2009 Civil Impact V: Radical Collaboration for Racial Justice

We are excited to announce our presenters and thought leaders for Radical Collaboration for Racial Justice.

Lead Facilitator
Viveka Chen provides culturally competent organizational and community consulting and facilitation services. She specializes in multi-stakeholder collaboration, strategic planning and organizational restructuring. Since 1990, she has worked with low-income communities of color and their allies using community development and community building as a means of realizing community well being and racial, social and environmental justice. Viveka has played a key role in several large-scale field building initiatives in collaboration with organizations such as the Movement Strategy Center, San Francisco Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation, and CompassPoint Nonprofit Services.

Faculty
Jonathan D. Asher is the executive director of Colorado Legal Services. He previously served as staff attorney, as supervisory attorney and director of program litigation. He was senior staff counsel with the Colorado Coalition of Legal Services Programs before he assumed a position with the Legal Aid Society of Metropolitan Denver.

Badi Foster is the President and CEO of the Phelps-Stokes Fund, the oldest continuously operating foundation serving the educational needs of African Americans, Native Americans, Africans, and the rural and urban poor. Foster previously served as Director of the Lincoln Filene Center for Citizenship and Public Affairs at Tufts University.

William H. Smith is the executive director of the Emerson College’s Center for Diversity in the Communication Industries. Smith has received awards from the International Academy of Communications Arts and Sciences, Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, and the National Association of Government Communicators.

Maria Soto served for twelve years as Deputy Director, Legal Services of Greater Miami. Her twenty five year legal services career began with Florida Rural Services. Soto previously served on the MIE Journal Committee and is a member of the Legal Services Project of the Litigation Section of the American Bar Association

Thought Leaders
Colin Bailey, Staff Attorney, Legal Services of Northern California
Fran Fajana, Staff Attorney, Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, Inc.
Steven Fischbach, Community Lawyer, Rhode Island Legal Services