What we explore together
Bring Jessica's frameworks and expertise to your next event or workshop. Each session is built for real change—not just inspiration. Your team will leave with practical tools, shared language, and clear next steps.
6 Habits of Culturally Competent Designers
The 6 habits of culturally competent designers are critical tools highlighted in the book Design for Identity: How to Design Authentically for a Diverse World, a go-to manual for any organization that wants to know what it looks like to activate the values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in practice.
Designing for identity is the key to getting beyond corporate statements about social justice and diversity recruiting statistics. It's about evolving the design process to ensure that customers' cultural identities are explored and incorporated from project initiation through execution and that designers' interpretations of identity truly reflect and honor what's most meaningful to customers.
Key Takeaway
The 6 habits are behaviors designers can adopt to engage in a brave new dialogue where identity and culture are no longer taboo; they're actually embraced and celebrated in day-to-day interactions. As the demographics and dynamics of our society continue to shift, the 6 habits will help designers show up in ways that resonate with the diverse public we serve and bring about more positive outcomes for historically excluded people.
Leading Inclusive Dialogues: Understanding Inclusion Superpowers
Inclusion is a verb and it is grounded in the ability to communicate with people of different backgrounds, experiences, opinions, and knowledge levels. Leading discussions that explore identity requires a level of proficiency in certain competencies to ensure that you can create a safe space for exploration, understanding, and connection while respecting participants' vulnerabilities and perspectives.
Too often, the default is to charge passionate volunteers with the work of advancing inclusion and engaging people in inclusive dialogues to make change – without consideration of the skills that requires. Passion alone does not make impact. There are too many people counting on us to make change and the gravity of the work we do is too heavy to be left up to chance.
Key Takeaway
In this session, we will articulate the inclusion superpowers, including both relevant professional experience and critical competencies and skills, that make inclusion leaders and champions impactful and how we can use these superpowers to vet interested individuals.
Jessica In Action
Design For Peace Podcast
Design Force
Voices of Change: Navigating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Built Environment
PRAISE FOR JESSICA
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PRAISE FOR JESSICA *
“Since attending Jessica’s talk, I have started asking new coaching clients if there is anything about their identity or culture they would like me to know as their coach. Such great dialogue has followed.”
Debra Enloe
President and CEO / Leadership Coach, Genuine Compass
"Jessica is an incredible speaker who taps into the hearts and minds of passionate designers who want to get involved in the DEIB space. Her powerful message sheds light on the fact that it takes a certain competency and rigor to make systemic change; and with the right tools, training, and mindset anything is possible."
Amanda Ramos
Innovation and Inclusive Design Champion, Gensler
"Jessica shared with us the importance of cultural competence for design and what it looks like and sounds like to show up as a culturally competent designer using her Design for Identity BlueprintTM. It was a thought-provoking evening with our wonderful community of optimistic change makers."
Karen Hold
Director, DT:DC