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Three days ago, Major League Soccer became the first American sport back in action. But before the first game was played, more than 100 black players took the field in a forceful demonstration of solidarity and protest against racial injustice. One of those players was Dax's nephew, FC Cincinnati star, Joseph-Claude Gyau. “Our goal is to create equity, not just equality, but equity for the black athletes, black people across the country, worldwide if it reaches that far. We want to see more black leadership in the league…more coaches, more GMs, you know, more people on staff [more] negotiating power for players…more money being allocated to these nonprofits.” In this episode, Dax talks with his nephew about being a black athlete in this time of change

LaShawn Routé Chatmon is the founding Executive Director of the National Equity Project. Under her leadership, the National Equity Project has catalyzed a movement to revitalize our country’s approach to racial equity in education. LaShawn previously served as a coach and director of BayCES’ high school redesign initiative, where her team pioneered new school design processes, principal network development and site coaching that transformed educational experiences and outcomes for teachers and students in Oakland, CA. I’ve followed LaShawn’s work for years but especially since I deepened my own equity work. NEP is one of the most inspiring, forwarding thinking and courageous organizations I’ve encountered in the equity space. In this episode, LaShawn explains and explores the concept of Rebel Leadership, which she first wrote about back in April yet feels, somehow, even more relevant in June. In brief, LaShawn describes it as the kind of leadership “where your palms are sweaty, your ears hot, and your voice quivers. The kind of leadership where you have the courage to say out loud, “I don’t really know how we go forward, but I know we can get there together” and actually mean it! The kind where something feels like it might be on the line [it is your freedom and it always has been] and you take conscious action with others anyway. Rebel leadership requires us to make inequities visible; disrupt discourse, practices and policies that perpetuate harm; and create new ways to engage and co-design with our communities so that each of us and our children can develop, thrive and experience a sense of belonging. Rebel leadership now requires that each of us SEE the system, ENGAGE and ACT differently than we ever have before.”  

In this fourth installment of Third Settlements' special series on mission-driven, social impact leaders of color navigating these uncertain times, Dax speaks with Anne Price.  Anne Price is the first woman president of the Insight Center for Community Economic Development, a 50-year-old economic justice and research organization. She previously led the Closing the Racial Wealth Gap initiative at the Center, elevating the voices and opinions of experts of color in national economic debates and policymaking. Anne was one of the first national thought leaders to examine and push for narrative change in addressing race, gender, and wealth inequality, and she was also an early adopter of connecting criminal justice debt to racial wealth inequality. Anne has spent more than 25 years working in the public sector on issues that range from child welfare and hunger to workforce development and higher education. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Mercury News, Citylab, O Magazine, and the Stanford Social Innovation Review Notably, Anne is a Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and recently authored the paper, “Don’t Fixate on the Racial Wealth Gap: Focus on Undoing its Root Causes”

A month into the pandemic, we spoke with four educators spanning the coasts about what it was like in the early days of schools shutting down. Nazneen Patel is a public-school educator and is currently a Curriculum Coordinator at a small, progressive public school in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Raymond Lie has been a youth worker in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset community since 2002, as an after-school program coordinator and then as a middle school social studies & AVID teacher since 2008. Andrea Lee is a New Jersey-based early childhood educator, interfaith Minister, and Yoga and mindfulness instructor. Carl Manalo is a principal in a New York City public school. All four were kind and generous enough to speak with us while making sense of their roles as teachers, principals, and support staff to educators. 

In this third installment of Third Settlements' special series on mission-driven, social impact leaders of color navigating these uncertain times, Dax speaks with Chastity Lord. Chastity Lord. Chastity has dedicated her life to disrupting systems of inequity through a social justice lens in an effort to bridge the opportunity gap. Chastity is currently President and CEO of the Jeremiah Program, a leader in two-generation programming aimed at disrupting generational poverty for single mothers and their children. Before joining JP she gained a unique blend of practitioner and national leadership experience through her roles at the Achievement First Network, Color of Change and the Posse Foundation where I had the honor of first meeting and working with her over a decade ago.  Notably, Chastity is a 2012 Pahara-Aspen Fellow with the Aspen Global Leadership Network and serves on the board of the Shriver National Center on Poverty and Law.

In this second installment of Third Settlements' special series on mission-driven, social impact leaders of color navigating these uncertain times, Dax speaks with AiLun Ku.  As President and CEO at The Opportunity Network, AiLun centers first-generation college students and young people of color from underrepresented communities in her social impact work. At OppNet, AiLun oversees all areas that supports OppNet’s organizational health, including all programming, evaluation, finance and administration, operations, and growth planning. Externally, she builds strategic relationships with coalitions, peer organizations, donors, and thought partners to influence systems that have historically excluded young people of color from college and career opportunities. She seeks to activate passions and develop the skills of every young person of color to chart their paths to thriving careers.  As always, thank you for listening 

This inaugural mini-series launches our pod, centered exclusively and solely on social impact, mission-driven leaders of color. The episodes will feature an abridged conversation with a leader who in real-time is grappling with what are inarguably the most challenging questions and choices they have ever to make. They have agreed to speak with Dax in the middle of processing decisions that will likely define their legacy and their organization’s immediate and long term future. Dr. Akilah Watkins-Butler is President and CEO for the Center for Community Progress, America’s non-profit leader for turning “Vacant Spaces into Vibrant Places.”  A 25-year national thought leader, conference speaker, and non-profit executive, Dr. Watkins-Butler’s work began at the age of 14 when she led efforts to convert a vacant lot and abandoned home into a community center in Roosevelt, New York. Since then, she’s served as an executive leader for non-profits and community development initiatives which includes work with the Obama administration, NeighborWorks America, the Ford Foundation, and hundreds of municipalities throughout the U.S.  Today, Dr. Watkins-Butler’s work as an equity advocate includes leading work in more than 300 communities in 48 states at Community Progress. Collaboratively, Community Progress works to grow strong, equitable communities where vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties are transformed into assets for neighbors and neighborhoods.  Connect with Dr. Watkins-Butler today by following @DrAkilahWB on Twitter and LinkedIn.