Decentering Whiteness and Building Trust with Ali Webb

The R.A.C.E. Podcast

What does it mean to be an Ally? To do your own personal transformation work while leading a diverse team? On today’s episode of The R.A.C.E Podcast, I am honored to be joined by an amazing mentor and friend Dr. Ali Webb of Ali Webb Strategies. Join Ali and I for a transparent conversation on what it takes to navigate and decenter whiteness in the world of Philanthropy and how Ali is doing her part. Our conversation highlights the complexities of racial equity work and the realization that it is lifelong and takes dedication, commitment, and a willingness to be wrong while growing along the way.

Meet Ali Webb:

Dr. Ali Webb’s first job out of college was as a reporter for a small newspaper in Texas. Her second job, however, was press secretary to the Mayor of Los Angeles, Tom Bradley, for seven years. Ali was the first female and youngest person to ever hold the position of press secretary in Los Angeles.

She was appointed by President Bill Clinton to head Communications at the United States Department of Agriculture. She was also Communications Director for The Nature Conservancy and political director for the League of Conservation Voters.

For 19 years, she worked at the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, one of the largest U.S. charitable foundations. Her last role was as Director of Michigan Programming, leading a team of 15 people and an annual grantmaking budget of $65 million. She now leads Ali Webb Strategies where she advises leaders and advances strategies that help organizations bridge the gap between expectations and outcomes, using a racial equity lens.

Ali currently teaches at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan and in the Nonprofit Management program at Columbia’s School of Professional Studies. She received her BA in journalism from Stanford University and her MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. In 2005, she earned her PhD in mass media from Michigan State University. Ali is also a Qualified Administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), a globally recognized assessment tool that helps build the skills of individuals, teams, and organizations to navigate cultural diversity.

Listen in as Ali shares:

• Her identities and how they have shaped her journey
• The greatest challenges and opportunities when working with white philanthropists
• Trust and the role it plays in building a diverse team
• The importance of decentering whiteness to achieve racial equity
• The supportive and influential people she calls on when things get tough in this work
• Why

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