People Who Inspire Us: Deborah Plummer

“Right now,” says Dr. Deborah L. Plummer, “we have a lot of social mistrust. We are all in our silos and going more and more in our silos, our own echo chambers.”

A psychologist, university professor, and author, Debbie has focused on issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging for three decades. “My work is about how we turn ‘us and them’ into ‘we,’” she says.

As the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Getting to We, she specializes in bringing together groups with very different experiences and perspectives, particularly around racial equity. Often these are groups of white women and black women, and she helps them break through barriers to achieve healing and connection.

“I believe, as many of the people told us during our research, that women are the keepers of the culture. And so if racism is in the culture, it really is imperative that women do something about it. So we do work retreats where women, black and white women, come together, and we map their journey from mistrust to trust. We're supporting them on how to do that,” she says.

Last June, Debbie took part in Widen the Circle’s immersive education program in Germany for American activists using history to fight bigotry. And creating a shared understanding of history is an important part of the work of creating that healing and connection. “Keeping collective memory alive in our minds and hearts changes how we act today. Those who remember and know don’t act like those who don’t know,” she says. 

“[Remembrance work] is constantly feeding the thalamus with different information, with new information or renewing information that we need. … That’s important, so it’s not just remembering for the sake of remembering; it’s remembering because we want to be able to improve the quality of our lives. We want to be able to connect with each other in our basic core identities, that of human beings.

“It leads us to healing, and then the connection,” she says. “The lived experience of people is so vibrant that we have to keep doing it. We have to keep doing this.”

More: The Power of Memory Work: Learning from the Germans, by Dr. Deborah L. Plummer.