Inclusion Design
07/04/24 • 41 min
Rev. Dereca Blackmon is the new Senior Minister at the East Bay Church of Religious Science a Center for Spiritual Living (ebcrs.org) in Oakland, CA where she has dedicated over 25 years of service to the spiritual transformation of the entire planet.
Her sermons, lectures and workshops have provided over 100,000 participants in 20 countries with opportunities to expand their consciousness around issues of inclusion, forgiveness, self-love and radical healing. She has taught the Science of Mind philosophy in a wide variety of settings ranging from teen church to Holmes Institute. She has delivered over 75 talks at spiritual centers in Oakland, Sacramento, Dallas, Detroit and many others, including serving as the Fall Opening Lecture at Stanford University’s Memorial Church.
Her work is rooted in a tradition of sacred activism that seamlessly blends spiritual and cultural principles that foster personal and social liberation. Whether her ministry is in juvenile hall or corporate conference rooms, she is committed to providing loving comfort to those facing oppression and “constructive discomfort” to those resting in their societal privilege.
Rev. Dereca served as a lead architect in the effort to organize the Bay Area community response to the murder of Oscar Grant III. After working with the community to mobilize thousands of protestors and holding countless meetings and rallies she began to question the strategy of organizing “against” rather than “for.” She entered ministerial school at Holmes Institute, Santa Rosa campus and has never looked back, becoming one of the nation’s leading speakers on Sacred activism.
She served as a nonprofit executive for 20 years, developing nationally-adopted experiential curriculum and raising over $5 million dollars for Bay Area youth. She also served for six years as the Assistant Vice Provost and Executive Director of the Diversity and First-Generation Office at her alma mater, Stanford University, where she introduced groundbreaking work allowing participants to engage in deep, authentic and meaningful dialogues.
She currently serves as President and Co-Founder of Inclusion Design Group (https://inclusiondesign.com/) where she has consulted with a wide variety of corporate, educational, nonprofit and community-based groups to facilitate “uncommon conversations” on issues of race, gender, class and social justice. She and her team have supported industry leaders, including LinkedIn, Harvard University, YouTube and many others in activating their vision for diversity and inclusion in their organizations and in the world.
She is the mother of four bold and beautiful daughters who she raised in the spiritual principles of New Thought and who continue to be her life’s best teachers.
Rev. Dereca Blackmon is the new Senior Minister at the East Bay Church of Religious Science a Center for Spiritual Living (ebcrs.org) in Oakland, CA where she has dedicated over 25 years of service to the spiritual transformation of the entire planet.
Her sermons, lectures and workshops have provided over 100,000 participants in 20 countries with opportunities to expand their consciousness around issues of inclusion, forgiveness, self-love and radical healing. She has taught the Science of Mind philosophy in a wide variety of settings ranging from teen church to Holmes Institute. She has delivered over 75 talks at spiritual centers in Oakland, Sacramento, Dallas, Detroit and many others, including serving as the Fall Opening Lecture at Stanford University’s Memorial Church.
Her work is rooted in a tradition of sacred activism that seamlessly blends spiritual and cultural principles that foster personal and social liberation. Whether her ministry is in juvenile hall or corporate conference rooms, she is committed to providing loving comfort to those facing oppression and “constructive discomfort” to those resting in their societal privilege.
Rev. Dereca served as a lead architect in the effort to organize the Bay Area community response to the murder of Oscar Grant III. After working with the community to mobilize thousands of protestors and holding countless meetings and rallies she began to question the strategy of organizing “against” rather than “for.” She entered ministerial school at Holmes Institute, Santa Rosa campus and has never looked back, becoming one of the nation’s leading speakers on Sacred activism.
She served as a nonprofit executive for 20 years, developing nationally-adopted experiential curriculum and raising over $5 million dollars for Bay Area youth. She also served for six years as the Assistant Vice Provost and Executive Director of the Diversity and First-Generation Office at her alma mater, Stanford University, where she introduced groundbreaking work allowing participants to engage in deep, authentic and meaningful dialogues.
She currently serves as President and Co-Founder of Inclusion Design Group (https://inclusiondesign.com/) where she has consulted with a wide variety of corporate, educational, nonprofit and community-based groups to facilitate “uncommon conversations” on issues of race, gender, class and social justice. She and her team have supported industry leaders, including LinkedIn, Harvard University, YouTube and many others in activating their vision for diversity and inclusion in their organizations and in the world.
She is the mother of four bold and beautiful daughters who she raised in the spiritual principles of New Thought and who continue to be her life’s best teachers.
Previous Episode
Deepest Intent
Rev. Deborah L. Johnson is the founder of Inner Light Ministries (https://www.innerlightministries.org/) an omnifaith spiritual community in Santa Cruz, California and founder of the newly forming Unleashing Our Future cultivating capacities, compassion, and connections. A dynamic public speaker, DEI trainer and consultant, organizer, strategist, facilitator, and spoken word artist, she is known for her ability to bring clarity to complex and emotionally charged issues.
Her clients have included Apple Inc, AT&T, Kaiser Permanente, Hewlett Packard, MCA Universal, and the CDC. A co-litigant in two California landmark civil rights cases, her life-time social justice work has been featured in numerous multi-media venues. For such she has received many life-time achievement awards including induction into the Morehouse College MLK Jr Chapel’s Board of Preachers and being an inaugural New Thought Walden Award honoree for Spiritually Guided Activism.
A member of Delta Sigma Theta and author of “The Sacred Yes” and “Your Deepest Intent,” Rev Deborah serves on the Leadership Council of the Association of Global New Thought. A founding member of the Agape International Spiritual Center, she holds a BA from USC, an MBA from UCLA, a ministerial degree from the Holmes Institute, and an Honorary Doctor of Divinity from Agape University. Her passion is healing socio-political cultural divides and building “The Beloved Community.” Wherever she goes, her message is one of possibility, inclusion, empowerment and transformation.
Rev. Deborah is a keynote speaker at "Celebrating Our Soul - Consciously Creating Change" at Unity Village, Missouri on Saturday, August 3, 2024. Find out more information at padntg.com
Next Episode
No Harm
Spencer A. Murray is the Founder and Executive Director of NO HARM, National Organization for Healing and Redefining Manhood. He is a speaker, writer, minister, and conflict transformation practitioner who specializes in working with men and boys as it relates to unhealthy ideas of masculinity, and how these ideas contribute to violence towards self, women, and the community.
He is a former educator with Detroit Public Schools where he taught at Paul Robeson Academy, an African-Centered School, and the Academy of the Americas, a Dual Language Immersion School. He holds a Master of Arts in teaching from Wayne State University, a Master of Arts in Educational Leadership from Western Michigan University, and a Doctor of Ministry degree from New York Theological Seminary, where his focus of study was Conflict Transformation. His doctoral work focused on the systemic influence of patriarchy in religion, and its tendency to oppress and perpetrate violence towards women. Based on his dissertation, Spencer published his first book, Conspiracy of Silence: Religious and Patriarchal Roots of Violence Towards Women.
He is currently a Violence Prevention Consultant, as well as a Certified Family Violence Intervention Practitioner in the state of Georgia, where he intervenes with men to disrupt abusive behaviors. As a skilled facilitator, Spencer encourages accountability while inviting men to transform their thinking about themselves, women, and manhood. In addition to his harm reduction work, he is also an Adjunct Professor in Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, where he teaches the introductory course, Skills in Conflict Transformation. As a Restorative Justice Consultant with the Georgia Justice Project, Spencer creates spaces for healing, restoration, and an awareness of our shared humanity.
In this episode, Spencer shares a poem about his near suicide and the choices he made as part of his transformation.
His years of experience working with men and boys, as well as his own journey to free himself from the prison of toxic masculinity, drives his passion to lead men to a deeper understanding of themselves - an understanding characterized by a reverence for the feminine aspect of creation. Spencer is convinced that a man who has true knowledge of self, will strive do no harm.
Spencer lives in Atlanta, GA with his wife, Erica Parks Murray.
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