What I learned

Being anti-racist

This chapter explores the lifelong journey of recognizing privilege, embracing accountability, and choosing to lead with intention. Through vivid stories from childhood, early adulthood, and pivotal national moments, I reflect on how awareness evolves and how leadership must evolve with it. The chapter highlights the responsibility that comes with privilege and the power of using one’s voice to amplify others, challenge harmful norms, and create spaces where dignity is honored. It invites readers to see anti racist leadership as an active, ongoing commitment rooted in humanity, courage, and continuous learning. By sharing moments that shaped his understanding of inequity and responsibility, offering a clear reminder that leadership is never neutral. Leadership is a choice to act with purpose and to work toward a more equitable and just world.

Owning my feminism

Owning My Feminism is not a declaration of arrival. It is an honest account of what claiming that identity has actually required of me, and where the work is still unfinished. I trace how a lesbian mother, a dean who fought for justice while fighting for her life, and a theater full of women reclaiming their own stories shaped my understanding of what gender equity demands of a man with privilege. I examine the ceiling of my own experience, the intersectional obligation borne by white male feminism, and the difference between advocacy and repair. Most importantly, I name the gap this chapter revealed: that policy-level action, real as it is, is not the full definition of feminist practice. What feminism looks like outside the boundaries of a job title is the question I am still learning to answer.