Racial Caucuses and Affinity Groups

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Racial Caucuses and Affinity Groups: Creating Space where Minoritized Individuals and White Co-Workers can Work Intentionally to Cultivate Psychological Safety at Work

Tuesday, February 1 from 1-2 pm EST (note this was rescheduled from its original date of January 11)

Too often, people do not speak up at work because it does not feel safe. They might feel ashamed of asking a question or fear the consequences of pointing out a potential issue. The term ‘psychological safety, coined by Harvard Business Professor, Amy Edmonson, refers to teams that can put themselves out there, ask questions, make mistakes, learn from them – and know that’s okay. Psychological safety encourages diverse thinking and allows teammates to learn and become their full contributing selves. In creating psychological safety at work, people of color (PoC) also need their own spaces, free from marginalization, mainstream stereotypes, and pressures to “perform” and “code-switch” in settings where often, White, Western-dominance is inevitable. In answer to this need for “safe spaces”, some organizations are responding by providing ’Racial Caucuses’ and ‘Affinity Groups’. “Caucuses provide spaces for people to work within their own racial/ethnic groups. For white people, a caucus provides time and space to work explicitly and intentionally on understanding white culture and white privilege and to increase one’s critical analysis around these concepts. A white caucus also puts the onus on white people to teach each other about these ideas, rather than placing a burden on people of color to teach them. For people of color, a caucus is a place to work with peers to address the impact of racism, to interrupt experiences of internalized racism, and to create a space for healing and working for individual and collective liberation.” This presentation will explore psychological safety at work, the risk for burnout when safety is not established, how PoC are at greater risk for professional burnout when they do not feel safe, and how efforts such as ‘racial caucuses’ might contribute towards culturally responsive psychological safety for all employees.

Co-sponsorship for 1.0 hour of psychology Category I CE credit is pending.

Dr. Chieza, CSC, and the IPA have not received any commercial support for this program or its contents and will not receive any commercial support prior to or during this program.

The Indiana Psychological Association (IPA) is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Indiana Psychological Association maintains responsibility for this program and its content. IPA is approved by the Indiana State Psychology Board and Indiana Behavioral Health Board to provide Category 1 continuing education for psychologists, LSW, LCSW, LMFT, LMHC, LMFTA, LCAC and LAC. Licensees must judge the program’s relevance to their professional practice. APA rules require that credit be given only to those who attend the entire workshop and complete evaluations for each individual session. Those arriving to the workshop more than 15 minutes after the scheduled start time or leaving early will not receive CE credits. Partial credit cannot be given.

Speaker: Dr. Athena Y. Baca-Chieza

Clinical Psychologist, Associate Professor, CU Denver

Dr. Athena Y. Baca-Chieza is a clinical health psychologist in Denver, Colorado. She received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology in 2006. She completed a health psychology residency at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, with an emphasis in oncology and women’s health. She went on to complete a postdoctoral fellowship in Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) at The University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in 2006. Dr. Baca-Chieza is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado, Denver, where she is the Coordinator of Clinical Training and Director of a community mental health clinic in the CU Denver Clinical Health Psychology PhD program. In addition to her current position at CU, Dr. Baca-Chieza also works as a consulting psychologist in the Hem/Onc and Bone Marrow Transplant program at University of Colorado Hospital, where she supports patients who are navigating the complex biopsychosocial intersections of living with blood cancers, and she also conducts pretransplant evaluations. Previously, Dr. Baca-Chieza worked for 10 years at the Colorado Blood Cancer Institute as a BMT psychologist and Training Director, as well as an integrated primary care provider at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System in San Antonio, Texas. From 2015-2020 Dr. Baca-Chieza was the Director of Clinical Training at a large Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in Denver that served over 55,000 patients per year. In that role, she directed an APA accredited internship and postdoctoral fellowship in integrated primary care psychology. Dr. Baca-Chieza is also an adjunct professor at the University of Denver (DU) and teaches courses in Health Psychology and Human Sexuality.

Dr. Baca-Chieza is actively involved in leadership and advocacy for her profession and has served on the board of the Colorado Psychological Association (CPA) since 2015, when she was elected as the state’s Diversity Representative. In 2018 she was elected to serve as President of CPA, a 3-year position, which afforded her opportunities to write laws that impact mental health outcomes for Coloradans, and especially marginalized populations such as LGBTQIA communities who were vulnerable to archaic and harmful practices. Dr. Baca-Chieza is interested in consultation psychology, including leadership selection and development in the healthcare arena and enjoys any opportunity to present on topics related to leadership, advocacy, and professional development. 

Dr. Baca-Chieza proudly hails from the beautiful Bordertown of El Paso, TX, is fluently bi-lingual in Spanish, and identifies as Afrolatina (Mexican and Black). She lives in the Park Hill neighborhood of Denver with her spouse, Chido, who works as a nurse, and their two daughters, Raphaelle and Juno, who attend Stedman Elementary school, where Athena is an active PTA member and advocate for black and brown families in the Denver Public School system. They also have a 5-pound Chihuahua named Fiona.

As a 501c3 organization, the Cancer Support Community does not endorse, represent or warrant the accuracy or reliability of any of the information obtained from third party sources. This presentation is for informational purposes only.

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