79. How to Navigate Assimilation vs Authenticity with Heather Harding, Executive Director of Campaign for a Shared Future

For people of color, how do you navigate assimilation and authenticity?

For this Women of Color Rise episode, I talk with Heather Wise Turtle Harding, Executive Director of Campaign for a Shared Future, a timebound, nonpartisan campaign to defend and promote K12 public education from political attacks. Prior to this, Heather was Executive Director of EdCORE and had senior roles at the Gates Foundation and Schusterman Foundation.

Heather shares how her identity and roots growing up poor with a single mom helped shape her career to be a servant leader. She discovered the myth of meritocracy when she was the only student from her elementary school who was bussed to a gifted school. Heather credits her teachers to shaping her big dreams of having an impact on social justice. After graduating from Northwestern University, she became a teacher with Teach for America, then took on leadership roles in education, philanthropy, and politics.

We may sometimes be the “Only” (woman, person of color, etc.) in a room, and Heather shares the importance of how we choose to navigate assimilation and authenticity. Heather and I discuss.

1. Choose how to see yourself. When Heather was in a room where she was the “Only,” she chose her role to be an ambassador to bridge to people who were different than her. Heather has been in many roles over her career where she’s the bridge. Her hope, “If I’m a good ambassador, then people will understand that others like me belong here, too.”

2. Make sure that the role you choose is not a burden. Heather shares that with her personality, she was able to carry that ambassador role and didn’t let it break her. It felt like an honor, not a burden. 

3. Exit if needed. If you are facing a toxic culture or it’s uncomfortable, protect your exit and make the explicit decision to exit. For Heather, when she got feedback from an organizational leader that she should “stay in her place,” she made the decision that she would exit after getting the experience she needed from the job.

Get full show notes and more information here: https://analizawolf.com/ep-79-how-to-navigate-assimilation-vs-authenticity-with-heather-harding-executive-director