What are your 1-3 biggest takeaways from your work?

Since I’m a visiting fellow and I’ve been with this organization for over a year, my biggest take way as are from EP. I learned to call out white supremacy culture, advocate for my needs as a professional, and felt supported by all of the other wonderful fellows in doing so. 

What has shifted in your perspective on the causes of and remedies for the Opportunity Gap?
I’ve been able to start a new project which is a racial equity tool for analyzing and presenting data. I have more evidence for the need to education systems and the people within them to explicitly address racism equity. Supporting students experiencing poverty, diversity, and cultural competency are not going to bridge the gap for students or teachers. We need teachers who understand implicit bias and structural racism and actively work to dismantle these in their classrooms.  

What commitment will you make to closing the Opportunity Gap in the future (could be a next role, volunteer work, personal commitment - whatever is right for YOU)
I commit to naming white supremacy culture and expecting my professional peers and leaders to address it and work on dismantling it. 

1) Virtual work is difficult, as are the emotional challenges of these times. It makes it all the more necessary to market your arguments and to build your projects off of collaboration. 2) My self-worth is not tied to my productivity and I have a long way to go in my un-learning of a lifetime of enculturation into what it means to be a successful professional. I will continue to work on not holding myself to white supremacist values of the workplace.

I don't know if it's so much a shift, as a deepening. I've really appreciated the resources passed on and the connection between adaptive mindsets and equity. I think it's quite often overlooked  and i appreciated the spotlight on the intersection. 

I am committing myself to continuing to look inward. I'm committing myself to working with intention and boundaries, and to practice adaptive and vision-oriented leadership that places the opportunity gap and local contexts/voices at the core of my practice.