How to Center Student Voices for Equity

Webinar: How to Center Student Voices for Equity
Centering student voices is a critical practice for colleges and universities seeking to make
improvements through an equity lens. For these improvements to be sustainable in the long term and advance student success, redesign efforts must prioritize student experiences. But how do you do this effectively? What does this work entail? In this webinar, the Student-Centered Design team at SJI will share more about centering student voices as a critical practice for improving equity, provide a framework for using student voices, and share tips and strategies on how to gather and center student
feedback and insights in college operations and initiatives.

Presenters:
Bri Nguyen is a Senior Consultant at SJI, specializing in research, design, and facilitation. In this role, she leads SJI’s Student-Centered Design team, which uses research and collaborative design to help colleges identify and close equity gaps. Bri delights in helping college teams see through the eyes of students. By grounding improvement work in the student experience, she helps colleges develop solutions that are well-aligned with student needs and interests. Bri also designs and delivers workshops and training to help teams and institutions evolve. In this work, she draws upon her background in change management, strategic planning, and process improvement. With 20 years of experience in the public, non-profit, and private sectors, she enjoys bringing diverse groups together to foster equitable change.

Natasha Bennett is a Research & Project Consultant with SJI, working primarily in the Student-Centered Design program. Through this work, she provides research support and technical assistance to college and university partners seeking to engage student voices and experiences and make equity improvements to their programs and systems. With 13 years of research experience, she leverages data and evidence to capture a holistic understanding of how students engage with the institutions, organizations, and socio-economic systems that affect them. She has specialized expertise in research design and qualitative research methodologies including ethnography, participant-observational methods, in-depth interviews, focus groups, comparative analysis, and process tracing. Additionally, she has experience developing and delivering training and curriculum development. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Centering student voices is a critical practice for colleges and universities seeking to make improvements through an equity lens. For these improvements to be sustainable in the long term and advance student success, redesign efforts must prioritize student experiences. But how do you do this effectively? What does this work entail? In this webinar, the Student-Centered Design team at SJI will share more about centering student voices as a critical practice for improving equity, provide a framework for using student voices, and share tips and strategies on how to gather and center student feedback and insights in college operations and initiatives.