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Executive & Professional Education

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion diverse team standing and smiling

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Champion Certificate

In-person: October 18, 2024 | November 1 & 15, 2024

Be a Force for Diversity in Your Organization

Bentley University's Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Certificate Programs equip business executives with the training and tools to create and nurture an inclusive organizational culture. The program is designed to meet learners where they are in their DEI journey and move them forward as agents of change.  

Change does not happen in a vacuum so seize the opportunity to request sponsorship from your company to enjoy a special group discount rate. Remember, advancing DEI is a collaborative journey that demands strategic planning, empathy, and collective effort. 

A Data-driven, Impactful Curriculum

Through our innovative Race/And approach, participants engage in self-reflection, deepen their understanding of DEIJ fundamentals, explore team-level diagnosis and interventions, and gain insights into organizational and system-level change planning. 

Experiential Learning

Our program incorporates experiential learning through immersive activities, case studies, and interactive modules. Participants engage in real-world scenarios, role-playing exercises, and group discussions to apply theoretical concepts directly to practical situations. This hands-on approach allows learners to deepen their comprehension, develop problem-solving abilities, and cultivate empathy and awareness. 

Creating Change

Participants will leverage their newfound knowledge to craft a tailored DEI change initiative for their organizations, complete with an implementation plan for integration upon their return to their professional roles.

Take the next step

Foundations and Individual Exploration

In this section, participants are introduced to our Race/And approach as they embark on a journey of self-discovery and skill-building, delving into critical topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

Understand Bias

Explore foundational concepts such as intersectionality, unconscious bias, and microaggressions. 

Analyze Neuroscience

Delving into the neuroscience of DEI and the basics of change management. 

Conversation Framework

Learn about the Bentley Brave DialogueSM framework for engaging in conversations across differences in the workplace.   

Inclusivity Within Teams and Organizations

Participants further their understanding of fostering inclusive environments and driving organizational change through an intersectional lens. 

Develop Synergy

Developing an inclusivity narrative, understanding team dynamics, and promoting high-functioning, inclusive leadership.

Explore Teams

Exploring inclusive team leadership, addressing biases, transforming organizations, and managing diverse team conflicts.

Cultivate Inclusivity

Exploring organizational culture, tackling micro-inequities, and leading inclusively with intersectional awareness.

DEI Change in Organizations and Systems

Participants embark on the final stages of their journey towards driving meaningful change within their organizations and prepare their change initiatives. 

Promote Equity

Learn how to translate initiatives into actionable plans by engaging your organization and strategizing implementation. 

Enhance Initiatives

Utilize evidence-based organization developmental tools to refine and strengthen DEI change initiatives, ensuring their efficacy and sustainability. 

Create Action Plan

Participants culminate their experience by crafting personalized action plans, solidifying their commitment as allies and advocates for diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice within the workplace. 

Detailed Topics

Foundations and Individual Exploration

Session 1

  • Understand the business and human case for diversity, equity, inclusion (DE&I) by exploring the latest data
  • Define foundational concepts including intersectionality, unconscious bias, and micro-inequities
  • Understand key psychological processes that impede relations across difference and how to address them
  • Learn how to identify individual biases and techniques to de-bias behaviors
  • Explore how allyship, cultural humility, and an understanding of individual privilege can help leaders facilitate organizational transformation and help organizations uproot systemic barriers to inclusion

Session 2

  • Explore a framework outlining different personal conflict styles and their role in group interactions
  • Understand your default conflict style, and learn to recognize the conflict styles of others
  • Leverage conflict style understanding to better engage others in discussions across difference
  • Practice the skill of initiating and teaching others how to have courageous conversations across difference

Session 3

  • Understand your own racialized experience by reflecting on early learnings about race and racism
  • Integrate intersectionality into understanding your racialized experience
  • Develop ability to dialogue about your race and a greater understanding of how to facilitate conversations about race in multiracial and multicultural environments

Session 4

  • Explore and share your own commitment to DEI and develop your "why"
  • Create an individualized action plan for moving forward as an ally and workplace advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion
Inclusivity within Teams and Organizations

Session 5

  • Develop and share your inclusivity story
  • Explore the competencies required to be an inclusive team lead
  • Understand the stages of group development, and how to leverage this understanding to promote high-functioning teams

Session 6

  • Examine the challenges and opportunities related to developing and leading inclusive teams
  • Explore how to identify individual and group biases and delve into remedies to interrupt these individually and as a team
  • Learn the foundations of transforming homogenous and white dominant organizations into multicultural organizations
  • Investigate interventions to resolve conflict within teams while leveraging disagreements related to diversity of opinions, skills, and expertise

Session 7

  • Explore the composition of organizational culture and organizational micro-inequities, and determine how to identify and tackle micro-inequities within your organization
  • Examine the challenges of leading an inclusive organization with a diverse workforce and how to develop solutions that take into account intersectionality related to working with race, gender, sexuality, disability and other identities

Session 8

  • Learn and apply a framework to develop DEI change initiatives regardless of your role or position in your organization
  • Analyze and unpack a successful racial equity change initiative case

Session 9

  • Initiate the development of DEI change initiative for your organization
  • Collaborate with cohort members and practice giving and receiving feedback about DEI change initiatives

Session 10

  • Create a plan to engage others in your organization with implementation planning of your change initiative
  • Final takeaways, and group debriefing

 

Facilitators

Facilitator Yaro Fong-Olivares

Yaro Fong-Olivares

Yaro Fong-Olivares (she/her), M.S. – is an Afro-Caribbean and Chinese immigrant from the island of Hispaniola (now known as the Dominican Republic and Haiti), Washington Heights, and now living in Massachusetts. Her most salient identity is as a priest of Yemaya in the Lucumi spiritual tradition. She serves as Executive Director of Gloria Cordes Larson Center for Women and Business at Bentley University, an organization dedicated to advancing intersectional gender equity from the classroom to the boardroom.

Wiley Davi

Wiley Davi, Ph.D.

Wiley Davi Ph.D., is professor of English & Media Studies at Bentley University. In addition, Wiley is a program facilitator for Bentley's Gloria Cordes Larson Center for Women and Business and for Erasmus University Rotterdam’s Erasmus Center for Women and Organizations. Wiley is co-author of the book Leading with Uncommon Sense (Springer 2019). Their teaching and research interests span the fields of writing, diversity and inclusion, gender studies, and leadership. Wiley holds a Ph.D. from Tufts University in Massachusetts.

Who Should Attend?
Entry and mid-level professionals responsible for employee engagement, talent development, and other organizational development functions, and who need foundational knowledge in DE&I. Examples include: Talent Managers, HR Coordinators, Hiring Coordinators, DEI Coordinators.DEI professionals, looking to increase their knowledge of developing team and organizational change initiatives. Examples include: DEI Managers, Chief Diversity Officers new to the role. 
Professionals interested in taking a more active role in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion within their organizations but are at the beginning of their DEI journey and development.Senior HR professionals with foundational DEI knowledge and engaged in personal DEI work, looking to expand their impact in this dimension. Examples include: Chief HR Officers with informal or self-directed DEI training looking to deepen organizational DEI expertise. 
Key HR decision makers in roles that require additional awareness of diversity and unconscious bias. Examples include recruiters, hiring managers, and HR business partners who need foundational knowledge in DEI.Leaders of corporate employee resource groups with informal knowledge and experience with leading DEI efforts looking to expand their impact or move from group level impact to organizational change and impact. 
Recently promoted managers seeking to learn how to manage diverse teams.Members of employee resource groups seeking to develop interpersonal DEI advocacy toolbox. 
What You Will Gain

To translate demographic and cognitive diversity into a culture of belonging, organizations must encourage, train, and inspire employees to take ownership of the organization's diversity and inclusion journey. Bentley's Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Certificate Programs offer intensive, experiential programs that prepare participants as advocates to foster an inclusive workplace culture.

Participants will:

  • Understand the business and human case for DE&I by exploring the latest data, and learn the fundamental vocabulary used in DEI work
  • Gain insight into potential barriers to an inclusive workplace and actionable strategies to overcome these barriers
  • Explore your own racialized experience, integrate the concept of intersectionality into that understanding
  • Develop the ability to dialogue about race and identity and how to facilitate successful conversations about race and identity in multiracial and multicultural environments
  • Develop an individualized action plan to move forward as a workplace advocate for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
  • Explore the foundations of transforming homogeneous organizations into multicultural organizations
  • Learn about organizational systems and culture and how these  contribute to organizational inequities
  • Learn to identify and mitigate team and organizational inequities

Program Dates

Friday, October 18, 2024

Friday, November 1, 2024

Friday, November 15, 2024

Program Cost: $5,500

  • Program fee includes tuition, instructional materials, breakfast and lunch.
  • Register 30+ days in advance to receive a 20% discount automatically.
  • Register 14 days in advance to receive a 10% discount automatically.
  • Bentley Alumni receive a 50% enrollment discount.

For information regarding the alumni discount code, contact:

Bentley University Executive Education
execed@bentley.edu

Group Enrollment 30% Discount

Empower your leaders to learn together and grow together. Bentley offers a special 30% group rate discount to companies that send five participants or more. 

Bentley Refund Policy

Bentley University will grant a full refund for cancellations received at least 30 days before the program start date. A 50% refund will be given for those cancellations made prior to fourteen days of the program start date. No refund will be granted for those cancellations received after that time.

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