Curtis Ogden

Senior Associate | Interaction Institute for Social Change (IISC)

Senior Associate at Interaction Institute for Social Change (IISC), delivers training, consulting and facilitation to individuals, organizations and networks collaborating for social justice. He currently serves a number of state-wide and regional networks advancing racial justice in food and education systems in the northeast. Curtis holds a BA from the University of Michigan and a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School.

Presentations from Facing Race 2016

Breaking It Down: Using Systems Thinking to Address Structural Racism

If you want tools to understand and address the systemic nature of injustice, this is the workshop for you. The Interaction Institute and EmbraceRace invite participants to get beyond the tip of the iceberg or racist event, and dig deeper into the patterns, structures, and underlying beliefs that allow structural racism exist. Systems thinking as a field has been around for a few decades, but its direct application to structural racism has not been widespread. Even where racism has been discussed systemically, activists have often craved practical skills and tools to identify and align strategically around areas of intervention that will yield the greatest return for effort. This includes using systems thinking to analyze our own work as well as to understand the wider context. For the past two decades, the Interaction Institute for Social Change (IISC) has worked to develop the collaborative capacity of advocates for justice across the country and globe to work with complex social challenges. This includes developing the ability to both better appreciate and see “the whole.” In this interactive workshop, IISC and EmbraceRace staff will work with participants to apply various systems thinking tools to uncover “leverage points” for advancing our pursuit of racial justice. We will develop our capacity to: • See more holistically/systemically • Apply tools to identify leverage points for change • Unearth and examine mindsets as impediments to/accelerants for change

Speakers: Curtis Ogden, Andrew Grant-Thomas

Presentations from Facing Race 2014

Using Systems Thinking to Address Structural Racism

If you want tools to understand and address the systemic nature of injustice, this is the workshop for you. The Interaction Institute invites participants to get beyond the tip of the iceberg or racist event, and dig deeper into the patterns, structures, and underlying beliefs that allow structural racism exist.

In this interactive workshop, IISC staff will work with participants to apply various systems thinking tools to uncover “leverage points” for advancing our pursuit of racial justice.

We will develop our capacity to:

• See more systemically
• Apply tools to identify leverage points for change
• Examine mindsets as impediments to/accelerants for change

Speakers: Andrew Grant-Thomas, Curtis Ogden, Cynthia Silva Parker