Ithaca College

Bigoted comments, jokes, negative assumptions and stereotypes are challenging because they can provoke our emotions and make us reactive, scared, confused, uncertain, judgmental, and less able to access our intelligence and good thinking.

Facilitated by: Laura Branca and Kirby Edmonds, TFC, Training for Change 

Dates/Times: 

• Monday, May 9th at 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. in Klingenstein Lounge, Campus Center (Breakfast will be served)
• Thursday, June 2nd at 8:30 a.m. -12:30 p.m. in Clark Lounge, Campus Center (Breakfast will be served)

Kirby and Laura bring to this workshop, years of experience with helping people identify choices for how to confront difficult situations like these in a manner that is poised and professional. They will offer tips and useful questions, and they will work through a series of problematic remarks and help participants come up with an array of responses to consider using in real life. There will be time to brainstorm possible interventions, strategies and responses for the actual situations participants are encountering at work.

Finally they will offer some specific boundary-setting statements that can help with intervening or responding calmly but firmly to disrespectful remarks, ignorance, or misinformation.

To RSVP for this event, please visit the following link: https://form.jotform.com/61098334612151

About the Presenters

Laura Branca is a managing partner at Training for Change (TFC) Associates, founded in Ithaca in 1982. She leads interactive training and retreats on organizational change, planning, leadership development, team building, communication, decision-making, handling conflict, diversity inclusion, and building culturally competent organizations and coalitions. She particularly enjoys teaching group dynamics and training and facilitation skills. Her associate at TFC is Kirby Edmonds.

Laura is Board President and a co-owner of Moosewood, Inc., and a Senior Fellow with the Dorothy Cotton Institute. She also designs and facilitates the Multicultural Resource Center's Talking Circles on Race and Racism. Laura has 30 years of experience teaching conflict management, helping people resolve interpersonal, organizational and community conflicts, and mediating for the Community Dispute Resolution Center.

Kirby Edmonds, a managing partner at Training for Change (TFC) Associates, has designed and delivered numerous workshops for counselors in the areas of basic counseling, group counseling and developing cultural competency.

He has designed training workshops, written manuals, and provided consulting services for a wide variety of organizations and networks including UNICEF, NTEU, Corning, Inc., Pennsylvania Department of Health, National Skill Standards Board, National Rural Development Partnership, Supreme Court of Ohio, AFL/CIO, Solidarity Center, union executives in the manufacturing sector, migrant workers' alliance in New York State, and a multicultural leadership project for youth. Kirby is a trained mediator with over 27 years of experience managing and resolving interpersonal, multi-party, inter-organizational and community conflicts. He also teaches courses in conflict management and cooperative conflict resolution. 

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Michelle Rios-Dominguez at mriosdominguez@ithaca.edu or (607) 274-1506. We ask that requests for accommodations be made as soon as possible.