This event was recorded on May 17, 2023 at The Arts Campus at Willits (TACAW) as part of the Equity Speaker Series, in partnership with Aspen Public Radio.
Kenya, Donisha and Luana from FCS define cultural humility and how it can serve as a best practice to: form more authentic connections; practice more holistic wellness and understanding; and shift the way power is seen and used.
Kenya Johnson, PhD, MSW: Dr. Kenya Johnson (she/her) is co-founder and managing principal of Full Circle Strategies. She has over twenty years of teaching experience in higher education at the undergraduate and graduate levels having taught various courses in sociology and social work. In addition to her extensive teaching career, she has extensive practice in facilitating conversations around race and anti-racism. She was trained as a dismantling racism facilitator through the Western States Center in Portland, Oregon and Race Forward in Chicago, Illinois. She has facilitated multiple training sessions for grassroots organizers, college students, labor groups, government employees, and non-profit organizations throughout the Midwest and Western regions, along with her national work with Full Circle Strategies.
Donisha Shepard, MSW: Donisha Shepherd (she/her) serves as Talent and Wellness Strategist & HEARTspeak Facilitator with Full Circle Strategies. Donisha had dedicated her work to the long-term goal of decolonizing the profession she has dedicated her life to. She believes that anti-racism work is necessary and provides an opportunity for everyone to “rethink what we think we know”, unlearn the teachings that divided us, and learn how to utilize our differences as building blocks to becoming better as a whole. Donisha became heavily politically engaged as a voter registration official in Harris County and other counties surrounding Houston. Donisha has extensive political organizing and education experience. Before joining Full Circle, Donisha participated in the Texas legislative session where she was able to analyze policy based on its impacts on working class Texans while assessing the lack of urgency Texas leaders had on issues that disproportionately impacted Black and Brown Texans.
Donisha is a graduate of the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work (GCSW) where she received her Master’s degree in Social Work with a Macro concentration.
Luana Da Silva, LCSW-S, SEP: Luana Da Silva (they/she) is a somatic-based trauma and cultural worker. Luana has been called to engage with the impact of generational trauma and/or grief through a decolonial lens with people across varied identities, situations and settings. Currently they do so by engaging in different forms of therapeutic work, birth work, community and cultural work, in addition to their ongoing personal work. Luana is a HEARTspeak Facilitator with Full Circle Strategies, and holds a license as a board-approved clinical social worker and supervisor (LCSW-S) in Texas, as well as being a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP).