Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
Dispatch
October 5, 2025
If you have announcements to pass onto the DEI Committee, please email it to dei@lwvtucson.com. The next issue of the DEI Dispatch will be November 9, 2025.
LWVGT DEI Policy - adopted November 11, 2021
League of Women Voters of Greater Tucson (LWVGT) is fully committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in principle and in practice. LWVGT aims to build a participant base that is representative of all dimensions that make each individual unique. Our aim is to be inclusive, affirming, and welcoming of all identities. We intend to ensure that each individual has access to the same opportunities to grow, contribute, and develop within the organization. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are central to the organization's current and future success in engaging all individuals, households, communities, and policymakers in creating a more perfect democracy.
|  | DEI Committee Meeting
Wednesday, October 8
6 PM
Welcome to new and returning members of the Committee.
DEI Meeting Opening Guidelines for Decorum: Welcome to a gathering of League members who are pursuing the League’s commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in principle and practice. Our process for respectful discussion is by asking questions and actively listening with kindness, sensitivity, and openness. We acknowledge that we are each learning and searching.
Announcements and Updates (20 minutes)
- DEI Outreach – Pat Tapke (See written report attached)
- DEI Book Discussions – Kathy Aros
- DEI Tours – Pam Burris (See details attached)
- National Day of Racial Healing - Victor Bowleg
Five Minute Connection – (5 minutes)
Speaker -- Tisha Tallman, CEO of Primavera Foundation (see attached bio), will speak about the one-year pilot ‘Safe Sleeping Space” for unsheltered individuals know as STAR (Serving Together and Rebuilding) Village and will discuss ways the league and LWVGT DEI members can help.
Housekeeping
Announcements:
- NAACP Tucson Branch Criminal Justice Community Forum: Fixing Cash Bail and Restoring Voting Rights on Saturday, October 11, 2025 from 1:0pm – 3:00 pm at YWCA Southern Arizona, 525 N. Bonita Avenue.
- Living2Portraits Art Studio art class on Tuesday, October 14, 2025 at 6 pm on Zoom. Please contact Pam Burris at pamwriter8@gmail.com for more information.
- Unified Community Advisory Board (UCAB) event celebrating 30 years of unwavering commitment to ensuring clean, safe water for families impacted by the Tucson International Airport Area Superfund Site on Wednesday, October 15, 2025 from 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm at El Pueblo Activity Center, 101 West Irvington Road.
- FRESH START Expo on Saturday, October 18, 2025 from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. at TCC, 260 S. Church Ave. Volunteers needed for 9-11am and 11-1pm shifts. Sign up on the LWVGT calendar.
- The Tucson Black Film Club film for October is the highly acclaimed Jordan Peale horror film Get Out. Screening at the Dunbar Pavillion, 325 West 2nd Street, on Saturday October 18 from 1 – 4 pm. Discussion follows the film.
- Sunnyside Neighborhood Association monthly meeting on Monday, October 20, 2025 from 6 – 7:30 pm at El Pueblo Community Center, 101 W. Irvington Rd.
- LWVGT DEI Field Trip to Pima County Teen Court on October 25, 2025 from 8:30 til 1pm at YWCA of Southern Arizona, 525 S. Bonita Avenue.
- Arizona Town Hall, Tucson Community Town Hall on Thursday, November 13, 2025 from 8:00 am – 1 pm at YWCA of Southern Arizona, 525 N Bonita Ave.
- OCA Asian Pacific American Advocate Greater Tucson Chapter Gala on Sunday, November 16, 2025 from 5 – 8:30 pm, at Desert Diamond Casino, 7350 S. Nogales Hwy.
Next DEI Meeting – November 12, 2025.
| Tisha R. Tallman
CEO of Primavera Foundation
Tisha R. Tallman, CEO of Primavera Foundation, comes to the Primavera Foundation with 17 years of executive experience in national, regional and state non-profit organizations advocating for individuals, families and communities at the intersection of poverty, homelessness and race/ethnicity. She is a Board of Director for the National NeighborWorks Association, and Advisory Board Member to NeighborWorks America. She currently serves as the Vice Chair of the City of Tucson Commission on Equitable Housing and Development and is Chair of the Housing First Sub-Committee.
Tallman, an attorney with an MBA, has served as a legal and public policy advocate, and a direct services program manager in these roles, litigating in federal and state courts, and testifying, speaking, and writing on several public policy issues throughout the nation and the southeast.
In these prior positions, she attended a number of international and national events, and conferences including: the APEC (Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation) CEO Summit in Lima, Peru at the beginning of the global financial crisis; The Americas Competitiveness Forum; the Harvard Civil Rights Project discussion post-Gratz and Grutter U.S. Supreme Court decisions; Independent Sector Public Policy Action Institute; the community reception for United States Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor; and, was a panelist at the Global Peace Convention along with former Central American presidents.
Tallman also served as a fellow and public policy analyst for a think tank on the intersection of race/ethnicity and poverty. In this capacity, she worked on public policy issues and initiatives, participated in a roundtable discussion at the Aspen Institute, and attended the United Nations World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa as an NGO delegate.
Tallman has served on several boards, commissions, committees and roundtables. The commissions and committees were made at the request of the White House under former President Obama; former President of Mexico Vicente Fox; a former Governor; and former Mayors. She has also received several awards, honors and recognitions.
Tallman has a B.A. in Political Science, B.A. in Journalism & Mass Communication from the University of Iowa; J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law with distinction; MBA from Emory University Goizueta Business School with honors; and, certifications in coding and blockchain technology. She is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Arizona.
A native Iowan born to a Mexican American mother and a Caucasian father, she comes to Tucson via Atlanta, Georgia and Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, running, and drawing. | DEI Meeting Notes
September 10, 2025
|
LWVGT DEI Field Trip
Pima County Teen Court
525 North Bonita Avenue
October 25, 2025
4 Minute Video
Pima County Teen Court (a program of YWCA Southern Arizona) is a diversion program for minors that have been arrested and have admitted guilt to their crime. These teens choose to be sentenced by a jury of their peers instead of going through the juvenile justice court system. All participants are teens, except for the judge.
Schedule for the morning; visitors can come for part or all of the morning
8:30: Jury orientation; all visitors can observe this.
9:00 and then on the half-hour: 2 cases in separate rooms are heard; 3 observe at a time can attend.
At times there are as many as 6 cases; sometimes only 1. When that happens, there are then mock cases that can be observed.
After the completion of all cases, teams debrief. All can observe this.
|  | 2026 National Day of Racial Healing Committee Meeting
Saturday, October 25
11 AM
LWVGT Conference Room
800 N. Swan Rd., Suite 126
Tucson | | DEI Book Discussion Group
Thursday, December 4
6PM
James
by Percival Everett
For a fun interview with the Author
| We will select titles for the DEI Book discussions in 2026.
| FRESH START EXPO
Saturday, October 18
9 AM - 1 PM
To sign up for a two hour shift
9 - 11 AM or 11 AM - 1 PM
| An outdoor homeless encampment sanctioned by the City of Tucson is set to serve as a temporary place to live for 20 - 25 people starting this fall. Primavera Foundation and Old Pueblo Community Services are partnering to launch a one-year pilot ‘Safe Sleeping Space’ for unsheltered individuals know as STAR Village (Serving Together and Rebuilding). The program, aimed at relieving people on the streets from immediate danger and instability while also reducing pressures felt in the surrounding area, hopes to invite the first occupants to the site by October 1. Want to help? For more information and to donate | | You receive this email as a member of the LWVGT DEI Committee. If you no longer wish to receive the DEI Dispatch email dei@lwvtucson.com | |