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When we ask workshop participants whether they have done an activity called "the privilege walk" before, hands inevitably shoot up, accompanied by furrowed eyebrows, skeptical glances, and other hallmarks of concern. I can almost see the thought bubbles above their heads: Are these women going to make me do the…

We are in the middle of our busiest month, where we are scheduled to give 12 days of workshops for 10+ organizations. We're about half way through and have noticed one common theme in the questions we are asked. Many of our partners and participants want to know: do reverse…

In one of our early workshops, I was considering whether to share my personal experience of taking the Implicit Association Test. In short, I discovered that I actually have unconscious biases that really surprised me, left me feeling dismayed, and quite frankly, a little horrified. Nevertheless, I thought it was…

Last month we did another free webinar with Transforming Youth Outdoors. This time we talked about how to get started in DEI work. When we first started thinking about doing all of this work, we heard so many different approaches. Some organizations are highly focused on engaging a more diverse…

  As diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) professionals, we envision ourselves as bridge builders. Each person is in a different place in their understanding and experience, so we can't expect everyone to magically comprehend the complexities of privilege, oppression, and colonialism (let's be honest: we're still trying to understand all…

This week both Aparna and I are engaging in some self-care. Aparna’s was planned - she is out in canyon country with her family, enjoying a few days away from the computer before we hop back into a whirlwind of travel and work. I am taking some less-than-planned self care…

I teach at Montana State University's Department of Education, which educates the next generation of teachers. But what I've found is that teacher education programs don't really teach teachers how to facilitate--they teach them how to teach. Teaching and facilitation are two very different things, and in our work, facilitation…

On March 1, 2016, in the wake of Delaware North’s exploitation of trademark laws, many of the iconic places in Yosemite National Park—including Curry Village, the Ahwahnee Hotel, the Wawona Hotel, the Yosemite Lodge, and Badger Pass Ski Area—will be renamed. There are (understandably) many people and organizations who are…

Most organizations that reach out to us what to know how to proceed with equity, diversity, and inclusion  (DEI) efforts. They are hungry for best practices, toolkits, checklists, and training on how to tackle the elephant that is DEI  ("How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.")…

Photo above: Martin Luther King, Jr. marching from Selma to Montgomery with John Lewis, Reverend Jesse Douglas, James Forman and Ralph Abernathy. I had a very different idea about what I was going to write about this week to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day; I was about halfway through…

This post is dedicated to Vu Le at Nonprofit With Balls, whose bold nuggets of gold we can only aspire to produce, and who has inspired us to fearlessly “go there.” Disclaimer: For those of you engaging in cultural relevancy work without a working definition, this blog post is intended…

Recently Latino Outdoors’ founder José Gonzales shared his passion for collective impact at the Outdoors Empowered Network summit. Collective impact is a model by which deeply entrenched societal problems are tackled through innovative collaborations across nongovernmental organizations, agencies, private enterprise, foundations, communities, and other stakeholders. Though not without its flaws,…