Dia Bryant is fortunate to work for everything she believes in – she advocates on all aspects of structural and educational improvement with a focus on equity. I recently had the opportunity to talk to her about her unique journey. I was inspired by her humor, passion, and determination.
Dia’s journey took her from humble beginnings in Detroit to a Harvard Doctorate in Educational Leadership. She refers to herself as a bibliophile – everything she read as a child prepared her for what lay ahead. Empowered for change, she left Detroit for New York with a thousand dollars and a suitcase, with a big dream and her insatiable desire to change the world.
Dia did not get discouraged when things got hard. She got her Master’s degree whilst sleeping on someone’s couch, traveling two hours a day to Brooklyn College, feasting on two major food groups – pizza and tuna. She was a first in her family to get a degree. Then she was the first to move to New York, and as soon as she established herself, she inspired her brothers to join her in the city that never sleeps.
Dia’s work now empowers many like herself to be “doing dreamers.” She refers to herself as a Doc Martin, Green Day type of woman, and she certainly leaves a footprint.
Nell Derick Debevoise: You refer to yourself as being a “middle” – tell me about that?
Dia Bryant: I think this is the role I play in society, and honestly in my family too. It’s been a challenge embracing two parts of my identity that, within our society, seem so paradoxical – poverty and privilege. I strongly identify with each of these and that’s what leaves me in the middle. My journey allows me to switch nimbly between the two extremes. It’s been easiest to describe this as my “middle status”. Total Systems Power is the approach that describes these roles of ‘top,’ ‘bottom,’ and ‘middle’.
I had incredible educational opportunities that helped me. We were fortunate to go to good schools, and have great cultural experiences as children – as my mother’s employer encouraged and supported that. I am able to authentically engage my native community as well as I engage my professional spaces, and that’s a skill forged in the intersection of poverty and privilege. Many people speak of code-switching, and this is entirely different. Language is often weaponized against people at the margins, and my unique gift makes space for everyone.
Derick Debevoise: What is the most valuable lesson you learned in your journey thus far?
Bryant: Many people use the word resilience, and I’ve been challenged by this word recently. But I came upon an analogy that made sense, and it was about mushrooms. I know – weird, but totally in my nerdy lane. Mushrooms detoxify the soil around them. They don’t do this by getting rid of the toxins. They transform toxic material into nutrients. I think that is powerful!
When I think about my life’s journey – statistically nothing was in my favor. And moving through life asking myself, “What can I do with this?” has been the greatest lesson, gift and ultimate anchor. Experiences – good and bad – have the potential to be transformative, and it is almost entirely our perspective on those experiences what effect they have on us.
Derick Debevoise: As a ‘Middle’, how do you navigate the big divide between Haves and Have-Nots, or Bottoms and Tops in the language of Total Systems Power?
Bryant: Context matters. No one can see a complete picture from their individual perspective. It’s like that saying, “You can’t see the forest for the trees and sometimes we are in the weeds.” I often find myself contextualizing the experience on ground level for those at the top, and vice versa. I often find myself between those who want to take individual action and those who demand policy change or corporate action. I am able to understand the change people are seeking since I experienced the challenges first-hand, living and serving in communities that are often disproportionately disadvantaged by even the most well-meaning policies.
For example, when we organize a focus group, I want everyone at the table so we can come up with the right recommendation that suits a broad array of interests. This is possible through coalition-building. I wish we didn’t use language like grassroots and grasstops, but that’s what we understand. So we partner with those with large scale influence, as well as people with micro influence, and I work from the middle. Change needs to be universal and choices should be available to more than a privileged few. Ultimately, it comes down to the privilege of choice. Everyone needs access to options and resources to make choices.
Derick Debevoise: What change would you most like to see in this transformational moment we’re living through?
Bryant: I wish that people would go inward. There is so much messaging about what we should and shouldn’t be. The real work is within us – How will the world be different because we lived? When we have clarity on that, we can intentionally network across cultural and social lines of difference. Only when we do this, can we understand one another in terms of our individual and collective assets.
Derick Debevoise: Do you have a favorite example of networking with a positive result?
Bryant: I have so many! I’ll give an example that I hope is relatable. I had a professor in undergrad who has become an extra dad – Dr. Fink. He was my math professor, and showed up for me during a challenging time in my life. He’s a German-American man who came to Brooklyn every year to see what I “was up to” in my math classroom. He even came to visit in 2013 when I opened a school! We’ve taught together and learned so much from one another for the past twenty years. He showed me that math had answers when life didn’t. Last week, he finally shared his mother’s German potato salad recipe. While I wish I could make it with him, I can’t wait to try my hand at his cherished family favorite.
Derick Debevoise: What’s your advice about managing the fatigue that comes this position of being a ‘middle’?
Bryant: Everything we do should be anchored in our core values, especially as a “middle”. We are conduits, and must maintain a clear and strong moral compass that centers humanity. Those of us in the middle are often forgotten, because our work is not always obvious. We are connectors. I often find myself moving between those who create policy and communities who experience policy. Often these groups don’t speak the same language, and my gifts allow me to bridge the gaps. It’s not easy, in fact, it’s labor. So it’s been important for me to pour into myself spiritually and spend time with those I love.
Derick Debevoise: As we move towards a more inclusive future, will we always need these bridging roles?
Bryant: I hope for a world where we can prioritize humanity, but our society has a way of casting people into social positions. Honestly, sometimes it feels like inertia. We can simply look at all of the things we’ve experienced during the pandemic. While it was a collective experience, we did not all experience it in the same way. Black and Latinx lives were disproportionately taken by the virus, and this exposed serious fractures in our social service infrastructure. Some people were upset because school could no longer be their child care, while others were happy to not experience the deep-seated oppression, and honestly racism, that happens at schools on a daily basis. We saw policy makers fighting over whether we should use public dollars to help people pay their rent or purchase food, and for many families this was and remains a choice point. What we saw was the disconnection of all these systems, which ultimately need to be connected to best serve all people – not just some. None of these issues are new, but due to Covid-19, they became global headlines.
Derick Debevoise: Any thoughts you want to leave with our readers?
Bryant: The world is changing. We are literally in a transformation that is shifting and broadening the way we think about what it means to be successful, powerful and impactful. Such a transformation is not easy, but necessary. I believe that the opportunity gaps that have been exposed and highlighted over the last year must be closed. We are the people to make the change, and not only will we be better for it – our future will be. We are moving toward the type of freedom that we purport to have, and that’s important. Everyone should be and feel free to be who they are at their core. We have to keep building bridges across difference and making space – then we will all know liberation.
Learn more about my new book, Going First: Find the Courage to lead Purposefully and Inspire Action, here.