The Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business Impact Speaker Series, in collaboration with Dean Maryam Alavi’s D&I Speaker Series, is hosting a year-long run of conversations centered on anti-racism, social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
This semester, sessions featured young alumni social entrepreneurs (Archel Bernard), Founder of Bombchel), best-seller authors (Beverly Tatum), Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?), veteran corporate leaders (Lori George Billingsley), The Coca-Cola Company), civic innovators (Center for Civic Innovation panel), and public servants (Georgia Justice Project panel) – all sharing their up-close and personal and professional experiences. Each speaker was asked to share their call to action for engaging in anti-racist, inclusive, and equitable practices. These are some of those calls to action:
- Start with you. Understand your role in the system and find ways you can improve and learn.
- Ask the question. Who is missing from my community? What can I do to change that?
- In times of uncertainty, you can always control three things: your attitude, your effort, and your kindness.
- Educate yourself and find out where you fit in to make a difference.
- Get to know your local legislators and share what you learn and experience.
- Get close to people. It’s the best way to break down barriers and build momentum.
- Find someone with a different viewpoint from yours and have the hard conversations.
- Find out what you can do in your own community to make sure Black women can take off the mask.
- Think of civility as an act of self-care. How you help or don’t help others is self-care.
- If we all tapped into our childhoods, imagine what the world could look like.
- Make a point to buy from Black-owned businesses.
- When you are in the room where decisions are being made, be a sponsor for the candidates who aren’t represented in the group.
The Institute for Leadership and Social Impact (organizers of the Impact talks) is encouraging Georgia Tech students, faculty, and staff, along with the wider community, to engage in any and all of these actions to become more active citizens on a local and national level. Student can post their engagement on ILSI social media channels (LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook) to participate in the campaign.
The conversation series continues during the Spring 2021 semester with more speakers and panels that will dive into topics like ‘what is the role of universities in creating equitable partnerships’ and ‘how to address systemic racism – can we repurpose our jails?’
To view all videos from the fall series, visit our Impact Speaker Series YouTube channel.
To stay up to date on upcoming Impact talks, visit ILSI.gatech.edu.