Moving from Ally to Advocate for Transgender and Non-Binary Employees
For years we've been talking about how to be great allies to our LGBTQ+ colleagues. Now it's time to talk about how to move beyond allyship and into advocacy, specifically for our transgender and non-binary employees. Session attendees will learn about RTI International's efforts to expand gender inclusivity and help supportive allies grow into proactive advocates for gender equity in the workplace. Attendees will learn action-oriented, tangible strategies that they can implement immediately.
Learning Objectives:
- Think strategically about when, where, and how to ask someone's pronouns.
- Thoughtfully consider the implications of asking transgender and non-binary employees to share their pronouns.
- Challenge assumptions, especially in virtual spaces.
- Incorporate affirming language into everyday communications.
- Explore the power in visible leadership support and advocacy.
Kristy Lowther
Kristy Lowther (she/her), MSW, serves as the program manager for RTI International’s Strategic Engagement & Belonging (SEB) program. In this role, she leads RTI's Employee Resource Group (ERG) Leadership Council and provides strategic oversight, budgetary input, interpersonal guidance, and mentorship to leaders and employees across the Institute. In addition, she works to ensure that managers are empowered to build inclusive teams and create a culture of belonging. Mx. Lowther is responsible for creating and implementing organizational DEI strategies, and she is an expert in the design, development, and delivery of in-depth LGBTQ+ training. She currently facilitates a 9-hour LGBTQ+ Workplace Equity Workshop to increase awareness and understanding of LGBTQ+ issues among staff, with a specific focus on equity for transgender and non-binary employees. In everything she does, Mx. Lowther works to advance policies and practices to create an equitable culture at RTI.
Katie Grimes
Kathryn Grimes, MPH, is a research public health analyst in the Global Public Health Impact Center at RTI International. Ms. Grimes has more than 10 years’ experience in public health research and program implementation, supporting projects in sexual and reproductive health, violence prevention, and infectious disease detection, prevention, and response. Ms. Grimes is the leader and cofounder of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) working group at RTI -- LGBT+ Rising – coordinating activities to identify and increase staff capacity and networking to support LGBT+ research and programming. In this role, she launched and managed efforts collaborating with multiple businesses to develop an open-source LGBT+ workplace equity training and accompanying program evaluation; she has co-facilitated this training at RTI and presented lessons learned to community members. In addition, Ms. Grimes developed an internal LGBT+ resource webpage for RTI employees and supported organization and development of the RTI-wide equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging (EDIB) resource webpage. Lastly, Ms. Grimes is a member of the Pride Employee Resource Group (ERG) as a member of the advocacy committee working to promote Institute-wide policy change to improve inclusion for LGBT+ employees.