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Highlighting the experiences of 40 women of color on the rise in the nonprofit and social enterprise sectors. Building a #CommuniTea of our experiences across generations.
Episodes
Monday May 25, 2020
Monday May 25, 2020
Irene Franco Rubio is a social justice activist and media professional committed to advocating for her Latinx community and historically oppressed populations in her hometown of Phoenix, Arizona and across the world. Growing up in the West Phoenix Valley in Arizona and recognizing the social and racial injustices present within economically distressed communities, Irene made it her mission to advocate for not only her Latinx community but for systematically oppressed populations on an all-encompassing standard. As a media professional, her passion for uplifting diverse voices has been recognized by ProPublica, the National Association of Broadcasters, BuzzFeed and Teen Vogue. Currently a student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication / Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University, Irene recently became a part of the Yale Program Public Voices Fellowship on the Climate Crisis.
Through a young, progressive, and intersectional approach, Irene fights against injustice by tackling the most pressing issues black and brown communities face in the U.S. as an advocate, content creator, intersectional thinker, and change-maker. She was able to grasp more insight on community advocacy while interning for The Office of Representative Deb Haaland as a CHCI-NAB Congressional Intern. Irene is devoted to igniting an intersectional digital movement through political and cultural dialogue where all voices are heard.
In this episode, Irene reflects on her journey towards developing her political power. Noting the systemic access points that weren't available to her in her upbringing, she is humbled in what she has been able to accomplish at such a young age. One of the key pieces of legislation that sparked her interest in organizing was the anti-immigration bill, SB-1070. This fueled her to become engaged in local organizing through the One Arizona Coalition and as of recently becoming the Digital Organizer for AzC4C. She encourages other youth of color to become civically engaged in their local communities and hone in on the power they innately possess to be change agents. It is clear that Irene is committed to ensuring her peers don't feel powerless. She intends to continue this advocacy and shift the media landscape to be representative of community voices and all-inclusive by accurately representing the beliefs, issues and perspectives of disenfranchised communities as a content creator, change-maker, intersectional thinker, advocate and media professional.
We are grateful to witness the torch of community empowerment and justice blaze brightly in the next generation as we share Forward 4O’s platform with this phenomenal WOC in the nonprofit and social enterprise sector.
Stay connected with Irene on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. Support AzC4C's work on Instagram and Facebook.
Follow Forward 40(4tea) on IG and Twitter @forward4tea. Continue to support and nominate a guest to be on the show. You can also learn more about the host Coach Faith here.
Sunday May 10, 2020
Sunday May 10, 2020
Ateira Griffin is a life-long Baltimore City resident, educator, facilitator, and community organizer. She is the founder of BOND - Building Our Nation’s Daughters, Inc. which mentors single mothers to cultivate positive mother-daughter relationships and increase their economic mobility 2 generations at a time. Ateira earned a Bachelor's in Civil Engineering from Morgan State University and a Master’s in Secondary Education along with a Certificate in School Leadership and Administration from Johns Hopkins University.
She has served as a K-12 educator and school administrator at the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women and has authored and facilitated leadership training for adults in Baltimore and across the nation. Currently, she serves on the board of Teach For America - Baltimore and the Unity Hall. Ateira was awarded the 2019 Echoing Green Fellowship in recognition of her leadership and her work with BOND. She believes a part of her life’s purpose is to disrupt all things oppressive to the black community, women of color, and single mother households. She has learned through her experience in urban education, policy, and community organizing that purpose, action, and unconditional love go a long way to create change.
Cheers to us making it to the halfway mark in style and grace with our 20th episode! Also, Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunties out there! In this episode, Ateira blesses us with her journey to social entrepreneurship in strengthening relationships between single mothers and daughters. She recalls the critical nature of BOND's co-creation process and how that intentionality is evident in their work today. Ateira also shares how their mothers and daughters have been able to utilize this time during the pandemic to be more creative in their relationship-building. The BOND community has also pivoted their engagement to address the needs of the community, with 60% of the mothers being frontline workers.
At a time where social service agencies and nonprofits are being stressed and stretched with their capacity and delivery system (specially those led by people of color), Ateira speaks to what is needed to disrupt the status quo and rebuild generational knowledge and wealth. Additionally, with an increase in the usage of "communities of color", "women of color" and people of color" in the media, programming and branding, we reflect on the importance of specificity so as not to whitewash our experiences while also working towards consensus-building. Ateira, thank you for reminding us of the importance of going to the people closest to the pain to create solutions and for modeling the fruits of when we create agency for leadership in mission critical work.
****Ateira's work with BOND was recently featured in Baltimore Magazine.
We are honoring our daughterhood and strengthening women as leaders in families and the community as we share Forward 4O’s platform with this phenomenal WOC in the nonprofit and social enterprise sector.
Stay connected with Ateira on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. Support BOND's work on Instagram, Facebook and by donating here.
Follow Forward 40(4tea) on IG and Twitter @forward4tea. Continue to support and nominate a guest to be on the show. You can also learn more about the host Coach Faith here.
Monday Apr 27, 2020
Monday Apr 27, 2020
Cyndi Mendoza is originally from Southern California, the epicentre of women's football. She is passionate about equaling the playing field for women and girls and believes in transforming data into a language that organisations can understand. She has a Masters in Programme Evaluation and an Honours in Social Development from the University of Cape Town. Cyndi leads Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) and a Sport for Good Community of Practice at Laureus and is also an Emerging Evaluator in the South African Monitoring and Evaluation Association (SAMEA).
Apart from supporting Laureus with MERL, she helps manage the Youth Empowerment through Sport (YES!) programme, which focuses on empowering youth with accredited and non-accredited training. She also supports NPOs and sports clubs build organisational development plans through capacity building and long-term planning. When she is not a Sport for Development enthusiast she loves traveling, eating delicious food and playing football.
Cheers to our first international guest! In this episode, Cyndi reflects on her love for and journey in sports development. Her path, like most, has not been linear and it is that unconventionalism that inspires us. Despite being in a male-dominated space, Cyndi has honed in on her authenticity and tapped into external networks like The Coaching Fellowship to bolster her personal and professional development. The leaps she has taken into uncharted territory, whether it was in her education, work or on the field, remind us to not let fear stifle us from delivering on our purpose. In this segment, we also learn about the landscape of sports development in South Africa, the importance of monitoring and evaluation in social impact work and how vital equitable leadership is to the sports development sector and beyond.
****References to Marta Effinger-Crichlow's documentary "Little Sallie Walker" and Brene Brown's work appear in this episode.
We are embracing new leadership pathways and advocating for equitable representation in the work as we share Forward 4O’s platform with this phenomenal WOC in the nonprofit and social enterprise sector.
Stay connected with Cyndi on LinkedIn and the latest sports for good efforts at Laureus here.
Follow Forward 40(4tea) on IG and Twitter @forward4tea. Continue to support and nominate a guest to be on the show. You can also learn more about the host Coach Faith here.
Monday Apr 20, 2020
Monday Apr 20, 2020
Chloe Lander is an entrepreneur and philanthropist from Houston, TX. Her company, One Love Travel Club, organizes group trips for its members to the world's most beautiful and sought-after travel destinations. Each experience focuses on diving into the authentic culture, engaging in "off the beaten path" excursions, and volunteering or giving back to the local community in some way.
Being of Caribbean descent, with a family that immigrated to the United States, Chloe was exposed to travel at a very young age. She realized early in life that she had a knack for travel that many of her other Black American friends did not possess, it was her second nature. Chloe's philanthropic background started at an early age as well. She was heavily involved in her local community through various church and school organizations and always spent weekends doing these extracurricular activities. By the time she learned that her true passion was entrepreneurship, it was natural to start a travel company that centered around giving back to the community.
As her business continues to grow and thrive, Chloe is committed to pursuing more ventures that focus on "Enriching People's Lives" along the way.
In this episode, Chloe shares how she transitioned from the corporate sector and turned her entrepreneurial drive into the creation of her own travel company. She charted the course of wanting to be her own boss and built a global community of cross-cultural exchange for others. She reflects on her lessons learned along the way and the need to build a solid foundation before growing and scaling one's venture. Oh and if you're thinking about capturing your operational systems, she offers a resource that has been helpful for her and the team.
We are expanding our horizons and anticipating our next adventure as we share Forward 4O’s platform with this phenomenal WOC in the nonprofit and social enterprise sector.
Stay connected with Chloe on Instagram @chloelovestravel and the latest with One Love Travel on Instagram and Facebook.
Continue to support Forward 40 on IG and Twitter @forward4tea. Be in touch to nominate a guest to be on the show. You can also learn more about the host Coach Faith here.
Monday Apr 13, 2020
Monday Apr 13, 2020
Amy Elizabeth Paulson is a mental health advocate, facilitator, writer, speaker, trauma survivor, and the co-founder and CEO of Gratitude Alliance, a global nonprofit working to democratize access to mental health and healing by building the capacity of everyday community leaders around the world to break individual, collective, and generational cycles of trauma and violence.
As an orphan and survivor of gender based violence and child sexual abuse, Amy is passionate about healing and transformation for those who have lost their mothers and those who most need to reclaim their inner mother. A former CPA, Amy left the corporate sector in 2011 to start Gratitude Alliance after reuniting with her biological family, and learning to embrace her wounds as the portal to inner wisdom, resilience, and connection to our shared humanity.
Amy holds a MS in Nonprofit Management & Global Studies (Northeastern), is certified in Trauma Informed Interventions (UC Berkeley), and will complete a certification in Global Mental Health and Refugee Trauma (Harvard Medical School) this spring.
In this episode, Amy reflects on how her "capacity to experience pain will be matched to experience joy". She shares how trauma lives in the body and speaks to the "heartwork" she underwent to heal a lineage of it in her life. In a moment where news of illness, pain, loss, death and grief are abound, Amy offers up the power of breath. She acknowledges how much of a privilege it can be to access and find reprieve in moments such as this while others are just coping to get by. Thank you Amy for encouraging us to be introspective, compassionate and grateful for the small things - giving light to what our capacity can be on the other side of healing.
We are grateful for life and our capacity to be present in this very moment as we share Forward 4O’s platform with this phenomenal WOC in the nonprofit and social enterprise sector.
Stay connected with Amber on Twitter @amyepaulie and the work of her team at Gratitude Alliance Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Continue to support Forward 40 on IG and Twitter @forward4tea. Be in touch to nominate a guest to be on the show. You can also learn more about the host Coach Faith here.
Monday Apr 06, 2020
Monday Apr 06, 2020
Amber is on a mission to leverage the energy and potential of all Latinxs to create a more equitable society. Her goal is to use storytelling to help shape a new narrative about Latinxs in California and across the country.
In her current position as Senior Program Manager at the Latino Community Foundation, Amber executes and manages the strategic vision of their core initiatives – the Latino Giving Circle Network and the Latino NonProfit Accelerator. In this role Amber supports LCF’s philanthropists and grantees to maximize and unleash their own power and power of our communities.
Amber is a graduate of UC Berkeley, where she received Bachelor’s Degrees in both Political Economy and French and minored in global poverty and practice. She carries a California spirit and Peruvian soul in her personal and professional life. These days, that translates into pursuing her dreams of writing a New York Times bestseller and visiting 30 countries by the time she turns 30.
In this episode, Amber reflects on the events that led her to shift her career focus from an international agenda to one of local community leadership. She shares what steps she took to arrive at a more formal position in philanthropy and the pivotal influence of her CEO, Jacqueline Martinez Garcel, in her leadership development. As Amber and her team disrupts traditional philanthropy for the Latinx community in California, she reminds us that our liberations are tied together. Especially at a time where inequities are being exacerbated with the COVID-19 pandemic, how can the sector further transform from a position of charity to one of equitable change? Amber is evidence of what is needed - a changing face of leadership in philanthropy and activation of community giving.
We are committed to representative leadership and redefining what a philanthropist means as we share Forward 4O’s platform with this phenomenal WOC in the nonprofit and social enterprise sector.
Stay connected with Amber on Twitter @Ambersvida and the work of her team at Latino Community Foundation Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Continue to support Forward 40 on IG and Twitter @forward4tea. Be in touch to nominate a guest to be on the show. You can also learn more about the host Coach Faith here.
Monday Mar 23, 2020
Monday Mar 23, 2020
Liz Rebecca Alarcón is a communicator and social entrepreneur. She leads Pulso, a digital organizing platform that reaches almost 1 million Latinos in the US via Facebook Messenger with the mission of increasing this community's political power. Liz comments and writes on Latin America, Latino issues and current events. She has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, Time, Buzzfeed, The Miami Herald, and the World Economic Forum blog, among others. Liz is a former Fulbright Scholar and holds a B.A. in International Studies & Sociology from the University of Miami and a Master's in Latin American Studies from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She serves on the board of the Miami-Dade County Office of New Americans and is a Global Shaper, an initiative of the World Economic Forum.
In this episode, Liz shares more about her journey of connecting her purpose with media and politics. She recalls a few pivots in her life that inspired her to leverage her core for a more expansive representation of the Latinx community. Additionally, she notes how the power of community and her immediate team have helped her to become more balanced in the work. Liz and her team are truly representative of what it means to break away from traditional media. We are grateful for her leadership, dedication and vision. As she so beautifully puts it, we are our own messengers.
We are humbled to be in this very moment of authentic and expansive representation of the Latin American diaspora as we share Forward 4O’s platform with this phenomenal WOC in the nonprofit and social enterprise sector.
Stay connected with Liz on Twitter @LizRebeAlarcon and the work of her team at Project Pulso on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Subscribe to the latest from Pulso through Facebook Messenger. You can also learn more about Liz's journey in journalism and media here.
Continue to support Forward 40 on IG and Twitter @forward4tea. Be in touch to nominate a guest to be on the show. You can also learn more about the host Coach Faith here.
Monday Mar 02, 2020
Monday Mar 02, 2020
Isabel Coronado is a citizen of the Mvskoke (Creek) Nation. Her clan is the Wind Clan, and her Tribal Town affiliation is Thlopthlocco Tribal Town. Ms. Coronado witnessed the effects of mass incarceration on Indigenous people and decided to help create the American Indian Criminal Justice Navigation Council (AICJNC). The AICJNC is a non-profit in Oklahoma aimed to reduce recidivism among tribal members and help facilitate the trauma family members endure as a result.
In 2019, Isabel stepped down as Deputy Director of AICJNC to further develop progressive policy in criminal justice reform at a think tank called Next100, as a Policy Entrepreneur in New York City. At Next100, Ms. Coronado is focused on criminal justice reform narrowing on children of incarcerated parents and decreasing the racial disparity of the mass incarceration of indigenous people.
Ms. Coronado is the 2018 Champions for Change recipient, 2019 College Student of the Year from Mvskoke Women’s Leadership, and a member of Alpha Pi Omega. Isabel received her Bachelors of Science in 2017 from Northeastern State University. As of May 2019, Ms. Coronado is a graduate of the Masters of Public Health with an emphasis on rural and underserved populations from Oklahoma State University.
In this episode, Isabel shares more about her journey to advocacy and her fight to ensure children of incarcerated parents aren't the "collateral consequence" of their parent's decisions or circumstances. Additionally, we learn more about the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women, and what policy shifts are underway to rectify this issue. Isabel stands on the shoulders of great women; her mother and grandmother have been integral pillars of light on her journey. Ms. Coronado has made such great headway as an emerging leader in this space. We are grateful for the special gift she brings to the justice reform movement and the work at large.
We reposition ourselves to speak to the lives of the too-often overlooked, forgotten and voiceless as we share Forward 4O’s platform with this phenomenal WOC in the nonprofit and social enterprise sector.
Stay connected with Isabel on Twitter @GraduateIsabel and the work of her fellow colleagues at Next100 on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Recent Articles that Isabel has published can be found here:
We Are Not Collateral Consequences: Children of Incarcerated Parents
The Resilient Children of Incarcerated Parents: Interviews
The Urban Indian Health Institute report on missing and murdered Indigenous women can be found here.
Continue to support Forward 40 on IG and Twitter @forward4tea. Be in touch to nominate a guest to be on the show. You can also learn more about the host Coach Faith here.
Wednesday Feb 19, 2020
Wednesday Feb 19, 2020
Suki Terada Ports is a well-known social justice activist and community organizer who has dedicated her life to fighting for issues of school integration and community empowerment to ensure that public spaces were protected from institutional expansion to quality health care access. A child of parents directly affected by U.S. policies against Japanese Americans during World War II, Suki grounded her early activism on behalf of those that were not treated fairly.
Suki attended Smith College (Class of 1956) and studied Education. The field of Education helped shape her unrelenting fight for all children and people, especially those on the margins. She is Co-founder of Iris House and of Apicha—two innovative HIV/AIDS healthcare programs dedicated to providing quality care to underserved communities. She has held leadership positions in the National Minority AIDS Coalition and in New York’s Japanese American Association. Throughout her career Suki worked for national and local change, testifying before White House commissions and serving as a member of the local board of the New York City Board of Education. Some of her leadership positions include:
- Editor of Health Power Asian-Pacific Islander Channel
- Co-Founder and Executive Director, Minority Task Force on AIDS
- Co-Founder and Steering Committee member of the National Minority AIDS Council, East Coast Asian and Pacific Islander Network, and Voices of Women of Color Against HIV/AIDS.
- Chair of the Sakura Festival, Queens NYC
- One of the “founding mothers” New York Women’s Foundation and member of NYWF Circle of Sisters
I had the pleasure of meeting Suki at the 2018 Smith College Women of Color Conference “Persistence, Possibilities and the Power of Our Voices” where I facilitated a workshop on social responsibility. Her presence as the elder in the room was a true gift. It was an honor to proverbially sit at her feet and hear the adages of her life and more importantly lend the power of her experience to our collective voices in this work. She is wisdom personified. I have the pleasure of awarding her with the 2020 Smith College Medal this year.
While you may not find her on social media, you can delve deeper into her history and accolades here:
Suki's tea affirmation starts off with some tea drinking tips lol and we close with life is warm and enjoyable. #SipOnThis
Note: There is a mention of a sexual assault incident of a child that fueled Suki's activism and protest in Morningside Park @55:00. Selah and find support.
Monday Jan 27, 2020
Monday Jan 27, 2020
Syrita Steib co-founded Operation Restoration (OR) in 2016 and serves as the Executive Director. OR was started to eradicate the roadblocks she faced when returning to society after incarceration. The organization specializes in creating opportunities for formerly incarcerated women through college courses, a women first clinic, clothing supply closet, case management services, advocacy programs and more.
At the age of 19, Syrita was sentenced to 120 months in federal prison. After serving nearly 10 years in prison, she was released into a community vastly different than the one she left. Other formerly incarcerated women helped her to re-adjust to the world she left behind.
Despite her academic accomplishments while incarcerated, Syrita was initially denied entrance at the University of New Orleans due to the criminal history question on her admissions application. Two years later, she reapplied, unchecked that box and was subsequently granted admission. Syrita went on to earn her B.S. from Louisiana State University’s Health Sciences Center in New Orleans and is a nationally certified and licensed Clinical Laboratory Scientist.
In 2017, Syrita wrote and successfully passed Louisiana Act 276 which prohibits public post-secondary institutions in Louisiana from asking questions relating to criminal history for purposes of admissions, making Louisiana the first state to pass this type of legislation. In 2018, she was a co-chair for the healthy families committee for New Orleans Mayor Cantrell’s transition team. She was also a panelist on the Empowerment stage at Essence Festival in 2018 and 2019. She serves as a policy consultant for Cut50’s Dignity for Incarcerated Women campaign and worked tirelessly on the passage of the First Step Act. Ms. Steib was appointed by Governor John Bel Edwards to the Louisiana Justice Reinvestment oversight council and is the Vice-Chair of the Louisiana Task Force on Women’s Incarceration. Most recently she was nominated to be one of LISC's 2020 Rubinger Fellows.
In this episode, Syrita reflects on her personal and professional journey to restoration. She shares how she has been able to show up authentically in her advocacy to dismantle systems of oppression. We are ignited by her passion, unrelenting determination and wisdom. Ms. Steib is truly a sojourner of our generation; join her in the movement.
We stand in solidarity to break chains of oppression for all women and the communities they lead, as we share Forward 4O’s platform with this phenomenal WOC in the nonprofit and social enterprise sector.
Stay connected with Syrita on Twitter @syritasteib and the work of Operation Restoration@TheOR_NOLA
Continue to support Forward 40 on IG and Twitter @forward4tea. Be in touch to nominate a guest to be on the show. You can also learn more about the host Coach Faith here.