Women Igniting Change®

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

Season 2, Ep 06: Championing Food System Transformation: Ambassador Ertharin Cousin's Quest for a Hunger-Free World

“One in eight people or over 41 million Americans lack consistent and reliable access to nutritious and affordable food. One in four people in a food line is a child,” explains Ambassador Ertharin Cousin, CEO and Founder of Food Systems for the Future, who is on a mission to end hunger and malnutrition and to promote food security both in the U.S. and around the world. Ensuring that all people have consistent access to affordable and nutritious food requires the complementary aspects of advocacy, awareness and capital. Food Systems for the Future achieves its investment impact by taking a 360-degree, wraparound approach, addressing the needs of everyone on the food value chain from the consumer, whose demand for supply is crucial, to the farmer, more and more of whom are being pushed off of the land because they can’t afford to farm.
 
Despite the many environmental issues–particularly greenhouse gases—linked to food production, it is still barely mentioned in the ongoing conversation on climate change until very recently, and only receives 4% of the funding allotted to combat climate issues. Ambassador Cousin discusses her work to support the poultry value chain in Rwanda–where 30 percent of children are chronically malnourished—by working to create a system which is the first of its kind in the Global South. By providing an alternative feed source to the poultry, not only will this system make eggs more affordable but lessen environmental impact, lower production costs and upcycle food waste, creating a fully circular, sustainable, and affordable alternative to traditional methods. It is an example of global investment and tailored local needs, addressing the macro as well as the micro implications. 
 
Having grown up in a family of community-minded changemakers, Ambassador Cousin recognizes the power of citizen involvement to create impact. She explains how businesses and individuals can get involved to help promote food systems transformation, which, contrary to popular belief affects both urban and rural communities.
Quotes:
“We need to recognize that as we work with affected people, we must build awareness of the need for consumption of more diverse nutritious diets, as well as providing the access to the financial resources and the foods for changing those diets.” (9:36 | Ambassador Cousin)
“Communication, credibility, honesty and integrity, and emotional intelligence—everybody is different and the willingness to understand and accept everyone, that everyone brings different perspectives, requires listening and consideration. It is the only way you can lead. If you can do those things, that’s the start of a really good leader.” (13:53 | Ambassador Cousin)
“There are a lot of people out here doing advocacy but the challenge is the change is not occurring just because we’re saying the right things. Unless we can move the capital that is necessary to actually scale the change that is required, it’s just talking.” (18:29 | Ambassador Cousin)
“Too often when we talk about those who lack access to affordable and nutritious food, we talk about urban communities. Yes, there is a problem in urban communities; there is also a problem in rural America. We are seeing main streets close all across rural America. Those same populations–those with limited incomes, lack of access to transportation, the infirm, the elderly, are affected whether they live in rural Iowa or in the urban center of Chicago.” (31:29 | Ambassador Cousin)
“Citizen involvement and engagement  is what helps make this country great.” (50:24 | Ambassador Cousin)
 
Links
Connect with Ambassador Ertharin Cousin:
Website: https://www.fsfinstitute.net/
Ambassador Cousin's Bio: https://www.fsfinstitute.net/ertharin
FSF LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/food-systems-for-the-future/
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 05: NextGen Female Politicians: Susannah Wellford’s Mission to Create Political Equity

“I think a lot of people feel really alone,” says Susannah Wellford, Founder and CEO of Running Start. They have dreams but they have no idea how they can make those dreams happen, so you need to create these groups of people in their corner to support them.” For young women with dreams of running for office and making political impact, Running Start provides the skills and preparation to do so by helping them find their passion, cultivate their sense of leadership and learn to communicate in a way that will inspire change.
 
Around the world, despite cultural differences and varied lived experiences, women’s desires and challenges remain universal. They have ideas and passions but may not have the platform or the belief that anyone will hear them. With programs in thirty countries across the globe, Running Start teaches participants not only to make their voices heard but to actively listen to those with whom they disagree. 
 
As the U.S. becomes increasingly polarized, and with women’s rights on the line, representation, parity, and women’s voices matter more than ever. In today’s discussion, Susannah and Robbin discuss the need for civil discourse among diverse voices, how female leaders behave differently than their male counterparts and the importance of getting young people engaged in politics. 
 
Quotes
“Wherever I go, whenever I’m speaking to women, the problems are the same. The obstacles are the same. It’s just so fascinating to me. And, of course, it’s true, some of those external factors that keep women out of leadership are very different around the world, but the internal hesitancy toward leadership, or that feeling of, ‘I don’t know if I’m right for this’--because nobody’s ever told them that they’re right for this, they don’t have a lot of role models–you see that all around the world.” (6:15 | Susannah) 
“You sometimes need other people to believe in you before you figure out how to believe in yourself. And if you think about the things that create a successful life, resiliency is absolutely one of them, and that’s the path to resiliency. Sometimes you need somebody to say, ‘Robbin, I think you’re really good at this and I think you should do this thing.’ And once you feel solid in your sense of self, you’re sort of unstoppable.” (14:44 | Susannah)
"If we close ourselves off and say I know what I know and I don't want to hear what anybody else knows, you never get smarter, you miss so many things and that leads to all of the walls that we build not just in politics but in society in general." (25:05 | Susannah) 
“If there aren’t women who can be catalyzed by even enormous seismic shifts affecting women’s rights, we need to start earlier getting young women to see that politics is a place for them.” (28:08 | Susannah)
 
Links
Connect with Susannah Wellford:
Website: https://www.runningstart.org/
About Susannah: https://www.runningstart.org/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susannah-wellford-405110/
 
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 04: Unlocking the Power of Business for a Better World: Masami Sato and B1G1's Impact

“When we are doing something that benefits all, rather than benefits just ourselves,” explains today’s guest Masami Soto, founder and CEO of B1G1,”it unlocks an amazing experience and sense of connection.” B1G1 is a global business giving initiative that allows businesses to provide “giving impacts” to deserving people throughout the world. At the same time, it helps businesses foster a culture that redefines how they think of giving, as a series of small daily acts.  Since its founding 16 years ago, B1G1 is responsible for 335 million giving impacts worldwide. 
 
As a young woman, Masami experienced profound generosity and grace from strangers—often those who had the least–who looked out for her as she backpacked across the world. After giving birth to her daughter she realized she wanted to ensure that all children had the same access and opportunities. She soon realized that most businesses are eager to find creative solutions that will make the world better for others. B1G1 helps create a synergy between its network of businesses great and small, so that they can work together to elevate a mission greater than themselves. 
 
The act of giving is, Masami explains, actually a gift we give to ourselves. In this episode she explains how B1G1’s mission has evolved since its inception, what individuals can do to create impact in their own lives, and the many ways companies can do business for good. 
 
Quotes
“I couldn’t make sense of why everybody was working so hard to try to get more, but at the same time our purpose, our endeavor, of getting more didn’t lead to a sense of fulfillment. At the same time, sometimes there were people who had so little but they seemed to be happy and smiling and generous and giving.” (5:09 | Masami)
"The only way we can really transform our future and ensure every child has access to wonderful opportunities in the future is for all of us to take action." (15:27 | Masami) 
“If we really think about kindness as doing things for others, it feels like losing something. Giving away means losing something, whether it’s money or time or effort, then it feels like an extra chore. But if we saw that kindness and caring as something that adds to ourselves, it’s a gain.” (18:13 | Masami) 
“When everyone comes together to try to do something, that’s bigger than themselves, not just about them but about people they might never meet, about the involvement in ensuring a sustainable future for the next generation.” (22:59 | Masami)
“There is that sense of “doing together.” My company is small but these impacts are impacts I create, but I’m doing this together with many other businesses, which means collectively we can create a much greater impact. We no longer need to be disempowered by being small.” (24:00 | Masami)
 
Links
Connect with Masami Sato:
Website: https://b1g1.com/
Masami's Bio: https://www.dropbox.com/s/57nyv7io2gd60jn/Masami%20Sato%20Profile.pdf?dl=0
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/masamisato/
 
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 03: Driving Transformation: Cheryl Thompson’s Journey to Change the Face of Power and Influence in Automotive

“This is an investment in your people,” explains Cheryl Thompson, Founder and CEO of the Center for Automotive Diversity Inclusion and Advancement (CADIA), which works to address the systemic disparities around diversity and inclusion in the automotive industry. Cheryl gained her first insights into how true leaders operated while serving as wait staff at Ford World Headquarters. After rising in the ranks at the company to a position of global leadership, she realized how many talented people were overlooked and underestimated due to lack of inclusive practices within the automotive industry. Through her organization, CADIA, she is working to double the number of diverse leaders within the automotive industry by 2030, and as a member of the CEO Coalition for Change, she works with fellow leaders to bring similar change across a variety of industries.
 
Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) practices not only benefit the employee, their families and their communities, but employers as well, by accelerating company as well as industry progress. As the population changes and a new generation of workers demand new standards and practices, leaders can’t afford not to infuse an equitable and diverse mindsets into everything from recruitment practices to performance evaluations. 
 
DEI is an ongoing practice and the work is never over. Join today’s discussion to learn about the challenges the automotive industry still faces, the progress that has already been made, and the many invisible aspects of diversity in the workplace that often get overlooked. 
 
Quotes
“When I got to that table, I sat around and thought, ‘Wow. I thought y’all had it all figured out.’ And that was my big ‘aha!’ that I had been underestimated, I had been underestimating myself. That’s when I really started to have more awareness about how things work, and how some people are just overlooked and they just have so much more to contribute.” (4:12 | Cheryl Thompson)
“This is an investment in your people, giving them time to participate in something like this is going to help your productivity through communication and being more effective and efficient, with fewer quality mistakes, and that psychological safety to call out when something isn’t OK.” (24:32 | Cheryl Thompson)
“I’d like to see even more progress in terms of representation overall, and have that carry through to the very senior levels of C-Suite. I’d like to see the same with racial and ethnic minorities, representation increased there. And I’d like to see companies have cultures that are a lot more psychologically safe so that people can self-identify.” (25:22 | Cheryl Thompson)
“A lot of the companies see the demographics changing and this next generation coming into the workplace– boy oh boy, they are not putting up with the stuff you and I tolerated. Leaders want to know how we attract and retain talent and they’re starting to realize if we aren’t more inclusive with our recruiting, we’re going to miss out on 61% of the workforce.” (27:26 | Cheryl Thompson)
 
Links
Connect with Cheryl Thompson:
Website: https://www.cadia.org/
About Cheryl: https://www.cadia.org/team-members/cheryl-thompson/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cheryl-thompson/
 
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 02: Parenting with Impact: Elaine Taylor-Klaus and the Power of Neurodiversity Inclusive Coaching

“Everybody’s brain is different,” says Elaine Taylor-Klaus, co-founder of Impact Parents and author of “The Essential Guide to Raising Complex Kids,” “And different is not bad.” As a young mother of neurodivergent–or as she likes to call them “neuro-spicy”- kids, she realized there was very little support for parents in a similar situation. This led to co-founding Impact ADHD, which, like Impact Parents, provides neurodiversity inclusive coaching. There, parents learn to meet kids where they are in any challenge, set the expectations from there, and allow kids to meet their potential. Parents “should” on their children too much, thinking they should be able to handle the challenge on their own. Connecting to others with similar experiences reminds parents that they’re not alone.
 
Elaine’s “coach approach” is effective not only for kids with ADHD, but for a generation facing a slew of unprecedented challenges. Not only have they just come through a global pandemic but they are being bombarded with more information–more quickly–than ever before. What’s more, they are attached to devices that are designed to be dopamine stimulators.  
 
Many educators, doctors, and even high-profile psychiatrists are still woefully ill-informed about neurodiversity in young people. Too many people wait too long to seek help for fear of embarrassment, or hoping the issue will go away. On today’s episode of Women Igniting Change, Elaine will break down many lingering myths about neurodiversity, provide incredible resources for our listeners and what parents can do to advocate for themselves and their communities. 
 
Quotes
“The modality, this approach is every bit as useful for any child, because it’s really about meeting them where they are and helping them play to their strengths and empowering them to take control of their lives. Really, we’re not raising children, we’re onboarding adults.” (6:59 | Elaine) 
“Parents have the sense that ‘I should know how to do it because parents have been parenting for eons.’ But parents haven’t been parenting in this environment, in this world, with these expectations, with these stresses and pressures and we need help.” (9:47 | Elaine Taylor-Klaus)
“Our kids are getting bombarded with more information in an hour than many of us got in a month or in our lives growing up. The way that people are exposed to information has changed.” ( 11:42 | Elaine Taylor-Klaus) 
“Expectations are “shoulds.” What we really want to do is enroll our kids in setting their own expectations for themselves rather than ‘shoulding’ all over them.” (17:40 | Elaine Taylor Klaus)
“I’m a huge advocate for finding community. I think there’s probably nothing more important that a parent can do.” (22:18| Elaine Taylor-Klaus)
Links
Connect with Elaine Taylor-Klaus:
Website: https://impactparents.com/
Resources: https://impactparents.com/resources/
Free Gift:  https://impactparents.com/ignitingchange
About: https://impactparents.com/about-impactparents-our-story/about-impactparents-elaine/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elainetaylorklaus
Book: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Elaine-Taylor-Klaus/author/B00AAQ9RN0?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
 
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 01: Her Words, Her Legacy: Dana Rubin on the Forgotten Voices that Shaped a Nation

“Why are we quoting Winston Churchill all the time?” While judging an annual speech contest, Dana Rubin, an award-winning journalist, speech writer and speech coach, noticed that writers were continuously citing speeches from the same handful of famous men. Similarly, speech anthologies barely featured women in their pages, and so she set about seeking out and compiling speeches by women–many of whom had been largely ignored by history. Eventually, she launched the online speech bank,` Speaking While Female. This portal, and the book of the same name, focus on expanding diverse voices and viewpoints in the public discourse. 
 
Despite being vastly underrepresented, there was a wealth of female voices from which Dana chose. Women, particularly indigenous women, were leaders in all sectors of their communities. They spoke out regularly on major political, social and religious issues. Men and women are largely similar in the way they communicate, Dana explains, they are just often relegated to the less visible (and audible) domestic sectors, or aren’t raised with the message that women’s voices matter. 
 
This is changing, however, as more and more women start to speak up. Dana offers women–including young women–tips on how they can begin to make their voices heard across their communities and beyond. 
 
Quotes
“I collected 230 speech anthologies. This is from the United States, Canada, Ireland, South Africa, the Philippines, of course, the United Kingdom, anywhere and everywhere English was spoken and they published speech anthologies. I just started when going through the table of contents with a pencil and counting how many speeches by men and how many by women. And the more I saw, the angrier I got, and the angrier I got, the busier I got.” (5:46 | Dana) 
“It is eye-opening. I put them in categories, thematic categories, and you can, starting from the top, look at the category of anti-slavery, and see how many women spoke out about slavery all over the world. And you go down from there: health and medicine, religion and belief, temperance, all kinds of categories.” (7:07 | Dana)
“It's a message that we all imbibe, as we grow up, that it's men's voices that are important, and valued and women's voices are secondary or expendable. We grow up and then we become adults, and we’re reluctant to speak out. We don't think that we have the expertise to share even though we may have a PhD or have written five books, women still don't want to speak in public. We don't stand up nearly in the same proportion as men.” (8:44 | Dana) 
“A good speech, a powerful speech takes the audience from one place to another. You begin in one place and you take them to another and by the end, you have asked that audience or compelled, inspired, that audience influenced that audience, to do something different, whether it's vote for legislation–‘Vote for me as a candidate!’–Get behind a cause, donate to a cause, even think about it, even if it's a sermon.” (14:26 | Dana)
“We've seen this movement towards inclusivity, in including more voices, because we recognize that everybody's voice counts, matters, and has an important role to play.” (18:27 | Dana) 
“Start small. Speak in your communities, speak in your house of worship, go to toastmasters speak at a rotary club meeting. Just get out there and speak. Because it is a fact undeniable that the more you speak, the better you get.” (21:52 | Dana)
Links
Connect with Dana Rubin:
Website: https://speakingwhilefemale.co/
Website: www.danarubin.com
Dana’s Bio:  https://speakingwhilefemale.co/speaking-while-female/
Book: https://speakingwhilefemale.co/book/
 
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

EP 12: New Year, Bigger Impact: A Framework for Creating Meaningful Change

As 2024 quickly approaches, you’re probably thinking about your New Year’s Resolutions. But while you’re focused on your own personal goals, Robbin wants to help you think bigger–with The Bigger Game! This 9-square grid is a framework which will allow you to create the social change you want to see in the world. On today’s episode, Robbin will guide you–after all, no one creates change by themselves–through action markers such as “the hunger square,” which is the deep yearning you have inside yourself to make change in the world, your “compelling purpose,” or your “why,” as well as your “gulp square,” which is the part of the process which should inspire what Robbin calls “gleeful terror.”
 
A major part of taking on this framework is to accept that you won’t know what you’re doing at first. Too often, women especially, stop before they start if they feel like they are not in control of every step of the process. This game is not business as usual, and that’s kind of the point. Follow the steps Robbin has laid out for you and watch change unfold more quickly than you can imagine. 
 
Not everyone will be your cheerleader as you continue along this journey, but as Robbin explains, even naysayers will provide you with value. Take bold action–join today’s episode of Women Igniting Change and take the first step toward becoming the leader and social changemaker that you want to be!
 
Quotes
“You have a deep desire to create meaningful change. It's so much bigger than you, that you know you're meant to put out there.” (5:46 | Robbin) 
“When we were all little girls, if you equate a dial on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 is low 10 is off the charts, when we were little, our hunger dial literally was 11. We knew we could be anything we wanted to be, do anything we wanted to do. But here's what happens: As we become grown adults, we tend to take that hunger dial, and we turn it down to a dull simmer, and that's how we live our lives.” (6:00 | Robbin) 
“Give yourself permission to dream and imagine that deep desire for social change that you want to put out there.” (7:00 | Robbin)
“Allies can be your biggest champions, your biggest cheerleaders, they’ve got your back in this bigger game that you want to put out into the world. Those are your cheerleaders. Allies can also be people that say to you that is the dumbest idea I've ever heard, you can't possibly do that, what are you thinking? Those are allies, too.” (11:01 | Robbin)
“Especially as women, what we tend to do, if we take a step forward, and it goes a little sideways, we're automatically beating ourselves up that we did something wrong, or we should have done something different.” (13:02 | Robbin)
Links
Connect with Robbin Jorgensen (She/Her):
Bigger Game Board: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ugo8-rYhN4CjoANWShujtRyOB9UxIXPs/view
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

EP 11: Beyond Black and White: The Women Behind ’Dissonance’

“There are actually more people that want to be unified, that want to figure out how to hear and see each other, than not.” 
 
In the immediate aftermath of the death of George Floyd, when the US was in a state of social unrest, friends and fellow theater artists Marci Duncan and Kerry Sandell decided to have a conversation about race and what it is like, as a Black and a white woman, respectively, to raise young men in this climate. Marci came to realize the power dynamic at play in previous conversations and relationships with white women, while Kerry realized that her white son had freedoms and protections that she had until then taken for granted. These courageous conversations–which were uncomfortable and messy as well as revelatory and grounded in love–became the basis of their debut play “Dissonance.” 
 
“Dissonance,” they explain, is not a prescriptive or preachy exercise in “How to Have a Conversation About Race,” and no one is there to “win.” As the play has traveled across the country, audiences consistently report that the play makes them feel seen, validated, humbled as well as challenged. For the two women, the play has confirmed that despite all the messaging suggesting a country at war with itself, the vast majority of people want unity. 
 
For Marci, the play was physically cathartic and she shares her body’s unexpected reaction to confronting truths in front of an audience. Both on stage and in life, this is a story of race and friendship and what happens when we seek to truly understand each other. 
 
Quotes
“I've never had such an in-depth conversation about some of these things with a white person. And throughout the process, I had learned that there were some trust issues there between myself and white women because the situations or relationships that I had been in previously, it always felt like a power dynamic existed in the relationship.” (15:12 | Marci Duncan)
“One of the things that this play continues to do is to show us that there are so many more people who want unity than there are people who don't. It has debunked that myth and that belief system that we are so divided beyond repair. That is not true.” (19:47 | Marci Duncan)
“‘Dissonance,’ we always say, is not prescriptive. This is not  ‘Six Steps on How to Have a Racial Conversation.’ But it does model what's necessary in these difficult conversations– the friendship, the intimacy, the vulnerability, the humility–that need to take place.” (22:01 | Kerry Sandell)
Links
Connect with Marci Duncan and Kerry Sandell:
https://dissonanceplay.com/
https://dissonanceplay.com/team
 
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

EP 10: The Power of Giving: Jenny Malseed’s Path to Making a Difference

Joining today’s conversation is Jenny Malseed, VP of Strategy and Talent at GlobalGiving, a United States-based nonprofit organization which provides funding for grassroots charitable projects across the globe. As Jenny puts it GlobalGiving was “crowdfunding since before crowdfunding was a thing.” International aid and nonprofits, she explains, can be very paternalistic and inequitable, telling those in need what’s best and, through their practices, attracting only nonprofits from developed countries with English as a first language. GlobalGiving’s Pathways Program focuses on making the platform accessible to those who could benefit most and mapping out journeys which ensure that the organization is solving problems that really need to be solved and not just those that are easiest. Central to GlobalGiving’s mission is community-led change, putting resources and power in the hands of the people closest to the problem, so that communities can drive their own progress. 
 
Equity and community are just as much a part of the organization’s internal mission. A company is only enriched and strengthened by its diversity of backgrounds, skillsets and experiences, and part of Jenny’s work is to oversee the company’s Race Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Initiative. REDI is committed to ensuring that every voice contributes to shaping the company. Jenny highlights how transparency, including the acknowledgment of mistakes, has been instrumental in aligning GlobalGiving closer to its mission. Moreover, fostering a culture of humility and kindness has leveled the playing field between employees and executives. This approach has cultivated a unique culture of recognition within the company, which notably includes a taco-based reward system.
 
A company’s greatest asset is its employees. On today’s episode of Women Igniting Change Jenny shares how her time spent in the Peace Corps shaped her leadership skills and values and how to ensure even the most difficult conversations are productive.
 
Quotes
“There is so much richness in different perspectives, and every individual brings unique skills, expertise to all the problems in the world or anything that we're trying to do.” (4:38 | Jenny)
“It can be very tempting to start focusing externally and say, ‘We need to go do programs, we need to support racial justice,’ which we do, absolutely. But if we don't work on ourselves, that lacks authenticity.” (5:32 | Jenny)
“It sounds like a cliche, but how true is it that your employees are your greatest asset, and particularly in a social service organization or nonprofit? Our employees are what we have. That's it. That's the entire value that we deliver.” (7:10 | Jenny)
 “There are so many terrible things happening in the world all the time and yet I know I’ve got my people working and helping to make it a little bit better.” (15:07 | Jenny)
“When we talk about community led change, just to be clear, as I said, we're talking about communities being the ones that are driving change. And in particular what that means is that we need to put resources and decision-making and even power in the hands of those who are closest to the problems.” (19:47 | Jenny)
 
Links
Connect with Jenny Malseed:
Website: https://www.globalgiving.org/
Jenny's Bio
 
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