Welcome to our page. You will find all the most relevant information related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at CIIS here.
06/25/2026
New books in our DCEB office available to peruse during our open office hours! Thanks to Museum of the African Diaspora for “The Art of Ruth E. Carter and “Nature Swagger.” And thank you to the publisher of Shirley Strong’s newest handbook!
Happy Juneteenth! A day that reminds us all that liberation must be collectively committed to, and enacted everyday. Rachel Bryant, our Division’s Vice President wrote a moving message to our CIIS community, and we wanted to give everyone here a glimpse of the newsletter and resources.
We hope today is full of deep education, celebration, community, and rest for our CIIS community and beyond.
Reel Description: instrumental music plays over a colorful newsletter that is scrolling down, first from a colorful vivid banner, to black text, which is Rachel’s message, to pink/magenta text blocks with resources hyperlinked.
In December 2025 we closed our fall semester with a supportive conversation between Eduardo Duran (Apache/Tewa/Lakota) who is a healer, clinical psychologist, and author. Eduardo was in conversation with our Program Manager Valentina and they talked about engaging with Indigenous Wisdom, Western clinical and therapeutic practices, and ways that people can connect to their own ancestral ways.
CIIS students, staff, and faculty can access the entire conversation via CIIS Connect. A shortened version is available on our YouTube channel, which you can access via our Linktree.
Video Description: Eduardo is a Apache/Tewa/Lakota man who is seated in a room lit with an overhead light. There is art behind him. He is wearing a jean button-down and has a piece of Indigenous art in the form of a bolo tie at the collar.
How can members of a community practice Beloved Community? In September 2025, we hosted our first fall 2025 transformation series session with Beloved Community consultant Shirley Strong focusing on how to practice Beloved Community and the benefits and challenges of doing so.
CIIS students, staff, and faculty have access to the one hour conversation via CIIS’ Intrasite, CIIS Connect, and an edited version of the conversation is available on our YouTube channel, which you can access at the Linktree in our bio.
Vide Description: Shirley Strong, who is a Black woman with curly, short hair, who is seated is in close up as she discusses the practices of Beloved Community. She is seated in a room that appears to be her home.
We just launched our spring reflection newsletter available to CIIS students, staff, and faculty!
We were so excited, why not give a peek to our IG community too! Learn all about our semester of engagement and programming and we hope to be in Beloved Community with you this summer and fall!
05/15/2026
Our crafty events continue this summer! Find us for Mindful Makers June 18, July 16, August 20 and take an artsy break from 2:00 p.m.—3:00 p.m. in CIIS’ Awakenings Cafe!
We also have special crafts for June and August. On June 18, decorate mini terracotta pots and take home a herb packet to grow in your yard or windowsill. August 20 come create intricate origami with us! Participants are welcome to bring their own crafts, color some of the coloring pages we have on hand, or just hang out and enjoy the crafty company and yummy snacks!
🎨All supplies are included.
🧵 Open to CIIS students, staff, and faculty
🧶No RSVP needed, come as you are!
05/14/2026
and CIIS Facilities/Business Operations at this week! We had wonderful, fruitful, and supportive in-person day at the Festival Pavillon in San Francisco.
We learned so much about pace, scale, and durability in every conversation and breakout room and how to slow down, ask the why of any project and process, and to work together to lift each other’s work!
Hope to be back next year! Swipe to see Patty Pforte (she/her), experiences at Together Bay Area Conference.
Image Description: Abigail and Patty from CIIS posing in front of a big Bay Area map where people shared places of importance to them. Patty’s conference badge, covered in stickers and first time tag, Taylor Pennewell (Berry Creek Rancheria Band of Maidu Indians) from Redbud Resource Group
Annie Burke from TOGETHER Bay Area in conversation on the main stage, storytelling from Tiśina Ta-till-ium Parker (Yosemite Southern Sierra Miwuk/Kutzadika’a Mono Lake Paiute and Kashia Pomo & Coast Miwuk), all the storytellers on the main stage, breakout session on engagement strategies around climate storytelling, final panel, and All Together Now: Unlikely Partnerships for Enduring Progress panelists wearing 30x30 t-shirts!
CIIS Community! Our spring events newsletter just came out! We wanted to give everyone a sneak peek.
04/28/2026
Rooted in the Integral principles that form the foundation and core identity California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), this series offers a reflective and experiential space for parents.
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Approaching parenting through a whole-person lens, the workshops explore the five dimensions of being—physical, vital, mental, psychic, and spiritual—inviting both individual insight and collective dialogue.
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Participants engage in integrative practices such as free writing, dyad reflection, group sharing, transformative imagery, nonviolent communication, and creative art-making.
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Together, these sessions aim to cultivate deeper self-awareness, relational presence, and embodied wisdom in the lived experience of parenting.
The purpose of the series is to:
🪷Provide a space for both individual and communal integral self-reflection
🪷Provide a safe space for discovery and mutual support
🪷Offer a moment of reset and decompression amid parenting + general life demands
🌳For CIIS Staff and Students, register for this free online series at the Linktree in our bio.
About Our Host: Adriana Beltrame dos Santos is a mother, DCEB Program Coordinator, and East-West Psychology PhD student. Her research focuses on Integral Education in Early Childhood and the role of multidimensional development in fostering whole-person maturity and spiritual integration.
Image Description: two image cards, each is a rectangular image in soft pink colors and a white banner with pink lotuses at the top and dark-colored line drawings of different families. The light yellow text in the banner reads, “Integral Parenting Workshop. A Virtual Series For CIIS Students and Staff. Below that is Adriana’s portrait and then dark-colored text that provides workshop dates, “April 29 for single and co-parents, and final session May 13 from 12:00 p.m.—1:15 p.m. PDT.”
🌎Looking ahead to Happy Earth Justice Day🌎
Our Student Coordinator .b.rose interviewed author, eco-psychology educator, and CIIS faculty member all about Earth Day, specifically about Earth Justice, and how each of us can tend to the many animal, plant, and human communities on our Earth.