Anti-Blackness: Healing Through Restorative Dialogue Part 1

This 2 part webinar aims to present the history of racial hierarchy that results in anti-blackness, confront structural racism and its impact on us and within us, and decenter whiteness to disrupt the racial hierarchy and move us toward equity and mutual liberation.

Speakers

Dr. Dominique Vedrine

Dr. Dominique Vedrine earned her Master’s in Marriage & Family Therapy from University of San Diego and her Doctorate degree in Couple & Family Therapy from Drexel University. She was an adjunct instructor at USC Upstate in the psychology department & at Greenville Technical College in the Human Services department. Dr. Vedrine also taught in the Marriage & Family Therapy Graduate program at Converse College. She is a licensed Marriage & Family Therapist with over 15 years of experience, providing therapy to individuals and families. She is a former forensic evaluator, behavioral health clinician, parent educator, and crisis interventionist. Dr. Vedrine provides home-based therapy to young mothers through Birth Matters, a community doula. She serves as a transformative facilitator and lead trainer with Speaking Down Barriers and previously served as the Interim Board Chair. Her research interests include promoting resiliency in individuals and family systems, confronting, and healing the wounds of systematic oppression in our society and understanding the concept of intersectionality. Dr. Vedrine also served with USC Upstate’s Child Protection Training Center as their DSS Project Coordinator. Currently Dr. Vedrine is the founder and director of Vedrine’s Healing Services.

Scott Neely

Scott Neely (@neelysj) serves as minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Spartanburg, SC. He is a facilitator and strategist for Speaking Down Barriers. Neely presented a TEDx talk on race and racism entitled “What Will I Teach My Son?” A graduate of Harvard Divinity School, he is a lecturer in religion and the humanities at the University of South Carolina-Upstate and Wofford College.

Davelyn Hill

Davelyn Hill has a Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy from Converse College and a BA in Psychology from Clemson University. She has experience as a therapist working with survivors of interpersonal violence and their families. Davelyn is the Program Director for and a facilitator with Speaking Down Barriers. Through this role and as a therapist she has led support groups, presented research, and conducted presentations around racial trauma and oppression. One her specialties is grief. She has been working with funeral personal to create and facilitate a public grief series. She is also a painter and poet who uses her creativity as medium for activism and organizing.