Shaping Leaders

Conference organisers claim they often “struggle to find” BIPOC professionals to present 🤷🏽‍♀️🤦🏾‍♀️ Black Applied Behavior Analysts, Inc not only delivered dozens of BIPOC presenters at this years conference , but we were also graced with 3 Black Keynote presenters 🎉

Each keynote delivered outstanding presentations and a workshop.

Huge shout out to our very own Georgiana Bcba who brought the house down with her keynote “Leadership in Service of the Community; from surviving to thriving!” 🙌🏾🔥

This is the first time the 3 of us met in person 😍🖤. After meeting and starting community on online, our energy, love and passion was even more beautiful in person. 🖤🤎🖤🙌🏾

We are each so so happy for the trust that we had in each other and our values, vision and mission for Shaping Leaders. Thanks to all those who are also aligned with us and for your support.

We are excited to continue our partnership and grow our community.
Pic from L-R Georgiana, Nasiah and Melody

Best Cohort ever. Meeting all of these lovely people in person after all this time was incredible to say the least.

Each one of these people has demonstrated their leadership both at the conference and outside of it and we are so thankful to know and love them.

We have so many highlights to share of the entire conference….but for now still basking in all the Black excellence that was experienced this weekend. We can barely put it into words!

We are so excited that our co-founder will be one of the Keynote speakers at this years conference 🎉🎉🎉

Through stories of her childhood in Sierra Leone 🇸🇱 (West Africa) Georgiana will discuss what leadership and community means to her and how we can all adopt values based leadership to uplift our community.

See you there

Sounding a little like self as context if you ask us!….for all the RFT and ACT folks out there!

These concepts are not new-they have been around for decades. Many Black activists have spoken about the concept of the self as it relates to constructs of race, and gender etc. for a long time. It has been described for a long time long before Relational Frame Theory. RFT is great-and a wonderful way to help us talk about these concepts-but keep in mind that’s all it is…. an organized form of language to help us communicate about things in the world.

As professionals and behavior analysts, we can practice being open to ALL forms of language, ALL descriptions about behavioral concepts and principles in the world including the ones that came long before “our” science and jargon. James Baldwin’s work is an incredible example of behavior analysis when it comes to helping us become more observant of the principles at play when it comes to social justice. If you haven’t read any of his work-we highly recommend it.

Questions that need answers:

Does your organization affirm you?
Do they engage in equitable practices? Are they clear and direct about it? Do you feel that you are supported in equitably?
Can you show up fully as the human being you are?

If the answers to these questions are no, have you reflected on what your current options are???

Reflections welcome 👇🏾👇🏿👇🏽

Our contribution and value to the world is to be celebrated! 🤎👏🏾 👏🏿And when others do not…we continue to celebrate ourselves in community!

Taking care of yourself is non negotiable. & how you take care of yourself looks different depending on the context and your biggest needs at any given time.

Do you have strategies for how you take care of yourself at work…even those of us who find ourselves in an unsupportive work environment. What do you do in those moments to prioritize caring for YOU??

Reflections welcome 👇🏾👇🏿👇🏽

Lovely reminder to our community no matter where you may find yourself….remember these. Repeat them as often as needed. 🤎

Happy Black History Month to all of us who are celebrating in the USA & beyond.

Affirm, Celebrate, Empower, & Appreciate Black people in this field….this month & every month. 🤎💪🏾

2 more days until we begin! Join us today!

Last day to register to join us!