Women Igniting Change®

Season 3, Ep 03: Voices for Change: Liza Henshaw and the Global Citizen Movement

“People want to come along with you as long as they know you’ve designed an outcome that genuinely changes the world,” says Liza Henshaw, president of Global Citizen, an international organization dedicated to advocacy and education. Under the motto “actions are our currency,” 12 million citizens have committed over 33 million acts of service—ranging from reading articles to contacting legislators to committing to a week of plastic-free living. With its “Power Our Planet” campaign, Global Citizen rallied its community as well as several big-name artists like Billie Eilish and Lenny Kravitz to petition the World Bank to allow the country of Malawi a debt pause clause in the wake of Cyclone Freddy. On this episode of Women Igniting Change, Liza explains how this campaign has changed the approach to natural disaster relief going forward. She’ll also explain how Global Citizen, known for its music festivals, aims to pioneer a world class touring circuit across the continent with its Move Africa initiative. 
 
By returning to the same markets over a five-year period, Move Africa will invest in and build relationships with local markets, businesses and entrepreneurs. Creating jobs and skills, it will attract the capital needed for these businesses in order to support the touring market and the creator economy that bolster a world class tour, ultimately, driving investment in the African entertainment industry. Liza tells the story of Christian, a small business owner in Rwanda, whose business and skillset were expanded exponentially after being approached by Global Citizen to produce a show featuring hip hop artist Kendrick Lamar. 
 
This is the difference made when an organization creates sectors versus merely creating jobs, Liza explains. Join today’s discussion to learn how Global Citizen plans to continue to create systemic change on a global scale, and how you can get involved. 
 
Quotes
“Just because you don’t know it, doesn’t mean you should be afraid of it. It just means go and embrace it and it’s pretty fun. It still is.” (8:35 | Liza Henshaw)
“You’d be surprised. People want to come along with you as long as they know you’ve designed an outcome that genuinely changes the world.” (19:15 | Liza Henshaw)
“A lot of people want to talk about investment in Africa and job creation in Africa, but when you create the sector, which is what this touring business will do, it makes it a lot easier to create the jobs because now the sector and that economy can support it.” (24:48 | Liza Henshaw) 
“We don’t do any of that on-the-ground work. I don’t want a single local charity to say, ‘Oh, no. Global Citizen’s coming in and it’s going to suck the oxygen out of my…’ I need those people. We are not the traditional charity that builds the schools and the water wells. We need those groups on the ground. I want to take the Global Citizen spotlight and shine that right on what you’re doing and hope that more donations come to you from that.” (29:01 | Liza Henshaw) 
 
Links
Connect with Liza Henshaw:
Website: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glblctzn/
 
Connect with Robbin Jorgensen (She/Her):
Website: https://womenignitingchange.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-igniting-change/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbinjorgensen/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robbin.jorgensen/
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Season 3, Ep 02: Every Child Deserves Love: Danielle Gletow's Vision with One Simple Wish

“The way we do things is really about letting people know that they’re seen, heard and loved,” says Danielle Gletow, founder and executive director of One Simple Wish, which works to fulfill gift requests for those—of any age— who’ve been through the foster care system or are in crisis due to childhood trauma. For those who’ve been denied so much in life, even asking for something small is an act of bravery. In stark contrast to the many videos across social media where donors exhibit themselves giving flashy gifts to unsuspecting recipients for the sake of clicks and drama, One Simple Wish works to foster community by empowering a person in the recipient’s life to fulfill the recipient’s specific and personal request in a comfortable and private environment.
 
On today’s episode of Women Igniting Change, Danielle explains how her own experiences fostering and adopting children ignited in her a fierce desire to protect children across the world. She describes the shocking responses she’s received as a passionate advocate for children’s rights and the prejudice to which children in the foster system are subjected. These children are not just statistics, she reminds us, but humans who want what we all want—love, hope, joy, a sense of home and the freedom to just be kids. 
 
Working with more than one thousand organizations across the United States, Danielle has helped fulfill hundreds of thousands of wishes to date. She’ll tell you how you can get involved in impacting the life of a child, one simple wish at a time.
 
Quotes
“They really wanted just a few things, which is what most people want: they wanted to be back home, they wanted to feel loved, and they wanted to just be a kid. And that really struck me.” (2:52 | Danielle Gletow)
“I wanted to create something that made it easy for people to not see statistics but to see people, and then to do something for them, not to do something they wanted to do, or they thought someone needed, but to actually hear somebody saying, ‘This is what would bring me joy, this is what would make me feel seen,’ and then empowering others to give them that.” (3:51 | Danielle Gletow)
“I know people love these Instagram, Youtube, Tiktoks where somebody goes and surprises somebody with a grand gesture, and they have a camera on them and there are all these expectations of gratitude being expressed. Not that we’ve never done that but I find it kind of icky... This isn’t about you as a donor, about what you want to give someone and it’s not your experience.”  (15:35 | Danielle Gletow)
“The act of wishing itself is difficult. It’s not something that everybody feels comfortable doing, because life has not been that way for them where there is a comfort level. There’s been a lot of disappointment. There have also been a lot of people who have told them, ‘You get what you get and you don’t get upset,’ or just be glad you have anything.’ So, when individuals trust us with a really, unique, personal wish, it’s not lost on me that it was hard to even ask for that.” (26:55 | Danielle Gletow) 
 
Links
Connect with Danielle Gletow:
Website: https://www.onesimplewish.org
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/onesimplewish
Instagram: One Simple Wish
 
Connect with Robbin Jorgensen (She/Her):
Website: https://womenignitingchange.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-igniting-change/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbinjorgensen/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robbin.jorgensen/
 
 
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Season 3, Ep 01: Justice Seekers: A Conversation with Lacey Robinson on Educational Equity

“I was blown away. I’d never seen that concentration of students of color being met with high expectations,” says Lacey Robinson, of an encounter early in her teaching career.  This experience would serve as the impetus for her career-long mission: to promote equity in education for underserved and socio economically disadvantaged students, particularly students of color. As president and CEO of UnboundED, she works to enable educators to disrupt system inequities in their school districts and classrooms. In a world where people of color are the global majority, students need to be met— engaged with, supported and affirmed—where they are, and their circumstances—such as coming from a home where a second language is spoken exclusively—should be treated as learning assets rather than learning deficits. In this episode of Women Igniting Change, Lacey discusses the impact of bias in education and the most common challenges most teachers face in promoting equity in teaching and learning. 
 
Focusing on students in the margins ultimately benefits all students as well as the community at large. Lacey explains the U.S. is in a security crisis with K-12 students graduating en masse without the mathematical skills to keep up in the technology, innovation, and defense sectors. Teachers, in turn, need the kind of steady professional development and career support that is available to most other professions.
 
Join today’s discussion to learn what needs to be done at the legislative level to support the mission of UnboundED, and what role technology and digital tools will play in contributing to it. Lacey explains the real reason people are afraid of Artificial Intelligence, and why, actually it’s here to help. 
 
Quotes
“This justice thing went off in me. I cried, then I got mad, then I thought, ‘What is going on? Why can’t all students—everywhere, regardless of who they are, where they live—why aren’t all teachers being prepped to do this?’ That was the beginning of my justice seeking.” (4:30 | Lacey Robinson)
“Teachers aren’t magical beings. They don’t walk into the classroom with dust that they sprinkle around, and all of a sudden all the kids are learning how to read, write, do math and have science inquiry. Teachers need, like every profession, a high-quality professional development that supports them in their career trajectory.” (13:42 | Lacey Robinson) 
“I think it’s just absurd that we live in a moment where you have a public school educator who’s working in a school community in which there’s a variance of a global majority, there’s a variance of cultures and people and you’re actually asking them to ignore that.” (16:47 | Lacey Robinson) 
“Our goal is to reach all students. We focus on the students on the margins because if we focus on the least of them, the ones who’ve received the least amount of belief, we know we’re going to capture all of them.” (20:12 | Lacey Robinson) 
“We’re scared [of AI] because we haven’t done a sufficient enough job of evolving our authentic intelligence. Authentic intelligence wouldn’t lend itself for you to say, ‘I’m not a math person,’ or to say you’re shy about reading books, or learning about nonfiction topics that aren’t in your realm.” (31:35 | Lacey Robinson)
 
Links
Connect with Lacey Robinson:
Website: www.unbounded.org
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mslaceyrobinson/
Justice Seekers Book: https://www.unbounded.org/justice-seekers-book?hsCtaTracking=e2802317-b0a4-4d82-a5a7-99de0910d25f%7Cfdd0cff2-9c17-47c3-a06e-0c3bda27c5fe
 
Connect with Robbin Jorgensen (She/Her):
Website: https://womenignitingchange.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-igniting-change/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbinjorgensen/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robbin.jorgensen/
 
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Season 2, Ep 13: The Race Equity Architect: Nikki Lanier's Blueprint for Organizational Change

“We’ve inherited a narrative,” says today’s guest Nikki Lanier, “that Black and Brown people matter in certain contexts and White people matter almost all the time, and we don’t realize how much of that plays out subtly at work.” As Founder and CEO of Harper Slade, a strategic advisory firm dedicated to helping people of color thrive in the workplace, Nikki works to reset how humans engage with one another in the workplace by unearthing, challenging and transforming deep-seated beliefs around race. Through conversations, and using a Racial Equity Index, she diagnoses and addresses inequities within organizations. People of color are often not in close proximity to decision-makers and opportunities, are criticized publicly whereas White coworkers are criticized privately, and are made to feel responsible for others’ feelings. 
 
Nikki learned her gracious and patient approach to change from her parents, who were active in the U.S. Civil Rights movement. Her role is not to blame or even to fix, but to advise and help build a company’s overall success. She discusses the impact of racism on the economic landscape, as Black and Brown people transition into the majority population in the U.S., as well as the middle class, and why we might be potentially be looking at an economic apartheid state. 
 
The goal is not to condemn or blame anyone. Racism is a lie told to all of us and we’re all responsible for changing the way we engage with each other. Join today’s episode of Women Igniting Change to learn more about the RAARE Woman Collective, which teaches white women how to have empathetic and productive conversations which promote real and long-lasting change within families and communities. 
 
Quotes
“We’re coming into the workplace, we walk into any kind of social construct already believing something about something. But we spend so little time really unearthing and understanding that belief, and in my opinion, that’s really where the work lies.” (7:24 | Nikki Lanier)
“It’s not so much about the ‘safe,’ because I don’t know if I can ever create a safe environment. But what we do want is a courageous environment. We want you to move the work forward in spite of feeling unsafe because everything about this work is disruptive.” (8:58 | Nikki Lanier)
“Most of our employers are well-meaning, well-intended but, to be blunt, fairly myopic. We’ve been conditioned to know a singular way to think about how work is navigated and how work is experienced.” (16:15 | Nikki Lanier) 
“Now for the first time ever, in just 21 years, we will be relying on Black and Brown people to be in the middle class, represented in the middle class, well, all throughout it, so that the formulas, the thinking, the presumptions and the theories around monetary policy and fiscal policy can work.” (25:44 | Nikki Lanier) 
“What I worry about sometimes in the name of racial equity or DEI is that we reduce the work to harm swapping. ‘I’ve suffered for so long; now it’s your turn to suffer.’ Or, ’The only way I can get you to wake up is to yell at you and to cuss at you and to condemn the “who” of you.’ We’ve lost sight of the art of critical thinking, of dissecting arguments, to compartmentalize the person from the issue.” (36:02 | Nikki Lanier) 
 
Links
Connect with Nikki Lanier:
Website: https://www.harperslade.com/
Nikki’s personal website:  www.nikkilanier.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-nikki-r-6a106a8/
RAARE Woman Collective:  https://www.raarewomancollective.com/
Federal Reserve of San Francisco Report:  The Economic Gains From Equity
 
Connect with Robbin Jorgensen (She/Her):
Website: https://womenignitingchange.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-igniting-change/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbinjorgensen/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robbin.jorgensen/
 
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Season 2, Ep 12: Heart-Driven Leadership: Heather Robertson Fortner's Approach to Success

Heather Robertson Fortner epitomizes two pivotal values: congruence and authenticity. As the leader of Signature FD, she emphasizes the significance of personal growth to provide unparalleled financial guidance, aiming to impact her clients' family legacies profoundly. Recognizing the importance of unity, Heather believes in a team's collective commitment to each other and the firm's goals, even in the face of disagreement. She advocates that earning trust from clients and team members alike hinges on genuine care and mutual respect.
 
Heather's counseling background informs her approach to leadership, prioritizing personal development and support for individuals to reach their full potential. She highlights the critical role of diversity within any organization and shares her experiences as a woman in a male-dominated field, especially during a significant wealth transition to female leaders.
 
Tune into this episode of Women Igniting Change, where Heather delves into purpose-driven leadership, her innovative approach to change, and her aspirations for creating a different future for her daughters.
 
Quotes
“Coaching is different than managing; it’s different than just leading. You are in the trenches, you are with, you are along side. You are probably pushing people to a place where they’re a little bit uncomfortable because a coach’s job is to help you grow.” (3:51 | Heather Robertson Fortner)
“My philosophy has always been that as a leader you should be willing to do the same thing that you are asking other people to do.” (14:21 | Heather Robertson Fortner) 
“You want to lead well? Then you’re going to have to do it not only in this seat but it’s going to have to be congruent to the seat you hold at home.” (24:10 | Heather Robertson Fortner)
“There’s going to be this massive movement in money. And more than we have ever seen historically, women will be in decision-making positions with money.” (32:08 | Heather Robertson Fortner)
“I have no time, or space, or energy or desire to sit in a room with a bunch of people who want to maintain status quo. I’ve got too much stuff to do, too many things that I want to do and I sure don’t want it to be status quo for my girls.” (41:16 | Heather Robertson Fortner)
“I would say to leaders today, you have got to be excellent at discerning about what is noise and what is important, and you have got to be willing to not be perfect and to let go of the things that don’t matter in pursuit of the thing that does.” (44:45 | Heather Robertson Fortner) 
 
Links
Connect with Heather Robertson Fortner:
Website: https://signaturefd.com/
NetWorthwhile: https://signaturefd.com/#networthwhile
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherfortner/
 
Connect with Robbin Jorgensen (She/Her):
Website: https://womenignitingchange.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-igniting-change/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbinjorgensen/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robbin.jorgensen/
 
 
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Season 2, Ep 11: A Call for Change: A Discussion on Reproductive Rights with Pari & Eve

“Reproductive health includes so much more than just abortion, yet that’s all people think about because it’s been so politicized,” says Pari, who along with Eve, is working to combat mis-and dis-information about reproductive rights. Recognizing that the majority of Americans under 30 use social media as a legitimate new source, and that there was a lack of pro-choice presence across the platforms, the two women provide education and awareness building about reproductive rights on their social media channel @gemma_talks. This begins with clarifying the differences among reproductive rights, reproductive health and reproductive justice, respectively. It continues by reiterating that, since “the fall of Roe,” the consequences of denying women their reproductive rights are dire, and they affect everyone in ways they often don’t realize. 
 
Social accountability presents a unique set of challenges. Whereas traditional advocacy is more focused, Pari and Eve have to design their message for an audience which varies wildly in terms of education and awareness. They work to help build sexual reproductive healthcare ecosystems which include everyone from health service providers to funders to advocacy groups and social movements, all of which remain vulnerable in a shifting political landscape where funding is limited. Still, they are hopeful that through their “vigilante activism” they will reach and transform tomorrow’s change-makers and in doing so, ultimately have a lasting impact on policy. 
 
Quotes
“This is an arena where genuine change needs to be made for women to be able to truly self actualize to their full potential.” (4:57 | Pari)
“Quite frankly, women are tired. We’re tired. Advocacy work is important because it helps reignite people’s energy. It helps them remember their voice again and that they have something to fight for. When you add in the public health lens, it really highlights that nothing exists in a vacuum. Every health issue intersects with race, with income, with environment, just to name a few, and public health makes it clear that women’s issues aren’t just women’s issues. They affect everybody.” (10:05 | Eve) 
“Social accountability is so important. In regular reproductive health programming, social accountability tools are exceptionally useful for driving civic engagement, building relationships between community members and duty bearers, and facilitating the creation of action plans and generating collective responsibility.” (20:55 | Pari)
“Advocacy on social media is made additionally complicated by the fact that your audience can be absolutely anyone. Normally, advocacy’s targeted, but on social media, there isn’t a baseline for someone’s awareness of an issue, or level of engagement, or even level of investment, and, frankly, even education level. You have to design your messages in a way that speaks to a broad depth of comfort with that issue.” (23:53 | Pari) 
“One thing that people don’t think about, though, is how abortion bans make it more dangerous for women who genuinely want to get pregnant. So, some of my friends who very much want a baby are scared to get pregnant because if anything goes wrong, their life may be at risk depending on their zip code.” (26:23 | Eve)
 
Links
Connect with Pari and Eve
Instagram: @gemma_talks
TikTok: @gemma_talks
 
Connect with Robbin Jorgensen (She/Her):
Website: https://womenignitingchange.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-igniting-change/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbinjorgensen/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robbin.jorgensen/
 
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Season 2, Ep 10: Conquering Peaks and Stereotypes: Naila Kiani's Trailblazing Achievements in Mountaineering

“For me, the achievement is experiencing the journey,” says Naila Kiani, who in just a few short years has become the first Pakistani woman climber to summit ten peaks above 8,000 meters, and the only Pakistani person to ascend seven peaks above 8,000 meters in six months. In that brief span of time, she has experienced both the zenith and the nadir–witnessing great tragedy and being—almost literally—over the moon. Though she started her journey simply to fulfill a personal ambition and act as a role model to her daughters, showing them that they could do anything, she soon became an inspiration to many–particularly to women. 
 
Naila, like many women of her background, grew up feeling restricted. Like many parents, once she had children, she was expected to give up adventuring in order to provide and sacrifice for her family. Yet, as notice of her climbing grew, she began to receive more and more messages from people in Pakistan and throughout the world saying that she had inspired them to follow their own passions and to break barriers. Despite receiving her fair share of criticism from people who doubted the legitimacy of her achievements, she has kept moving forward with determination. Such a sense of mental toughness, which she says is even more important to climbing than physical toughness, was forged at an early age. 
 
On today’s episode of Women Igniting Change, Naila explains how mountaineering has fundamentally changed her approach to life. 
 
Quotes
“My friends were telling me, ‘Why are you climbing it? What if you don’t reach the top? It’s not an achievement. Why don’t you climb a 7,000 meter peak, reach the top, raise the country’s flag, that will be an achievement. I disagreed because for me, achievement was actually experiencing the journey.” (2:53 | Naila)
“Even when I started this, I was already mentally super strong, because I had a tough life, a really, really tough life growing up. I had a very difficult childhood, I had a very, very difficult university life. My early adulthood years were quite tough. I went through that, and I think I’m a strong person because of my challenging life.” (6:08 | Naila)
“I wanted to inspire my daughters. I had a very restrictive life, I’m from a very conservative family, or I was. I want my daughters to grow up with the mindset that they can do anything that they want to do. I want to be their role model.” (9:23 | Naila)
“When I first started mountaineering, climbing, it was just for me and my daughters. It was a personal reason why I was climbing. But I started getting messages from a lot of females, mostly from Pakistan, but also from outside of Pakistan, and a lot of men, too. They thought it was incredible that a married woman with two very young children, a full-time working professional, was climbing high peaks. And they were very inspired because I was not from the mountains.” (9:45 | Naila)
“Why should I give up just because of someone’s perspective or someone’s perception? So, I continued.” (14:51 | Naila)
“Before, adventure was really not associated with, not just married women but even married men. Eventually they stop doing adventurous activities after having kids, because you now have to be responsible for your family and sacrifice for your family. I love my children, but I think after seeing my journey a lot of women especially tell me they’ve started to do whatever they were always passionate about.” (16:59 | Naila)
“I could be judgmental. Not in a negative way, I would never go and tell somebody, ‘You shouldn’t do this or that, but deep down, I used to judge people. But being in the mountains, I was very close to death, I saw people dying. I think that helped me to be a non-judgmental person.” (20:22 | Naila)
 
Links
Connect with Naila Kiani:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/naila._.kiani/?hl=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nailakianik2/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nailakiani
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naila_Kiani
 
Connect with Robbin Jorgensen (She/Her):
Website: https://womenignitingchange.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-igniting-change/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbinjorgensen/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robbin.jorgensen/
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Season 2, Ep 09: The Power of Humor: Dani Klein Modisett's Journey of Impact with Laughter on Call

“Using laughter to create human connection, that’s always been my game,” says Dani Klein Modisett, founder and CEO of Laughter on Call, a company which runs interactive workshops in workplaces and caregiving communities to foster connection and relieve stress through the power of humor and laughter. 
 
The idea for this company was born when Dani’s mother, who was battling Alzheimer’s disease, was having trouble adjusting to her new surroundings in a memory care facility. Dani hired a comedian to cheer her mother up. She observed how the comedian's warm, interactive humor, which Dani terms 'affiliative humor,' not only uplifted her mother but also helped her integrate into her new surroundings.
Needless to say, building trust, and learning to be vulnerable and to make mistakes are invaluable to building strong relationships in the corporate setting. This is particularly true when many companies are international, and most people work at least partially from home. Dani explains how Laughter on Call’s in-person and remote workshops use humor to bridge communication and cultural gaps, as well as promote creativity, innovation and empathy in the workplace. 
 
Humor also helps create resilience in corporate and caregiving environments by providing the perspective that even a tough moment is not forever. In this episode, Dani shares one of her most embarrassing stories of performing and how she handled it. She also explains how 8 proven comedian’s tools support self-care and create more capable caregivers.
 
Quotes
“It lit my mother up. Even when she wasn’t with the comedian she started joining in her community and being more engaged and even singing.” (4:18 | Dani Klein Modisett)
“Letting go of the moment before is so important. As a comedian, you know if you say a joke and it bombs, you can’t go in the bathroom and cry, you have to go to your next joke. It’s the same thing in caregiving, especially in cognitive decline, every moment is different. So, you have to be able to let go of a moment so you can be available for the next moment.” (5:53 | Dani Klein Modisett)
 “Laughter is the overarching umbrella under which human connection can live.” (7:13 | Dani Klein Modisett)
“It’s about engagement. That’s always where we’re headed. That becomes the most important thing, but from there, you create the connection and create the trust. That woman knew she could trust me because I said, ‘Yes,’ to what she was saying, which is unusual in dementia care.” (9:34 | Dani Klein Modisett)
“It’s a hybrid world. A lot of companies even gave up their commercial space. So, how do you keep people engaged and connected to each other and create relationships and mentoring. That’s very, very hard. For the younger generation, it’s very, very challenging.” (15:17 | Dani Klein Modisett)
“Something we talk all the time about is making mistakes. It’s OK. That can be a launch point for a new creative idea that you wouldn’t have even ever had. So, once you establish that, in a safe space, and people are laughing, then they’re that much more likely to bring an idea forward because they’re not afraid they’re going to get mocked, or people are going to put them down for it. It’s all good.” (17:03 | Dani Klein Modisett) 
 
Links
Connect with Dani Klein Modisett:
Website: https://www.laughteroncall.com/
Resources: https://www.laughteroncall.com/resourcesFACEBOOK
LINKEDIN
INSTAGRAM
X / Twitter
TikTok
 
Connect with Robbin Jorgensen (She/Her):
Website: https://womenignitingchange.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-igniting-change/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbinjorgensen/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robbin.jorgensen/
 
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Season 2, Ep 08: Re-shaping the Future of Giving: Sara Lomelin's Quest for Inclusive and Impactful Philanthropy

“We are reclaiming it. Philanthropy is love of humanity. We all can, and should, be philanthropists.”  
 
Sara Lomelin is determined to democratize and demystify the world of philanthropy and the image of philanthropists as benevolent billionaires who save the day by bestowing their riches on those in need. As the CEO of Philanthropy Together, Sara promotes “giving circles,” whereby a group of people with shared values gather together to create change. Together, they pool not only their financial resources but also their time and their talent. 
 
Collective giving is just as beneficial to the givers as it is to the beneficiaries. They become more engaged, educated and informed. They also experience a sense of community which is a boost to both mental and physical health and needed more than ever in a society in which citizens are suffering increasingly from loneliness and isolation. It also fosters communication among a diverse group of voices in a world that is more divided than ever. 
 
Diversity is something that’s severely lacking in the philanthropic world, Sara explains, with causes related to women of color and the LGBTQIA community getting a combined total of about three percent of all charitable funds. This is only further proof that we can’t wait around for a billionaire to support the causes most important to us and to our communities. 
 
Diversity is not just relegated to gender or sexual orientation, young people are also left out of the philanthropy conversation. Sara gives listeners advice on how they can encourage their children to get involved and why it’s important. She also shares stories of some impressive young people and the changes they are already making in the world. 
 
All of us, at any age, can get involved in philanthropy, and there is no better time than now. The key is to get out of our heads and stop expecting perfection. In giving circles, we all come to the table with something to share and leave with something to learn. 
 
Quotes
“The whole idea of collective giving and of giving circles is to really change the narrative of who gets to be called a philanthropist. You don’t have to be a millionaire, a billionaire, or a 65-year-old white man to be called a philanthropist. You could be in your 20s, you could be living anywhere, and you have the power to really change your community and the reality of those around you.” (2:26 | Sara Lomelin)
“In a giving circle, because of the social aspect of it, because of the community that you build with your giving circle members, you are really being intentional. You are really learning about different causes and different organizations. There is research that people who participate in giving circles and collective giving groups are incredibly well-informed and engaged and educated.” (7:41 | Sara Lomelin)
“Collective giving is an exercise in democracy. These giving circles are min- labs of civic engagement, of dialog, of being in a space where you and I may not see eye to eye in many ways but we can still get together and rally behind a cause that is close to both our hearts.” (15:06 | Sara Lomelin) 
“It is infuriating; it should get all of us mad. And in terms of women and girls, when you think of women and girls of color, the percentage of money allotted to them is tiny, tiny. So, that is why, again, we cannot wait for a billionaire to decide that those causes are worthy of getting money. It’s why all of us need to do something about it.” (22:12 | Sara Lomelin)
“And that’s life, life is diverse, and we need diverse voices. And when we think about diversity, it’s not only about race or gender, or sexual orientation, it’s also about age. I feel that a lot of times we leave young voices outside. And this model, for those listening who have children,  is the perfect model for young people.” (29:02 | Sara Lomelin)
 
Links
Connect with Sara Lomelin:
Website: https://philanthropytogether.org/
Resources: https://philanthropytogether.org/programs-resources/resource-library/
TED Talk:  https://www.ted.com/talks/sara_lomelin_your_invitation_to_disrupt_philanthropy?language=en
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saralomelin/
 
Connect with Robbin Jorgensen (She/Her):
Website: https://womenignitingchange.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-igniting-change/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbinjorgensen/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robbin.jorgensen/
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Season 2, Ep 07: UpBrainery: Ghazal Qureshi’s Visionary Approach for Transforming Education

“I saw a huge gap in the educational system, especially at the elementary ages, and as a mom, I felt there was something I could do,” says Ghazal Qureshi, founder and CEO of UpBrainery Technologies, which, using AI and machine learning seeks to transform education by expanding its accessibility throughout the world. With an average of 30 students in a classroom, most teachers simply do not have the capacity to give each one the time and focus they need. Once they begin to look beyond the classroom and toward the workforce, resources are even more scarce. With an average of 500 students for every guidance counselor, young learners are virtually left on their own to make some of the most important decisions of their lives. With her background, Ghazal knew technology could provide what so many students were lacking–the kind of individualized curriculum and personalized attention that many require to excel academically. UpBrainery also provides unique experiential courses for career inspiration, bypassing “zip code barriers” so that students anywhere–including 13 countries outside of the U.S–can have access to information and representatives in any career that piques their interest. 
 
Ghazal’s brainchild would prove timely and prophetic, launching two weeks before the U.S. schools shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic and just as online learning became the standard. Company partners such as Whattaburger and The U.S. Department of Defense helped to bring UpBrainery’s proprietary platform, Brainlab, to at-home learners, which in turn gave UpBrainery vital feedback as to the best materials, experiments and at-home activities to provide students. Now that traditional classroom learning has resumed, Ghazal is focused on rolling UpBrainery out to more school districts, as well as U.S. military bases.
 
Ghazal’s seen firsthand the power of personalized education, and on today’s episode of Women Igniting Change, she shares the story of how her own son, after being diagnosed with ADD, excelled in math thanks to a teacher’s particular method. She gives credit to her husband for teaching her a better approach after she tried to “boil the ocean,” and gives inspiration and advice to women looking to start a business at any age. 
 
Quotes
“I think my ideas are bigger than my capacity, sometimes. And I had to learn the hard way. I literally had to learn the hard way on how to actually narrow down the niche, how to actually solve one problem and move on to the next and then continue on. It was a hard lesson that I learned, but it was definitely well worth it.” (5:38 | Ghazal Qureshi)
“Right off the bat, I jumped in and had plans to take over the world, basically. We’re women, we know we can handle it. We can raise kids, we can be successful in work and business and all of that. But I really have to give credit to my husband who is much more pragmatic, much more practical, and comes from the finance world. He had to hold me back a little bit, and teach me that I needed to be able to be successful in whatever space it was that I wanted to start with first, and then go into the next phase.” (7:35 | Ghazal Qureshi)
“You have a classroom where you have sometimes 30 plus kids. The teacher is human. A teacher can only deliver the content in one fashion, be able to personalize on some level, but not really cater to every single student. To me, the answer was a little obvious. I don’t want to sound like a Ms. Know-It-All, but I think it’s coming from my technology background, I knew that the answer lay in technology, the way to be able to personalize, to be able to really touch everybody in a way that makes sense to them, can be done through technology.” (10:13 | Ghazal Qureshi)
“You’re talking about NASA being in Houston. But why is it that a child in Seattle or Chicago should not have access to those experts or to the learning that can come from a rocket scientist or anybody else working at NASA. That’s a problem that can be solved through technology.” (13:38 | Ghazal Qureshi)
“Our mission is to really personalize–whether a child is sitting in the United States, or a child is sitting somewhere else across the world—to be able to really give them what gets them excited, and to make the love of learning, make that flame just come to light.” (22:23 | Ghazal Qureshi) 
 
Links
Connect with Ghazal Qureshi
Website: www.Upbrainery.com
Ghazal's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ghazalqureshi/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pP1Xt1Id9i1zZ5VT6YmuQ
 
Connect with Robbin Jorgensen (She/Her):
Website: https://womenignitingchange.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-igniting-change/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbinjorgensen/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robbin.jorgensen/
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm