The first session of Discovery Days was stimulating and packed with information! The content was delivered with Impact Austin members in mind but equally suitable to non-members interested in conversations about impacts on populations and organizations. Brenna Cummings and Jerrica Witte offered slides and discussion on a range of topics to introduce IMPACT: a definition of impact; types of nonprofit outcomes; elements of nonprofit programs; why nonprofits collect data; how nonprofits measure outcomes; common challenges that nonprofits face; and how funders can better participate in the Nonprofit Ecosystem. If you missed this session, find the recap, slides, and a link to the video here.
This next webinar builds upon the basics introduced in session one, focusing on data equity.
Session 2: Data Equity & Impact | FRI, FEB 10 | 12:00 - 1:00 PM
This session pertains to data equity: using an equity lens to consider how data is collected, analyzed, and interpreted. We will cover the challenges that exist when equity is not centered in data, and consider best practices for developing a data collection and analysis framework for driving meaningful impact.
Welcome:
Demetria George Caston, MS, CFRE, Executive Director
Impact Austin
A native of Louisiana, Demetria is a graduate of Xavier University of Louisiana, the only historically Black, Catholic university in the US, where she received a BS in Biology. She also graduated from the University of New Orleans with a MS in Health Care Management. Demetria is a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE). She is a 2022 graduate of the African American Leadership Institute in Austin.
With over 20 years' experience as a nonprofit executive, focused on fundraising, program development, community engagement and strategic planning, Demetria has worked for many notable nonprofit organizations such as Breast Cancer Resource Center, Make-a-Wish Hawaii, Mercy Ships and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. She has also worked as a consultant with Community Counselling Service.
Demetria is a member of the Austin (TX) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated, an international African American women's service organization, where she serves as chair of International Trends and Services. She is an active alumnus of her alma mater and also volunteers with the American Red Cross.
Presenter:
Ashley Hickson, DrPH, MPH Senior Health Equity Advisor, Center for Science in the Public Interest Ashley is a public health practitioner and mixed methods researcher with a focus on achieving racial justice, health equity, reducing health disparities, co-creating interventions alongside the subpopulations most adversely affected, and designing sustainable solutions to mitigate challenges to health and well-being. She has over a decade of diverse professional and community-based experience serving populations that are structurally oppressed and minoritized. In her current role as Senior Health Equity Advisor at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, she takes an intersectional approach to building internal capacity for operationalizing health equity, while developing external strategy to engage with academic researchers and institutions, community leaders, and organizations across the nation in this important work. As part of this work, she has developed internal guidelines to inform communications strategy, scientific processes, equitable grantmaking, and organizational policies to align with best practices to advance health equity and racial justice. This has included the development of a Vision Statement for Health Equity, Racial Equity, and Racial Justice and a Health Equity Impact Assessment (HEIA) tool to evaluate the opportunity and need at the local and state level for grant applications. Beyond her professional experience, Ashley has sought academic training and fostered strategic partnerships to equip herself with the technical expertise to design high-impact interventions for long standing inequities. She conferred a Doctorate of Public Health degree with a concentration in Health Equity and Social Justice from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the fall of 2021, and currently serves on several national health equity-oriented projects and workgroups.
Session 3: Collaboration for Greater Impact | FRI, FEB 24 | 12:00 - 1:00 PM This session discusses how impact can be greater through collaboration among nonprofits, corporations, and individuals.
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