Nearly five years into her tenure as CEO of YWCA Madison, Rachel Krinksy has seriously ramped up major giving to the organization and made a real commitment to diversity within the staff — more than half of the people who work at YWCA are people of color, including 40 percent of management.
Name your top 5 MCs. I don’t have any top MCs. People who know me know that I am a pop culture idiot. Music, TV, movies, celebrities – I never know what anyone is talking about on these topics. But I can tell you that my favorite DJ is DJ Ace (Whoop!).
What motivates you more, doubters or supporters? I am best motivated by a combination of close supporters and external doubters. I have always felt compelled to push for social change and internally motivated to work hard on issues that are difficult or uncomfortable – issues where “society” is doubtful, judgmental and resistant. But I find that I can only sustain my best efforts when I feel that the people closest to me in my life and in my work have my back. I find that I am also most able to be responsive to pushing or questioning from the people with whom I have trusting and supportive relationships.
What does it mean to be white in Madison? Being white in Madison means that it’s easy to have only superficial contact with people who are of a different race. In fact, you can live, work and play at any time or at almost all times in spaces that are mostly or completely filled with, run by and designed for people of your own race without intending for that to happen. Interracial friendship and other relationships of any depth are unlikely to happen for white people without choosing them on purpose. This is not, of course, true for people of color.
It means that your race is rarely a topic of conversation, unless you raise it. That your race is not what most people (i.e. other white people) notice about you first.
It means that you rarely, if ever, experience assumptions, slights or judgements based on your race unless you choose to place yourself in spaces where most people are of color. And that your children, if they are also white, will be assumed to be smart, good kids unless they demonstrate otherwise.
It means that you don’t have to talk about race or racial justice if you don’t want to and that you can leave the conversation any time – a privilege that people of color are very aware of.
For me, as a home-grown white Madisonian, it means that I need to be aware of my choices related to all of the above and that I feel a particular responsibility to continually learn about race and what it means for people of color. Being white in Madison also means, for me, that I need to continually listen, read, learn, ask questions, talk about racial issues – especially to other white people, and struggle to figure out what it means to be an ally.
What three leaders in Madison under 50 have impressed you the most? I am most familiar and impressed with the many leaders under 50, under 40 and under 30 inside the YWCA Madison who are helping us to grow towards our goals of being a truly equitable organization and making a major impact on eliminating racism and empowering women. There are so many – both in leadership positions and not, but I couldn’t name just three of them. So:
- I have been impressed, moved and motivated for many years by Everett Mitchell in his many roles. He is a bridge builder, helping to pave the way for connections between communities, and at the same time he knows what he believes and is not afraid to say it loud and clear.
- Madison Metropolitan School District Superintendent Jennifer Cheatham is one of the most effective, strategic leaders I’ve ever known and although MMSD still has a long way to go – and she knows it – Jen has a clear vision with articulated, measurable, proven strategies AND the accountability to actually move the needle.
- And I am very impressed by Gabriel Saiz and the other student leaders who moved MMSD to ban clothing with depictions of Native American mascots. That was a really solid and effective piece of work, and from people who are under 20.
What’s the biggest stumbling block in Madison to turning the corner on our racial disparities? Now that we’ve admitted we have a problem with race in our community, the next hurdle is being willing to address the problem seriously. This means strategy, policy change and resource allocation in every sector, sphere and area. We have to be willing to understand that if we keep doing what we’ve been doing we will keep perpetuating the same results. Significant change is hard.
- Are Dane County residents willing to prioritize resources – money, programs, staff – to specifically prepare children of color for school and to support their educational needs? If so, what will we compromise to do that?
- Are we willing to take radically different approaches to policing, sentencing and incarceration? To truly consider restorative rather than punitive options? We are doing that right now with 12-16 year olds who receive citations. What else might we try?
- Are businesses, government and nonprofits willing to work much harder to recruit, retain, grow and promote employees of color? To make that a central, key strategy even if it is difficult, uncomfortable and/or expensive? To change the way they do business and some of their expectations to welcome different kinds of people?
- Are we going to support affordable housing in every neighborhood and prioritize housing for all over property values and homogeneous communities for some?
Meaning well is not enough.
What are your top three priorities at this point in your life?
- My family: husband Scott, daughter Kenna (19) and son Nathan (15)
- The work and mission of the YWCA
- Spending time doing other things that give me joy/keep me sane, including dance, yoga, being outside, reading good books and doing crossword puzzles.
How do you keep the YWCA from mission drift? My job is to lead the YWCA Madison towards the highest performance of our mission: eliminating racism and empowering women, specifically in our three areas of focus: Housing, Employment and Race & Gender justice. Therefore, every decision we make – small or large – is made with the mission at the center. This includes funding/budgeting, programming, hiring and every other topic area, but also includes how we make decisions, with constant attention to equity and inclusion in our processes as well as our outcomes. I don’t claim that we do this perfectly, but we are always talking about it. In that context, mission drift isn’t much of a threat. None of us – board or staff – are very tempted to accept resources, projects or mandates that will not move us towards that goal.
What advice would you give other non-profit executives to avoid burning out in the job? I think avoiding burnout is very personal and that each of us needs to figure out what works for us. That said, here are a few things that are important for me:
- Prioritize self-care. I work really hard while I’m at work and give it all I’ve got. But then I need to go home, play, move my body, take vacation time and think about other things. I rarely take work home. Among other things, I need a lot of quiet, private time, a regular yoga practice, and a lot of sleep.
- Keep things in perspective. One of my mentors talks about being “right sized” in believing neither that you are bigger or more powerful than you really are creating oversized expectations, nor that you are smaller or more helpless than you really are and giving up. I work at this all the time and experience falling off in both directions. When I succeed in being right-sized I am able to believe that my contributions are worthwhile, which makes me want to keep going.
- Invest in personal relationships. I don’t know that I could do this work without my husband, my sister, my parents, close friends and others who know and love me as a person outside of my role and who support and believe in me even when I don’t. I try to be one of those people for them as well.
Do you find it challenging being a white woman leading an organization whose focus is on issues facing people of color? If so, how do you deal with those challenges? Of course. Although the YWCA has reached unprecedented diversity in our staff and leadership, it matters that we still have a white CEO and I have to ask myself when it will be time for me to move over and make room for someone else, hopefully a woman of color. While in the role, I have to be careful not to present myself as any kind of expert on the experience of people of color or as someone who has racial justice all figured out. I have to consider whether I am taking too much leadership, or possibly taking attention or resources away from leaders of color. I am aware that by having the CEO title, salary, status, etc. I am benefiting from working on racial justice issues, which, as a white woman, can be problematic.
On the other hand, I have been able to make some unique contributions as a white person working on racial justice issues. White people are sometimes able to hear things from me that they won’t hear from a person of color because I don’t run the risk of being the “angry Black woman” or the “angry Latina” or being perceived as having a chip on my shoulder or a personal agenda. This isn’t fair, but sometimes it’s true.
People will, and do, have varying opinions about how well I am walking this path, and those opinions are present in my mind even as I answer these questions. I deal with it by trying to keep my integrity and clarity, by asking other people – especially people of color – for their perspectives about how I’m doing, and by continuing to prioritize self-care, perspective and loving relationships.
Name three things you like about living in Madison.
- People who genuinely care about making things better and invest themselves and their resources
- Swimming in the lakes
- Dane Dances: SO MUCH FUN!
If you could change anything about Madison what would it be? My answer to that question used to be that I wished white Madison would admit that we have real problems with race and that being “liberal” and “progressive” wasn’t solving them. That is starting to happen, which is very encouraging. So now what I’d change is that we move from admitting, accepting and discussing the problem to intentional, strategic action, policy change, and resource allocation in many more spheres. I’d like us to get moving on the recommendations in the Race to Equity Roadmap.
Whitney Houston or Diana Ross. Why? See question 1. But I did go to high school, so I can be happy to dance and sing along to a Whitney Houston song and have a little 80’s nostalgia, even if I can’t name any.
