Dr. Bola Delano-Oriaran is the visionary and principal consultant of Engage To Impact, LLC. She is a diversity and inclusion expert and a passionate advocate for engaging organizations of all sizes bring a diverse array of perspectives to classrooms, conference sessions, gatherings, and board rooms everywhere.
As a child, young Bola was marked by a spirit of kindness and a desire to bring people together to make a difference. One of her earliest projects involved raising money for a man with “dis”ability living in transition in her community. She was just 13 years old.
Wanting to make as significant an impact as possible, Dr. Delano-Oriaran enrolled at the historically Black Savannah State University in Georgia to study political science. She earned a bachelor’s degree and immediately went on to earn a master’s in public administration. Attending an historically Black institution in Savannah provided the foundation for understanding systemic racial inequities. As a college student, she was a member of the student government association and was involved in movements advocating against Apartheid in South Africa. She was also elected college queen.
Upon graduation from Savannah State, Dr. Delano-Oriaran found an opportunity working with first-generation students and families of color in Savannah. During that time, she discovered a passion for advocating for children without access to quality education. Her work compelled her to go back to school to become an educator by earning her PhD. She was accepted at Penn State University, where she earned a doctorate in comparative and international education with a specialization in women and development.
Her PhD work landed her a position at a leading liberal arts college in Wisconsin, USA, where she has served as a professor and pioneering community builder for more than a quarter century. Today, she is a widely-published expert on multicultural education and a sought-after speaker and coach on diversity and inclusion issues in schooling and society, and community-engaged-learning.
Recognized as one of the most influential African-Americans in the state of Wisconsin, Dr. Delano-Oriaran’s work has been celebrated with numerous awards and accolades. She is the co-founder of the African Heritage Incorporated in Appleton, Wisconsin, where she champions the rights of students and residents of color.
She is also the co-founder of Umoja, a weekend experience for families in which Black and bi-racial children are being raised by parents or guardians of another race. As an engagement strategist who is intentional on impacting lives, Dr. Delano co-founded Juneteenth community program, a regional program in Appleton that draws more than 5,000 people annually.
She also founded an institute to create dialogue between Black students and white educators, sponsored by several Wisconsin school districts.
Dr. Delano-Oriaran’s mission can be illustrated by an experience she once had while working with a white contractor. The man shared a joke with her in which compared killing deer with killing “N…” Instead of shutting down, walking away, or “defriending” the man, Dr. Delano-Oriaran chose the harder path of starting a conversation with him to understand his motivation for making such an extremely racist comment. In the process, she learned that the man, had almost no experiences with Black folks, and he claimed he didn’t have the knowledge to anticipate the potential hurt of his comment.
Dr. Delano-Oriaran teaches that only when people from various racial and cultural backgrounds come together in meaningful and authentic dialogues can they truly learn to understand each other and unite to build “safe” communities and spaces. With that understanding comes a powerful synergy and vision for a better future.
Her ultimate goal is to promote widespread inclusiveness in every classroom, community, organization and space. Her engagement work has brought her to Australia, England, Costa Rica, Ghana, Hawaii, South Africa, Peru, and New Zealand.
Dr. Delano’s background and experiences solidifies her commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion using powerful tools—Engaging individuals, people, communities, organizations to Impact the world, thus our organization’s name.