NPR will host a training session focused on identity and difference with station leaders later next month.
Leaders from 18 stations were invited to join the two-day training in St. Louis, Whitney Maddox, NPR’s VP of diversity, equity & inclusion, said during a meeting of the NPR board’s DEI committee Tuesday. Maddox and Chief Diversity Officer Keith Woods will lead the training.
Maddox did not provide specifics about what will be covered in the training beyond saying that “we will be talking about leading the conversation across identity and difference.” She added that stations will also have time “to learn from each other.”
The training will take place March 27-28.
“One of the joys of this program is seeing colleagues come in and most of the time saying this is not a conversation that I want to have, I’m scared to have, and then by the end having a different level of confidence in leading these conversations,” Maddox said.
Maddox said that survey data from previous cohorts that completed the training “has proven that it helps the confidence. It helps them get the skills and the tools that they need to lead the discussion.”
Maddox said that she and Woods have previously led the training for NPR staff joined by station leaders. The St. Louis event will be the first time NPR has made the training available only to stations.
NPR is asking that the invited stations pick one person in a leadership role to attend.
“We really want this to be leaders who are in the position to lead this discussion at their station,” she said.
NPR will pay for station leaders to join the training through a grant, Maddox said.
Maddox said that stations that were invited include Cincinnati Public Radio; Iowa Public Radio, WUWM in Milwaukee; Ideastream in Cleveland; WFYI in Indianapolis; Louisville Public Media; WBEZ in Chicago; WYSO in Yellow Springs, Ohio; and KCUR in Kansas City, Mo.