Full-time Executive Director Brings Wealth of Experience

San Diego, CA–On April 30, 2021, the Board of Directors of the Lace on Race Center for Racial Equity voted unanimously to hire a full-time Executive Director, based on the recommendation of the hiring committee. 

Lace Watkins is the founder of Lace on Race, an online community and consultancy with the mission of lessening and mitigating the harm endured by Black and Brown people perpetuated by white people and white supremacy. 

Created as a Facebook Page in 2018, the community has grown to include a website, multiple social media platforms, was officially organized in January of 2021 as a non-profit corporation.

Watkins brings a wealth of experience to the position, with three decades innovating in  social justice in multiple arenas: faith-based, secular, electoral, organizational/institutional, and grassroots environments, with a consistent and relentless focus on equity. 

She has served on the boards of San Diego Peace Resource Center, Activist San Diego, San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice (Founding Member), and on the board of Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference, where she held the portfolio for Peace and Justice. She has addressed various institutions and groups, including Cirque du Monde’s Social Circus Board. As well, she wrote a column for Urban Connections, a quarterly that focused on urban Anabaptist practice, and  was featured inTimbrel, the quarterly for Mennonite women. She was a leader in her union, SEIU 221, and has led initiatives in electoral politics, both on the local and statewide levels as Community Director for Alliance for a Better California. Currently, Lace serves as founder and main content creator of Lace on Race, an online learning and coaching environment. While she has led in multiple secular capacities, she also serves in leadership at Vista La Mesa Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). She lives and serves in San Diego.

 “I was already spending over 40 hours a week preparing content, engaging with the community, and mentoring emerging leaders, while at the same time, working for the County. Like so many other thinkers, commentators and influencers in the racial justice sphere, particularly Black women, I really was servicing two full-time jobs. It is an honor to be able to focus all my energies, experience, and expertise on what is so fundamentally important to me and to the world. With Lace on Race as my only vocation, I can be even more effective, both within and also outside in the wider world.”

Julie Helwegie, a member of  the hiring committee, explained the thought process behind hiring Ms. Watkins: 

“Lace talks a lot about the leaders and mentors in her life (Aunt Cathy, Beth Moore, Terry Real, Sue Johnson, and Peter Kramer come to mind). We all walk through life and find those who inspire and impact us in so many different ways and emulate them accordingly. The board resoundingly agrees that Lace is a leader we want to emulate; her breadth of knowledge and experience in relational ethics, addiction counseling, consulting, racial justice and equity work is just what we need to thrive. … She’s dedicated her life to mitigating harm endured by BIPOC perpetuated by white people and white supremacy and will continue to do so. It was unanimous. She is the Executive Director we need in this next chapter and vision for the Lace on Race Center for Racial Equity.”

Watkins has always felt the need for a multidisciplinary approach to durable change work, bringing her expertise as an addiction specialist as well as a spiritual counselor in utilizing only seemingly disparate disciplines: an addiction recovery model designed by Watkins;  sociology, psychology, theology and philosophy, crafting a comprehensive and holistic framework she calls  ‘applied relational ethics’. Watkins feels that this framework, which focuses on internal work which will then result in effective and sustained outward racial justice praxis, is a crucial, and before now, missing piece of creating durable change both within and without.

 With the curriculum and style of coaching and engagement she has originated, curated, and now applies to encourage and motivate individuals in learning to be less harmful and more effective in their interpersonal interactions-both online and in real life, Watkins feels she has found the ‘secret sauce’ for durable, authentic, and sustainable work–not only for white cohorts, but for BIPOC as well–to confront, challenge and ultimately dismantle racism and white supremacy, both in their outside lives, and also, as Watkins says, ‘between their ears’. 

“While many other individuals and organizations do pieces of what we do, we have yet to encounter others bringing together all the strands that we do here at Lace on Race”, says Watkins. “And we do need to address all of the elements: societal, individual, even spiritual–because this work is so much bigger than any one of us.” 

The Center also provides consulting and coaching for individuals and organizations that share the same desire to advance racial equity through personal relationships and applied relational ethics to ultimately lead to deep and durable individual, group, and societal change.
To learn more about the Lace on Race Center for Racial Equity and to visit the Lace on Race Cafe, visit their website, at: laceonrace.com or find them on Facebook at facebook.com/laceonrace