• Christine Clark
• Mark Brimhall-Vargas
• Mary Graham-Fisher

• Calendar of Activities
• Seven-Point Diversity Agenda
• Community Process
• Gallaudet Diversity Team
• Consultants
• Bob's VLOG on Diversity
• On The Green: special diversity issue

CBG Consultants Philosophy and Background

Christine Clark, Ed.D., Mary Graham-Fisher, B.A., and Mark Brimhall-Vargas, M.P.P.,

Philosophy

We believe that multicultural education is a process, not a product. Thus, our approach to multicultural organizational development, and, specifically, to diversity training, is primarily dialogic-using the actual perspectives and experiences of participants as the basis from which learning is derived about cultural differences and, ultimately, the building of multiculturally-welcoming educational and/or workplace communities. This dialogic approach also facilitates a deeper understanding of the fact that sociocultural differences between and among groups of people create living perceptions of an overarching objective reality that may or may not be 'true,' but which nevertheless profoundly influence individuals' personal choices and behaviors. We use a variety of activities to stimulate and structure participant dialogue in relationship to the array of diversity-related concerns that exist within, between, and across myriad organizational constituencies.

Our philosophy is informed by a social justice point of entry into inquiry-that is, one that takes into account historical and continuing relations of power related to structural inequities in the larger society that impact interpersonal, familial, community, and organizational dynamics. While a social justice consciousness frames our work, it does not limit it. More specifically, our work is predicated upon canons of choice and responsibility, rather than ideologies of guilt and blame; and of self-determination, not victimization.

In sum, our work is guided by the belief that social-justice oriented dialogic communication is the key to developing democratic citizenship and, accordingly, the knowledge, skills, and abilities to meaningfully practice democracy in any community setting. Such dialogic communication is different from discussion, where participants generally engage in serial monologuing-each offering their perspective on a given topic-as well as from debate, where participants typically learn to "listen to gain advantage"-each seeking to trump the perspectives offered by others on a given topic. Instead, true dialogue requires participants to learn how to create "third space"-a place where participants bring "first space" or personal knowledge, ideas, and opinions and talk about-and, eventually, act upon-them using "second space" or group knowledge, norms, and etiquette.

Background
We have extensive academic training and professional experience in the field of multicultural organizational development, in which diversity training is an integral component. We also have myriad multicultural interpersonal identities and experiences that augment our academic and professional expertise as diversity consultants.

These include international and domestic geographic origins; bi- and multi-racial family configurations; multilingualism; Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, and non-traditional faith and secular community histories; heterosexual, queer-identified, and gay sexual orientations; non-traditional gender expression; and episodic disabilities. On occasion, we use ourselves as both positive and negative examples, as well as good and bad examples from our own experiences, to "role-model" multicultural concepts with participants in our diversity consultation work.

We formed an independent multicultural organizational development consulting business partnership in 2000. Through this partnership, we have worked with a broad array of public and private organizations interested in building supportive and productive multiculturally affirming educational and/or workplace communities.