CANversation with:
Fidelis Nthenge: Director of Curriculum Development at The International Baccalaureate
Michèle Rice: Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at The International Baccalaureate
29 March
Objective
With the first year anniversary of the installing of the IB’s inaugural Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Michele Rice, and now its new Director of Curriculum, Fidelis Nthenge; in this CANversation, we will highlight the work of these trailblazers at the IB. They will discuss their path to these inaugural roles at the IB, the work they are doing to support DEI initiatives at the IB and in IB schools and their collaboration with the International Schools Anti-Discrimination Taskforce (ISADTF). They will also discuss their best hopes and radical dreams for the IB with its overarching goal of cultivating practices that reduce implicit bias and help eliminate racism and discrimination of all kinds through an inclusive IB education for its students and community. Please join us in an engaging conversation with these two Trailblazers.
ABOUT THE FACILITATORS
Fidelis Nthenge
Fidelis works for the International Baccalaureate (IB) as Director of Curriculum Development. With the understanding that systemic issues affect not only the lives of IB colleagues, but also the greater IB community, in 2020, the IB Senior leadership team appointed Fidelis to host a series of Listening Sessions. The sessions’ objective was to conduct an internal review of IB’s policies, procedures, practices, standards, and values pertaining to diversity, inclusion, representation, addressing issues and concerns of racism, discrimination, bias etc. This initiative led to the development of IB’s statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Before joining the IB in 2011, Fidelis was the head of Aga Khan Academy, Nairobi and Aga Khan School, Dar es salaam.
Fidelis is an inspiring and visionary leader in education, a field she has worked in for more than 20 years. She has a proven ability to partner with schools and engage with communities to provide guidance and support in school effectiveness, development, and innovation. She has an unwavering commitment to influencing the capacity of others to bring out the best in them and to achieve organizational goals, something she sees as her biggest achievement as a woman leader.
Michèle Rice
Dr. Claire Michèle Rice serves as the Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the International Baccalaureate Organization. In this role, she provides the strategic vision and guidance on communications, promotes relevant DEI practices, and leads the development of the necessary DEI processes and tools to guide the work of all IB departments in this area. In her role, she will also work with IB schools to support their DEI effort.
Rice holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Sociology and has served as an educator for over 28 years, teaching in multiple disciplines as an undergraduate professor in English and English as a second language and as a university professor of sociology and conflict resolution. In her former tenure as an academic, Dr. Rice has served also as the Department Chair at Nova Southeastern University’s doctoral and graduate programs in Conflict Resolution Studies at the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. She has also served as a consultant in training, community development, and workshop facilitation.
