Deepa Iyer is a South Asian American writer, lawyer, strategist, facilitator, and activist. She is a Senior Advisor at Building Movement Project and curator of Solidarity Is, a project that provides trainings, narratives, and resources on building deep and lasting multiracial solidarity.
Iyer served as executive director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) for a decade, and has held positions at Race Forward, the US Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center, and the Asian American Justice Center.
Iyer’s book, We Too Sing America: South Asian, Arab, Muslim and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multiracial Future (The New Press 2015), received a 2016 American Book Award. She hosts a podcast called Solidarity Is This to explore solidarity practices around the country. Iyer has received fellowships from Open Society Foundations and the Social Change Initiative, and in 2019, she received an honorary doctoral degree from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Iyer serves on the Advisory Council of the Emergent Fund.
An immigrant who moved to Kentucky from India when she was twelve, Iyer graduated from the University of Notre Dame Law School and Vanderbilt University. She tweets @dviyer.
Mapping Our Roles in a Social Change Ecosystem
Deepa has created an exciting and innovative framework that can help individuals, networks, and organizations align and get in right relationship with social change values, individual roles, and the broader ecosystem.
Strengthening Our Roles and Ecosystems for Social Change
During overlapping crises, how do we strengthen our ecosystems and sustain our own work for the long run? In this interactive virtual workshop you come to understand your social change roles, the characteristics of strong ecosystems, and approaches for long-term sustainability. You’ll leave with a framework and tools to anchor yourself and take back to your organization and coalitions.
Destination 2042: Navigating America’s Changing Racial Landscape
This presentation examines the changing racial demographics in America; explores how communities of color build power and solidarity.
Pathways of Transformation: Coaching for Women of Color
A certified leadership coach, Deepa works with women of color who are activists, academics, non-profit leaders, rapid responders, and organizers seeking vision clarification, balance, and transition support.
Other presentations include:
Moving Beyond Diversity: Equity and Inclusion in America
Examines how to move beyond diversity and multiculturalism on campuses and in workplaces
Race and Politics in America
Overview of the ways in which America’s political climate is shaped by our discomfort with race
Movement Building in Asian American Communities
Explores historical and contemporary movements for social change in which Asian Americans have played a part
Of Allies and Co-Conspirators: Cross-Community Solidarity
Explores how social change movements rely on cross-community solidarity
Race Talk, Race Action
A workshop that enables students to identify how they can make concrete changes in terms of racial dynamics on campus and beyond
