Community + Texting = A College Degree

Wrapping up the series, Pivot Through the Pandemic, Deb engages in another enlightening conversation with Dr. Julie Riess, a long-time friend and Co-Founder of Day One Early Learning Community. The new organization focuses on raising the standard of training for preschool teachers to improve the early learning experience, increase professional salary levels appropriately, and provide a curriculum for preschoolers that involves playful learning. Dr. Riess's passion for education shines through as she reveals the challenges of running the inaugural program year in the midst of a pandemic as well as shares her vision to continue investing in the next generation of learners.

In this special episode, Deb sits down in-person with Yolanda Maness, an alum and now Associate Clinical Director of Mending Hearts, a Nashville-based social impact organization that has helped over 4,000 women over the past 18 years move from detox to independent living in a continuum care program bringing hope and healing to women recovering from addiction. Join Deb as she listens to Yolanda openly share about her addiction recovery story as well as shed light on their upcoming national awareness day: Women Touched By Addiction July 23. #WTDA celebrates all the women touched by this disease: those in recovery or their Mom addict, a sister, their wife, you get the idea. Yolanda invites everyone to join in and help Mending Hearts celebrate all of these courageous women.

Deb engages in an eye-opening conversation with David Bunch, retiring President and CEO of FedChoice Federal Credit Union, about how his leadership responsibilities shifted in response to the pandemic. David describes how the core values of the credit union supplied the roadmap for meeting the needs of his employees and their multigenerational constituent membership. He shares how "care and communication" served as the watchwords for the pandemic pivots made to attend to his clients and his team. David also talks about how the post COVID structural changes now present in the financial world will affect access to equitable practices especially with the expanding use of digital banking.

Deb speaks with Scott Campbell, Co-Founder of Persist Nashville, to learn how his organization served even more students during the pandemic. Scott's unflappable dedication to his work and the design of mission delivery to support Nashville's high school put Persist Nashville at the front of the class pivoting through the pandemic.

As part of The Macfarlan Group's new series, Pivot Through the Pandemic, Deb is joined by Damon Johnson, Director of Community Relations at Oakland, California's Oakstop Alliance, to discuss how they successfully pivoted from a location-based business plan to an organization with a brand new resource portfolio delivering culturally competent business expertise, funding, and technical support to local businesses in need of guidance through the new post-pandemic economic paradigm.

Deb and Paula Madison, media mogul (including NBC worldwide corporate executive) enjoy an inspired conversation about creating "belonging" on your terms, eradicating notions of diversity and inclusion for fair representation, and ending the expectation of forgiveness to move forward: in Paula's words. "Just make it right. And that, in itself, demands so much from all of us."

Joshua Mundy, Co-Founder of Pivot Technology School in Nashville, joins Deb to talk about how the technology industry offers one of the most equitable career options for people of color. He cautions that once hired, these employees can feel marginalized causing attrition and stunted career growth. Mundy challenges the tech industry to change their thinking about hiring people of color from the act of hiring to the act of creating a workplace where everyone can bring their best selves to work and thrive.

Deb shares an extraordinary conversation with Reverend Stephen Handy, lead pastor at Nashville's McKendree United Methodist Church, who walks her through the danger of doing this work and finding comfort. According to Handy, "Comfort is seductive." He cautions Deb it's more than a conversation, more than good intent that will build bridges to change. Deb admits to feeling indicted, but enlightened as Reverend Handy offers ways to become true deconstructors of systemic racism or in his words, abolitionists.

Deb journeys with Dr. Devin DeLaughter through a poignant portrayal of his life growing up black in the South, becoming a ward of the state, earning a Ph.D., becoming an education leader, and now leaning in on the community to achieve peace.

Deb continues her journey to becoming an anti-racist as she talks with DEI expert jane rosenzweig who spent 15 years at a Fortune 100 firm as the Global Diversity Leader. In this episode, jane calls on Deb and other white people, especially in the corporate world, to examine the context in which their whiteness exists to fully answer the question, why do black lives have to matter for things to change? And is my business or organization contributing to the resistance of the BLM movement to safeguard the supremacist system of exclusion that keeps economic and career opportunities from people of color?