“Share the Knowledge” conference reflections
I started this post in early March and then the world changed. As I catch up on reflection and writing, I realize that the feelings stirred by the global pandemic were already in play. COVID-19 added fuel to a fire that was brewing.
It is three days after. After what? After what I refer to as not-so-super Tuesday. Let’s give a bit more context (you know I love context).
I was in Jackson, Mississippi for the first time. I had been invited as the Director of the Equitable Evaluation Initiative to be a lunch plenary speaker for the 5th Share the Knowledge conference which was hosted by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in collaboration with AcademyHealth and the National Collaborative for Health Equity.
During the course of Wednesday (March 4th), the news was abuzz with Super Tuesday results and the anticipation of Senator Warren withdrawing from the race. There was an almost immediate demand for her to back one of the remaining Democratic candidates – two White cis-gender hetero-normative males in their seventh decades. I was having 2016 flashbacks (they were not pleasant flashbacks).
The Wednesday evening kick-off was at Two Museums – The Civil Rights and The Mississippi. I knew the exhibits were going to be true to the history of the fight, plight, perseverance, and exceptionality of black people. I also knew that the cruelty and violence of White people as they fought to maintain control over the bodies of black people would not be hidden. It was tough. I left feeling the need to be with my own thoughts not up for reception small talk.
Thursday started with Dr. Gail Christopher sharing a few remarks followed by Derrick Johnson and Nicole Hannah Jones in a conversation with Richard Besser. The conversation was honest, heartfelt, and a call to action. A few big ideas stuck in my mind then and now, 2 months into shelter in place, they are sitting with me more deeply. Big ideas:
Knowledge sharing has a connection to health and evidence. What does it take to change mindsets about who is deserving? (Dr. Richard Besser)
Change happens by creating new models of relationship/relating, make old models obsolete. Make hierarchy of human value obsolete (Dr. Gail Christopher)
Narrative matters because it determines how we understand. (Nicole Hannah Jones)
This country is about how to control democracy so capitalism can win. It’s about institutions and structures, not individual mindsets. Stop thinking about racism as only changing hearts and minds. (Dr. Derrick Johnson)
In the work we do at Luminare Group and the Equitable Evaluation Initiative these four statements weave through who we chose to work with and the nature of that work. We seek to make transparent the assumptions and world views that underly how people think. We want to understand how and who makes decisions and the types of questions and information deemed credible and who engages in that sense-making.
What do these statements bring up for you? Feel free to share. We all need to strengthen our structural analysis skills.
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About The Author:
Jara Dean-Coffey (jdc) is Founder and Director of the Equitable Evaluation Initiative and the Founder of Luminare Group. For the past twenty-five years, she has partnered with clients and colleagues to elevate their collective understanding of the relationship between values, context, strategy and evaluation and shifting our practices so that they are more fully in service of equity. For more about musings + machinations click here.
