Episode 227: Diversity Equity & Inclusion Are Not Dead
L. Joy is very excited to bring Ifeomasinachi Ike back to the front of the class because the conversation around diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and the people who invest a lot of their lives to that work is imperative right now. DEI is not a trend. It is necessary to create equity in this society, and this discussion gives us the information we need to understand, organize around, and support DEI initiatives.
Homework:
READ: The Equity Mindset x Ifeomasinachi Ike https://www.ifeomasinachi.com/
LISTEN: Episode 94 The last time Ifeomasinachi Ike was at the front of the #SundayCivics Class https://www.sundaycivics.org/episodes/episode94
Our Guest:
Ifeomasinachi Ike, also called Ifeoma, is an award-winning first-generation advocate, lawyer and policy advisor focused on designing solutions to address disparities. She is the Founder & Chief Equity Weaver at Pink Cornrows, a Black-femme led social impact, policy and equity firm that weaves formal and cultural strategies to solve problems. She is also the author of “The Equity Mindset: Designing Human Spaces Through Journeys, Reflections, and Practices”, a #1 new release available in September 2023. She is currently a fellow with the NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty, Policy & Research.
A former Capitol Hill attorney, Ifeoma currently supports how various industries develop mindsets that hold the whole ecosystem in consideration. As the creator of the Equity, Leadership and Culture™ practice, her team enhances current diversity and inclusion practices with an equity lens with acute attention to developing transformational leaders. Her clients range from large non-profits to municipalities to Fortune 500 companies--all of whom have engaged in her signature Equity Mindset curriculum.
Ifeoma has a library of disrupting the status quo to advance social impact. Some of the efforts she has co-engineered include Just Leadership USA and Mass Bail Out NYC; as well as the formation of three congressional caucuses: Caucus on Black Men and Boys; Caucus on Black Women and Girls; and the recently-launched Caucus on Black Innovation. A movement lawyer, Ifeoma has been a policy advisor regarding human rights violations in Haiti, mistreatment of Afro-Colombians and non-consent medical practices on the continent of Africa. Ifeoma was part of the Ferguson Legal Defense Committee following the murder of unarmed Black teenager, Mike Brown, Jr. During the Flint water crisis, Ifeoma supported local organizers’ development of policy and civic responses. Understanding the role policy plays in the everyday lives of communities, Ifeoma has co-drafted several pieces of legislation, including the federal End Racial Profiling Act and Reparations Bill (HR 40).
As COVID-19 exposed old and new disparities, Ifeoma’s social impact firm, Pink Cornrows, co-created sustainable solutions that included serving as policy advisors to the National Birth Equity Collaborative, leading the equity framework for the Rockefeller Foundation’s multi-city vaccination effort, and conducting research exploring the relationship between the pandemic and gun violence. Pink Cornrows also launched COVID While Black, a research and culture project centering the lived experiences of Black lives and the continued failures of our healthcare system, as well as honoring those who have transitioned. The team also continued offering their annual Black Policy Lab, which centers collaborative policy creation, skills sharing and joy.
Ifeoma’s prior experience includes serving as New York City’s Executive Deputy Director of the Young Men’s Initiative, being a Senior Policy Advocate with the Innocence Project, providing counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, and being a researcher with the American Bar Association. Ifeoma has also been an adjunct professor at Lehman College, expert presenter at the White House, and a media contributor to MSNBC, CNN, PBS, NewsOne, HuffPost and Cosmopolitan.
As the first Black board member of the Women’s Prison Association, Ifeoma and other board members led the internal culture shift to better meet the needs of Black and Brown women impacted by the criminal legal system. In 2021, Ifeoma became the first member of New York City’s Conflict of Interest Board to be appointed by the Office of the Public Advocate.
Ifeoma holds a LL.M. with highest honors from The George Washington University School of Law and J.D. from CUNY School of Law, where she specialized in mediation and conflict resolution. Ifeoma earned her M.A. and B.A. in Communication Theory and Research as a Storer Scholar at West Virginia University.
