Tolu Ekisola
Organizational Leader, DEI Strategist, Inclusive Artist
About Me
Welcome! If you’ve made it this far then you must be doing a deep dive into my qualifications. Great! I’m glad you’re here! The following is a brief history of myself and my work.
1. I like to say that I’m Naijasotan.
I was born in Nigeria, but I grew up in Minnesota. This gave me a wide world view from a young age. I realized that there wasn’t much difference from person to person. We all have the desire to be deeply appreciated. This perspective drove me to pursue psychology and eventually the arts to gain a deeper understanding of the motivating factors of people.
2. The arts deepened my ability to comprehend complex dynamics.
Simply put, being an actor taught me empathy. I placed myself in another person’s shoes and got a sense of what motivated their actions.
The arts are also wildly collaborative which offering me multiple opportunities to practice effective communicating, emotional maturity and regulation with diverse genders, ages, races, education levels, socio-economic statures, and political perspectives. I have learned to master communication and have developed endless patience.
3. I pursued a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre from UMD and an M.F.A. in Acting from UCI.
I studied to become an actor and was often the only person of color in the room. I found myself often advocating for more representation in my textbooks and in the productions we chose to perform on stage. In graduate school I entered into an environment that had recently been found guilty of a Title IX violation. Students were concerned about their safety and was elected as President of a new student group called Student’s Mobilizing Change (SMC). I quickly learned the challenging landscape facing students in the bureaucratic settings of my large university. I started right away with outreach and student engagement eventually crafting policies and programs to support student needs.
From this experience I learned that the best leaders listen more than they speak and to lead from behind. There’s no point charging in if no one is there to support you.
4. There is a lot more work to be done.
I started CAARE Production Company and Outreach Center right out of grad school recognizing through my work with SMC that the disparities that vulnerable communities face and the workplace culture that a unsupportive leadership environment can create needed to be addressed head on. It has become my life long mission to support companies facing similar challenges both internally and externally through DEI strategy, speaking engagements, facilitation, metrics, and public facing communications.
Theme by Design Lab