Local leaders gathered at Simmons University on November 7 to discuss what it means to lead in today’s world. The event was hosted by the Simmons Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in collaboration with the Institute for Inclusive Leadership, the School of Management, the School of Social Work, and the Stephen D. London Center for Community Engagement and Social Justice. The event was part of the Unpacking Series.
The panelists were asked how they approach their work through a social justice lens.
Grace Stowell, Executive Director of the Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth (BAGLY), said that the organization’s primary mission is to support LGBTQ+ young people to become active in their communities by affirming their identities and experiences.
“None of us has only one identity or one experience,” said Stowell. “Those of us who sit with intersecting identities that are targeted by people in power have to navigate those even within communities that are designed to support them. For us, social justice means looking at justice for everyone.”
Advancing Leadership that Unites and Fosters Change
Stowell warned that when liberation for one group comes at a price for another group, it isn’t true justice.
“That’s what the dominant culture does, they want us fighting among ourselves so that we aren’t actually standing in solidarity with each other to address the bigger inequities,” Stowell said.
Katrina Huff-Larmond — the only woman of color on the Town Council of Randolph, Massachusetts — agreed.
“It’s easy to do the work here at Simmons, we’re all working toward the same goal,” said Huff-Larmond. “On the council, it’s a little harder.”
She shared her efforts to offer Town Hall communications in Haitian Creole, as it is the most common language spoken in Randolph. The order, first attempted during the pandemic, did not pass.
“I’m still wondering why,” she said.
However, her more recent push to have voting ballots available in Haitian-Creole was accepted by the Council and the Senate, and is now going through the House of Representatives. She hopes it will come to fruition next year.
“That’s a social justice lens that I was looking through,” said Huff-Larmond. “I was wearing my social worker hat at that time, because I know that it makes a difference and it’s important for the Town of Randolph.”
How Gender and Racial Identities Impact Leadership
When asked how their gender (and other identities) impacts how they lead, Carla Monteiro, founder of the Cape Verdean Social Workers Association, said it plays a huge role.
“It’s really hard to navigate as a Black woman. It doesn’t matter how many degrees we have, it doesn’t matter how much lived experience we have,” she said.
Monteiro cited her 2021 run for Boston City Council as an example of that lived experience.
“I was the one who had been on welfare, I had been a single mother, I had navigated the childcare system. I was a first-time homebuyer and the daughter of Cape Verdean immigrants. here were so many intersections that overlapped with the people in my community,” she said.
In spite of all of this, there were people who claimed she wasn’t qualified.
“They would say things like, ‘I didn’t think that you’re eloquent enough … I can’t believe you made it through the primary.’ They had me questioning myself. Not that I didn’t think I was capable, not that my immediate family and friends didn’t support me, but because strangers who had never dared to run for office were [my] critics,” she said.
Catherine Morris, founder of the Boston Art & Music Soul (BAMS) Festival, shared her own struggle to trust the intentions of “allies.”
“I said to my White friends, your allyship is so important, but I need for you to be willing to do the hard work. That means that you may have to step up and answer the questions that are hard for me to answer. I need you to answer, because you are part of the privileged group,” said Morris. “That is so important, especially right now, because there are going to be spaces where only you are going to be heard. Those of us in oppressed groups — they will try to silence us.”
Jessica Tang, president of the Boston Teachers Union, noted that her identities, even those not immediately apparent, impact her approach to leadership.
“I was the first Asian American woman and the first person of color to serve in this role, as well as the youngest. I also identify as pansexual and queer, but that’s not as immediately obvious. All of these identities that are invisible impact how we lead,” Tang said.
Tang shared experiences she had as president of the Boston Teachers Union, accompanied by her vice president who, as an older White male, people automatically deferred to in meetings.
“I also try to speak up for the voices that are not well-represented in the room, to make sure those perspectives are being shared,” Tang said.
Inspiring Others Through Hard Work, Determination
Jackie Jenkins-Scott, President at JJS Advising and current interim president of Roxbury Community College, shared the message she grew up with: be better, work harder, and be smarter, and you will succeed. That was the charge set for young Black people in her day; though even after all the hard work, success was not a given.
“Everyone in this room is a leader in some way,” Jenkins-Scott said. “We never know who we’re touching.”
She noted a difficult time in her own career, near the end of her 12-year term as president of Wheelock College.
“I was going through a really rough patch and it was late in the afternoon and I was walking back to my office from a meeting, head down, just deep in thought, and someone tapped me on the back. It was a student. A young Black woman. She gave me a hug, and said, ‘I’m praying for you.’ I will remember that for the rest of my life. That student gave me hope. Wherever you are in our leadership journey, there is somebody out there rooting for you and supporting you, even if you don’t know it,” Jenkins-Scott said.