About Gwendolyn

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Gwendolyn VanSant is the Principal and Owner of Equity in Practice LLC. She is an experienced organizational change consultant and coach who works at the intersection of diversity leadership, equity and inclusion, and strategic planning. She is also CEO and Founding Director of BRIDGE, a minority and women-run organization dedicated to cultural competence and social justice with a race, gender, and poverty lens.

A skilled community organizer and well-recognized thought leader, Gwendolyn’s leadership and work is rooted in racial justice, reparations, and extensive positive psychology training. In September 2021, Gwendolyn received national recognition as the Drum Major for Justice by the National Community Action Council for her anti-poverty, mutual aid response to the negative impact of COVID on the most vulnerable communities and for BRIDGE’s New Pathways program.

Read her full bio here.

Recent Articles

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Retreating in Love, Wellness, and Appreciation

When it came to plan this year’s Strategic Retreat, I asked myself, what would love look like in practice? As BRIDGE staff, board, and community, how could we bring our hearts to the design of the work? How could we make our time together restorative even as we do the work of beginning to plan BRIDGE’s next 15 years? As a Black-led organization, how could we also design a retreat that centered Black joy and liberation and peace?

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Unveiling the Life, Legacy, and Pioneering Spirit of Elizabeth "MumBett" Freeman

Elizabeth Freeman was, yes, a formerly enslaved woman, AND she was courageous and wise, a healer and midwife, clearly a deep listener, and she was also an entrepreneur, land, and property owner and an activist in her own right. She held all of those roles and performed all of those functions as a Black woman in the Berkshires in the 18th century. I and my children have been and will forever be inspired by and in awe of her legacy.

For me as a Black woman, today's events symbolize the bittersweet journey of liberation that Americans of African descent have been on for centuries now as well as the insurmountable struggle for peace and shared valuing of our humanity that we find ourselves still engaged in even today. It is a bittersweet acknowledgment that Elizabeth Freeman’s story has been largely understated and untold (if not erased) from our American History.

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Tyringham Racial Justice Event Remarks

I was honored to be invited by the Hop Brook community to speak at their second annual Juneteenth celebration on behalf of BRIDGE’s Towards Racial Justice and Equity in the Berkshires campaign (est. 2009) and to curate an event amplifying the voices of local Black leaders working for equity and justice. I was so glad that Shirley Edgerton (Rites of Passage and Empowerment), Dennis Powell (NAACP Berkshires), AJ Enchill (Berkshire Black Economic Council), and Dr. Leticia Hayes, JD (Williams College).

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Chapters: My Remarks at the Launch of Delano's “The Great Barrington Project: Unbleaching the Souls of Black Folk”

Thank you, Delano, for coming home to your hometown of Great Barrington to have such an important project launch with us: “The Great Barrington Project: Unbleaching the Souls of Black Folk.” BRIDGE and our Racial Justice groups are a grateful and inspired partner. You are lifting up our community, necessary conversations, and unspoken stories on such a deeply intimate and personal level. All the while calling us to activation or re-activiation. Thank you!

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My Remarks from "Listening Deeply: Indigenous Voices"

On October 1st, our community gathered for “Listening Deeply: Indigenous Voices,” a panel discussion which aimed to educate our community in preparation for Indigenous Peoples’ Day on October 11. The event took place at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting of South Berkshire in Housatonic and on Zoom. Shawn Stevens, Jake Singer, Bonney Hartley from the Mohican Cultural Affairs Office, and Carol Dana, a Penobscot Language Master, were invited to speak. I was honored to join Lev Natan in sharing opening remarks in service of centering the intention of the listening audience. Read “Great Barrington to Replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day” in The Berkshire Eagle.

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My Remarks on Juneteenth and Liberation (from a talk on White Privilege)

On Juneteenth (June 19th, 2021), I gave a talk with Dr. Peggy McIntosh “White Privilege, What it is and Why It Matters.” Presented by Tyringham for Racial Justice for BRIDGE, I shared my thoughts and then participated in a Q&A and dialogue alongside Peggy. Read my opening remarks followed by my presentation for their inaugural speaker series.

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Offerings

Gwendolyn offers highly customizable cultural competency, multicultural education, and literacy and proficiency training programs for groups of all ages and professional, educational, and socioeconomic backgrounds. She works with corporations and financial institutions, secondary and higher education institutions, law enforcement, public health institutions and hospitals, arts organizations, and leadership institutes. Her cultural competence training design, strategic equity and inclusion work, and capacity-building consulting has been sought out across the country. Learn more.

Awards and Recognitions

  • In 2019, Gwendolyn was named “Woman of the Year” by Berkshire Business and Professional Women.

  • In 2018, she was selected by the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women as one of the Commonwealth's “Unsung Heroines” and named a finalist in Executive Leadership in the 2018 Berkshire Nonprofit Awards.

  • In 2016, Berkshire Magazine named Gwendolyn one of the 25 most creative, talented, and influential leaders in the Berkshires.

  • In 2015 and 2016 she was recognized as a “Berkshire Trendsetter” finalist by 1Berkshire in the "Entrepreneur/Visionary of the Year" category. BRIDGE also won 1Berkshire's Nonprofit Impact award in 2016.

Other honors include awards from the Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce (2012), the Immigrant Community of the Berkshires (2011), and Women of Color Giving Circle (2009). Governor Deval Patrick, who honored her with an African American of Distinction award in 2010, called Gwendolyn’s leadership a “treasure to Berkshire County and this Commonwealth.” 

 
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