About Racism Untaught
We facilitate workshops with partners in academia, industry, and community to facilitate people in identifying, analyzing, and re-imagining forms of Racialized Design – design that perpetuates elements of racism. Racism Untaught was developed due to an identified gap and opportunity to foster conversations and learning environments focused on the development of anti-racist and anti-oppressive designs.
Meet Our Team
This work is co-developed by Terresa Moses and Lisa Mercer. Please reach out to us with any questions.
Terresa Moses (she/her) is a proud Black queer woman dedicated to the liberation of Black and brown people through art and design. As a designer and illustrator, her work focuses on race, identity, and social justice. She advocates for positive change in her community using creativity as tools of community activism like her recent solo exhibition, Umbra.
Terresa is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at the University of Minnesota’s College of Design (CDes) and the Director of the CDes Design Justice Network. She is also the Creative Director at Blackbird Revolt, a social justice-based design studio. Her design research interests include; Project Naptural, which creates spaces to educate, connect, and empower Black women about their natural hair and self-identity, and Racism Untaught.
Personal Narrative: I identify as a Black Queer Cisgender Woman. I’m an army brat born in Panama City, Panama and I am proud of my heritage and cultural upbringing.
Lisa Mercer (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design and Design for Responsible Innovation for the School of Art and Design, at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.Her research interests are in developing and executing design interventions that responsibly fuel and sustain responsible design for social impact. Her work has been integrated into academic, industry, and community settings. The developed frameworks and tools are meant to create a space for conversation and knowledge exchange where participants can actively collaborate in the creation of new ideas and solutions. This type of methodology is evident in all of her major projects
Personal Narrative: I identify as a person of color and mixed-race, my ethnicity is Mexican, cisgender woman. When I was growing up I was always proud of being mixed-race and my family.
Meet the Facilitators
Billie Conaway
She/Her/Hers
Montessori Educator & Community Leader
Billie Conaway (she/her) is a Montessori Teacher in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She is dedicated to empowering her students and navigating parent education; multiple Anti-Bias/Anti-Racist workshops for parents/faculty a year, cultural responsive pedagogy and more.
When Billie isn’t in the classroom she is at the Wilder Foundation in her year long fellowship commitment furthering her knowledge of the legislative process and public policy at all levels with a focus on education and environmental work; both of which need transformation especially in BIPOC communities.
Personal Narrative: I identify as a Black, Queer, Cisgender woman. I am proud of my upbringing, being taught to always care for my community has brought me a lot of love, joy and beautiful experiences.
Meet Our Advisory Team
We appreciate support and feedback from our advisory team!
Heidi Bakk-Hansen
Historian, Researcher, & Organizer
Dr. Jeanine Weekes Schroer
Philosopher & Race Theorist
University of Minnesota, Duluth
Dr. Gioconda Guerra Pérez
Assistant Vice Chancellor for Diversity
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Jennifer White-Johnson
Art Activist, Designer, & Educator
Dr. Paula Pedersen
Inclusive Excellence
University of Minnesota, Duluth