Connecting the Dots

Join us at Connecting the Dots as we welcome our spotlight speaker, Amanda Ellis! Amanda is the Senior Director, Global Partnerships and Networks at Arizona State University's Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, which works to sustain global habitability and improve well-being for all humankind. She is the Co-Chair of the WE Empower UN SDG Challenge, a global competition for women social entrepreneurs who are advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Amanda is the Former New Zealand Ambassador to the United Nations and she was the first woman to lead the New Zealand Development Agency. She is the Founder of the International Finance Corporation’s Global Gender Program, Co-founder of the Global Banking Alliance for Women, and recipient of The International Alliance for Women (TIAW) Lifetime Achievement Award. Amanda will be speaking on "How Global Women Entrepreneurial Solutionaries Contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals."

As the world celebrates progress on many fronts, there are challenges -- old and new -- that present tumult to many near and far. There’s frustration, hurt. anger, fear, danger -- and there’s a desire by many to drive progress. Conversations about finding a way to “be the change” motivated us to craft a virtual space to advance this dialogue and to open it up to interested people far and wide, particularly at a time of social isolation and prolonged uncertainty when we need connection and collaboration more than ever.

In the creation of this space, we confess that we are neither professional social justice advocates nor purveyors of any specific agenda. What we seek is to explore how we can work to apply empathy and constructively support freedom and opportunity for humanity. We are attempting to hold space for such dialogue and to gain clarity on what action steps to take next, and we expect to learn a great deal ourselves

Every week, we shall seek to facilitate opportunities for listening, learning, action, and connection. The partners we invite to curate these experiences range from social justice advocates, academics, activists, to artists, and they share their lived experiences and learned perspectives. With the help of participants like you, we hope to have constructive dialogue that promotes progress. To do that, we recognize our need to acknowledge and reflect upon the positions of privilege we hold in these systems, to lean in with humility and an openness to grow and to commit to specific steps to take in our personal and professional environments to “be the change.”

Our intention is for you to experience new perspectives, arrive at insights, share your voices, and receive upliftment. Our big picture intention is for each participant to take away a greater appreciation of social justice so that Connecting the Dots is more clear and inspires constructive action.

To help us curate the most impactful experience for you, we have a few requests:

-Please arrive on time and participate until the conclusion of the hour and a half. We have a number of components planned for you, and we will need to exercise time management for each component.

-We invite you to answer a few registration questions that will be useful to our planning and preparation.

-By attending this event you consent to be recorded and understand that select portions of this will be made available online for replay.

-A constructive dialogue requires ground rules. Here are some (borrowed from available resources online) that we are hoping to implement in this discussion:

--Judgment-free space

--Listen deeply

--Ask compassionate questions

--Expect to experience discomfort

Zoom details will be provided on Friday via email from connectingthedots@elicit.consulting.

EXPRESSED VIEWS DISCLAIMER. Any views, thoughts, and opinions expressed by the Performer, Presenter, Lecturer, or Opening Speaker, are solely those of the Performer, Presenter, Lecturer, or Opening Speaker, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of Connecting the Dots.