Claire Schell

Founder/Consultant | Claire Schell Consulting

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Claire is a capacity-building & strategy consultant focused on creating organizations where everyone can thrive. She recently launched Claire Schell Consulting to provide consultation and capacity-building to cross-sector leaders around DEIB & anti-racism, team well-being, and organizational culture. For 8 years, she led the Employee Experience and DEI team at USBCDC and prior to that she led DEI training and consultation for St. Louis-area organizations at DAP. She serves as vice-chair of the Forward Through Ferguson board. She received her MA at the University of Chicago and a BA from Wellesley College in Sociology and Religion.

Presentations from Facing Race 2024

Cultivating Psychological Safety by Interrupting White Supremacy Culture

We will explore the critical role of psychological safety in enabling everyone – especially those most marginalized – to thrive. Through personal reflection and group discussion, we'll identify what psychological safety looks like and name institutional barriers to achieving it.

In particular, we'll discuss the influence of white supremacy culture as an impediment to psychological safety. We will define white supremacy culture and its implications. As Tema Okun tells us, “White supremacy culture trains us all to internalize attitudes and behaviors that do not serve any of us.”

We will explore these common attitudes and behaviors (e.g., perfectionism, either/or thinking, defensiveness) – how they show up in organizational culture and how we can interrupt them. Participants will leave with a greater understanding of these terms and will feel more empowered to build a more psychologically safe environment in their own institutional context.

Speakers: Claire Schell