"Real food is elitist" sounds compassionate, but look closer. BSF CEO Kathryn Leigh Goetz challenges the assumption that low-income families can't prioritize nourishment, and makes the case that true equity means both upgrading systems and honoring every family's agency.

While gender is increasingly understood as a spectrum and social construct, the binary framework of masculinity and femininity remains deeply embedded in cultural norms. Traditionally masculine qualities—such as assertiveness, competitiveness, and decisiveness—continue to dominate perceptions of effective leadership. However, these qualities alone are insufficient for the complex challenges of modern leadership, making it essential to examine the shadow and light of both masculine and feminine traits.

DEI isn't a political agenda. DEI is the work of living up to values we've been pledging allegiance to since kindergarten. BSF CEO Kathryn Leigh Goetz responds to high-profile DEI failures with a call to lead with love, create brave spaces, and remember that liberty and justice for all was always the point.

True collaboration in racial equity work is harder than it looks — and not always for the reasons we expect. BSF CEO reflects honestly on a dozen dynamics that create no-win situations, stall progress, and complicate even the most well-intentioned efforts toward equity and belonging.

Identity acknowledgment without behavior change is a dead end. BSF CEO Kathryn Leigh Goetz reflects honestly on what it means to lead as a white woman in racial equity work, and the difference between leading from privilege and leading as an ally.

“Equity" has become a hot topic in organizational spaces. But how deep does that commitment actually go? This reflection on the origins of Black History Month and the ongoing marginalization of African American history is a challenge to white allies to go further than February and further than comfortable.

Robyn Harvey has hosted exchange students from six countries, adopted two Latino sons, and spent years thinking carefully about what it means to honor cultures that aren't her own. Cultural appreciation (rather than cultural appropriation) requires continuous learning, humility, and the willingness to ask uncomfortable questions. Robyn asked them, and what her colleagues told her changed how her family spent Black History Month.

To the slave master, the auction block was a public space for selling slaves. For the slave and their family, it was a source of fear, shame, and humiliation. There are some public places in America where slave auction blocks remain intact- a daunting reminder of an ugly past. Today, Aug. 20, we honor the memories of our African ancestors that endured the horrors of slavery, a shameful American atrocity that lasted 400 years.

As a privileged white woman in a position of power and authority, committed to diversity, inclusion and radical co-creation, CEO Co-founder and CEO, Kathyn, was trying to sit this one out. “Let actions speak louder than words,” she thought. But watching the "parent engagement through a lens of equity" conversation cycle through the field for 30 years without moving the needle? Her response breaks down what economic, political, and social equity actually look like in practice — and why BSF stopped treating them as aspirational and started treating them as operational.