Leader to follow: From Capitol Hill to flood zones, she’s fighting bias in tech and emergency management

With over 20 years of experience in disaster management, Chauncia Willis has led national emergency planning efforts for political conventions, NFL games, and international award shows. She is now the Co-Founder and CEO of the Institute for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Management (I-DIEM), leading the effort to integrate equity into all facets of disaster policy.

We sat down to talk about what it’s like to be a leader in the face of storms.

You’re regarded as a national expert on emergency management and matters of diversity, equity, and inclusion — so much so that you’ve been called to provide testimony to the US House of Representatives on multiple occasions. So, what is it like trying to translate your expertise and your perspective for policymakers?

“For me, when I had the opportunity to speak to policymakers about my perspective… at first, I was trying to understand why they wanted to hear from me.

And then I realized — they were interested in hearing from me because they were open to change.

For me, that was major because I had always assumed that things were the way they were — and that’s all that was going to be! That’s how it is.

Now as I’m getting more familiar with life — if I can say, I’m becoming more seasoned — I see that nothing is ever really static. It’s moving. It’s changing.

There’s always an opportunity to learn more, and to also give more. My philosophy is rooted in the fact that none of us is going to be here for a very long time. And we need to do the most for others while we’re here.”

Well, that relates to your mission — as I read about you and your work, I continued to see the same phrase, “mitigating the harmful impacts of bias on underserved groups.” How has that mission been impacted by tech, especially the new tech in emergency management?

“That’s a fantastic question. With our friends from Spin Global, we’re working on artificial intelligence. The team we work with there, they always tell us — Technology is a very, very white field. We don’t have enough diversity. We don’t have enough women. We don’t have a variety of thought.

You would think it would be simple, especially in machine learning. You would assume that the data is very straightforward.”

We assume that it’s neutral, that it’s just data.

“Exactly. We say, ‘it’s just data’ — but it’s not. Data is not neutral.

So, we need more diversity in every aspect, because there’s bias built into the questions that we ask. The same questions can be filled with bias, which brings bias to the data.”

And you’ve spoken about how COVID has amplified that.

“COVID has been instrumental in identifying areas of innovation when it comes to technology, and we’ve seen it. Even the murder of George Floyd, having that on video, actually having it recorded — that was the difference.

And now we understand, okay, we do have a problem. We knew that there was a problem with policing — but it was something that only the African American community, and possibly the Hispanic community, really understood. But the video of a man dying and screaming for his mother… everyone, for the most part, understood that. This is not a black or brown issue. This is a human issue.”

So, the idea that — the problem was there, but what changed, thanks to technology, was awareness.

“Oh, yeah. And you know, it’s interesting, with our organization, the Institute for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Management — we say I-DIEM — we record everything that we’re doing. Other people can kind of see it and take part in it.

We have Equity Response Teams, and we go out after a disaster and talk to the community. We find out — Has the federal response been inadequate? Have you received the information in a way that you can receive it well?

We find that, in many cases, lower-income communities are excluded.

And so, we write a report, and we put the video out there — we show the people saying, ‘I have been through this hurricane, or this tornado, and I have not received any assistance.’”

So, you are actively going to those communities, rather than maybe an older approach of expecting those communities to come to you, to come to where the resources are. Then you’re providing this platform to amplify their experience.

“We need to offer different ways for the information to be seen, heard, and received. At I-DIEM, we have websites, we have social media, and we are recording videos, so we’re doing everything that we can do to give the perspective of historically marginalized groups out there.

I understand what it’s like. Growing up in a home where we didn’t have money for our bills each month, we didn’t have money for food every day… and you do feel a certain sense of… not powerlessness, but you do feel excluded. Excluded from your own ability to protect yourself and your family. You know, it looks like, everyone else has access to resources, but we don’t.

And so, what can we do? What can you do when you haven’t been a part of the policy-making that would allow you to benefit from access to resources? What can you do to be more resilient?

From that mindset, we can ensure that vulnerable populations, marginalized groups, and lower-income communities are participating in their own resilience, and that they are connected to the resources they need to survive versus being excluded.

It’s a powerful shift.”

###

Learn more about Chauncia in our Spotlight Series.

See more of Chauncia’s work at chauncia.com, or check out I-DIEM’s website at i-diem.org.

See more of Chauncia’s work: Check out her podcast, Amplify This!, or her book, Stretching: The Race Towards Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in America.