Invitation to Zoom Sessions

Dear Friends,

In my letter sent last week, I listed a number of initiatives recently launched in our work around diversity, equity, and inclusion that will support our needs both now and in the future.

One of our immediate goals is to provide access to safe group settings for candid sharing of experiences, thoughts, and ideas around the BIPoC Experience at WFS. We are pleased that Anita Foeman, PhD, and her husband Nate Terrell, LCSW, will be our facilitators for these conversations that will take place via Zoom. Please note, a school administrator will welcome community members and introduce our facilitators at the start of each session, and then leave the session in hopes of providing participants the opportunity to share unencumbered by the presence of a school staff member.

Through their company, Organizational Growth, Anita and Nate have provided training for nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, and corporations for the past 30 years on topics including cross-cultural competence, conflict resolution, principle-centered leadership, stress/time management, eliminating bullying, effective communication, and building community. You can read more about Anita and Nate in their bios below.

If you are interested in participating in these conversations, please take a moment using this form to identify your preferred affinity group(s) and the issue(s) you would like most to be addressed by Friday, July 10. Based on responses, we will schedule dates and times for the meetings.

We hope to have the bulk of these sessions held by July 18, but realize more time may be required to assure all sessions will be held. Thank you, and I hope these sessions are both productive and supportive as we move forward to better our community.

 

In Friendship,
Ken

 

Anita Foeman, Ph.D. 
Dr. Anita Foeman is a Professor of Communication and Media at West Chester University. She received her Ph.D. from Temple University in 1982 in Communication with a concentration in Organizational Communication. Dr. Foeman’s scholarly work explores diversity in society including multicultural organizations, families, and people. Her work includes 30 years of diversity and leadership consulting for educational, government, and private agencies. For the past fifteen years, her research has examined identity-based on new ancestry DNA data. The work has received coverage in The New York Times, The Washington Post, “Here & Now” on NPR, The BBC News Hour, National Geographic Magazine and National Geographic Explorer cable television program, and other local and national media. Her work is featured in an upcoming program on NOVA. She has extensive scholarly publications, presentations, and professional trainings to her credit. She is currently under contract for a book on ancestry DNA and identity. Dr. Foeman's publications include:

“Yo! What's it Like to be Black?”: An Exercise to Help Students Deepen the Content of Cross-Cultural Dialogue, Communication Teacher, June 1996

Ethnic Culture and Corporate Culture. Communication Quarterly.1987

Remland, M., Jones T, Foeman, A. Arevalo-Rafter, D. ( August 2014). Intercultural Communication: A peacebuilding perspective. Sage publications.

 

Nate Terrell, LCSW 
Nate received his Master's Degree from the Jane Addams School of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1982 and licensure in clinical social work from New Jersey in 1994. He subsequently worked as a therapist, supervisor, and program director in a number of counseling agencies until 1999, when he began his current private therapy practice in his home office in Mullica Hill, New Jersey. Nate also teaches Interpersonal Communication at Temple University. Nate has written Achieving Self-Compassion: Giving Yourself the Gifts of Happiness and Inner Peace to share what he has learned from teaching his clients and himself to develop self-compassion.