CANCELED: Leading for Equity: Book Talk with Fatimah Gilliam

PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELED.

Join us for a conversation with lawyer, author, and antiracism ethicist Fatimah Gilliam (MPP ‘98) whose work encourages individuals and business leaders to unlearn racism, connect across differences to build trust, avoid dealbreaker behaviors, and challenge misconceptions in their personal and professional lives. In conversation with Professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad, she will delve into her new book Race Rules: What Your Black Friend Won’t Tell You, a straightforward how-to guide for correcting offensive or harmful microaggressions, behaviors, and choices.

In this candid one-on-one discussion, the speakers will explore the role of leadership in racial equity and how interpersonal engagement styles impact relationships and professional outcomes. They will consider strategies for individual change that can catalyze institutional transformation—and vice versa. The talk will address pressing questions such as: By engaging private sector leaders, can individual antiracist commitments have a multiplier effect on the workplace and society? How are anti-DEI narratives shaping personal beliefs and behaviors today? What are the business impacts of expanded cultural intelligence and deprioritizing diversity and inclusion?

Lunch will be served.

About the Speaker

Fatimah Gilliam, Esq. is an author, lawyer, consultant, public speaker, entrepreneur, and Kennedy School alumnus (MPP ‘98). Her career combines expertise in the law, diversity, human capital, leadership, stakeholder engagement, and negotiations. She holds a law degree from Columbia Law School, a master in public policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and an undergraduate degree from Wellesley College. Gilliam is the founder and CEO of The Azara Group, which provides diversity and inclusion, leadership development, negotiation, and strategy consulting services to Fortune 500 corporations, senior executives of billion-dollar businesses, and industry thought leaders. She has previously been featured in media including CNBC’sPower Lunch, NPR’sThe Brian Lehrer Show, Insider, and Yahoo! Finance.

About the Book

What if there were a set of rules to educate people about race-based social faux pas? Race Rules: What Your Black Friends Won’t Tell You (Berrett-Koehler, 2024) is a transformative how-to guide to course-correct for daily microaggressions, behaviors, and choices that can offend and harm people. In Race Rules, lawyer, speaker, and anti-racism ethicist Fatimah Gilliam provides a straightforward, universal three-step framework to unlearn racism and challenge misconceptions, as well as actionable tips and tools on cross-racial interactions in people’s personal and professional lives. Race Rules offers a new voice to the dialogue on race while saying the quiet parts out loud, providing rare access to what many Black people won’t say to white people—but that Black people secretly think and feel about white people’s behaviors and choices.

Event Details

Registration is required to attend and is limited to Harvard ID holders. Please register using your Harvard email address. This event will be recorded.

This event is co-sponsored by the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability (IARA) Project and the HKS Black Alumni Association. With any questions about this event or your participation, please contact iara@hks.harvard.edu.