Welcome to the The Uplifters Podcast ! In episode 27 of The Uplifters Podcast, you’ll meet the incredible Eyvette Jones Johnson . She's an award-winning empowerment educator, a game changer in LA's Skid Row, and a narrative intelligence expert. Discover how she went from network TV to transforming lives on Skid Row, and why self-care and daily practices are the keys to making a real impact in the world. Big thanks to the wonderful Alyse Hart for nominating Eyvette for The Uplifters. 🌟 In this e...
Oct 02, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 27
In Episode 26 of The Uplifters Podcast, we welcome Reverend Ann Kansfield, the inaugural New York Times New Yorker of the Yea r; the first female and first openly gay chaplain of the New York Fire Department; Co-pastor, with her wife, Jen, of The Greenpoint Reformed Church in Brooklyn ; and author of Be the Brave One . Ann grew up in the church, and she found comfort and purpose in the church, but after college, she took a job as a trader and became a self-described “Wall Street Jerk”. In the wa...
Sep 22, 2023•32 min•Season 1Ep. 26
Time is our most precious resource. Most of us feel like we don’t have enough of it, don’t use it to its highest impact, and feel like if we only had more, we could do and be more. But, what sets apart those people who seem to have more time than the rest of us? What are they doing (and not doing) that expands their capacity? Kymme Williams is one of those people. She is the founder of Bushwick Grind Cafe , a massively successful cafe and catering business in Brooklyn, NY. In addition to running...
Sep 15, 2023•28 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Imagine that each of us is wearing glasses with differently tinted lenses. The color of your lens represents your background, culture, and beliefs, and influences how you see and interpret the world. Through your green-tinted lens, it might feel almost impossible to imagine my fuchsia-tinted world. So it was when Kym Dakin , author of Head, Heart, and Hands Listening in Coach Practice was hired by The Environmental Protection Agency to help their field operators, who were focused on environmenta...
Sep 08, 2023•34 min•Season 1Ep. 24
"Everybody says you gotta fill up your cup so that you can pour into others. I decided this year I'm gonna fill the cup, I'm gonna drink from it, and then whatever spills over is what I will give to others. Instead of just giving to everyone else and saving the leftovers for me, this time I'm taking the cup for myself. I still wanna give, but I get to go first this time." When Tamecka Murray was 15 years old she had her first child. She has been taking care of other people every minute since. Wh...
Sep 01, 2023•33 min•Season 1Ep. 23
As an educator, Kaitlin Johnstone realized quickly that the children she was teaching didn’t have adequate access to books. She often spent her own money to provide them with books to have over school breaks. She started a reading program once a month in which each book centered around kindness and inclusion. At the end of the lesson, every child in the group could keep a copy of the book they had just read. In order to fund the purchase of more books, she enlisted her husband, who worked in cus...
Aug 25, 2023•29 min•Season 1Ep. 22
Gordon Bakoulis, Editorial Director of New York Road Runners, qualified for the U.S. Olympic marathon trials in 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 and was a finalist in the 1992 U.S. Olympic 10,000m trials. She has represented the U.S. internationally at the 10K, half-marathon, and marathon distances. When she started running in the mid-1970’s, there were very few women who could keep up with her pace, and even fewer whom she could look up to, but her pure love for the sport, the running community...
Aug 18, 2023•39 min
Jen Liddy felt like she wasn’t making the impact she wanted to make as a teacher. The students weren’t engaged and the administrative work was tedious and exhausting. But the voice in her head in the shower every morning, asking if she should just cancel class for the day, just couldn’t be ignored any longer. She had a lot invested in her teaching job (her lesson plans, her retirement, her two master’s degrees) and part of her wondered if all of that was ever going to be of any use again. Ten ye...
Aug 11, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 20
After a lifetime of devastating sexual abuse, Maureen Spataro broke. That breakdown led her to a massive breakthrough that helped her discover both peace and purpose. Despite generations of abuse, Maureen found the courage and strength to break the cycle and face her dark family secret. Now, she’s dedicated her life to helping other women face traumas and surthrive. In this episode you’ll learn: How to heal by recognizing and voicing your needs How insecurity and fear can manifest as anger How t...
Aug 04, 2023•45 min•Season 1Ep. 19
“I work really hard at not hiding my scars. I'm not gonna pretend I've got things all together. I've lived my life. I have my scars and they are part of whom I am. Jesus had scars.” Pastor Beth Carroll This Week on The Uplifters Less than 15% of lead pastors in America are women. Rev. Beth Carroll, Senior Pastor at Oakland City Church, is one of them. Pastor Beth has lived through mental illness, a divorce, and an unexpected pregnancy at 22, for which she was kicked out of the church, excluded, ...
Jul 28, 2023•46 min•Season 1Ep. 18
Sam France’s childhood was chaotic. But her parents didn’t get a guidebook for raising little Sam, so they were left to learn on the job, basing their decisions on their childhoods. Sam’s daughter was also born without a guidebook. Go figure. Sam realized there had been a generational curse handed down through her family and felt determined to create a new guidebook. In this episode, we walk through each chapter of her daughter’s life from birth to college to understand how Sam broke this genera...
Jul 21, 2023•32 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Christina Testut knows that appearance is not the most important thing about a person, and she’s on a mission to bring this message to the next generation. Christina Testut, nominated for the Uplifters by her husband and daughter, never felt like she was “enough,” and was always looking for external validation. About 6 years ago, she decided to go on a weight loss journey. She was noticed and celebrated for her weight loss; people called her “dedicated” and “inspiring”, and wanted to know how sh...
Jul 14, 2023•37 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Ever feel like the hits just keep coming? In this episode, you’ll hear how Terri Tomoff , nominated for The Uplifters by Julie B. Hughes, got by with a little help from her friends, family, and a global community of champions during her son’s lifelong battles with recurring cancer. When Terri Tomoff’s son Ryan was two years old, he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia with cerebral nervous system involvement. In the 27 years that followed, Ryan would relapse 3 times and survive tongue...
Jul 07, 2023•20 min•Season 1Ep. 15
I’m so proud and grateful to welcome Lisa Halverstadt onto our show today. Lisa is a senior investigative reporter for Voice of San Diego, a nonprofit investigative outlet in San Diego. Lisa writes extensively about her community's homelessness, substance abuse and behavioral health crises and the people impacted by them. I met Lisa a couple of months ago when my brother-in-law died from the effects of substance abuse disease and homelessness. We all missed him terribly for the decade plus that ...
Jun 30, 2023•31 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Welcome to The Uplifters Podcast. Today, you’ll meet Lisa Crozier, who is introduced by Marci Walker, her “Late In Life Best Friend” (a term I learned from my new friends over at Red Bird House ). You know that old game where you introduce yourself by using a descriptor that starts with the first letter of your name? There’s no question what Lisa’s descriptor would be. She is Love. As you look at Lisa you’ll see a woman with hair sculpted in blond waves, a beauty queen’s smile, always dressed to...
Jun 23, 2023•45 min•Season 1Ep. 13
“I was tired of feeling run over all the time. I started feeling down and mopey about things. And I just didn’t know how to turn them around. I was taking on too much and I was trying to carry too much.” Today’s guest, Alexis Nelson, was nominated for The Uplifters Podcast by Beth Raynor Webb, from episode 5 . At 33 years old, Alexis has already spent 14 years in the Air Force. Like so many Uplifters, she finds joy and satisfaction in caring for others, but she also had to learn earlier than mos...
Jun 16, 2023•31 min•Season 1Ep. 12
How you do one thing is how you do everything. Again and again, in my work with women who are in transitional phases, I have seen how changing any one thing in our lives can kick off a cascade that changes everything. When people want to get unstuck, we often start by creating structure and organization in their daily lives to ensure their precious energy is focused where it matters most. And so, today I am thrilled to welcome Sonya Weisshappel, who is known as The Chaos Whisperer, for her work ...
Jun 09, 2023•30 min•Season 1Ep. 11
THIS WEEK ON THE UPLIFTERS To fill some empty train travel time one cold morning in January, Gina Hamadey wrote out a few Thank You notes that had been lingering on her to-do list. When she was finished, she felt something different than the usual satisfaction of crossing a task off of her list. She felt a sense of lightness that carried into her day. So, she did it again the next day and the next. By January 31st, she’d written 31 notes and felt energized. She became curious about what would ha...
Jun 02, 2023•43 min
In this episode, join us as we dive into the remarkable journey of Chrisie Canny, who turned her personal pain into a powerful purpose. When Chrisie lost her father to cancer two decades ago, it ignited a spark within her to make a difference in the lives of others facing similar challenges. Synopsis: After experiencing the devastating effects of cancer on her own family, she embarked on a mission to support and uplift other families enduring the same hardships. Through fundraising efforts and a...
May 26, 2023•29 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Julie Hartigan didn’t grow up with much money, but she was smart, worked hard, and was good at math. As she neared high school graduation, she filled out a bubble form that told her she should pursue engineering, accounting, or architecture as a career. She knew she wanted to get out and see the world, and since her high school guidance counselor told her girls couldn’t be architects, she decided to become an engineer. She was on track to make lots of money and get lots of fancy promotions to he...
May 19, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Susannah Ludwig was born in the 1970s without an esophagus, a condition that almost no children survived at the time. But, by what some would call a miracle, her family had recently moved to Washington DC for her father’s residency in the one Children's Hospital in the nation where there were surgeons who knew how to handle her condition. There was no blueprint for her treatment, so every day that she survived was unprecedented. It would be understandable if surviving against these terrible odds...
May 12, 2023•31 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Julie Hughes, author of Staring Down A Dream: A Mom, A Marathon, A Mission, fell in love with running when she was just a young girl. It was the perfect antidote to the relentless urgency of farm chores. She started racing and winning early and kept going. She landed a spot on a competitive college track team, and while the Olympics didn’t feel like a realistic goal, she set her sights on following in the footsteps of the heroic women who blazed the Boston Marathon trail. Like the good girl she ...
May 05, 2023•53 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Our guest today is Beth Raynor Webb . Beth grew up in a world that had strong opinions about what girls could and couldn’t do. She married young, started a family, and followed the path that was laid out for her. When her kids left the nest, she began to ask herself some big questions: “Who am I really? What have I not done that I really wanted to do?” She realized that she’d spent most of her life caring for others, supporting them in their dreams, but not actively participating in life. She wa...
Apr 28, 2023•44 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Our guest today is Rachel Lipson, the founder of Blue Balloon Songwriting School, who has been called the “matriarch of modern music education.” Rachel shares her journey from leaving a steady and secure full-time job as a school teacher to pursuing the uncertain path of teaching songwriting to children and creating her own business. She talks about leaning into the unknown and how letting others in on the secret of your dreams can help you, financially, emotionally, and more. Whether it’s a Kic...
Apr 21, 2023•37 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Susie Jaramillo is an Emmy Nominated Director, illustrator, storyteller, and entrepreneur. She serves as President and Chief Creative Officer of Encantos, an award-winning entertainment company for kids. Encantos Original properties include the Emmy-nominated and 2x Kidscreen award-winning preschool brand Canticos, and Tiny Travelers, a brand designed to introduce children to the countries and cultures of the world. Susie is the creative heart of Encantos, creating the vision and setting the bar...
Apr 14, 2023•47 min•Season 1Ep. 3
M’Lis Ward’s bio reads as a string of “firsts”, so it’s only fitting that this pioneering aviator is the first interview for The Uplifters Podcast. M’Lis is a United Airlines pilot and the first African-American female captain in commercial aviation. She graduated from the University of Southern California, where she also played on a National Championship Basketball team. She then joined the US Air Force, where she was an instructor-pilot on the T-37 and a First Pilot on the C141, and the first ...
Apr 07, 2023•52 min•Season 1Ep. 2
It’s not too late to live your dreams. The Uplifters will show you how. This podcast is dedicated to celebrating the Uplifters: the teachers, the coaches, the caregivers, and the servant leaders who can get so focused on helping everyone around them that they forget to nurture their dreams to go, see, and do big things. But, it’s not too late. In this podcast we share the tools and strategies Uplifters use to bolster themselves, sustain their Work, and go after their purpose. The Uplifters Podca...
Mar 31, 2023•13 min•Season 1Ep. 1
It’s not too late to live your dreams. The Uplifters will show you how. This podcast is dedicated to celebrating the Uplifters: the teachers, the coaches, the caregivers, and the servant leaders who can get so focused on helping everyone around them that they forget to nurture their dreams to go, see, and do big things. But, it’s not too late. In this podcast we share the tools and strategies Uplifters use to bolster themselves, sustain their Work, and go after their purpose. The Uplifters Podca...
Mar 16, 2023•1 min
