The Diversity Leadership Conference is a free, half-day conference hosted at the University of Washington each year to encourage students to strengthen their leadership skills and cultural awareness, engage in critical dialogues about activism and social justice, and network with peers and professionals from similar backgrounds and experiences.
This year, we are excited to present the 9th annual Diversity Leadership Conference, with the theme “Defying – and Redefining – Expectations”. The last few years have forced us to adjust rapidly to a “new normal” – and illuminated that traditional ideas of the college experience, success, and leadership no longer work for our communities. Join us at this conference as we deconstruct former expectations and re-imagine what our collective future holds. Creating new pathways is never easy, and we invite leaders to draw on a foundation of self-care, community-building, and social justice as sources of strength and inspiration.
Conference Registration
Faculty/Staff/Alumni Registration
Workshop Sessions
Download the full schedule here.
Keynote Speaker - Teena Thach
Hey Washington foodies! Teena Thach is a first-generation woman of color, a social media content creator, foodie and storyteller. Originally from Southend of Tacoma, she focuses her storytelling on mom + pop, black and brown, immigrant small businesses, to give back and uplift communities in need. She loves all things lifestyle, music and the arts and hopes to continue spreading kindness and positivity through all that she does.
Hey WA Foodies on Tik Tok: @teena_thach
Follow her on Instagram: @teena_thach
Roles and Boundaries for Social Change
Presented by Katie Wallace, M.I.T.
In this workshop, we’ll dive into Deepa Iyer’s Social Change Ecosystem Map. We’ll discuss the roles we play in our personal ecosystems, as well as our roles in social change. Participants will engage in self-reflection, learn from their peers, and walk away with a tool for future decision-making and boundary-setting that centers mental health and well-being.
Thriving as First Generation Underrepresented Students
Presented by Andrea Malagón
Here we will explore the importance of counter spaces and how they allow first gen students to develop their identity, celebrate who they are, and recognize the vastness of intersectionality in all ethnic communities. We will generate discussion about how on-campus resources have deepened our relationship with our intersecting identities.
Revisiting Reflexivity: Maintaining (and Evolving) Your Centering Principles Throughout your Work
Presented by Ellen Ahlness, PhD
This workshop teaches participants specific, step-by-step activities that can be used at any stage of one’s career or community endeavors to re-center the self by bringing attention back to one’s guiding principles. Drawing from Critical Race, DEI, and Qualitative Methodology literature, this workshop takes participants through a crash-course in reflexivity.
Affirmations for Mixed/Multiracial College Student Experience
Presented by Shawnti Johnson, LICSW and Michelle Bagshaw, MSW
Since the census changes allowing the selection of more than one race, the number of multiracial identified individuals has steadily increased. We seek to offer an antiracist space of affirmation and belonging for storytelling, community building, and resource sharing from Mixed/Multiracial college students.
Becoming Your Own Amorcito Corazon: Love & Acceptance Begins With You
Presented by Tracy J Gasca, she/her, tracyg2@uw.edu
As womxn of color the balance and flow of self-love and self-acceptance is not always taught to us as children. This workshop will provide a safe space for discussion and various tools we can use to care and love ourselves in the same way we love others. This workshop is open to everyone, the workshop will be from a Mexican-American Women perspective.
Healthy Relationships & Self Care for QTBIPOC
Presented by BB Denton and Hadi Yusri
This workshop is to discuss healthy relationships and self care for QTBIPOC, through a lens of queer joy and QTBIPOC resilience. There will be information presented on how people may choose to pursue healthy love and self care both tangibly and conceptually.
Naming Identities as a (Bi)Multilingual
Presented by the ASUW Queer Student Commission
The workshop intends to explore the dominance of English as a language to define labels or identities that are not necessarily translated well in different languages. We also want to challenge the idea of defining terms in English using dictionaries that have been historically colonial to indoctrinate ways of thinking about identities in a colonial way.
The Power of Allyship: A Guide to Supporting Undocumented Peers
Presented by Flor Gonzalez
This Undocumented Ally training is designed to help students understand some challenges undocumented students face in college. This training will be a way for students to become better advocates for their undocumented peers and learn how they can make a difference.
Microsoft Intersectional Career Panel
Moderated by Vicky Flores – Product Marketing Manager (SOMOS LatinX Employee Resource Group). Panelists: Michael Xiao, Shary Almaguer Leal, Tamara Braunstein
Panelists will be members of 3 different Employee Resource Groups at Microsoft, and each one is in a different discipline (Communications, Computer Science, HR). The goal of the panel is to give students a sense of how we each got to where we did today, through the lens of our diverse backgrounds. We also want to make sure we’re touching on key issues that students deal with regularly today (mental health, imposter syndrome).
Redefining Leadership through Wellness
Presented by Tyneshia Valdez and Sasha Duttchoudhury, Be REAL facilitators
Equitable and sustainable leadership requires compassion and mindfulness, directed toward yourself and those you lead. Join us for a discussion in collaboration with the UW Resilience Lab focused on how leaders can cultivate wellness, and use it as a tool to break from traditional methods that measure success.
Racial Healing: Grieving the Losses
Presented by Natacha Foo Kune, PhD and Anthony Aguiluz, LMHC
In this workshop, we will provide a safe space for discussion and healing by sharing knowledge and our personal and collective experiences. Participants will learn about how racism and white supremacy harm mental health, have space to process their feelings and experience and engage in a larger conversation about how we can care for ourselves and our communities.
Check out photos from previous years’ DLC here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/uKHGnD5b5MEZi1Q2A
Follow DLC on Instagram!
If you have any questions about DLC, please feel free to contact ECC’s Coordinator for Student Leadership, Eileen Guo, eilguo@uw.edu.
