Our Story
After decades of study, Donte and Carrie each felt a nagging sense that they could be doing more with their academic expertise than simply teaching about social identity and perception in college classrooms. Frustrated by institutional barriers at the college where she taught, Carrie began working as a community organizer with the organization Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ). Over several years, she combined her academic expertise in perception and biases with on-the-ground experience in racial justice organizing to design free training for the community (the Equity Mindset Series). Meanwhile, Donte was finishing his Ph.D and publishing widely on issues of race and racism. One afternoon, Carrie opened the newspaper to find his article entitled, "Who Will Educate White People in the Movement for Racial Justice?" Carrie sent him a text. Donte called her back. In their hours-long conversation, they each lamented about the many times they had been required to sit through low-impact "diversity training" offered at exorbitant costs by facilitators with little expertise in the science of attitude and behavioral change. They were deeply concerned that participants in these trainings were offered few actionable takeaways, and often left the training feeling even worse than they did to begin with!
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Donte and Carrie's shared wish to offer affordable, inclusive, actionable and high-impact training, along with their deep commitment to continuing their own growth, created an instant bond. In that conversation Ally to Accomplice was born... and the rest is history.
Accountability is important to us. Please read our Accountability Statement.
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Carrie studies interpersonal and intergroup communication and specializes in perceptual biases. She co-founded the Santa Barbara Chapter of the national organization Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) and authored the Change Agent Toolkit. Learn more about Carrie here.
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Our Expertise
Dr. Newman and Dr. Hutchinson each hold a Ph.D. in specialized areas of Communication Studies and bring a wealth of expertise from their discipline, including best practices for attitudinal and behavioral change.
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Donte studies public and mediated communication and specializes in critical thinking, public persuasion, and messaging. He hosts a news and public affairs web series called "The America We Know," and is a regular contributor to the Santa Barbara Independent.
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