About Gwendolyn

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Gwendolyn VanSant is the Principal and Owner of Equity in Practice LLC. She is an experienced organizational change consultant and coach who works at the intersection of diversity leadership, equity and inclusion, and strategic planning. She is also CEO and Founding Director of BRIDGE, a minority and women-run organization dedicated to cultural competence and social justice with a race, gender, and poverty lens.

A skilled community organizer and well-recognized thought leader, Gwendolyn’s leadership and work is rooted in racial justice, reparations, and extensive positive psychology training. In September 2021, Gwendolyn received national recognition as the Drum Major for Justice by the National Community Action Council for her anti-poverty, mutual aid response to the negative impact of COVID on the most vulnerable communities and for BRIDGE’s New Pathways program.

Read her full bio here.

Recent Articles


Offerings

Gwendolyn offers highly customizable cultural competency, multicultural education, and literacy and proficiency training programs for groups of all ages and professional, educational, and socioeconomic backgrounds. She works with corporations and financial institutions, secondary and higher education institutions, law enforcement, public health institutions and hospitals, arts organizations, and leadership institutes. Her cultural competence training design, strategic equity and inclusion work, and capacity-building consulting has been sought out across the country. Learn more.

Awards and Recognitions

  • In 2019, Gwendolyn was named “Woman of the Year” by Berkshire Business and Professional Women.

  • In 2018, she was selected by the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women as one of the Commonwealth's “Unsung Heroines” and named a finalist in Executive Leadership in the 2018 Berkshire Nonprofit Awards.

  • In 2016, Berkshire Magazine named Gwendolyn one of the 25 most creative, talented, and influential leaders in the Berkshires.

  • In 2015 and 2016 she was recognized as a “Berkshire Trendsetter” finalist by 1Berkshire in the "Entrepreneur/Visionary of the Year" category. BRIDGE also won 1Berkshire's Nonprofit Impact award in 2016.

Other honors include awards from the Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce (2012), the Immigrant Community of the Berkshires (2011), and Women of Color Giving Circle (2009). Governor Deval Patrick, who honored her with an African American of Distinction award in 2010, called Gwendolyn’s leadership a “treasure to Berkshire County and this Commonwealth.” 

 
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