All In National Meeting Keynote Plenaries: Moving Forward for Truth & Equity
Liz Dozier
By Esther Babawande, Communications Assistant at Data Across Sectors for Health
COVID-19 has been our report card on racial equity, and we have failed.
As Liz Dozier presented her assessments of the current state of data and race at the Fourth Annual All In Data for Community Health National Meeting, those striking words resounded through the interface.
Long before she spoke at the virtual public health data conference, Liz Dozier was known for taking a “public health approach” to address the violence prevalent in what used to be the nation’s poster child for a violent urban school. The year Dozier became principal of Fenger High School, located on Chicago’s Southside, 200 students were arrested. As a principal in a school others had forsaken, Dozier overhauled the accepted system of doing things with courage. Three years later, fewer than a dozen students faced the same fate as the initial 200.
When Dozier presented 300 data scientists with a report card for the nation based on racial equity, we all saw fierce Principal Dozier again. Like many parents she visited, personally, audience members felt the same need to do something about this country’s failure.
The first step in eradicating these inequities starts with evaluating power and the misconceptions of the powerless. In a world where knowledge is power, it’s easy to believe those with the data have all the answers. Dozier challenges that notion entirely. She boldly shared examples that illustrated that those with power don’t always have the answers. Echoing the sentiment of fellow keynote speaker Diane Sullivan, Dozier shone a spotlight on persons with lived experience’s ability.
She pushed folks to see how persons with lived experience give figures a face, a story, a meaning. Instead of infantilizing those with lived experience, we must accept that they alone have the perspective to make sense of their situation. To tap into the wealth of that perspective, Dozier advises leaders to ask the right questions.
Years ago, at Fenger high school, Dozier shared how she employed the discipline of never asking students that were behaving violently and in opposition, “what’s wrong with you?” Instead, she started asking, “what happened to you.” For her, in doing so, she got to understand the sources of behavior. She found that once the question shifted, the solution changes.
Shifting school systems and thought processes with the right questions is how Dozier leads, and in doing so, she lifts others to do the same. Her purpose: uprooting and changing the philanthropic space. As the founder and CEO of Chicago Beyond, Dozier and her team have invested more than $30 million in community-led initiatives and individuals fighting for all youth to achieve their fullest human potential in Chicago and beyond. Dozier showcases the importance of funders trust’ in nonprofit visions. Where others see ‘risk’ in funding Black and brown leaders and work in black communities, Chicago Beyond realizes that the communities have the power. They get to choose, and we as funders must take risks to effect change truly.
Dozier concludes her speech by sharing her best practices as a funder. These significant insights include the following.
Seven Inequities Standing in the Way of Equitable Research
Access: Could we be missing out on community wisdom because conversations about research are happening without community members being meaningfully present at the table?
Information: Can we effectively partner to get to the full truth if information about research options, methods, inputs, costs, benefits, and risks are not shared?
Validity: Could we be accepting partial truths as the full picture because we are not valuing community organizations and community members as valid experts?
Ownership: Are we getting incomplete answers by valuing research processes that take from, rather than build up, community ownership?
Value: What value is generated, for whom, and at what cost?
Accountability: Are we holding funders and researchers accountable if research designs create harm or do not work?
Authorship: Whose voice is shaping the narrative, and is the community fully represented?
Source: Chicago Beyond Guidebook: Why Am I Always Being Researched?
These seven inequities are held in place by power and offer seven opportunities for change. There is a deep-rooted well-founded mistrust in research and being researched. By being intentional in our processes, we can change that in our generation. We can democratically collect data. For Dozier, nobody indeed loses when we give up or relegate power if the goal is equity.
To experience Liz Dozier’s complete address, watch the video here.