In October 2019, as a Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts LIPPI (Leadership Institute for Political and Public Impact) program alum, I had the privilege of participating in the panel, The Berkshire LIPPI Link and Research Forum alongside Amber Besaw (Executive Director of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition); Yuki Cohen (Owner of Methuselah Bar & Lounge and Candidate for City Council At-Large for the City of Pittsfield); and Roberta McCulloch-Dews (Director of Administrative Services for the City of Pittsfield). Moderator Erika Allison from Willow Investments for Loving Change asked us a series of thoughtful questions that I want to take the time to answer again here so that I may share these reflections with others.
1) Tell us who you are and your unique flavor of “leading political and/or public impact”
I’m a consultant, coach, and convener leading equity and justice work in the Berkshires and beyond, and I’m also the CEO and Founding Director of a local nonprofit BRIDGE. I’m proud to have been part of the first ever LIPPI cohort. My unique flavor of leading change, I believe, is about empathy, authenticity, and embodiment. As I wrote in our local nonprofit resource Connections Magazine earlier this year, I believe effective leadership is about understanding both the practical ins and outs of organizing and then what it takes to fully embody one’s leadership. These guideposts will sustain you, whatever you aim to build.
I also tell people, you must know the “why” at the core of your work. Then you need to find and nurture your “flock” of fellow leaders as adrienne maree brown writes in Emergent Strategy. By this I mean, surround yourself with folks who are further along in the work, but who share a similar vision. Engage them as mentors and connect with people who are different from you in terms of socioeconomic, ethnic, and racial background as well skill sets and capacities. A true act of leadership is self-care and knowing the resources you need to have the best outcome and for you to lead as your ideal self.
In my consulting work, one unique thing I do is work with organizations to advance not just equity, but accountability, knowledge, and access to resources and knowledge. Part of the way I do this is by leading what I call IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access) work, which helps people understand how all of these things are different buckets of work that work together to foster an intentional plan of integrating diverse perspectives and experiences toward a shared vision of equity and safety in their workplaces, communities, and sectors.
I guess in a sentence I would describe my unique flavor of leading change as “integrating positive psychology within equity and inclusion work while keeping a race, gender, and poverty analysis at the center.” After this, it’s about trusting in the “ripples of change” to follow when we are authentic and empathetic in our collective work.
2) What impact has gender had on your work?
We focus a significant amount of energy and work on integrating gender equity and gender identity in my cultural competency work. I have held gender an essential lens through BRIDGE’s “Women to Women” group here in The Berkshires. Through Changemaker Strategies, I’ve also provided planning, consultation, and coaching work supporting coalitions of organizations working for women’s political representation from a gender and race equity lens. As a coach and trainer, I always encourage folks to develop cultural humility, so I try to lead with this as well. I acknowledge the bias of my gender identity and racial identity as I ask others who hold different identities to do so as well, including examining my access (or lack thereof) to resources due to my identities, educational background, and my work.
In and around women’s leadership, I’ve always struggled with the term “feminist” because it went along with the term “woman”. Both terms, more so in my college years and for many still, were for White people due to the white supremacy culture we are all in; they weren’t terms that were automatically inclusive of me or Black women’s experiences. A Black activist and academic Rachel Cargle spoke about this recently in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar. (Read this article for wonderful perspective here. Her voice resonates with me completely!) Black feminists have been claiming and reclaiming feminism and womanism for decades, acknowledging that at first glance, Black women are overlooked. This is the whole premise of Black Feminist thought. So often today, when you hear about the women’s experience, it is still about the White woman’s experience. So to be a feminist or a woman, I have had to qualify terms like “woman” and “feminist” and say Black Woman and/or a Black feminist to even come close to capturing my identity, life experiences, and perspective. To use these terms without also saying “Black” or “African American” before “feminist” ultimately means quite possibly none of us are on the same page or working within the same contextual base of knowledge of the barriers… the strengths and the remedies.
To that end, this past fall I served as the book club designer and facilitator for the BLK FMNNST Loaner Library book club at MassMoCA, accompanying the Cauleen Smith exhibit which displays 17 years of her life on an entire floor of the museum. I explored my own Black gender lens and its intersection with race, activism, art, science, relationships, history, and politics in the writings of these three Black Feminist writers: Octavia E. Butler, Christina Sharpe, and Patricia Hill Collins. This year I also had the privilege of presenting a session on gender roles and delivering an entire session on Black Feminism at OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) at the Community College. (Find some of my favorite Black feminist thinkers here).
3) What are your thoughts on the launch of the 2019 research report on the Status of Women and Girls in Western Massachusetts?
As a Board Member of the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts and serving as the Chair of The Berkshire County Commission on the Status of Women for several years, I look forward to the follow up on this report across the region and within my home county of the Berkshires. The new data resonates with what we’ve seen and have been working on in the Berkshires. With this data, I trust that organizations serving women as well as WFWM will continue to advocate for gender equity, gender parity, and reducing gender violence resulting from poverty and other public health disparities. I anticipate increased opportunities and pathways to empowerment and thriving for women and girls in order to create a new equitable narrative of success for all women, including transwomen.
4) How is your local work different from your national work?
For me, understanding the difference between local versus national work parallels rural versus urban organizing (or even larger scale organizing). It requires looking at the intersection of humanity, relationships, and systems. As I’ve written before, working in a rural community with small numbers in relative isolation can make problems larger. Going against the grain to create change in a small community can turn destructive or harmful too quickly without enough trust and relationship-building. However, going by your own rules that fit your community may systematically exclude others out of the process. I always recommend asking, “How do we stay true to the culture of our area while welcoming 'outsiders/newcomers and fresh ideas effectively?'”
Alternatively, small numbers in rural areas can be used as a point of leverage when it comes to gaining access. The political landscape is different; there may be fewer folks in general and fewer degrees of separation. This provides a real opportunity. The threshold for enacting change, even at the policy level, is entirely different than in larger places. For example, BRIDGE’s Trust Policy work was done in an incredibly short period of time. One thing I remind myself and others is that we have direct access to our leaders and public safety officials. This provides more opportunities to impact change. Rural areas also have more opportunity to have direct conversations that impact policymaking and decision-making, which takes strong relationships.
On the national level, my work is still community work because it’s still about relationships and belonging. I’ve had the privilege of stewarding a certain level of intimacy and trust within community organizing work across many different sectors, learning what it takes to get work done and creating a sense of belonging behind the scenes. We have learned as well how important it is to allow, budget for, and embrace the amount of cross-training involved in any organizing project. Much of what I have learned in a rural context I’ve been able to apply to national or larger scale work. Often folks see “rural” as a limiting factor and a deficit, but on the contrary, I have found that living and working in a rural community is a privilege, advantage, and good training ground for national work. You can see what is possible. You have more direct experience engaging across sectors.
5) Any final thoughts/advice for audience as a woman leading political and public impact?
For me, again, the most important thing is just to be authentic. In my own work, I know I’m more effective when I am connecting my brain work with my heart work and working towards embodying it all at once. As a leader, I strive to create and hold spaces for multiple identities to be present and then activated towards a a common goal and shared vision. As an African American woman, mother, and professional, I integrate my personal experiences with my professional experiences and incorporate all of this learning into my training, coaching, and consulting.
I encourage brave conversations in which we can all lean into our discomfort and conflict in dialogue and radical candor with each other. I believe this is what allows cultures and dynamics with an improved positive social impact to evolve. This approach invites more authenticity and empathy from others. From an embodied leadership perspective, centering on authenticity and empathy almost always leads to better work no matter where we find ourselves leading as women.
© 2019 Gwendolyn VanSant