Workshop:

When there’s an understanding of the inequities of the society we live in we can start discussing power dynamics and how they come into play interpersonally, in workplaces and organizations. In this workshop, we examine how to recognize privilege and identify power dynamics at play and utilize them for equity and justice. We will also learn why unconscious biases are particularly difficult for folks in the non-profit sector to identify and utilize radical empathy as a tool to combat those biases. We will be learning actionable accountability every one of us can put into practice to be able to respect the dignity of all folks.

Instructors: Alia Ali & Morgan Switzer-Rodney

Alia Ali is the founder and principal consultant at Empathy Catalyst Consulting; which specializes in diversity, equity, inclusion, and workplace culture consulting. 

She has always lived a life of service to her community (which was heavily influenced by her faith) – creating and running programs for youth, working in the corporate world of waterworks, serving as an executive at a  tech start-up in Vancouver, working for Voices of Muslim Women as a Female Empowerment and Leadership Instructor and serving as an Educator and Instructor at Bakau Consulting as well as being on the Stratagem 2020 team.  

She has been doing private consulting on workplace culture and diversity, equity and inclusion for the last 3 years and created Empathy Catalyst Consulting in 2021.  

Alia is also an outspoken advocate for empathy and anti-racism and is honoured to be able to present for us today. 

Morgan Switzer-Rodney is a young Black biracial, kinky, queer femme. Morgan is a stolen person on stolen lands, with Afro-Guyanese ancestry on her father’s side and Ukrainian on her mother’s. Born and raised in northern Manitoba, (Treaty 5) and lived there for most of her pre-adult life until 2015. She currently resides on the stolen ancestral lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, S’ólh Téméxw, Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw, and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ peoples, colonially known as Vancouver, BC, and has been a guest here since 2016.
Morgan is a Doula, speaker, and sex & kink coach with a focus on power dynamics and intersectionality. She is an activist and multidisciplinary artist whose work explores storytelling, inter-generational collaboration, afro-futurisms, through an abolitionist, decolonial framework.