Kelly Maxwell

Kelly Maxwell reflects on how coming out as a lesbian in the 1990s sparked a deeper examination of her whiteness and a lifelong commitment to understanding her relationship to privilege and oppression. She traces her journey from growing up in an almost exclusively white small town in Ohio to dedicating 17 years to social justice education through intergroup dialogue at The Program on Intergroup Relations at the University of Michigan. Kelly also shares stories from her family life as part of a multiracial, interracial, two-mom household, and how those dynamics shape her personal and professional values on justice. She speaks candidly about the tensions of institutional “neutrality,” and how she works to align her values with her responsibilities on campus and in her role as Board Chair of the Difficult Dialogues National Resource Center, a nonprofit that supports colleges and universities in using dialogic practice to create transformational change in the pursuit of equity and justice.