2nd Annual Addressing Racism
& Bias Conference 2023
Early Bird Registration NOW OPEN through 4/15/23
MEET OUR FACILITATORS
Dr. Sharon Knight
Free Your Body-Mind-Spirit by developing your capacity to constructively cope with Racism, Heal from Internalized Racial Inferiority/White Superiority, & Manage Race-Based Trauma (RBT)
Professionally, Dr. Sharon Knight is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of DSK-Culturally Responsive Education Services LLC. (DSK-CRES). Dr. Knight’s love and passion for education, people, and social justice, made her who she is today: A skilled multicultural educator, servant leader, and unwavering Race and Social Justice (RSJ) practitioner. Personally, Dr Knight’s hobbies include conversations about life, cruising the world, dogs, plenty of motorcycling, retreating to and camping in the wilderness, and spiritual development. Her commitment to her passions and Divine guidance, contributes to her capacity to unselfishly support organizations in realizing themselves as an anti-racist and socially just organization and support people in pursuing their passions, finding meaning behind life, and realizing their personal and professional aspirations. Via a “no blame, no shame” approach to culturally responsive consultation and professional development, and through the lenses of civic responsibility, personal/professional accountability, race and social justice, spirituality, and wellness, Dr. Knight engages people in meaningful, multicultural, and multidimensional experiences. Such opportunities guide her customers, family and friends, and strangers down pathways that support them in pursuing their passions, preparing for their purposes, proficiently applying their crafts, and preserving themselves as Divine, holistic (mind/body/soul) contributing multicultural beings. Dr. Knight states: “When I show up in life, I am simply adhering to my Divine purpose. Thus, I am contributing to universal efforts for leading and supporting the creation, development, implementation, and sustainment of Divineness, educational excellence, and Race an Social Justice concepts, principles, and values. I love my Creator, I love my profession and I believe in Race and Social Justice for ALL!” Over 44 years, Dr. Knight has contributed to advancement of education and human service professionals and for the past 25 years, has intentionally supported the Movement for Race and Social Justice. Her efforts include collaborations with diverse stakeholders and have resulted in culturally responsive executive-level leadership, skilled multicultural educators, and eradication of preparation, achievement, and opportunity gaps for underserved and underrepresented children/youth/young adults/adults/seniors. Dr. Knight holds a bachelors in sociology-criminology, master’s in leadership and education, and a doctorate in organizational management and Leadership. Her areas of expertise include academia and adult education; curriculum design and development; race and social justice coaching, consultation, and facilitation; and organizational leadership and development.
JanMarie Ward
Cultural Humility & its Relevance to Racism & Cultural Bias among Indigenous Communities
JanMarie is a lineal descendant of Santa Ynez and Barbareño, California Mission Indians. She has extensive experience in tribal, state, and local government as well as in nonprofit, and community sectors. She is the director/principal of Seven Generations Strategies LLC and serves as a senior public health policy and project advisor/consultant to the American Indian Health Commission (AIHC). With over 40 years of public sector experience in health policy, public administration, and tribal and intergovernmental affairs, JanMarie brings an understanding of evidence-based public health from working with tribes and in communities. Jan served as adjunct faculty in the MPA Tribal Governance and General Cohorts at The Evergreen State College. She is a certified master trainer in the Neuroscience, Epigenetics, Adverse Childhood Experience and Resilience (NEAR). She applies a historical and cultural context in trauma-informed approaches as a path to healing through Seven Generation Strategies, acknowledgement of intergenerational core strengths, and self-determination. Jan’s focus is on raising awareness of the core strengths and resilience within tribal and Native communities that have existed and sustained people for generations. She currently serves as the President of the Washington State Public Health Association and is on multiple boards to address systemic racism and historic inequities in support of community-driven capacity building in health and wellness systems change for American Indian and Alaska Native and BIPOC communities. Together, JanMarie and her husband Roger, have four grown sons, their partners, and their first grandchild.
Marinah Farrell
Using Somatics to Embody Accountability and Shift Power Dynamics
Marinah identifies as a first generation indigiqueer Chicana daughter of a medicine woman from Chihuahua, Mexico, a Chicano musician father from the borderlands, and mother to mixed-race children and grandchildren. Marinah is the owner of Phoenix Midwife and the founder of Parteras de Maiz, an umbrella organization for diverse advocacy and health justice projects which affirms the importance of traditional and indigenous midwives and assembles initiatives and coalitions nationally and internationally. She is also a sometime podcaster, public speaker and writer. Marinah has served as consultant, facilitator, board member, midwife and executive for health justice projects in the U.S, North America, Central America, and Uganda, facilitating policy initiatives on public health responses, indigenous/immigrant reproductive and primary healthcare access, education programs, birth center development, and workforce development. Marinah is a founder of Phoenix Allies for Community Health, a free clinic primarily serving immigrant families, a direct result of her active street medic work. Marinah is the past president of the Midwives Alliance of North America, and worked in a dedicated coalition with national midwifery groups for United States Midwifery, Education, Regulation, and Association (USMERA). Marinah is a Culture of Health Leader, advisory board member for Birth Detroit, working on expanding the Medicaid workforce with the Institute of Medicaid Innovation, working alongside native communities on reclamation of birth sovereignty, and planning essential convenings for midwives and healers. Marinah is a certified practitioner in Somatic Experiencing, with advance certification in the prenatal and perinatal period, as part of her dedication to traditional medicine and healing.
Jaqxun Darlin LM, CPM
Gender-Affirming Reproductive Health: Evidence-Informed Care for Trans and Non-Binary People
Jaqxun Darlin LM, CPM has supported families in reproductive health and perinatal care since 2001, and began practicing midwifery in 2014. In addition to their clinical work, they have a passion for education and activism and have held many service positions in reproductive-health and midwifery organizations. They focus on increasing access to high-quality, affirming, and culturally matched reproductive health care using an anti-oppression intersectional framework. When not midwifing, they like to spend time with their baby and make silly faces and go on adventures.
Davinah Simmons
Taking Up Space: Our Responsibility to Our Nervous Systems
Davinah Simmons (she/they) is a Black educator, seeker, ritualist, and full-spectrum doula living on unceded Coast Salish and Suquamish land in Suquamish, WA. For 10 years she worked in higher education supporting students through the thresholds that come with transitioning into adulthood. In the last 5.5 years, she has served 100+ families in the Puget Sound region offering fertility, loss/bereavement, birth, death, and postpartum support in her doula practice. Davinah is in her final months of studies as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, where she will continue to support those who have experienced perinatal trauma on their journey to supportive and integrated healing.
Dr. Benjamin Danielson
'No More Disparities Talk'. Shifting the language assertively and unapologetically to justice, brilliance, and the duality of pain and joy.
Dr. Danielson is a clinical professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington. For two decades he was the medical director at the Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic which serves mostly low-income families in an historically Black community. He resigned in late 2020 in protest of racism and related dysfunctions at the clinic’s overseeing entity: Seattle Children’s Hospital. He also serves on various boards of health-related organizations, philanthropic organizations, and community groups dedicated to health issues. He chairs the Governor’s Interagency Council on Health Disparities, co-chaired the Governor’s Task Force on creating an Office of Equity, chairs the Inatai Foundation board, and co-chairs King County’s Racism Is A Public Health Crisis Team. He has been on many boards and currently serves in this capacity on the Seattle YWCA, the Seattle Foundation, Center for Children and Youth Justice, Tubman Health and Amara. He has been active in the community wellness, equity and healthcare reimagining realms. Dr. Danielson is a collaborator and speaker on anti-racism. The unifying thread in Dr. Danielson’s activities relates to promoting well-being and dignity, especially for communities who have been pushed aside. He has found opportunities within and outside of systems to advocate in partnership with groups and individuals who are dedicated and passionate about creating a better world. He realizes he is often the least useful member of the circles he joins and he is inspired, every day, by the children, families, communities and organizations with whom he interacts.
Cindy Gamble
Cultural Humility & its Relevance to Racism & Cultural Bias among Indigenous Communities
Cindy Gamble, MPH, CLC. Cindy is a citizen of the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indians of Alaska, and of the Kaax’oos.hittaan (Man’s Foot Clan). She currently works as a private consultant with a focus on American Indian and Alaska Native Health. She works with the American Indian Health Commission for Washington State (AIHC) on a variety of community health projects, and is the project lead for the WICand Nutrition Project, the Maternal and Infant Health and the Maternal Mortality Listening Sessions projects. She currently represents the AIHC on the State of Washington Maternal Mortality Review Panel. Cindy has worked with Tribal Health Organizations and Tribal Communities in Alaska and Washington State for over 30 years as a Tribal Health Director, aCommunity Health Educator and a Tribal Liaison for UW/WSU. Cindy is currently the vice-president of the Ttawaxt Birth Justice Board and the past president of Nutrition First, the WIC Association of Washington State. She is a volunteer with the Canoe Journey Herbalists, and is currently enrolled in an Indigenous Herbalist Apprenticeship Program. Cindy believes that the health and strength of Native families and communities begins with healthy mothers and babies, and integrating the wisdom and ways of our elders and ancestors into our daily lives. Cindy and husband Jerry have 3 adult children and 5 grandchildren.
Stevi Kamphaus
Using Somatics to Embody Accountability and Shift Power Dynamics
Stevi Kamphaus is a community organizer, Somatic Coach and developer of Transformative Somatics. They are a transgender and genderqueer practitioner of German, English and Lithuanian ancestry who believes in the necessity of moving through the world in an embodied, relational way, and the transformative power of somatic movement and dance. Stevi holds a BA of Arts with a concentration in Somatic Studies and Cultural Psychology. They became deeply interested in how bodies process and integrate trauma through their own healing journey and recognize the myriad of ways that systems of power and oppression actively work to strip communities and individuals of embodied cultural practices and relationships. They believe that the work of social change and reclaiming embodied relationships are inseparable, and are committed to developing accessible tools and building networks of social and cultural reconnection, accountability and self-determination through their work.
Carrie A Horwitch MD, MPH
Improve Communication through Medical Improv
Carrie A Horwitch is a board certified internal medicine physician. She is also credentialed as an HIV care specialist from AAHIVM. Dr Horwitch graduated from University of Arizona, College of Medicine. She completed her Master of Public Health at University of California, Berkeley. She has worked as an outpatient primary care physician for over 30 years. She is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington. She has presented on multiple different topics such as HIV care, transgender care, medical ethics and professionalism, medical improve and laughter. She is a certified laughter leader through the World Laughter Tour since 2007 and has led several workshops nationally and internationally on the health benefits of laughter. She is the author of: Death of my Uterus and other humorous events. Her business Is The Laugh Doctor LLC.
Lauryn Bell (Host)
Lo Holistics & Lauryn's Essential Crafts
Lauryn is a full spectrum holistic doula and midwife birth assistant; They found their passion for birth work growing up supporting women in their family through their pregnancies/births, then later they studied black maternal health and the mortality rate of black birthers. Their activism is the foundation of thier birth work. They believe in advocacy, empowerment and education while helping birthers along with their families make informed decisions for their experience. Their specialties are spirit/energy work for momma and baby, perinatal yoga + meditation, breathwork and herbal preparations! Their mission centers one's desires/needs for their birth experience around their whole being along with the use of traditional divination workings.