Meet Dr. Matthew Whitaker of Diamond Strategies and The George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Matthew Whitaker.

Hi Dr. Whitaker, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.

I got my start observing my mother’s selfless devotion to her students and community. She was an English and social studies teacher for 37 years at the high school and middle school levels. She also served her community, particularly vulnerable and underserved people. She believed that education, empathy, and the right organizational structures, policies, and programs could engender what we now call “equity” for the most isolated and misunderstood persons and institutions.

I saw the truth of this up close and personal. So, while I had no idea that I would become an educator, community organizer, entrepreneur, and business owner, I knew that I wanted to leverage knowledge and perspective to help people become the best version of themselves. Although I am something of an introvert, I love culture and seeing people unified and winning.

This passion, coupled with the affinity for knowledge, democratic processes, positive organization development, and justice that I inherited from my mother, informed and guided my journey. She taught me organizational development, leadership coaching, interest-based-resolution (IBR), diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and belonging long before those terms became industrialized and before I completed college and graduate school.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?

My path has not been smooth. I write about it extensively in my forthcoming memoir, The Undisputed Truth: A Millennial Journey to Black Manhood. Suffice it to say that my father was absent during most of my childhood and early adulthood, and my mother, as a teacher and single parent, struggled financially. I was a tall, gangly, Black, male, a bit “nerdy, and eventually lived in a home with two (partnered) women, so I had to learn how to confront bullies early and often.

My early awkwardness was supplanted by an athletic and dynamic high school experience, which attracted different kinds of haters. I found my voice in college and began to confront the bigotry and malevolence I experienced in my youth on behalf of others who couldn’t defend themselves, and those protests almost landed me in jail more than once.

As a “grown” professional, I found out that adults have the same antiquated beliefs, fears, and jealousies, often mixed with latent hostile tendencies, that seemingly outgoing and successful people like me bring out like an astringent. Kids tease, bully, and isolate to put others in their place and feel better about themselves.

Insecure and hateful adults destroy your spirit, and the change agent’s ability influence in areas and in ways that they do not understand while undercutting the power of those who they find threatening to earn a living, take care of their family, and live in peace. Kids are transparent, while adults throw stones to hide their hands.

I learned this the hard way: that my very existence, and anything short of perfection from people who look like me, is deemed as an affront to the sense of entitlement and superiority of others. I have always put educating, unifying, and protecting people first, however, and these have allowed me to survive and thrive despite the abandonment, visceral attacks, and hatred I have received and continue to navigate.

We’ve been impressed with Diamond Strategies, LLC. and the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?

Diamond Strategies, LLC., a Better Business Bureau A+ rated, NSDMC certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE), and trend-setting justice, equity, diversity, inclusion (JEDI), leadership, Interest-Based-Resolution (IBR), and community relations firm. Diamond Strategies is the Winner of the 2023 Best of Tempe (Arizona) Consultant Hall of Fame Award and has partnered with Fortune 500 companies, non-profits, faith-based institutions, and government.

I founded Diamond Strategies in May of 2016 to operationalize what I had long done in my writings, classrooms, speeches, and service to the business, non-profit, and municipal worlds; use my unique sociological and historical training to help individuals, organizations, and communities, learn and leverage our diverse past and present to promote healing, social cohesion, productivity, and profitability. I am deeply authentic in style and delivery and I utilize my diverse familial background to reach and teach those who have more homogeneous experiences.

For these efforts, he was given the Arizona Diversity Leadership Alliance’s 2016 Diversity and Inclusion Leader Award and the Arizona Collectors 2020 Frederick Douglass Social Justice Award. He specializes in U.S. history, comparative Black history and life, civil rights, race relations, social movements, diversity, equity, and inclusion.

He has edited three books, including Hurricane Katrina: America’s Unnatural Disaster, and he is the author of Race Work: The Rise of Civil Rights in the Urban West. He has also authored award-winning articles, penned over 40 opinion pieces, and is currently completing a memoir entitled The Undisputed Truth: A Revolutionary Journey to Black Manhood.

I have consulted, spoken, and lectured in Australia, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, England, Ghana, and Ireland. I have been featured on CNN, NPR, PBS, WVON, and KEMET, and I was given ASU’s 2015 Pioneer Award for working to improve African American life, community, and culture. I am also a co-founder of the Healing Racism Public Dialogue Series, winner of the 2008 National League of Cities Promoting Inclusive Award, and he was given the City of Phoenix 2006 Martin Luther King, Jr. Living the Dream Award.

I am a trustee of AZCend in Chandler, Arizona, and I can be followed on Twitter @Dr_Whitaker, Instagram @drmcw, and LinkedIn @drmatthewcwhitaker. Diamond Strategies can be followed on Twitter @dstrategiesllc, Instagram @dstrategiesllc, and LinkedIn @diamondstrategiesllc.

I am also the Executive Director of the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center in Phoenix. The George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and a premier cultural institution that is the steward of the African American experience in Phoenix. We honor and share African-American Heritage, Arts, and Culture. The support of our Museum Members, Visitors, Donors, and Partners plays a crucial role in ensuring we remain open and accessible to the public.

What does success mean to you?

Having a positive influence on the lives of my family, others, and our society as a whole.

Contact Info:

Website: https://www.dstrategiesllc.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dstrategiesllc/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dstrategiesllc/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/10607032/admin/feed/posts/

Other: https://www.carveraz.org