This annual workshop utilizes the Intercultural Development Continuum (IDC), organizational development, and systems change methodologies to deepen intercultural leadership development to support organizational and social change. Attendees explore four important perspectives necessary for change:self-awareness, other awareness, organizational dynamics, and social movement context.
Justice-Based Leadership in Transformative Times:Facilitating Cultural Change
June 1 - 5, 2026 Saint Paul, Minnesota.
What is Facilitating Culture Change — and why it matters now
The urgency of crisis has always been with us. So has our collective courage, commitment, and creativity.
We are in a time of profound political, systemic, and cultural shifts that are reordering what we thought we knew and what to do. Old systems and norms are breaking down and new structures have yet to form.
For those of us who are leading within communities, organizations, and across disciplines, we are witnessing rapid shifts that challenge and shake the ground underneath us.
Together, we can do more than react – we can reimagine our foundations and retool our skills and practices to create change towards justice. We have the responsibility to act now to build towards the world in which we long to live.
Facilitating Cultural Change (FCC) offers new ways of learning, leading, facilitating, and supporting one another in the generational work of building a flourishing future for all of us.
Facilitating Cultural Change is a 5 day, advanced, intensive workshop for leaders across sectors that centers goals-based and values-based tools for bridging and navigating differences across identities, experiences, and histories. FCC provides a multi-disciplinary approach grounded in research that incorporates intercultural competency, facilitating skills, social movement theory, organizing practices, change management, and more. We learn, we reflect, we practice, and we send you home with a concrete portfolio of actionable skills to use in your ongoing work.
FCC is more than a workshop. It’s also a community and a family. We offer ongoing informal support and structured engagement throughout the year, and a robust network of alumni who show up for and with each other. We offer through theoretical frameworks, relationship-building, tools, and skills to serve you well. And we make a commitment to you that goes far beyond the 5 day workshop.
We don’t know what the world will feel like in June 2026. But we do know that we will continue to resist, reframe, and build towards the world of which we dream. Together we can help that happen. Come join us.
Our core promise: Learn to Lead for the Long Term
FCC will equip you with what you need to make lasting change towards your broader goals. FCC will give you access to expert practitioners, clear frameworks, practical tools, ready-to-use materials, a cohort of new colleagues and relationships, and the opportunity to reflect on your own experiences in new ways.
In a time shaped by polarization, uncertainty, rapid change, and attacks on our work towards justice and liberation, FCC provides a developmental roadmap that helps leaders bridge across difference, understand where people get stuck, and move systems toward more equitable and resilient cultures.
Who Should Attend?
Facilitating Cultural Change is for leaders across sectors – from higher education to philanthropy to nonprofits to healthcare to arts and culture to faith-based to community organizing and more.
If you’re seeking to deepen your impact, transform theory into action, gain more tools and skills to navigate the challenges and opportunities of this moment, FCC is for you. FCC will help you to become a more confident, more effective, and more self-aware leader grounded in your deeper purpose and path.
The FCC Curriculum includes:
Over the course of five days, you will learn, practice, and reflect through facilitator-led content, experiential exercise, small group work, and more…
Grounding in developmental models to support equitable and just learning and systems change
Applying a trauma informed lens to individual and organizational change
Engaging in constructive cross-cultural conflict
Understand and managing individual and organizational change
Practicing leadership and facilitation skills
Countering bias and micro-aggressions
Engaging and shifting dynamics of power
Transforming theory into practice through equity focused Action Learning
Strategies to build movements to bring social justice work to scale
What’s Included?
Pre-institute preparation and materials.
Individual Intercultural Development Inventory assessment and coaching session focused on your specific goals.
5 days of in-person workshops, experiential exercises, and group discussions.
Comprehensive participant guide with tools and templates.
Ongoing coaching to support your continued growth.
What Are the Details? Where? When? How?
We will meet in-person June 1 – 5, 2026 in St. Paul, Minnesota
Monday 6/1/2026 -Thursday 6/4/2026 from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm Friday 6/5/2026 from 9:00 am – 2:00 pm
Your $3,000 investment includes: 5 days of workshops, an individual IDI profile, One-to-one IDI profile debrief and goal setting assessment session, 2 small group coaching sessions, FCC Participant Guide with practical tools
Facilitating Cultural Change will provide breakfast, lunch, snacks, and recommendations for dinner, accommodating participant’s dietary needs as much as possible.
We will provide a list of nearby hotels and ground transportation information.
Please contact us if you need additional assistance planning travel or lodging.
Payment plans and a limited number of scholarships are available. If you need to discuss scholarship or payment plans, contact Athena Adkins at athena@betterworldpartnersmn.com
The agenda of the FCC Institute is full and fast paced. Within the context of the agenda, we will do our best to accommodate various learning styles by using a mix of facilitation methodologies including lecture (utilizing PowerPoint for visual learners), small and large group discussion, experiential and kinetic activities, spaces for reflection, and frequent Q&A sessions. As facilitators of cultural change, experimenting with different learning and facilitation styles, and managing a sense of discomfort with the learning process, is a necessary skill. While FCC is an excellent place to practice this skill, we recognize that the learning pace and style of FCC might not be optimal for everyone. We encourage attendees to participate as fully as possible to get the most out of our work together, while taking care of your own needs.
I bring over 35 years of experience, commitment and passion to my partnerships with organizations working towards social change and structural transformation including foundations, non-profits, educational, health, faith-based, and social change organizations. A few career highlights include serving as staff at OutFront MN, founding Director of the GLBT Programs Office at the University of Minnesota, co-chair of the Board of Directors of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, Supervisor of the University of Minnesota Diversity Institute, Coordinator of Leadership… Read More
“Who do we Choose to Be? This is the question that drives Athena and her work. Throughout her 20+ year career in the non-profit and philanthropic sector, her effort to leverage her experience and expertise and align her personal values with mission-driven organizations has led her to engage in deep, meaningful work at the intersection of organizational development and capacity building—where those ideas intersect with authentic leadership, intercultural organizational development, healing from trauma, and emotional intelligence. Essentially, she is a… Read More
Liz Loeb (she/her) is a civil rights attorney, community organizer, and non-profit director who brings 25 years of high-level experience leading organizations in movements for social change. As a white, queer, Jewish woman, Liz knows that who we are shapes the work that we do. Liz believes in our shared interdependence, and seeks to address challenging issues with humor, compassion, and courage. A graduate of Brown University, Liz holds a law degree from NYU School of Law and has completed… Read More
FCC Community of Practice
These FCC Community of Practice groups will meet for ten (10) monthly sessions via Zoom for 90 minutes over the course of a year.
FCC Community of Practice groups meet for ten (10) monthly sessions via Zoom for 90 minutes over the course of a year. In addition, 2 Learning Sessions will be offered to bring all the FCC Community of Practice groups together for further advanced learning regarding leadership for social and systems change.
These intentionally small (10 people or less) groups will have a trained facilitator who has been part of the FCC faculty. The facilitator will serve like an “orchestra conductor” – knowing when to push for deeper discussion, encouraging multiple perspectives, and making sure everyone is heard – all while ensuring the group stays focused on its goals and timelines.
Below are some comments shared by former FCC CoP participants…
“I highly recommend FCC CoP! It was a great experience. I learned a lot. The CoP provided the opportunity for practitioners to share knowledge and concerns, ask questions and provide support in a safe space.”
“The FCC CoP is a unique space where the shared wisdom, expertise and support is incredibly powerful.”
“My experience in the FCC CoP allowed me to learn from other practitioners across sectors and geographies, expanding my professional network and my professional growth. It was an incredibly valuable experience!”
“My FCC CoP helped me dig deeper into my own skills, assumptions, and practice of facilitating cultural change in a supportive and inspiring peer group.”
All applications will be reviewed to determine your placement within a FCC Community of Practice group that best suits your needs and goals.
Price – $2,000 USD includes ten (10) monthly sessions via Zoom for 90 minutes over the course of a year. In addition, 2 Learning Sessions will be offered to bring all the FCC Community of Practice groups together.
Origins of FCC
In the late 1990’s, the Diversity Institute at the University of Minnesota conducted a student immersion leadership program, facilitated by Nehrwr Abdul-Wahid, called “Diversity Explorations.” Beth Zemsky soon joined the facilitation team. Together Nehrwr and Beth expanded the curriculum and the audience to include University of Minnesota students, faculty, staff, and community members who wished to build their leadership skills around diversity and inclusion. Nehrwr and Beth conducted Diversity Explorations workshops annually at the University of Minnesota, and later in community settings through the early 2000’s when Phyllis Braxton and julius erolin (both of whom had been participants in earlier Diversity Exploration workshops) joined the team.
Nehrwr, Beth, julius, and Phyllis brought their over 50 years of collective experience in working for diversity, inclusion and equity, and their commitment to learn from each other and workshop participants, to create a new design for training leaders committed to intercultural competence and social justice. Facilitating Cultural Change was born out of this collaboration. The current design of Facilitating Cultural Change owes much to the creativity, passion, commitment, compassion, wisdom, and intellectual rigor of this team.
Want to know more about these workshops?
Listen to Beth and colleague Phyllis discuss the January 2018 FCC workshop…
