bari and tanya

"From the paired focus on community and self-care, to the guidelines, definitions, and affinity group work, Tanya and Bari created a tangible space of constructive dialogue and learning for our team.

That is not easy to do even in optimal conditions, and the virtual realm adds in unique challenges, which Tanya and Bari acknowledged and helped us navigate. I was especially inspired by how they modeled listening with care and focus, and responding with compassion and honesty.” 

“Bari Katz and Tanya Williams created a safe and open space for our staff to explore. In order to better serve our community, we did some intense work analyzing and exploring our own identities.

As a result of the ongoing diversity, equity, and inclusion work with Bari and Tanya, our staff feels better able to engage with our school partners with across the five boroughs. Additionally, Bari and Tanya targeted the trainings to the specific needs of our organization. When necessary, they skillfully pivoted to meet our team where we were, based on what we needed on that day.” 

"Our work with Tanya and Bari put us on better footing to move the DEIB work forward together as a staff; it gave us tools and the confidence to have necessary but difficult conversations with our diverse staff.

While they continue to be difficult, and to present new challenges each time, we feel able to keep pushing this work forward in the ways that we hoped when we first reached out to Tanya and Bari."

"My interactions with Ms. Katz and Dr. Williams were consistently inspiring and affirming. Their wisdom, insights, and discernment were evident in each of our planning meetings and debrief sessions. I walked away with a healthy respect for the best practices associated with effective culture change."

"Caring, conversational, challenging yet empathetic, eye-opening and straightforward while focused on getting down to the core of things. People's eyes were opened in very powerful ways... it's shifting thinking for sure, but more importantly, has opened our ways of thinking and seeing the world around us.

It's been very powerful in how to engage in difficult conversations, understanding where people are coming from and approaching things with a much broader perspective. Most life and thought-altering was the idea of holding complex thought - and not seeing every situation or person with a "this" or "that" perspective."