Workshop | Practical Guide to DEI in the Government: An Equity Officer’s Lessons from the 90 Day Fentanyl Emergency Task Force

Equity work is not a set of tools that you either have or don’t have, it’s a journey that you either engage in or avoid.  When starting this work we often focus on learning what equity is or how it can go terribly wrong; we find ourselves moved and inspired, only to return to our home organizations to be faced with the reality of not knowing how to actually make real change. This can feel isolating and defeating.  In this workshop we will be having interactive conversations with one another around how to continually say yes to this journey as we explore the lessons learned from an Equity Officer on the State’s 90 Day Fentanyl Emergency Task Force. This will build on last year’s workshop “Better Relationships Better Outcomes,” however attendance at the workshop is not necessary.

Resource(s):

1. Practical Guide to DEI in the Government_ Presentation Deck

Katie Thornton has been a nurse for over 15 years.  She began as an addiction specialty nurse running clinical operations at Oregon’s largest methadone clinic. She transitioned after 6 years to Multnomah County where she ran the refugee health screening program as nursing supervisor for the state of Oregon.  She now happily resides as the regional manager for Multnomah County’s North and Northeast Health Centers; the Northeast Health Center is the county’s historically black American health clinic.  Most recently Katie was assigned to be the county’s Equity Officer on the Governor Kotek’s 90 Day Emergency Fentanyl Taskforce.  As a biracial woman with 8 and 13 year old sons, Katie strives every day to make sure the world she leaves to her children is made a little better than the one she inherited; this is the long standing tradition of her family.