Q&A with Kalise Wornum, Ed.D., CEO and Founder of KW Consultants, Inc.

Dr. Wornum specializes in cultural proficiency and community conversations to support difficult conversations regarding race, culture, and equity.

Tell us a little bit about your work and background. 

I provide professional development training for educators, municipalities, and private companies around cultural proficiency. I help my clients understand how bias is interrupting customer intimacy and affecting teaching and learning. I think it is one of the most important conversations you can have as an educator. 

I am driven to do this work for multiple reasons, including because of my personal experiences. I was raised in a predominantly black upper-middle class neighborhood in Houston, Texas, until the 7th grade when my family relocated to inner-city Boston. At the time, desegregation laws were requiring schools throughout Massachusetts to integrate. I was bussed to a predominantly white public school in Lexington, MA. This experience fundamentally changed the way I viewed the world and cemented my desire to become an educator. 

What can people expect from your workshop? 

My goal is for workshop participants to leave with three things: 

1. A clear understanding of terms, including the terms bias and microaggression
   
   The first thing I do in my workshop is to make sure we’re all speaking the same language. We discuss and define common terms like bias and microaggressions, so that everyone understands what we’re talking about
    
2. A strategy for making their classroom more equitable
   
   Once educators understand what bias and microaggression is, I offer strategies for interrupting these behaviors. However, it’s not enough to simply learn the strategies. We spend a lot of time in my workshops actually practicing implementation of each strategy. We figure out what makes a teacher nervous or where they need help, so that when they go back to their classroom they can immediately get to work. 
    
3. A sense of urgency to implement the strategy immediately
   
   Schools should be joyous places where students get to learn who they are and discover their genius. The minute a teacher returns to their school following my workshop, I want them to do what they can to make their classroom safer for their students. 
    

Can you give examples of how bias or microaggressions show up in the classroom? 

Bias and microaggressions show up in classrooms every single day. A study published in the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education in 2009 reported that students of color experienced an average of 291 microaggressions over a 90-day period. Educators don’t always realize they’re doing it. We’re still surprised when students of color do well academically. You hear teachers say things about their students like, “this is the best that he can do given where he comes from,” or, “she’s smart for a black girl.” 

My hope is that after my workshop, a teacher is going to tune in and hear things they didn’t hear before. They’ll go back to their school tomorrow and they’ll hear a student say something that is homophobic, or racist, or sexist. They may not have had the confidence to interrupt the behavior in the past, or maybe they felt like they didn’t have the time. Following the workshop they’ll understand why it’s important that they address it, and they’ll have the confidence and tools to know what to do. 

What would you say to someone who is debating whether or not to attend your workshop? 

Schools are inequitable. We know that children are having different experiences depending on where they attend school. As an educator, you signed up to serve all children, and I don’t know any educator who wants to fail. We all must take the time to be better educators so that we can serve each and every child every day. 

When you aren’t leading training and workshops, how do you like to spend your time? 

I am a reader, a wife and a mom. I have a really big family and we’re always planning a party. I also love arcade games. As a gift, my husband surprised me with Galaga, the old school life size arcade game. It is so much fun!