Sometimes numbers speak louder than words. In Washington DC, a single grocery store serves the 85,000 residents of Wards 7 and 8, the historically disenfranchised neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River. Zooming further out, 35% of people living in our nation’s capital are designated as food insecure, lacking an adequate amount of food for a healthy life. Again, the data tells the story. The legacy of racism in public policymaking is borne by people of color, from food to housing and healthcar...
Sep 25, 2023•32 min•Ep. 288
In 1996, a group of Asian/Pacific Islander women came together to confront gender-based violence in their communities. As survivors themselves they knew that mainstream social service organizations lacked the linguistic and cultural knowledge needed to meet their diverse needs. They persevered, eventually launching the Asian/Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Resource Project, which remains the sole Pan Asian provider of trauma-informed and survivor centered services in Washington, DC, Maryland,...
Sep 18, 2023•35 min•Ep. 287
If we have learned anything since 2016 it is that elections have consequences. Donald Trump was not the first politician whose worldview is steeped in racism, misogyny, and anti-immigrant ideology. But he is an outlier in using his platform to undermine our democratic systems and encourage violence. In this episode of Power Station, Daria Dawson, Deputy Executive Director, and National Political Director of America Votes, recalls her path to her current role, including her parent’s commitment to...
Sep 11, 2023•40 min•Ep. 286
What if we looked at homelessness as solvable rather than intractable? What would we do if we considered the 580,000 people who are homeless on any given night in America as having been failed, as opposed to being failures? That is the perspective that Ann Oliva brings to her leadership of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the organization that inspired her throughout highly productive tenures at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Corporation for Supportive Housing ...
Sep 04, 2023•38 min•Ep. 285
Amy Javaid first encountered A Wider Circle as a chaperone for her daughter’s kindergarten field trip. She was struck by how staff engaged 5 year old kids in talking about neighbors, a less othering term than clients, who lack clothes and a home. They learned that their actions, sorting clothes, helps neighbors, some of whom are also 5 years old. Amy volunteered and held various positions before becoming CEO in 2021. Now she is building community and opportunity in Washington DC’s historically u...
Aug 28, 2023•39 min•Ep. 284
“What am I doing to enfranchise people or how am I participating in their disenfranchisement?" That question, posed by this week’s guest, Dr. Marla Dean, to all of us, stopped me in my tracks mid-interview. It has guided her own life and career, first as an educator in troubled and under-resourced schools and then as CEO of Bright Beginnings, a celebrated nonprofit in Washington, DC, that provides childcare and early education services to children and families experiencing homelessness. When I f...
Aug 21, 2023•40 min•Ep. 283
As Monte Pollard approached the end of a six year sentence in federal prison, he was so overwhelmed by the prospect of reentry, he considered committing a violation that would keep him locked up. His lack of confidence made sense. Over 6 years in multiple facilities, he did not have access to a single training or educational opportunity. When he lost his mother to domestic violence, counseling was not available. It was a visit from Charles B. Thornton, then head of the Mayor’s Office on Returnin...
Aug 14, 2023•47 min•Ep. 282
In 2016, Andrew Lee received a call that changed his life and created a cultural sea-change in Washington DC. A conservatory-trained musician he juggled professional performances, running music festivals, and, as a community leader and volunteer, bringing classical music to under-resourced neighborhoods. He was invited to perform that night in a concert featuring brilliant musicians from across the globe. Andrew hopped on a train and headed to Carnegie Hall. The sheer artistry moved him to consi...
Aug 07, 2023•33 min•Ep. 281
When Allen Morris is asked what a policy director does he gets to the point and is not shy: “I tell the President and Congress what to do.” As policy director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, Allen advocates for his community in Congress and in state houses where xenophobia, transphobia, and anti-Blackness dominate policy making. In states where the very humanity of LGBTQ people is under attack, the Task Force supports and partners with grassroots group and hosts kiki’s (social gatherings, for ...
Jul 31, 2023•38 min•Ep. 280
To understand the long and twisted journey to the Supreme Court’s chilling decision to dismantle affirmative action in higher education and its implications, you cannot do better than to ask civil rights champion and self-described optimist John Yang. As president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, John has navigated the drumbeat to defeat affirmative action for years and a devastating rise in anti-Asian hate crimes since the emergence of Covid-19. AAJC employs a range ...
Jul 24, 2023•33 min•Ep. 279
As listeners know I record from Podville Media, a vibrant audio and video studio in Washington, DC. After 277 episodes, it’s my turn to be the guest, admittedly a reluctant one. Robb Spewak, a 30 year broadcast professional and a podcast host in his own right who has produced almost every episode of Power Station is my co-host and interviewer. It was a great experience, evidence of my trust in Robb. And days later the experience still resonates. Turns out I am comfortable interviewing nonprofit ...
Jul 17, 2023•40 min•Ep. 278
None of us, from the Supreme Court to our elected representatives to corporate CEOs, should underestimate this nation’s young people. On the same day that the Supreme Court struck down President Biden’s student debt cancellation plan, blocking relief for 40 million Americans, the 18 to 34 year old’s that animate Young Invincibles, a nonprofit founded during the nation’s tumultuous debate over the Affordable Care Act, absorbed the blow and set about putting a powerful Plan B into action. On this ...
Jul 10, 2023•35 min•Ep. 277
Do you know the old idiom, the devil is in the details? In this episode, Natalie Davis, co-founder, and CEO of the nonprofit United States of Care, tells Power Station about the importance of treating every detail in the policy making process as an opportunity to produce the most impactful legislation possible. And she is admittedly obsessed with public policy implementation, creating a plan that delivers great outcomes in real time. It takes close collaboration with local policy makers, public ...
Jul 03, 2023•40 min•Ep. 276
A conversation with Families USA executive director Frederick Isasi is a masterclass in how to transform our expansive, inefficient, and poorly performing health care system. America spends more money per person on health care than any other nation yet our health outcomes, including some of the world’s worst life expectancy and highest infant mortality rates are appalling. In this episode of Power Station, Frederick explains how we got here, starting with just a few decades ago when many familie...
Jun 26, 2023•45 min•Ep. 275
Do we stop to think, when enjoying a meal at a favorite restaurant, about what is happening in the back of the house? While servers and bartenders are working hard, their counterparts, dishwashers, food runners and bus boys, face far greater challenges. In Washington DC, less visible workers receive hourly pay as low as $3.89 and depend on tips distributed by “the house” to make minimum wage. But tips are not always shared, just one form of wage theft in the industry. These workers, primarily wo...
Jun 19, 2023•47 min•Ep. 274
Every person, in every city, deserves to live the healthiest possible life. You could assume this is a shared national value, but our health outcomes tell a different story about America’s aspirations. Residents from the most marginalized neighborhoods in underinvested cities are subjected to living in unsound housing conditions under persistent threats of eviction, compromised by poor air quality and a lack of access to potable water. Recognizing that social determinants, factors that exist out...
Jun 12, 2023•42 min•Ep. 273
Annabel Collinson wants you to know that if you feel anxious and helpless about environmental conditions around the globe you are not alone. She shares the climate anxiety that is pervasive among young people whose futures are compromised by rising temperatures and their real-time harms, from warming oceans to sea level rise, economic disruption, food insecurity and the displacement, primarily of people of color, from their homes and communities. Annabel and her colleague Madeleine Ary Hahne, wh...
Jun 05, 2023•37 min•Ep. 272
There are many versions of our American story. For some it is a gateway to freedom and opportunity, for others it is where only some can thrive, often at the expense of less valued communities. As always, the truth is complex and nuanced and data, when our public leaders choose to collect it, tells the true story. A global pandemic exposed and deepened America’s fault lines, revealing how historical policy making decisions steeped in racism and anti-immigrant bias created strikingly disparate ou...
May 29, 2023•42 min•Ep. 271
When George Jones talks about his mission to make Washington, DC an anti-racist city he is sometimes met with discomfort and even denial. But when he talks about the tremendous disparities in wealth and income that separate white communities in the NW portion of the city from Black families in the SE the very same business, academic and foundation leaders agree that the data is unimpeachable and the systems that perpetuate it must be upended. As CEO of Bread for the City, the highly impactful no...
May 22, 2023•43 min•Ep. 270
Elyssa Feder remembers the moment she became an organizer. She was watching a debate on C-Span about the proposed defunding of Planned Parenthood and government officials were spouting lies to bolster their positions. She realized that their power shielded them from consequences and that she was not satisfied being a young woman in a food court who knew better. She honed her organizing capacities in political and issue-specific campaigns and learned that having better facts, and she strongly bel...
May 15, 2023•38 min•Ep. 269
Some organizations really do lead with love. When Jeanne Manford joined her gay son Morty at the 1972 Christopher Street Liberation Day March her handmade sign declared, Parents of Gays Unite in Support of our Children. That message moved many young people whose families were not there for them. Jeanne went on to become the mother of a movement, PFLAFG, that unites families, their LGBTQ loved ones and allies. The fierce love of these families and allies makes PFLAG a powerful force for protectin...
May 08, 2023•47 min•Ep. 268
If you want to know how to protect and advance the rights of Latinos in Texas, ask Eric Holguin. A native son of Corpus Christi and Texas State Director of UnidosUS, the nation’s largest non-partisan champion of Hispanic civil rights, he starts with the facts. Without the state’s 11.4 million Latinos, who are critical to the workforce and especially well-represented in the civil service, energy and small business sectors, the economy would collapse and were it not for gerrymandering, Texas would...
May 01, 2023•41 min•Ep. 267
Today’s headline stories about jobs and the economy focus on remote workers facing a return to offices and thousands of professional hired by tech companies to deepen their capacities for artificial intelligence and machine learning. More commonplace injustices are being challenged by a growing movement for livable wages and paid family leave, against racial discrimination and immigrant exploitation and for the right to form a union. These and even worse abuses, including the pervasive use of ch...
Apr 24, 2023•41 min•Ep. 266
Niciah Mujahid wants you know that your city’s budget is 100% your business. As the dynamic executive director of Fair Budget Coalition, she leads a cohort of community-based nonprofits in advocating for a budget that invests in human needs and advances racial justice. Every aspect of this complex process, from analyzing budget proposals to engaging residents in testifying at budget hearings to building relationships with and posing solutions to the mayor and city council members is rooted in a ...
Apr 17, 2023•41 min•Ep. 265
Tram Nguyen, co-executive director of New Virginia Majority, is reframing how to think about progressive change making in politically polarizing times. She pushes back against the deeply embedded belief that those working for social justice and racial equity are in a lonely uphill battle against a fierce anti-democratic majority in her state and throughout the nation. Tram believes that the multi-racial coalition of young people, immigrants and working families New Virginia Majority brings toget...
Apr 10, 2023•31 min•Ep. 264
As Felipe Pinzon says, not enough Americans know how nonprofits change communities. His own organization, Hispanic Unity of Florida, provides a master class in how transformative change in marginalized communities is made. It started in 1982, when residents recognized that immigrants arriving in South Florida needed help to manage the many complex transitions they faced. Hispanic Unity became a safe space where families learned how to navigate new systems, from public schools to healthcare to le...
Apr 03, 2023•35 min•Ep. 263
There is intention and beauty in the naming of The Person Center. Its founder, Amelia Missielidies, wanted the women she served, survivors of domestic and sexual violence who were African immigrants and refugees to recognize the value of their personhood. As an Ethiopian and a social worker, Amelia understood what American service providers could not, that the experience these women shared: war, conflict, and migration, requires a trauma-informed approach to healing. After Amelia’s passing, her ...
Mar 27, 2023•45 min•Ep. 262
Are you, your nonprofit, and the community you serve being seen and heard? What if you could communicate the story of your nonprofit, the inequitable conditions you tackle, the public policies you advocate and your solutions for uplifting people and communities? In this episode of Power Station, I am joined by Oscar Zeballos, CEO of Podville Media, a fellow podcasting evangelizer whose partnership with co-founder Charlie Birney provides a dynamic stage for diverse voices, from ESPN to the Leader...
Mar 20, 2023•33 min•Ep. 261
Where are our nation’s most effective and committed changemakers? You may expect them to be representing us on Capitol Hill or launching start-ups in Silicon Valley but the real champions of opportunity and equity, from poverty alleviation, upending the racial wealth gap and creating a pathway to generational wealth are nonprofit leaders. On this episode of Power Station, two exceptional leaders, Mercedes Lemp of My Sister’s Place and Joseph Leitmann-Santa Cruz, of Capital Area Asset Builders te...
Mar 13, 2023•46 min•Ep. 260
Public narrative is about the story of me and the story of us. This is how Sandy Dang, an expert and educator in the field describes its essence. On this episode of Power Station, we explore the power of public narrative to communicate our values and lived experience and to tell the collective stories of our communities. Sandy came to this field, which trains individuals in how to distill their life experience into a 2 minute story, innately. Born in Vietnam, she survived the war, life in refuge...
Mar 06, 2023•38 min•Ep. 259
