&
Present
Future
We are simply trying to hold space for
people interested in group relations work.
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We serve as a home for people who have experienced the power of group relations work, particularly in combination with spirituality and social justice. We want to nurture the GR network by offering a place to co-create as individuals and/or organizations. We are open to collaboration around group relations conferences and application events, writing, reflecting and meeting. We offer to stay connected with “the work” in various ways. We pay attention to where the energy takes us.
The programs we offer at this moment are listed in the activities section. As we are growing in numbers, we are beginning to create local (and virtual) communities that people may join to nurture “the work.”
Podcast Resources
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7
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Episode 2: Interview with Kathy White
Kathy White’s Bio
Kathleen Pogue White, Ph.D., Educator, and Reflective Practitioner
Clinical Psychologist / Psychoanalyst
Supervising Analyst, Post-Doctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, NYU
Systems Psychodynamics Organizational Consultant
Group Relations Practitioner
Founding Member William White Psychoanalytic Institute Organization Program (WAWI)
Founder and Co-Director, The Chocolate Salon (TCS)
Co-Founder and Co-Chair, Black Psychoanalysts Speak (BPS)
Co-Founder, The Gould Center, Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR)
Distinguished Member, International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations (ISPSO)
Fellow, Institute for the Study of Social Systems (AKRI)
Fellow, Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR)
Article: White, K. P. (2002). Surviving Hating and Being Hated: Some Personal
Thoughts About Racism from a Psychoanalytic Perspective. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 38(3): 401-422.
https://www.blackpsychoanalystsspeak.org
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Episode 3: Interview with Charla Hayden
Charla Hayden's Bio
Charla Hayden, M. A. Is a freelance organizational consultant with many years of experience consulting to groups, organizations, and institutions. She has also been on the Boards of the A. K. Rice Institute (AKRI) and GREX (a West Coast affiliate of AKRI). Charla has a long and distinguished career in group relations work; she has consulted on and directed many group relations conferences.
Charla has also authored or co-authored a variety of book chapters, including:
Hayden, C. (2016). “The race idea tends to make people wicked”: An
exploration of why it persists. In E. L. Short, & L. Wilton (Eds.),
Talking about structural inequalities in everyday life: New politics
of race in groups, organizations, and social systems (pp. 261-284).
Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
This book can be purchased on Amazon or via Information Age Publishing:
Gertler, B., & Hayden, C. (2015). Uneasy on the boundary: Reflections on the
culture and effectiveness of group relations conference work in the USA,
1965-2012. In E. Aram, R. Baxter, & A. Nutkevitch (Eds.), Group relations
work: Exploring the impact and relevance within and beyond its network
(pp. 139-159).
This book can be purchased on Amazon or from Routledge: www.routledge.com
Hayden C., & Molenkamp, R. J. (2004). Tavistock primer II. The A. K. Rice
Institute for the study of social systems. In S. Cytrynbaum, & D. Noumair
(Eds.), Group dynamics, organizational irrationality, and social complexity:
Group relations reader 3 (pp. 135-157). Jupiter, FL: The A. K. Rice
Institute.
This book can be purchased on the A. K. Rice website: AKRiceInstitute.org.
If you are not an A. K. Rice member and wish to purchase the book, please contact: admin@akriceinstitute.org
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Episode 4: Interview with Mary McRae
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Mary B. McRae, Ed. D.
Mary B. McRae, is a retired New York University professor of Applied Psychology, where she taught courses in Group Dynamics and Multicultural Counseling for 27 years. Her scholarship involves a psychoanalytic and systemic study of authority and leadership in group and organizational life. She has used the Group Relations Model as a lens to explore working with racial and cultural differences when individuals take up different roles of authority and power. She developed the “Working with Differences” group relations conference series at NYU, providing an experiential laboratory to study racial and cultural dynamics as they occurred in the here and now life of groups and the organization.
She has directed and worked on staff of Group Relations Conferences in the United States and internationally, including co-director of the Leicester Conference. She has published a book, an educational video and many articles and book chapters focusing on racial and cultural dynamics in group and organizational life. She currently is in private practice as a psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapist. She is also a consultant, and executive coach. Dr. McRae is a fellow and affiliate in the A. K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems, a member of the New York Center for the Study of Groups, Organizations and Social Systems, and Group Relations International. She is also a member of the Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society.
Dr. McRae was recently elected as the president of the board of trustees of the William Alanson White Institute, where she looks forward to working to broaden and sustain it mission in interpersonal psychoanalysis.
Mary McRae has a new publication entitled: The Shame of Knowing and Not Knowing: Race and Social Class Group Dynamics. The reference is: Journal of Organisational and Social Dynamics, 23(2) 165-180, 2023.
This journal can be found on: www.journals@firingthemind.com">www.journals@firingthemind.com.
Mary McRae has a variety of publications including:
Class, race and gender: Person-in-role implications in taking up the directorship. In S. Cytrynbaum, D. A. Noumair, (Eds.), Group dynamics, organizational irrationality, and social complexity: Group relations reader 3. Jupiter, FL: A. K. Rice institute for the Study of Social Systems.
This book can be purchased on the A. K. Rice website: AKRiceInstitute.org.
If you are not an A. K. Rice member and wish to purchase the book, please contact: admin@akriceinstitute.org
McRae, M. B., & Short, E. L. (2010). Racial and cultural dynamics in group and
organizational life: Crossing boundaries. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
This book can be purchased on Amazon and Sage website: www.us.sagepub.com
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Episode 5: Interview with Evangeline Sarda
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Evangeline Sarda’s Bio:
Evangeline Sarda, JD, she, her, hers, is an Associate Clinical Law Professor at Boston College Law School, where she is the former Faculty Director of Leaders Entering and Advancing Public Service (LEAPS), a Co-Director of the Criminal Legal Clinic, and the Director of the Prosecution Clinic. She is a co-creator of Group Relations International (GRI) and a Fellow of the A. K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems (AKRI) and a member of several of its affiliates, including the Mid-West Center, the Boston Center, and the New York Center. She is Treasurer of the Research and Education Collaborative with Al-Quds University (RECA). She is of Philippine and Indian descent and has a large extended family. Her parents migrated to the US from the Philippines and she grew up with her brothers and sister in Texas and then New York. She graduated from Yale College and spent a year teaching at Hillhouse High School in New Haven before attending Columbia Law School where she was an executive editor of the Columbia Journal of Human Rights and a founding member of the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law. After law school, she was a domestic violence prosecutor with the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, and then left to teach at Boston College Law School in 1995. She is married and has three children. She has lived in Massachusetts for over 30 years, and is active in sports and yoga, hosts occasional music events, and is a devotee of group relations.
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Evangeline Sarda will be directing the A. K. Rice Institute’s 2024 National Conference:
The A.K. Rice Institute is excited to announce that registration is open for AKRI's 2024 National Conference, AUTHORITY, LEADERSHIP AND LEGACY: WORKING WITHIN DIVIDES. This conference is a collaboration with Group Relations International (GRI) and will be directed by Evangeline Sarda, JD. For more information and to register, visit the conference website at https://www.akrinational.org. The conference brochure is attached. Please contact us at GRIeastGRC@gmail.com with any questions.
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Episode 6: Interview with mak wemuk
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mak wemuk's Bio:
mak wemuk, whose pronouns are he/him, operates his own business under the name of Luna Consulting & Coaching. He consults in the areas of Health Equity, racial equity, and social justice, and he coaches and develops nonprofit executives. He is a Co-Creator of GRI, the Vice President of the Washington-Baltimore Center for the Study of Group Relations, a member of the GR centers in Boston and Chicago, and has various roles in AKRI, including serving as a Director Development Mentor and as a member of the Reparations Committee and the Conference Committee. He began his Group Relations journey in 1993, has staffed over 60 conferences and has directed 8. He is the current weekend conference director for the Boston center. He is the father of four powerful young women and is based in the Chicago area.
mak wemuk will be the Associate Director of the A. K. Rice Institute’s 2024 National Conference. Click here for registration.
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Episode 7: Interview with the AKRI Reparations Committee
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Isabelle’s Reiniger’s Bio:
Isabelle Reiniger is a licensed clinical social worker in full-time psychotherapy and consulting practice in Evanston, IL. She has been involved in Group Relations work since 2012 and has been on the staff of numerous conferences. She is an Associate member of AKRI and a Co-Creator of Group Relations International. Since the fall of 2021 she has been the Chair of the AKRI Reparations Committee. She received her graduate degree from NYU and is a graduate of the Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy program of the William Alanson White Institute in New York.
Minnie's Tao’s Bio:
Minnie is a 1.75 generation Chinese American. She was born in Shanghai, China and was brought to the U.S. when she was one years old by her father. She grew up in Plano, TX and attended University of Texas at Austin for her undergrad and Northwestern University for her masters in Counseling. She currently works as a therapist in a group private practice.
Janice Wagner’s Bio:
Janice Wagner, LICSW is in Private Practice offering Psychotherapy,
Consultation and Clinical Supervision in Boston, MA. She is a Fellow of the A. K. Rice Institute, a past-president and member of the Center for the Study of Groups and Social Systems, and a Co-Creator of Group Relations International. Vice-Chair of the Reparations Committee of the A. K. Rice Institute. Experienced Group Relations conference consultant in the US, Europe, and China.
Ms. Wagner worked for many years as a social worker, psychotherapist, unit director and team leader in child welfare, criminal justice, and medical/psychiatric settings. She is a former Clinical Supervisor, Faculty Field Advisor and Group Work Instructor at Boston University, Boston College, and Simmons College Schools of Social Work. She is a graduate of Smith College School for Social Work and holds a certificate in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy from the Boston Institute for Psychotherapy.
The Reparations documents can be found on the A. K. Rice Website: www.akriceinstitute.org.
They are located within the “About” tab and are listed as “Reparations.”