We recently connected with Almitra Berry and have shared our conversation below.

Almitra, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about the best advice you’ve ever given to a client?

Listen. Just listen. That’s the best advice I have given to clients.

As a consultant, organizations hire me to find and deal with problems Being in the consulting space, I share with my prospects and clients a one-pager entitled, Why Hire a Consultant for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Antiracism (DEI&A) Initiatives. Expertise, Best Practices, and Experience are the top three reasons.

That said, when you hire a consultant who is an expert in their field, when they uncover an issue and bring it to your attention, the best thing to do is listen. I’m going to make this story generic, it’s really a story that’s been repeated in multiple settings.

I always prepare a report for my clients after doing the initial research in their organization to get a baseline on their climate and culture. This research is about how employees feel about DEI&A at work. That research is based on surveys, workshops that I conduct with them, and interviews.

In every case, the information that comes out of that research is not the least bit flattering. Also, it typically implicates some leaders in the organization. Employees often share that some leaders or people with power in the organization are racist, micro aggressing, and not the least bit committed to DEI&A. Because of that climate and a fear of retaliation or retribution, employees are hesitant to invest their time and energy into the DEI&A work.

Rather than accepting that employees’ comfort in sharing anonymously provides more accurate insight into the climate and culture of their organization, leaders sometimes dig in their heels. This doesn’t help.

Clients with leadership truly committed to DEI&A work listen when I tell them that this is a baseline. It is a starting point.

Those who are not committed, don’t listen. Those are not leaders. They’re managers who will only allow what I call “performative equity.” They want to check a box, but not change anything for the better.

I remind them, there are several reasons organizations hire an outside consultant. One more: fresh eyes. I don’t work inside their organization, so I’m not influenced by their internal politics. I base my solutions on information provided by their employees. Those employees willing to tell the honest truth to a stranger.

Those who listen benefit. They begin down a path to truly reshape the culture of their organization. They create safe spaces and an inclusive environment for all of their employees. Those who don’t… well, I’ve seen them lose top talent.

Almitra, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Tell us a little about yourself. How did you get into your business?
I am first and foremost, an educator, although education was not the path I first chose. I sort of defaulted to it a few years out of college when I found it impossible to keep up the private sector pace with two kids under the age of five. And I quickly fell in love with teaching, but not the bureaucracy.
I’m opinionated. Very opinionated. And I believe that silence is complicity when we’re in the business of educating children. I had to be a voice for learners who are historically and perpetually marginalized, for children of color, for children who people call at-risk, but whom I see as “of-promise.”
So, I left the classroom to work the educational publishing industry as a consultant. And after a little more than 16 years answering to a different type of bureaucracy, a corporate hierarchy, I decided to hang out my own shingle and start my own consulting business.
Tell us a little about that business, A.L.Berry Consulting
We occupy a special little niche. We focus on diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism in K-12 education in order to bring about academic achievement for students of-promise. For children of color. We work with schools, districts, county, regional, or state LEAs, as well as with private sector companies and non-profit organizations that provide supports and services to school systems. And we work across all 50 states.

That work is all about changing systems. Sometimes it’s about examining the materials schools use to teach or the methods they use. Sometimes that work is about examining the materials that companies are developing for submission to state or district adoptions. Sometimes it’s just providing an inspirational keynote at a conference or school event. My favorite thing. But everything we do is through the lens of equity in educational outcomes.

And that is why I started hosting a weekly podcast, the Educational Equity Emancipation podcast, which you can find wherever you get your podcasts. In fact, my podcast hit New and Noteworthy and Top 50 New Podcasts on iTunes within seven weeks of the first episode dropping. I’m really proud of that.

What sets you apart from others in the DEI world?
I have to say it’s that we are educators first. We understand the dynamics and the science of teaching and learning. In fact, my book, “Effecting Change for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners” speaks directly to classroom teachers from a classroom teacher about equity for academic achievement.

I got my doctorate in order to better understand the role of systems, school systems and school leaders, in raising academic achievement for learners of color, of promise. We approach equity through the complex lenses of teaching, learning, and leading. We stay on top of the sciences and the cultures of education and organizations.

There are a lot of people that are out doing DEI work. Some even also focus on the “A.” But there aren’t many that focus on the entire ecosystem of the K-12 educational complex and the impact on children of color and of promise.

What type of problems do you solve for your clients?
My clients’ problems are numerous. Ultimately, we work to find the root DEI&A issues that are interfering with student achievement and work to resolve them through cultural and mindset shifts first. I mean, I could talk the science of teaching and learning all day. But unless we dig down to the roots of implicit bias, racism, and how what people really think about the children in their schools and how that thinking effects their learning, I’m just wasting my breath.

We do this work through a little scientific research and then building and implementing a plan to address the problems that we find.

What are you most proud of?

That’s a big question with a lot of potential answers. I think I’d have to say that I’m proud of being a voice for change that potentially impacts hundreds of thousands of children that have no voice. For the impact that my book, my podcast, and my work in schools and organizations has on teaching and learning across the country.

What’s the main thing you want people to know about you, your brand, your work?
I am an equity warrior. I have been since before anyone was talking about equity. I’ve built my business, my brand, on my name and expertise. That expertise didn’t come overnight, and it wasn’t a marketing scheme. I’ve worked in school systems in 45 states Canada, and the Caribbean. We are committed to real equity in education, not the box-checking, performative, feel-good kind.

And if you really want to know what that means, check out the podcast.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Honesty, integrity, and consistency.

I spent 16 years working for other companies delivering services to the people and systems that now bring me in to consult. I have always been honest and forthright with those clients, no matter who employed me. I built a reputation based on always putting the needs of my end-clients – the children – first.

I built and maintained relationships. Just because someone isn’t in a position to make a hiring decision doesn’t mean I ignore them. In my business, today’s classroom teacher may very well be tomorrow’s superintendent. You never know who an organization’s influencers are. And that doesn’t mean a false niceness, but a genuine interest in helping everyone in an organization do better for the children.

Finally, I have been consistent in my messaging from the time I first entered the classroom as a substitute teacher. Every child deserves a high-quality education. Every child. It is our job to provide it and to remove every barrier that precludes it.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I’m sure you can imagine, if you look at the news or even social media coverage about what’s happening in our schools when it comes to DEI&A, this is not the easiest business to be in right now. In fact, if my business survival was based solely on generating business in Texas, I’d be job-hunting.

I have stood in front of angry mobs at school board meetings. I have had leaders make unreasonable demands on my content – asking me to change words or messages so that I didn’t ruffle any feathers. I have had people from hate-based organizations try to derail my presentations and keynotes.

It would be easy to quit.

But I won’t. Because this is about changing the life outcomes of our most marginalized children.

And that means standing up to hate.

Contact Info:

• Website: alberryconsulting.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/almitraberry/
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/almitraberry
• Youtube: bit.ly/alberryconsulting
• Other: Educational Equity Emancipation podcast: https://3epodcast.com https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/educational-equity-emancipation/id1650372815