The Equity Lab’s Seeding Disruption Fellowship is a cohort-based program designed for senior leaders in the District of Columbia who work in PK-12 education and related fields. The Fellowship aims to provide individuals with the knowledge and skills needed to build diverse, cross-sector coalitions committed to disrupting the inequitable systems that hold in place racial disparities. In just its ninth year, the Fellowship has grown to an active leadership development network representing more than 200 alumni today.

The Seeding Disruption Fellowship: How One Organization Builds Cross-Sector Relationships in Pursuit of Racial Equity describes five lessons from the Fellowship’s approach to addressing racial disparities in the District of Columbia:

• Systems-level disruption must be grounded in history and place 
• Breaking down cross-sector silos is essential for systems-level disruption 
• Systems-level disruption is rooted in strong, trusting relationships 
• Building a cross-sector coalition of system disruptors takes time 
• Small wins are the catalyst for big disruptions 

The Equity Lab’s unique approach to fostering intentional disruption in the District of Columbia through the Fellowship offers a promising model that can be adapted and replicated in other cities.