About me
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Change Agent- Building Inclusive Spaces!
Ciara Walton - A Jacksonville, Florida native, and current New York City resident. Ciara's passion for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion were amplified while working in Public Schools and while organizing communities around health inequalities. During this time she progressively worked to challenge these inequitable systems, lack of resources and shortages that plagued her community in various capacities. After understanding how policies affected change, Ciara became a grassroots organizer, advocating for high-quality education, disability rights, and a myriad of other social justice issues.
With this, she has assisted in giving voice to underrepresented communities and is now working to change the culture in workspaces to be more inclusive, diverse and equitable for the employees who do the great work in our society.
As a first-generation college graduate, she completed her Masters of Public Administration, where she pursued areas of education policy, non-profit management, and organizational change.
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Currently, Ciara works as the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA). Managing ERG’s, the DEI Council, strategic direction and creating curriculums and strategies that emphasizes manager and staff development with a DEI lens. Outside of PPFA, Ciara works as an Organizational and Employee Development Consultant assisting in creating cultures that sustain and develop diverse talent and create inclusive spaces for folks to grow and thrive in their perspective workplaces.
“I'm committed to practicing equity in every facet of my work and life. By serving as a conduit of change, I work with companies, organizations, non-profits, schools, and individuals to advocate and build spaces for progressive change. By creating frameworks, strategies, initiatives and setting a vision, I assist in project management, coach and inspire others in making transformational changes. While doing this, I seek to confront the nomenclature of inequitable systems, challenging myself and others to lead with values, be civically engaged, culturally responsive and self-aware in order to make the best decisions for moving the needle forward in their work”.
*For inquiries and or resources feel free to contact Ciara at TheCulturalArchitects@gmail.com
Consulting Services
With our Cultural Architects, we assist you with rethinking workplace culture together by building on the skill set of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) lens. While building together, we will guide your organization through a process of creating a strategy for a solid DEI Infrastructure that will ultimately achieve your organizational goals.
Our goal is to work with our clients through a Discovery Phase, which is our first step in the project development stage and assists on the road to success. The Discovery Phase is about us listening and learning about what you have, what you want, and what you need; holistically.
Once we have a clear understanding of where you are and where you want to go, your Cultural Architect will build out a proposal that describes your scope of work. From the information (*Quantitative and Qualitative information) gathered we will dive into our Design Phase that will consist of a strategic action-oriented plan. In this phase you will also receive a detailed report outlining the results of our analysis, prioritizing the major areas of contention and identifying the areas that can assist in rebuilding the core foundation you seek to improve.
In the final phase, we focus on Implementation & Quality Assurance. In this phase our goal is to be both iterative and transparent: you'll see our work evolve over time. DEI work is built through trust, dedication and implemented with intention. This phase allows our teams to work together to solve any issues along the way. You will have opportunities to review our work and provide feedback along the way. Our Cultural Architects will provide support in strategic planning, leadership development, and project management.
Building a DEI Infrastructure
Strategic Planning and Vision Setting
- Project Management
- Integration and Cross collaboration of Streams
Business Impact and Metrics
Building and Developing Affinity groups , Identity Caucuses, Employee Resource Groups & DEI Councils
Culture Building and or Restructuring
Data Analysis & Recommendations for culture and engagement
Building Workshops & Training Curriculums
People & Equity
Refining Systems and Processes (*With a DEI Lens)
- Recruiting and Retaining Diverse Talent
Onboarding.
- Human Resources and D&I Best Practices
Professional Development & Team Building.
Talent Development (Career Growth)
- Developing Mentoring and Fellowship Programs.
Cultural Competency & Leadership/Management
Creating Organizational Cultural Competency
Creating Manager Action Plans w/ DEI Strategy
Manager Development & Skill-building in DEI
- Unconscious Biases (Race, Power, and Privilege)
- Cultural Differences, Leadership Style, Feedback, Etc.
Developing Shared Language and Terminology
Change Management Planning
Coaching for New Managers/Leaders (*With a DEI Lens)
OH HEY, FOR BEST VIEWING, YOU'LL NEED TO TURN YOUR PHONE