The Color of Equity: Do We Know It When We See It?

Kiley Arroyo is a respected cultural policy, collaborative learning, and justice-centered systems change expert based in the Bay Area. Over the past twenty years, she has led a diverse portfolio of initiatives in partnership with entities from the arts and culture, government, civil society, and academic sectors. This work has taken place in a combination of urban, rural, and indigenous contexts in the United States and internationally. This work is increasingly focused on amplifying non-western, and indigenous approaches to whole systems care as a means to expand the library of cultural knowledge that informs just transitional efforts. Ms. Arroyo’s career began as a teaching artist in public schools. Learning through intercultural exchange and creative processes remains central to her work with foundations, government, and cultural development actors. She has lectured at universities in the United States and abroad and published widely on the role of culture in contemporary policy issues, global migration and displacement, participatory democracy, equitable development, community wealth building, and racial justice.

Theresa Hyuna Hwang is a community-engaged architect, educator, and facilitator. She is the founder of Department of Places, a participatory design and community engagement practice based in Los Angeles, CA. She has spent over 15 years focused on equitable cultural and community development with multiple groups and campaigns. Additionally, she is the current Program Director of Design Futures Student Leadership Forum, a national anti-racist design education. She was the former Director of Community Design and Planning at the Skid Row Housing Trust, a non-profit permanent supportive housing organization where she was the Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellow from 2009-2012. Her work has been featured in Architectural Record, the New York Times, Atlantic Cities, Al-Jazeera America and other media outlets. She is on the Board of Directors for Venice Community Housing and formerly on Board of the Association for Community Design. She was recognized as one of Next City’s Urban Vanguards in 2015. She received her Master of Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design (2007) and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and Art History from the Johns Hopkins University (2001). She is a licensed architect in California and is a LEED accredited professional.

Asali DeVan Ecclesiastes is a mother, daughter, educator, organizer, author, event producer, performance artist, and community servant. Most know her by her many pursuits, but the way this writer knows herself and the world around her, is through her exploration of the word. Embedded in the cultural soil of New Orleans and watered by the writings of her literary idols, Kalamu ya Salaam, Sonia Sanchez, and Toni Morrison, Asali has grown to bask in the sun of her literary heritage—from the sages who transformed pharaoh to God in Ancient Khemet to the Spy Boys who chant the way clear for Big Chiefs on Carnival Day. Ms. Ecclesiastes excitedly brings her deep roots in New Orleans’ indigenous culture to her work as the new Executive Director of Efforts of Grace and Ashé Cultural Arts Center.

Dee Davis is the founder and president of the Center for Rural Strategies. Dee has helped design and lead national public information campaigns on topics as diverse as commercial television programming and federal banking policy. Dee began his media career in 1973 as a trainee at Appalshop, an arts and cultural center devoted to exploring Appalachian life and social issues in Whitesburg, Kentucky. As Appalshop's executive producer, the organization created more than 50 public TV documentaries, established a media training program for Appalachian youth, and launched initiatives that use media as a strategic tool in organization and development.