, these initiatives include internal staff training on topics, such as implicit bias, healthy communication and building relationships across diverse experiences. However, these workshops and conversations require a high degree of emotional engagement, which inevitably can produce resistance and opposition amongst staff. The ability to anticipate, recognize and respond effectively to the opposition is critical to long-term success. This workshop will help you understand the real reasons why diversity initiatives provoke opposition, and help you create effective responses in service to equity and inclusion.

By the end of this event, learners will be able to:

1. Articulate why equity conversations provoke defensiveness.
2. Anticipate the various ways opposition can be present during workshops.
3. Effectively and proactively respond to defensiveness to build sustainable, equity initiatives.

Autumn Saxton-Ross, PhD (she/her/hers)

Vice President of Education and Chief Equity Officer

National Recreation and Park Association

Autumn Saxton-Ross, PhD, developed a love of the outdoors first through her grandmother’s yard and then exploring city parks with her family in her hometown of Kansas City, Missouri. Now a resident of Washington DC and mom of two, she is the VP for Education & Chief Equity Officer at the National Recreation and Parks Association (NRPA).

She started her career as an elementary school Health and PE teacher in DC Public Schools and after receiving graduate degrees in Health Education and Sociology, has worked in various positions that placed her at the intersections of health, equity and the outdoors. Most recently, as the Mid-Atlantic Regional Director and Equity, Inclusion and Diversity Lead for NatureBridge, and prior to that she held positions as the Program Director for Place-based Initiatives at the National Collaborative for Health Equity, Program Specialist at DC Department of Health and (Health) Recreation Specialist at both Montgomery County and DC Departments of Recreation.

Autumn is a connector- actively seeking out ways to build bridges between seemingly disparate people, opportunities and ideas. And if you really want to see a sparkle in her eye, start a conversation on all things Marvel, Octavia Butler or Star Trek: The Next Generation.

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