Two new groups dealing with issues of race – the Governor’s Advisory Council on Equity and Inclusion, and the Chippewa Valley Transformation Project – are the focus of “The West Side.”
Hosts Dean Kallenbach and Robin Washington welcome two local members of the Governor’s Council, which held its first meeting in February. They are Odawa White, dean of students at Lac Courtes Oreilles Ojibwe College in Hayward and Mai Xiong, president of the organization Hmong American Leadership and Economic Development and a member of the Eau Claire City Council. Also on the show is the chair of the Governor’s Council Dawn Crim, secretary-designee of the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services. In his announcement of the group on Feb. 1, Governor Tony Evers said that his Advisory Council on Equity and Inclusion “will provide strategic guidance...to promote and advance diversity, equity and inclusion practices across Wisconsin state government.”
Next, Kallenbach talks to Berlye Middleton, co-chair of the Chippewa Valley Transformation Project, an anti-racism organization hoping to strengthen the community’s efforts in the areas of equity, diversity, and inclusion. Middleton is a program director at the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, vice president of the local organization Uniting Bridges, and a former Eau Claire City Council Member.