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Professional Development Conference

Special Announcement: As part of ICSEW’s continued work in supporting our state’s pro-equity and anti-racism (PEAR) plan, we recognize the importance of removing barriers to resources like our conference. We are pleased to announce that thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, we will be able to offer the 2023 Professional Development Conference at no cost to attendees.

Registration is now open!

Registration for the 2023 Personal and Professional Development Conference, Engage: Their Past, Your Present, Our Future, is now open!

The conference, which takes virtually, Oct. 3-4 is brought to you by The Interagency Committee of State Employed Women and the Washington State Women’s Commission.

Register for the event here. 

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Conference Schedule and Details

October 3 - Day 1 of the Conference

Michelle Gladstone -Wade/ Lynda Jensen

The speakers have collaborated for 15 years and have made transformative changes wherever they’ve worked. In this presentation, they will share and facilitate reflections about starting, developing, and nurturing powerful and change-making alliances. Reflection topics will include relationality, story sharing, humility, and habits of mind. 

Patrilie Hernandez

During this session, participants will be guided through how bodies are politicized, serving as a source of oppression or a source of power, or both. Using theory and scholarship from some of the world's greatest thought leaders in body politics, participants will hear historical and present-day examples of how societal hierarchies and dichotomies exist to maintain imbalanced power structures, especially in the pursuit of individual and community health. After examining their own social identities, their proximity to power, and how this shapes discourse around what it means to be 'healthy', participants will be given the tools to reclaim this notion of health and be introduced to the paradigm of body liberation. This session is geared toward public health & nutrition professionals or anyone who is struggling to see themselves in mainstream narratives of health and wellbeing. 

Tony Griego 

Although women have made significant gains in the workplace, they still face thousands of years of cultural and systemic barriers. These barriers are especially steep for women of color as evidenced by stereotypes such as “the angry black woman”, the Latina pay gap, and the “bamboo ceiling” faced by AAPI women leaders. This presentation will highlight some of the challenges and trends women face in the workplace as well as tactics and strategies for Allies to practice to improve recruitment, hold more inclusive meetings, and mentor/sponsor future leaders. By centering intersectionality, the presentation will underscore the additional barriers faced by women and color and ask male allies to consider how our cultures perpetuate harm to all genders. Finally, the presentation will ask attendees to consider how to teach ourselves and future generations of men a new definition of masculinity informed by allyship. 

Isaiah Pickens

The challenges we've all faced over these past few years have illuminated inequities for the first time for some, and further affirmed those inequities for others. This inspiring presentation will provide a foundation of how individual, historical, and intergenerational trauma impacts the way we show up in our most important identities and mental health. This inspiring presentation will provide strategies for supporting individuals and communities transition toward the best version of themselves as we collectively overcome obstacles to social justice and equity. Participants will leave with insight about current events and systems from a psychological perspective and hope for building a more inclusive world, while taking care of mental and emotional wellbeing in the process. 

October 4th - Day 2 of the Conference

Kimberlee Yolanda Williams

How have white supremacist structures driven white women to ignore and harm their sisters of color or people of color in general? Have you experienced cross-racial sister and sibling bonds that haven’t quite taken off? Whether you’re a white woman or a woman of color, do you wonder if a genuine bond and connection across the white/women of color racial divide is even possible? White women, do you really know how you are perceived, experienced, sometimes merely tolerated, and sometimes even longed for? Come hear how Kimberlee is learning to dig into this work in surprisingly vulnerable and creative ways. While diving into Kimberlee’s book, Dear White Woman, Please Come Home, together we will explore how to racially diversify our staff, friend groups, how to show up for and with colleagues in ways that disrupt historic patterns, and how to intentionally and thoughtfully be in community with one another. As a bonus, Kimberlee will share her 6 trademarked tools (depending on the time allotted).

Joanne Lee

When you think about inclusion in the workplace, does belonging come up? How do you create belonging in the workplace? This interactive session will provide tips and strategies for building a culture of belonging where you and your team can feel safe and bring their full, unique self to work.

Ragen Chastain

Weight stigma can impact people of all sizes in every aspect of their lives, from jobs to relationships to healthcare and more, doing the most harm to those of the highest weights and those with intersecting marginalized identities. This presentation will trace the roots of weight stigma, discuss the methods, and impacts of weight stigma today, and suggest options for navigating, reducing, and eventually eliminating weight stigma and bias moving forward. 

Grace Yoo

Going along with the theme of "ENGAGE: Their Past, Our Present, Your Future", and with the 2023 election about a month away, I will present on past ways that women have made a difference in their engagement with government, and ways for attendees to ENGAGE with their government, including ways to make their voices heard in the legislative process and at the voting booth.

Thanks again to our 2022 Sponsors!

2023 Sponsors will be announced soon!

image featuring logos of all organizations that sponsored ICSEW 2022 Professional Development Conference

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