This special event is sponsored by the Institute for Sustainable Diversity & Inclusion and Archbright.

Archbright helps organizations navigate people, risk, and growth through trusted HR expertise, practical resources, and experienced advisors. Together, we’re proud to support conversations that move inclusion from intention to action.

• How might the Midterm Elections affect the current assault on DEI?
• Will the controlling party in Congress shed any new light on DEI efforts? 
• What’s the current position of the Trump Administration on DEI?
• What changes might be most likely, and which ones less likely?  

Lots of questions are swirling around the shifting environment for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in this political landscape.

The midterm elections will reshape who holds oversight, funding, confirmation, and state-level power. They will not, on their own, rewrite employment law, undo existing executive orders, or change who runs the enforcement agencies. This session separates what has changed from what has not.

The Institute for Sustainable Diversity & Inclusion (ISDI) continues its 2026 series of important Special Events with a post-election strategy session on the legal and political environment shaping Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work nationwide.

The dynamic duo from previous sessions will once again present this session:
Effenus Henderson, Co-Director, Institute for Sustainable Diversity & Inclusion
Erin Jacobson, Attorney and President, Workplace Law Group, PC

The conversation in this session is not a partisan one. It is a governance conversation.

The Current Reframe: DEI as Risk vs. Asset & Advantage

As enforcement activity expands and public narratives attempt to reframe DEI as risk rather than performance infrastructure, organizational leaders must operate with legal precision, strategic clarity, and institutional discipline, whatever the election results were.

This session will examine:

• What the election results do, and do not, change in the legal and enforcement environment
• 2026 enforcement trends: federal contractor requirements, False Claims Act settlements, and EEOC and DOJ activity, and what the courts have allowed to stand
• Scenarios for divided or unified government, and what each means for oversight, funding, and state-level action
• Distinguishing lawful inclusion strategy from practices that create exposure, including the risk of retreating too early
• Governance-level implications for boards, executives, and HR leaders in the first 90 days after the election
• How to embed inclusion into organizational systems in ways that are durable, compliant, and performance-enhancing across political cycles

Our position is clear: sustainable inclusion does not depend on an election cycle. It is operating architecture.

The question is not who won. The question is what leaders should build, preserve, and decide next, lawfully, strategically, and with long-term institutional resilience.

This 90-minute session, with 60 minutes of analysis and 30 minutes of open questions, equips leaders to move from watching the results to acting on the evidence.

Hosted by ISDI and Archbright

What’s Next for DEI?

The Legal and Political Landscape After the Midterm Elections

Friday, November 13, 2026, 11:30 am to 1:00 pm PST

This special event is sponsored by the Institute for Sustainable Diversity & Inclusion and Archbright.

Archbright helps organizations navigate people, risk, and growth through trusted HR expertise, practical resources, and experienced advisors. Together, we’re proud to support conversations that move inclusion from intention to action.

If you are a woman reading this—how are you experiencing today’s environment?

Do any of following present challenges to you:

• Leadership representation 
• Pay equity 
• Healthcare access & reproductive care
• Caregiving responsibilities
• Childcare affordability 
• Workforce participation 
• Economic mobility
• Career advancement 

Many of the issues affecting women today are multifaceted and often shaped by other aspects of identity and lived experience.

However, women are not sitting on the sidelines. They have consistently demonstrated remarkable resilience, adaptability, and leadership. Across generations and industries, women are driving innovation, strengthening organizations, building communities, and creating pathways for future leaders.

Women are making significant contributions across every sector of our economy and society. Their stories are ones of strength, perseverance, innovation, and community. While challenges do exist, women continue to lead, inspire, and create positive change in organizations, communities, and society.

Join us for an engaging conversation that explores both the realities and possibilities facing women today. 

CO-FACILITATORS:
Jenna Shellman, Director of IDEAL (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, Leadership), Archbright, and
Barbara Deane, Co-Director, Institute for Sustainable Diversity & Inclusion. 

MODERATOR:
Constance Durham-Engelstad, OD & Leadership Consultant, Member-ISDI Board of Directors

Hosted by ISDI and Archbright

 Stronger Together: A Celebration of Women’s Leadership and Resilience

Thursday, October 29, 2026

11:30 am to 1:00 pm PST (Virtual)

This special event is sponsored by the Institute for Sustainable Diversity & Inclusion and Archbright. Archbright helps organizations navigate people, risk, and growth through trusted HR expertise, practical resources, and experienced advisors. Together, we’re proud to support conversations that move inclusion from intention to action.

How do you go from saying you care, to actually showing up in ways that change things for others? 

How do you first become an ally, then shift into the more substantive commitment of partnership? 

What does being an ally really mean? And partnership—what does that even mean?  

How does accountability factor in? 

These are the questions we want to answer in this session. Why? Because showing up for others in the current environment where “us” and “them” is promoted, is required if inclusion is to be a meaningful goal.  

Another question we want to tackle is: How do allyships and partnerships work across generations, and within them? 

The highlight of this session will be a panel of Millennials and Gen Z members who will share their experiences of having allies and how often they shifted into real partnerships with reciprocal accountability. Today’s workforce is the most diverse generation in history. Gen Z and Millennials increasingly work, learn, collaborate, and build relationships with people whose experiences differ from their own. 

Co-facilitators for this session will be Effenus Henderson, co-director of the Institute of Sustainable Diversity & Inclusion (ISDI), and Jenna Shellman, director of IDEAL at Archbright. 

“Allyship begins with empathy and support. Partnership deepens that commitment through collaboration and accountability. Inclusion grows strongest when people move from standing with others to working alongside them,” says Jenna. 

“Allyship asks you to care. Partnership asks you to build. Bring your voice, your skills, and your accountability to the table — the future of inclusion will be engineered by those who show up as co-owners, not spectators,” according to Effenus. “Don’t just stand with us — build with us. Partnership means putting your name, your talent, and your accountability into the work. That’s the difference between supporting change and creating it.”

This session explores how we move beyond simply supporting others and toward becoming true partners in creating inclusive communities, workplaces, and relationships. 

Learning outcomes: 

By the end of this session, you will gain: 

• Increased empathy for others’ lived experiences
• Greater confidence engaging across differences
• Practical allyship skills you can use immediately
• Understanding of accountability as a practice, not a punishment
• A personal action plan to become an ally or partner

Co-Facilitators: 

Jenna Shellman, Director, IDEAL, Archbright

Effenus Henderson, Co-Director,  ISDI/HenderWorks, Inc.

Note: we’ll add the Panel members to the announcements once they are all confirmed.

Jenna Shellman, Director, IDEAL, Archbright

Jenna Shellman is director of IDEAL (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, Leadership) at Archbright. 

Jenna is a strategic DEI consultant and HR leader with 10 years of experience. She leverages data-driven approaches to align organizations, solve complex challenges, and build thriving workplaces. As a seasoned trainer and keynote speaker, she creates and delivers impactful sessions on DEI, leadership, and compliance to audiences of all sizes. Jenna is passionate about developing leaders and fostering cultures of trust, psychological safety, and belonging.

Jenna’s career spans education (beginning as a public school teacher), and the talent solutions and business consulting industries. As a consultant, she has partnered with both for-profit and nonprofit organizations across diverse sectors and company sizes.

The Human Resource values that guide Jenna’s approach are: Building trust and connection; establishing authentic relationships grounded in transparency and integrity; embracing transformation, championing change as an opportunity for growth and innovation; and fostering inclusion to create workplaces where every individual feels valued and can thrive. 

Her best Human Resource skills are: Strategic DEI consulting; employee surveys; benchmarking; senior leadership support & collaboration; employee Resource Group guidance; and learning & development.

Jenna describes Archbright as the most progressive and inclusive organization she has worked for. She has gained extensive knowledge, felt consistently supported, and experienced faster professional growth than in any other role. She enjoys collaborating with members, delivering excellent customer service, and helping them solve complex challenges. Jenna also values Archbright’s strong commitment to IDEAL, treating it as a business necessity. She is fortunate to oversee an IDEAL Council and three Business Resource Groups.)

Originally from Seattle and now living in Poulsbo, Jenna shares her home with her pet, Pierre. Passionate about supporting her community, she volunteers with the Kathleen Sutton Foundation, which reimburses transportation costs for cancer patients in Kitsap County, and with Fishline Foodbank, serving Poulsbo and surrounding areas. Her next volunteer endeavor is training to become a domestic violence advocate.

Jenna holds a BS in Psychology from California Lutheran University, an MA in Teaching from Antioch University, and holds a DEI certificate from the University of Washington Foster School of Business. Additional professional development classes/topics include: Organizational development, DEI benchmarking, Inclusive leadership, Race, gender, and disability studies, and Emotional intelligence.

Effenus Henderson, Co-Director,  ISDI/HenderWorks, Inc.

Effenus Henderson is a renowned diversity, equity, and inclusion strategist and thought leader with over three decades of experience advising Fortune 500 companies and global organizations. He is widely recognized on major social media platforms for his influential contributions to diversity conversations.

Effenus is currently co-director of the Institute for Sustainable Diversity & Inclusion and one of the primary organizers of the new Community Coalition for Sustainable Diversity and Inclusion, a new effort on ISDI’s part to join advocates, allies and champions of diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibiiity, and belonging—together—to fight for these essential ingredients of organizational success and sustainability. Effenus leads one of the Coalition’s four Action Teams, NextGen Outreach; the Coalition believes that involving the next generations in Inclusion efforts is imperative to the way forward. 

He is also CEO of HenderWorks Consulting, and the author of a new book, The Architecture of Inclusion: How Leaders Engineer Equity, Align Their Organizations and Build Institutions That Last (2026). He also wrote, SPINE: The DEI Backbone for Agility and Adaptability in a VUCA World (2025). His SPINE methodology (Strategy, Practice, Ideation, Need, Execution) has been adopted by leading organizations seeking to embed inclusion as a strategic imperative rather than a temporary initiative.

Effenus served as chief diversity officer for Weyerhaeuser Company, Federal Way, Washington until his retirement in December 2013. In this role he advised the CEO and senior management team on diversity, inclusion and affirmative action related matters. He has over 40 years of experience in a variety of human resources roles and responsibilities.

He has provided advisory support on diversity to the US Federal Government’s EPA office, Office of Personnel Management, US Forest Service, State Department and the USDA. He has also addressed members of the General Assembly of the United Nations on intercultural and interreligious diversity, and addressed high-level panels for Alliance of Civilizations events worldwide.

In September 2016, Effenus was named convener of the International Organization for Standardization’s Technical Committee on Human Resources (TC 260), Working Group 8 which led to the development of the first ISO global diversity and inclusion standards approved and published in 2021 (ISO 30415:2021).

The speed with which laws have been changing and institutions have been responding is breakneck these days. Our special events offer space to convene and discuss workplace challenges of the current moment.

The Institute for Sustainable Diversity & Inclusion (ISDI) launches its 2026 series of Special Events with this critical strategy session focused on the evolving legal and political environment shaping Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work nationwide. 

ISDI is pleased to welcome Archbright as a sponsor of this first event. Archbright helps organizations navigate people, risk, and growth through trusted HR expertise, the mozzo resource hub, and experienced advisors. Archbright also offers DEI Flex, an adaptable approach to DEI support designed to evolve with organizational needs.

The conversation in this session is not a defensive one. It is a governance conversation.

As regulatory pressures increase and public narratives attempt to reframe DEI as risk rather than performance infrastructure, organizational leaders must operate with legal precision, strategic clarity, and institutional discipline.

This session will examine: 

• Emerging federal and state legal trends affecting workplace DEI
• The recent evolution of legal theory shaping enforcement and litigation
• Distinguishing lawful inclusion strategy from practices that create exposure
• Governance-level implications for boards, executives, and HR leaders
• How to embed equity into organizational systems in ways that are durable, compliant, and performance-enhancing

Our position is clear: sustainable inclusion is not a temporary initiative — it is operating architecture.

The question is not whether organizations should advance inclusion. The question is how to do so lawfully, strategically, and with long-term institutional resilience.

This session equips leaders to move from reactive posture to informed strategy.