Event Registration - Association of Leadership Programs
This event has completed.
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM EST
Leadership Connections
12/5/20223:00 PM - 4:00 PM EST
Event Description
Malka Kopell and Palma Strand are co-founders of Civity, a national organization dedicated to supporting and building a culture based on relationships of respect and empathy with people who are different from each other. Malka and Palma will take us through a “taste” of a Civity workshop, giving us a chance to learn (and practice) the art of conversation and sharing stories. They will also preview the concept of “putting differences on the table” in a respectful, authentic, and fun way. Members can expect to leave this session with some thought-provoking exercises to bring back to their programs.
About the Speakers
Malka Ranjana Kopell is Co-Founder and CEO of Civity. As a bi-racial (South Asian and white) girl growing up in a pre-tech (and pre-Indian!) Silicon Valley she learned early on how to find common ground with those who called out her difference. As the Valley grew wealthier, she noticed how many others less fortunate were – and are – being rendered invisible, and dedicated her life to try to create a community where everybody is seen and heard. In 1990 she founded the consulting nonprofit organization Community Focus to facilitate more effective implementation of public policies by increasing community participation. She also served as a program officer for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, developing and managing grants in the areas of conflict resolution and civic engagement. Malka was the founding managing director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at Stanford University, and is currently a senior mediator/facilitator with the Program on Consensus and Collaboration at California State University, Sacramento, where she works to facilitate stakeholder engagement to develop sustainable groundwater management in California’s Central Valley. She has a bachelor's degree from Stanford University and a master's degree in public policy from Harvard University. Malka graduated from Leadership San Francisco in 1989.
Palma Joy Strand is Co-Founder and Research Director of Civity. She is a white woman married to a Black man and has three biracial, now adult, children. Crossing the boundary of race with conversation and relationship has been an integral part of her life for over 40 years. She came to Civity through community-based experiences that integrate into her background in law and engineering, with particular emphasis on civic engagement, collaborative governance, racial equity, and the environment. She is a tenured Professor of Law in the Negotiation and Conflict Resolution (NCR) Program in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at Creighton University (Omaha, NE) where she teaches classes in facilitation, leadership, conflict engagement, structural injustice, and organizing for justice and solidarity. She also has over 15 years of experience designing and facilitating Conversations About Race and Belonging, working especially with parents and teachers in public education. Before joining the NCR Program, she was a faculty member in the Creighton School of Law. She has also taught at the University of Maryland School of Law and the Georgetown University Law Center. Before entering teaching, she clerked for Judge J. Skelly Wright on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Justice Byron White of the U.S. Supreme Court. Her work with Civity connects her academic work to practice, and her practice work informs and grounds her academic work. In addition to a B.S. (Civil Engineering) from Stanford University, she holds a JD from Stanford Law School and an LLM in Alternative Dispute Resolution and Legal Problem-Solving from the Georgetown University Law Center. Palma graduated from Leadership Arlington in 2000.
About the Speakers
Malka Ranjana Kopell is Co-Founder and CEO of Civity. As a bi-racial (South Asian and white) girl growing up in a pre-tech (and pre-Indian!) Silicon Valley she learned early on how to find common ground with those who called out her difference. As the Valley grew wealthier, she noticed how many others less fortunate were – and are – being rendered invisible, and dedicated her life to try to create a community where everybody is seen and heard. In 1990 she founded the consulting nonprofit organization Community Focus to facilitate more effective implementation of public policies by increasing community participation. She also served as a program officer for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, developing and managing grants in the areas of conflict resolution and civic engagement. Malka was the founding managing director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at Stanford University, and is currently a senior mediator/facilitator with the Program on Consensus and Collaboration at California State University, Sacramento, where she works to facilitate stakeholder engagement to develop sustainable groundwater management in California’s Central Valley. She has a bachelor's degree from Stanford University and a master's degree in public policy from Harvard University. Malka graduated from Leadership San Francisco in 1989.
Palma Joy Strand is Co-Founder and Research Director of Civity. She is a white woman married to a Black man and has three biracial, now adult, children. Crossing the boundary of race with conversation and relationship has been an integral part of her life for over 40 years. She came to Civity through community-based experiences that integrate into her background in law and engineering, with particular emphasis on civic engagement, collaborative governance, racial equity, and the environment. She is a tenured Professor of Law in the Negotiation and Conflict Resolution (NCR) Program in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at Creighton University (Omaha, NE) where she teaches classes in facilitation, leadership, conflict engagement, structural injustice, and organizing for justice and solidarity. She also has over 15 years of experience designing and facilitating Conversations About Race and Belonging, working especially with parents and teachers in public education. Before joining the NCR Program, she was a faculty member in the Creighton School of Law. She has also taught at the University of Maryland School of Law and the Georgetown University Law Center. Before entering teaching, she clerked for Judge J. Skelly Wright on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Justice Byron White of the U.S. Supreme Court. Her work with Civity connects her academic work to practice, and her practice work informs and grounds her academic work. In addition to a B.S. (Civil Engineering) from Stanford University, she holds a JD from Stanford Law School and an LLM in Alternative Dispute Resolution and Legal Problem-Solving from the Georgetown University Law Center. Palma graduated from Leadership Arlington in 2000.