Collaborators - Equity Into Action

Rachel

Rachel is an award winning educator and highly rated consultant working across policy, nonprofit, academic and business contexts. Her research in sociology focuses on race, class, gender and sexuality, culture and visual representation. She combines social science rigor with dynamic lived experience to lead DEI work that makes complex topics accessible and actionable. Growing up working-poor as a white person in a racially diverse urban neighborhood and public school system exposed Rachel to the ways race and class intersect in life altering ways. Being a first-generation US citizen and college student further informed her understanding of the relationship between identity and opportunity. These formative experiences intersect with her data driven approach to provide a balance of care and intellect. As principal and founder of Equity Into Action, Rachel is the point of contact for our organizational development, assessment, strategy, dynamic trainings and coaching.

Tanya

Born and raised in Houston, Texas, I have found a second home on the East coast currently residing in New York City and previously in Western Massachusetts. I have over 25 years of diversity, inclusion, and social justice teaching, programming and facilitation experience in higher education including professional roles at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Mount Holyoke College, and most recently, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York as the Deputy Vice President for Institutional Diversity and Community Engagement. I am lead consultant at Authentic Coaching and Consulting.

I’ve taught courses such as Social Diversity in Education, Exploring Differences and Common Ground through Intergroup Dialogue, and the Psychology of Racism and facilitated workshops and presentations at the National Conference of Race and Ethnicity (NCORE), the White Privilege Conference (WPC) as well as National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) and American College Personnel Administrators (ACPA) conferences. In my five, full-time years as an equity coach and consultant, I have continued my work with colleges and universities, non-profits, and K-12 schools including NYU Stern School of Business, National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), American College of Greece, The Moth, Brooklyn Community Foundation, Spence School, Harvard University Law School and others.

Additionally, I am a Co-lead facilitator for the LeaderShape Institute, a national organization committed to creating leaders with integrity, and as a Senior Trainer and Board Member with Class Action, a national organization committed to ending classism. I’ve served as a mentor for the Posse Foundation for Mt. Holyoke College Posse 1 and am currently a Retreat Facilitator for the Posse Plus Retreats (PPR) held at their partner schools. I hold a doctorate (Ed.D) in Social Justice Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and my dissertation, entitled A Process of Becoming: U.S. Born African American and Black Women in a Process of Liberation from Internalized Racism, focused on internalized oppression and liberation. I also hold an MS in Educational Administration and BA in Journalism and English from Texas A&M University.

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Melody

Melody is the founder and principal at Acorde Consulting. She is an experienced consultant, trainer, coach, speaker, and donor organizer. Building off her careers in veterinary medicine and in the social justice nonprofit and philanthropy sectors, she understands the complex challenges mission-driven organizations and individuals face and the urgent need for equitable, inclusive, and transformative solutions. She has over a decade of experience supporting small and large organizations in the nonprofit, public, and private sectors in making powerful organizational changes.

Born in Massachusetts and currently based in Portland, Oregon, Melody is the proud first generation daughter of Afro-Caribbean, working-class immigrants from the Dominican Republic. She is bicultural and bilingual.

In roles at Social Justice Fund and the New Economy Coalition, Melody organized and trained community members to understand their power and privilege, fundraise hundreds of thousands of dollars for social change, and participate across differences in collaborative, democratic decision-making.

Using lessons gained from her lived experience, via consulting practice, and in collaboration with various consulting firms like Resolutions Northwest, Class Action, and Harmonize, Melody has supported dozens of mission-driven organizations in cultural transformation and resilience. Her approach to facilitation, coaching, and speaking is compassionate, candid, and outcomes-focused. She is deeply analytical and precise, particularly when helping leaders and groups unearth inequities and design policies and practices that operationalize racial, economic, and disability justice in the workplace. Melody is fiercely dedicated to amplifying the voices and celebrating the strengths of people of color and all those who are furthest from justice. As a result of her work, many of her clients have made meaningful culture shifts and have become more values-aligned. website: workwithacorde.com

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