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Engineer Inclusion

Curricula

We'd love to meet you and design a program to meet your needs.

The Intentionally Engineer Inclusion™ Program Starts January 2024

The Intentionally Engineer Inclusion™ Program is a cohort-based semi-asynchronous  program for any person or team interested in expanding their leadership capacity by building practices and employing skills that facilitate equity, inclusion, and belonging for others.

Early bird registration extends until 11/1 with $500 savings.

Join the Cohort!
Intentionally Engineer Inclusion™ Program starts January 2024

Our curricula

What We Teach

Our curricula is research-based and strategy-driven. With over a decade of experience writing and delivering equity-focused curriculum, we’ve optimized our programs to inspire awareness and initiate action.  

Our portfolio of curricula is ever-expanding, and we can adjust any program to meet the specific needs of your audience. Featured below are some of our newest programs, however we can teach to many topics like those included in the lists of expertise.

  • Inclusive Leadership
  • Engineering Education
  • Nontraditional CTE
  • Educational Equity
  • Self-Efficacy for Success
  • Cultural Responsiveness
  • Growth Mindset
  • Inclusive Learning Environments
  • Gender Equity
  • White Fragility
  • Anti-Racist Training
  • Perkins Legislation
  • Equity Coaching
  • Racial Equity
  • Equity Audits
  • STEM for Counselors
  • Implicit or Unconscious Bias
  • Problem Based Learning
  • Social and Emotional Learning
  • Strategic Planning for DEI
  • Organizational Culture and Climate
  • Inclusive Leadership
  • Diversity and Inclusion
  • Self-Efficacy for Success
  • Growth Mindset
  • Inclusive Work Environments
  • Gender Equity
  • White Fragility
  • Anti-Racist Training
  • Social Justice
  • Racial Equity
  • Equity Audits
  • Belonging
  • Implicit or Unconscious Bias
  • Strategic Planning for DEI
  • Organizational Culture and Climate

Signature Talk and workshop

How to Intentionally Engineer Inclusion® and Belonging

Inclusion is essential for creating workplaces, organizations, and environments where every person succeeds. However, inclusion doesn’t happen by accident. It takes intentional effort and occurs when engineered systematically to facilitate the best outcomes. You can learn to Intentionally Engineer Inclusion™ and ‘DRIVE’ change within your sphere of influence. Using a data-driven approach to reveal and address root-cause issues, participants will learn how to pilot improvement initiatives that target identified barriers. No more random interventions anchored only by hope! By activating systems thinking for systemic change, this session will empower participants to lead meaningful change efforts that Intentionally Engineer Inclusion®.

Core Curricula

Hover over each image for a brief abstract.

Self-Awareness for Social Justice

How can we stand for social justice, if we don’t know where we stand? The journey of self-awareness unravels our biases, unpacks our privilege, unclasps our position, and unoccupies power. Knowing “woke” words, and discussing social justice isn’t enough. We must take action within ourselves while we also take action in our communities.
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Find Your Sixth Sense: Asset Mindset

Our biases alter our perceptions, and influence our interactions with others. An asset mindset moves past implicit biases to see the value in others, and welcomes diverse ways of knowing and doing. We can transform and improve relationships by shifting from a deficit to an asset mindset. Change how you see colleagues, classmates, family or students by finding your sixth sense.

Inclusive Virtual Learning

Virtual learning can be a challenge, especially when we aim to create equitable and inclusive learning environments. In this workshop, we use active learning to practice using a variety of tools, yet also have generative discussions that facilitate more conversation around inclusive instructional strategies. Best practices are modeled throughout the session, and exercises allow participants to experiment with various technologies.

DEI Strategic Planning

Whether you want to develop a strategy for diversity, equity, and inclusion, evaluate the one you have, or invigorate efforts, we can help. We facilitate collaborative sessions that drive collective decisions for DEI in your organization.

Equal Opportunity Isn’t Equal for Everyone

Equal opportunity is both a legal term and colloquialism. We have “equal opportunity” employers, and many people hold beliefs that everyone has equal opportunity to success. Some might align this belief with the American Dream, rags to riches, or bootstrap ideologies. In this course, I’ll introduce specific historical and systemic reasons for why equal opportunity isn’t equal for everyone.

Deconstructing Bias in Systems

Our systems create what we programmed them to create. If our output doesn't match what we desire, how are we changing the system to facilitate an improved output? Climate is a function of the system and the people that hold it up. If we want DEI issues to be considered important, how does the system support that output? In this session, we'll learn strategies to influence the system around us to create an equitable and inclusive climate.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Mindset

In this session, we'll unpack the six characteristics of DEI mindset for educators and leave with strategies to apply to our practice.

Inclusive Engineering Design Practices

Design thinking fuels innovation. It is a solution-oriented process with considerations about the consumer at the heart of all development stages. Truly empathic and inclusive design requires a multi-cultural competence and awareness that can be cultivated and developed. In this session, we examine best practices for engineering inclusive technological solutions.

Abstracts for Additional Talks and Workshops

How we see and understand the world influences how we interact with others, make decisions, and interpret others’ actions. To be equitable and inclusive leaders, educators, or humans, we must understand our positionality, the social and political context that creates our identity, and how our identity influences and biases our perception of and outlook on the world. Positionality affects research, teaching, leading, policymaking, and everyday interactions. This workshop provides a scaffolded and reflexive exercise to help you examine your positionality, increase awareness, and extend greater empathy, compassion, and understanding to others.

Learning Outcomes:
  • Participants will investigate when identity and perspective are important factors in a professional setting.
  • Participants will examine how their identity and perspective influence their work and lives.
  • Participants will begin crafting a positionality statement that allows them to increase awareness and extend greater empathy, compassion, and understanding to others.
In an already divided world, we need a way of talking about ideas that don’t drive us further apart. Debate and discussion position us as adversaries, where dialogue centers community and humanity. Learning empathic listening strategies, employing culturally intelligent communication, and practicing techniques for inclusive conversations can bring us together. This workshop will examine practical strategies that help us be better leaders, educators, and citizens.
For education: Student success is at the heart of all of our efforts as educators. However, to fully serve each of our students, we must understand the systemic barriers preventing traditionally marginalized and excluded populations from reaching their full potential and take action for structural change. The Interlocking 4-I’s of Oppression Model is one way to understand how systems of oppression work together. Since educational equity is an effort to give everyone what they need to succeed and an explicit effort to level the playing field to reach equality, we must address oppression at all four levels to facilitate systemic change. In this talk, participants will learn the Interlocking 4-I’s of Oppression Model and examine the related root causes and barriers engineering students face, and reflect on what they can do to reduce barriers and provide support.
 
For industry: Employee success is at the heart of all of our efforts as leaders. However, to fully serve each of our employees, we must understand the systemic barriers preventing traditionally marginalized and excluded populations from reaching their full potential and take action for structural change. The Interlocking 4-I’s of Oppression Model is one way to understand how systems of oppression work together. Since equity is an effort to give everyone what they need to succeed and an explicit effort to level the playing field to reach equality, we must address oppression at all four levels to facilitate systemic change. In this talk, participants will learn the Interlocking 4-I’s of Oppression Model and examine the related root causes, and barriers marginalized employees face, and reflect on what they can do to reduce barriers and provide support.

Client success is at the heart of all of our efforts. However, to fully serve, we must understand the systemic barriers preventing traditionally marginalized and excluded populations from reaching their full potential and take action for structural change. The Interlocking 4-I Model is one way to understand how systems of oppression work together to disadvantage clients. Since equity strives to give everyone what they need to succeed and an explicit effort to level the playing field to reach equality, we must address oppression at all four levels to facilitate systemic change adding appropriate supports along the way. In this session, participants will learn the Interlocking 4-I Model, examine related root causes and barriers faced, and reflect on what they can do to reduce barriers and provide maximal support.

Student success is at the heart of all of our efforts as educators. However, to fully serve each of our students, we must understand the barriers preventing them from reaching their full potential. Educational equity is an effort to give everyone what they need to succeed and an explicit effort to level the playing field to reach equality. In this workshop, participants will examine some of the barriers students face and reflect on what they can do to reduce barriers and provide support.

>> Learn more

Empathy is the ability to understand and share another’s feelings, and it is a skill that can bring people together and make people feel included and valued. When we listen to understand, we can remove barriers. This workshop assists participants in reviving an updated version of the golden rule and equips them with practical strategies to improve their listening skills.

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Culturally responsive educators eliminate barriers and add equitable support for marginalized students, facilitating learning environments that enable students to reach their full potential. The journey to becoming a culturally responsive educator is a never-ending, enriching experience rooted in developing cultural competence, demonstrated by employing inclusive and equitable strategies, and reflected in an iterative practice of noticing, listening, and questioning how we can improve. In this workshop, participants will explore the key characteristics of cultural competence and learn practical strategies for culturally responsive teaching.

Our brains all learn in the same way, moving through the six stages of the natural learning process that lead to mastery. When we move through each stage, we work with our brains to develop knowledge and skill. Many things affect learning differently; however, through no fault of their own, factors impact some people more than others. When we expand awareness of barriers in the classroom, we can create a more equitable and inclusive learning environment. This workshop teaches the natural learning process, basic neuroscience of how the brain learns, overviews ten barriers to learning, and equips educators with strategies for helping oneself and others learn.

>> Learn more

As we navigate instruction amid the global pandemic, the learning loss gaps challenge us in unique ways. One way to bridge the gap is to shift our mindset to an asset- or strengths-based perspective. This shift enables us to incorporate our students’ experiences as value-added contributions to the learning environment. When we find value in what students bring rather than focus on what they lack, we are better situated to create equitable and inclusive learning environments. This workshop will equip educators to develop a strengths-based mindset for inclusive instruction.

Micromessages are small, subtle, unconscious messages we both send and receive when we communicate with others. These messages manifest in what we say, our tone of voice, body language, curriculum, and instructional choices. No one is immune from sending them or receiving them. The accumulation of micromessages can become big roadblocks to student success. When we increase our awareness of micromessages, we can mitigate how often they show up in the classroom. This workshop will help educators identify negative micromessages and reduce barriers to a more equitable and inclusive learning environment.

For diversity, equity, and inclusion issues, we must find the root causes for our specific populations before diving in with well-intentioned interventions that may miss the mark and leave us no better than before we started. In this workshop, we will teach participants how to do a root cause analysis to help uncover the root causes of the more visible symptoms and problems like persistence or interest in nontraditional careers.

Decades of research provide us a wealth of knowledge on the root causes for why people don’t pursue and persist in nontraditional pathways. However, it’s rarely as simple as one thing. A combination of factors is usually at play, reducing equity and inclusion in nontraditional pathways and careers. In this workshop, participants will learn the top ten root causes for equity in CTE and STEM. Through case study analysis, we will examine the intersections of these root causes for participation and completion.

Recruiting nontraditional students into STEM and CTE programs and pathways can be a significant challenge. Understanding the root causes is crucial to sustainable change; however, recruitment remains one of the biggest hurdles to participation. In this workshop, we will review the best practices for recruitment, and participants will explore strategies that will work best for their population.

For many, the last year and a half have been a crash course in resiliency. Others may have enough grit to last a lifetime but could benefit from tips to find balance amid persistent challenges. Many of us wish to support those around us in cultivating resilience. This workshop provides the best practices for building strength in ourselves and others and equips participants with practical strategies for developing resilience.

More units

Diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging and justice are ethics issues. How to speak truth to power.

 

Inclusive collaboration facilitates belonging and honors uniqueness. How to intentionally notice, listen, and question for inclusion.

 

Equity requires self-awareness and accountability. How to “do the right thing” by understanding ourselves first.

 

Cultural values and norms influence everything. How to expand cultural competency to improve ideation.

 

Lifelong learners and reflective practitioners do it best. How to build a DEI mindset and practice.

 

Knowledge of systems of (dis)advantage helps us think of others first. How to see barriers caused by systemic inequities.

This unit introduces systems of advantage and systems of oppression. It draws out fear and directs people towards problem-solving systems, not merely themselves.

This unit introduces how privilege, stereotypes, and implicit bias work in our brains to create blindspots that, with effort, we can learn to recognize and adjust behavior.

Empathy is a skill that can bring people together and make people feel included. This unit assists participants in reviving an updated version of the golden rule.

People like to improve themselves, as is evidenced by the huge market of self-help books and programs. Leveraging this energy, we shift towards a collectivist approach to improve society.

What else might be true? Instead of jumping to conclusions that are usually aligned to stereotypes and bias, we activate an asset mindset that allows us to first recognize the value in others.

To make change, we must interrupt the cycles of inequity. This unit helps participants to practice speaking-up to call others in and call out systemic inequities.

To create inclusive environments, we must learn the dance of when to step-up to advocate for the marginalized and oppressed, and when to step back to make space for others to shine.

Learning to be an inclusive person is a lifestyle practice that, with effort, we can all adapt and share a journey of continuous improvement.

Programs and Special Offers

ASEE TV with Christina Alston and Meagan Pollock

Interview on ASEE TV

During the American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference in Baltimore in June 2023, Dr. Christina Alson and I were interviewed by ASEE TV. Check out the interview!

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Baltimore Meet up, June 25

For those near Baltimore on June 25, please join me for the first official Engineer Inclusion Meet-Up! It will be fun to celebrate what we’ve learned together.

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join our team communications manager

Communications Manager

We seek someone passionate about diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging to join our team as a communications manager! If you have a savvy way with words that can motivate, connect, and inspire and an eagerness to help a small, mission-focused business grow and scale impact, then we need you!

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Brochure & Catalog

For an easy-to-review and shareable packet that summarizes our services, curricula, and pricing, please download our PDF catalog.

Contact Us

Please give us a call, email us, book a meeting, or send us a message using the provided form. We look forward to speaking with you! 

Why Inclusion?

What are the outcomes that are important to your organization? Student success? Recruitment and retention of women and people of color in STEM & CTE fields? Improved collaboration? Culture that drives innovation? Kind and empathetic customer service? Inclusive work environments?

The barriers to success, like the outcomes listed, are numerous and complex, especially when considering dimensions of identity like race, gender, socio-economic status, ability, religion, and sexuality. However, we live in an unprecedented time that has exposed to a formerly unaware audience, many existing social issues like deeply rooted cultural biases, institutional barriers, and systemic oppression. By equipping individuals with increased awareness and tools for action, they can begin to integrate additional equitable strategies that will drive positive outcomes.

We are striving for equity and inclusion in education and the workforce.​

Equity compensates for systemic inequalities. It is an explicit effort to level the playing field with the goal of reaching equality. We partner with organizations to create inclusive cultures that drive outcomes. We want to help you create an environment where:

  • Everyone feels respected and valued.
  • Everyone gets to show up as their true and authentic self.
  • Everyone feels like they belong, and no one is marginalized.
  • Diversity is not only welcomed, but celebrated.
  • Systems and policies don’t oppress, and barriers are dismantled.
  • The environment helps people reach their full potential.

ENGINEER INCLUSION CAN HELP YOU GET THERE.

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