Deepa Iyer: Mapping our Social Change Roles

Join us via Zoom as we learn about Deepa Iyer's Social Change Ecosystem Map and how we can utilize the map in our own social change work. Deepa Iyer is the senior director of strategic initiatives with Building Movement Project, a national nonprofit organization that catalyzes social change through research, relationships, and resources.

The first 20 attendees will receive the Social Change Now text that accompanies the training.

In our lives and as part of movements and organizations, many of us play different roles in pursuit of equity, shared liberation, inclusion, and justice. How can we sharpen our skills, identify our social change roles, and deepen our solidarity with others? Deepa Iyer, author of Social Change Now: A Guide for Reflection and Connection, will share frameworks and practices that can anchor our commitments and actions towards equity, healing, and reconciliation.

Deepa Iyer is a South Asian American writer, strategist, and lawyer. Her work is rooted in Asian American, South Asian, Muslim, and Arab communities where she spent fifteen years in policy advocacy and coalition building in the wake of the September 11 attacks and ensuing backlash. Currently, Deepa leads projects on solidarity and social movements at the Building Movement Project, a national nonprofit organization that catalyzes social change through research, strategic partnerships, and resources for movements and nonprofits. She conducts workshops and trainings, uplifts narratives through the Solidarity Is This podcast, and facilitates solidarity strategy for cohorts and networks. Previously, Deepa served as executive director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) for a decade, and also held positions at Race Forward, the US Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center, and the Asian American Justice Center.

Deepa has been an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland in the Asian American Studies and Public Policy programs. She is an immigrant who moved to Kentucky from Kerala (India) when she was twelve years old. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame Law School and Vanderbilt University.