Power Station

Sometimes a single data point tells a story that cries out for our attention, reflection and action. In California, 35,000 people, two thirds of whom are Black and Brown, are serving life sentences in the state's prison system. Nationally, 200,000 men and women are serving life sentences, one of every 6 prisoners overall. And while the criminal justice system is long overdue for structural reform, we also need to examine, name and repair both the public systems, from housing to healthcare, that fail to meet basic needs and our societal failure to intervene when young people are struggling and showing signs of distress. It is the life's work of Keith Wattley, my guest on this episode of Power Station, to provide prisoners who have served decades behind bars with the legal and therapeutic interventions they did not receive earlier in life. Doing so uncovers that the violence and trauma they experienced led them to perpetrate violence on others. Uncommon Law, the game changing nonprofit organization that he foun

Ableism favors the non-disabled at any cost. That is the powerful phrase that resonates after my conversation with India Harville, an exceptionally talented dancer, educator and disability justice advocate. It conveys that ableism is structural, embedded in government systems and in our cultural norms, which limit the access of disabled people to resources, opportunity and agency over their own lives. This reality, although exacerbated in this toxic political climate is not new. It has taken fearless organizing by generations of disabled activists to forge game changing policy breakthroughs, including passage of the now embattled Americans for Disabilities Act and Fair Housing Laws. So, it is not surprising that for India, advocacy is an everyday necessity. She is active in legislative policy campaigns that advance disability justice and she uses her voice and expertise to support her fellow dancers in securing housing and attendents. At Embraced Body, the nonprofit she founded, India makes self-expression ac

Shannan Herbert has watched many people walk past banks and the people-centered CDFI she leads on the same block, to take their financial business to check cashing places and liquor stores where the cost of cashing a check or taking out an emergency loan is extortionary. For years, CDFI associations, government agencies, and think tanks have reported on the millions of Americans who are unbanked and lack access to capital. As CEO of Washington Area Community Investment Fund (WACIF), which serves new and next-level entrepreneurs and small business owners in Washington DC's underinvested Wards 5, 7 and 8, Shannan wanted to know why people opted for such predatory establishments. In this episode of Power Station, she shares findings from WACIF's just-released report, Beyond Access: Addressing the Trust Gap to Unlock Responsible Capital. In listening sessions conducted in partnership with Onyx Therapy Group and Building Bridges Across the River, participants recounted interactions with financial institutions that

It is exceedingly rare, in this political season, to find members of Congress on both sides of the aisle who agree on the value of a government policy to their constituents and the economic infrastructure in the red and blue states they represent. Community Development Financial Institutions, created through the Reigel Act of 1994 have earned that distinction because they deploy capital and technical guidance in low-income and rural communities that banks fail to serve. These 1,300 (mostly) nonprofit CDFIs are financial springboards for people and organizations who want to launch a community-oriented food business, preserve rental affordability through land trusts and facilitate worker owned enterprises. At a time in which Americans are deeply divided and economically stressed I wanted to know how CDFIs are faring and meeting the moment. For this episode of Power Station, I turned to trusted community development advisor John Holdsclaw, President and CEO of Rochdale Capital, for answers. In this episode of Po

All parents know the heart wrenching feeling of having to work when they are worried about the safety of their children. Imagine if those parents are farmworkers who start their workday at 3:00am and use their remarkable and underpaid skills to harvest the crops that end up as food on our tables. Imagine if their only option for childcare is to bring their babies and toddlers into the fields with them. That scenario has become increasingly rare because of a highly committed and expert network of caring professionals who operate Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Centers, highly specialized early childhood facilities across 34 states. In this episode of Power Station, I speak with Cleofas Rodriguez, the powerhouse leader of National Ag Families Head State Association (formerly National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association) about the singular eco-system of farmworker families, educational providers and farmers he unites to ensure that the children of our nation's essential workers receive the early educatio

What is more American than entrepreneurship, not the faux version appropriated by heirs to affluent parents but the creation of small businesses by risk takers seeking to support their families, innovate goods and services, and invigorate their communities?  As Audrey Roofeh explains on this episode of Power Station, it was small business owners who gambled their own safety to take care of community members during Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis by the US Department of Homeland Security and ICE. An entrepreneur herself, Audrey's firm Mariana Strategies, which helped federal agencies cultivate workplaces free from misogyny, racism and anti-LGBTQ conduct was put out of business by a White House executive order banning DEI initiatives by government contractors. Audrey heard the alarm expressed by fellow small business owners about sustainability in a marketplace where the Rule of Law no longer applied. She founded Integrity Matters, a unique association or small business owners impacted by tariffs, ICE crac

There is a sea change underway in the social change and political activism arenas, and it is led by a burgeoning network of girls and women. A major force behind this transformation is Her Rising Initiative, a nonprofit founded by Cherie Animashaun who, as a teenager, was inspired to create a space for girls with aspirations to become changemakers. Its mission, to close the opportunity gap for girls and women in the social, business and political sectors is advanced by helping them to build the confidence needed to lead. My guest on this episode of Power Station is Carolina Nazario, who leads Her Action, a campaign of Her Rising that is laser-focused on the power of policymaking. Carolina brings passion and organizing savvy to developing the capacities of young women, through middle school trainings, college chapters and gatherings across multiple cities, to understand the legislative process, draft bills and advocate for change. We talk about the rise of violence against women in the political sphere and the

I love speaking with leaders whose innate capacity for engaging communities and influencing progress in politics, policy and culture comes from their character and not just their title. Rafael Collazo, executive director of the UnidosUS Action Fund, the 501c4 sister organization of UnidosUS, our nation's largest Latino civil rights organization, is that leader. UnidosUS, the organizational champion of 64 million Latinos who contribute $4.1 trillion to the U.S. economy has deepened its impact on politics and policy by through this tax designation and Action Fund. Rafael, a consummate political organizer, collaborates with the organization's members, a savvy network of community based organizations, to build the power needed for Latino families to thrive. This involves both supporting candidates who motivate the electorate and leading public policy campaigns in state legislatures and on Capitol Hill. As Rafael shares on this episode of Power Station, being responsive starts with listening to what the community

This moment in America is living proof that the path to a just society requires the shedding of false narratives that demonize people and communities for social currency and political gain. These narratives influence how elected officials expend fiscal resources and which policies and regulations they enact. And it takes education, organizing and relationship building by nonprofits and people with lived experience to dispel myths and adopt new-found truths. In this episode of Power Station, Damien Cabezas, President and CEO of Community Connections DC, the largest nonprofit provider of mental health services in the nation's capital, offers a powerful example of how an historically maligned community remains stigmatized and profoundly misunderstood. While the public perceives that 70% of people with mental illness are violent the reality is that people with mental illness are more likely to be victims than perpetrators of crime. And as he explains, treatment, along with access to stable housing and community-b

Charlie Birney was way ahead of the curve when he became an early adopter of podcasting in 2012. His love of listening to and telling stories through this platform made the years of explaining to friends and family how to access them on an iPhone worthwhile. He started Launch Podcasts in 2014, and its purpose was not what you might expect. He was not interested in growing the audience or monetizing the show. Instead Launch Podcasts was a tool for speaking directly to the group of people, previously unconnected, in a co-working space they shared. Charlie had a vision for internal podcasting that transcends sectors and issue areas. Uber uses them, for instance, to communicate rules and policy updates to a massive and remote workforce. We talk about the possibilities that internal podcasting holds for nonprofits that want to mirror their stated values inside of their organizations. An episode could feature frontline staff explaining what they need to be effective in this challenging environment. Another could pr

For Sophie Miyoshi and Helen Abraha, advocating for the rights of restaurant workers reflects their values and is also highly personal. Both started working in restaurants as teens and over time they experienced the isms and injustices that define the industry, from sexism and racism to immigrant exploitation and wage theft. They found a home at the Restaurant Organizing Collective DC where Sophie is now the executive director and Helen is lead organizer. What they have accomplished, hard-fought legislative victories from wage increases to paid sick leave is even more impressive given the deep pockets and relentlessness of the restaurant industry and its lobbyists. I have had the privilege of following ROC's growth over time, seeing a community that supported its frontline workers during the pandemic, fought for the release of an immigrant member's son from a detention center and withstood the whittling down of wins by the DC City Council and Mayor. In this episode of Power Station, I am particularly struck b

This president and his minions in Congress are relentless in their messaging about who counts as an American and what government owes to its people. And their narrative is rationalizing the elimination of policies and programs that we once embraced as being quintessentially American, in particular the education the education of our children. U.S. Department of Education Commissioner Linda MacMahon is charged with dismantling the agency she leads, and she has prioritized shuttering the Offices of Civil Rights, Special Education and most recently, English Language Acquisition. For two decades OLEA has overseen the provision of English language learning for over 5 million children, primarily U.S. citizens, in the K-12 public school system, a boon for academic advancement and a well-equipped workforce. In this episode of Power Station I am joined by Amalia Chammoro, Senior Director of the UnidosUS Education Policy Project and co-chair of the National English Learner Roundtable, who shares the largely underreporte

Despite all efforts to whitewash our nation's history, the truth cannot be erased. Case in point: In 1906, the first generation after slavery, African Americans created an extraordinary cultural, economic and entrepreneurial hub, dubbed Black Wall Street, in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma. This thriving center of enterprise, where dollars spent circulated 9 to 30 times before leaving the community, was destroyed in 1921 by a violent and unrelenting white mob. Thirty-five square blocks were reduced to rubble, and 300 community members were murdered. The failure of white political leaders and media to tell this story and take accountability for it is one erasure. The economic impacts and generational harms of this desecration is another. In this episode of Power Station, Alaina Beverly, a powerful champion of Black political and economic justice, tells the story of the Greenwood Trust, an initiative launched by Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols, which she leads. She is educating the nation about Black Wall

When someone tells you their story, listening is an honor. It is an opportunity to connect to someone else's life experience, to recognize that we are all shaped by the inequities and privileges we are born into and that the consequences of both reverberate through families, communities and public systems. In the case of Courtney Stewart, my guest on this week's episode of Power Station, his story is his calling. It informs his leadership as founder and CEO of the National Reentry Network for Returning Citizens, a community based nonprofit that offers a continuum of care, from meeting material needs to skill building for the workforce and criminal justice reform advocacy and one-on-one sessions that support mental health. As with the most powerful stories, Mr. Stewart's is not entirely predictable. The neglect and harms he experienced as a child and his very early entry into the system could have continued to traumatize him. Instead, he encountered adults who poured into him, a practice he continues with othe

The story of Washington DC's Ward 8, Ward 7 and Anacostia specifically is often told, largely by people who don't live there, in terms of deficits, both in resources and the community itself. The truth is entirely different. It was home to the Nacotchtank's indigenous settlements in the 1700s, white Navy Yard workers in the late 1800s, when Black people were barred from living there, and became a hub of African American arts and activism, post white flight, in the 1960s. And while the community has been historically underinvested, its people are resilient. Even today, for example, there are only 3 full-service grocery stores available to some 160,000 residents. Investing in people and communities, as we know, is a policy choice. As my guest Tiffany Williams says on this week's episode of Power Station, "it's not a matter of can we, it's a matter of will we." As President & CEO of Martha's Table, which has served the community for 45 years, Tiffany has stewarded in a new and transformative era which includ

Carlos Toledo, executive director of the Wanda Alston Foundation knows that the organization he leads, and the community it serves, are on the federal government's target list, but he will not allow the opposition to steal his joy. Instead, he stays laser focused on advancing his nonprofit's mission: providing housing, social services and a pathway to financial independence for homeless youth, primarily Black and Latino, who are queer and trans. Many of these young people have been rejected by their families, the first step into homelessness and interaction with the criminal justice system. What they receive from the Wanda Alston Foundation must feel like magic. It starts with acceptance and love from staff, volunteers and the city itself, whose DC Mayor's Office of LGBTQ Affairs launched the Wanda Alston Foundation and continues to champion young people whose intersectional identities make them particularly vulnerable in this moment. In this episode of Power Station, Carlos talks about the legacy of Wanda Al

The dizzying assault by this administration on our constitutional right to vote is memorialized in The Save Act, which has so-far failed in the Senate, and in state houses bent on disenfranchising Black Americans. My guest this week, Alex Ault, Senior Policy Council at the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, expects to see more versions of legislation marketed by the White House and members of Congress as voting security, a solution to a problem that does not exist. He points to the influential community, this nation's 8,000 poll workers and election officials who have argued, successfully, that their ability to administer fair elections would be jeopardized by requiring documentary proof of citizenship, that would exclude married women with name changes and trans people from voting. We look back at the origin story of the Lawyers Committee, launched in 1963 after President John F. Kennedy called upon private bar attorneys to leverage their collective clout to fight for civil rights. The call to act

A conversation with John Yang, President and Executive Director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice reverberates with facts and feelings. To start, we talk about the recent Supreme Court hearing on birthright citizenship, an outcome of President Trump's preoccupation with erasing this foundational constitutional right. As John explains on this episode of Power Station, this impulse is rooted in the desire to control who should and should not be considered an American. We are seeing this play out in real time in immigration sweeps and detention centers across the country. And while we do not see a lot of reporting about this, the birthright citizenship issue has a disproportionate impact on Asian Americans. In fact, about 1 in 25 people in the community would be impacted by an adverse ruling. But when John talks about birthright citizenship and his organization's broader civil and human rights mission, he is not advocating for Asian Americans alone. He collaborates with African American, Latino and LGBTQ orga

The data is unimpeachable. Homelessness is a national crisis and the numbers of people struggling to live without permanent housing is growing. The latest (2024) data from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) finds that 771, 480 people are currently unhoused, and 17,500 more are joining those ranks each week. As decades of research and people with lived experience tell us, ending homelessness requires a massive increase in the affordable housing supply, policies that position low-income renters to stay in the housing they have, and the resources needed by on-the-ground homeless service providers to meet human needs and strengthen communities. And a culture shift is underway. Policymakers and the public are increasingly aware that homelessness is the outcome of broken systems and not of personal failings. On this episode of Power Station I talk to Ann Oliva, the incomparable CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness about leading, with the long view, in unstable times. She shares how

There is a paradigm shift underway in how nonprofits are advocating for and with people diagnosed with shattering neurogenerative conditions. It starts with treating patients as experts, identifying their priorities for research and leveraging their abilities to forge powerful relationships in Congress, with federal agencies and at all decision-making tables. I AM ALS, a nonprofit founded by Brian and Louise Wallach after Brian's diagnosis at age 37, is reinventing the playbook for how to approach finding a cure and treatment for a condition that is both devastating and 100% fatal. Brian and Sandra, who met on the Obama presidential campaign trail, are applying their experience with political organizing and mobilization to the eradication of this disease. In this episode of Power Station I speak with Andrea Goodman, the exceptional CEO of I AM ALS, about how a patient-centered organization is achieving robust investments in medical research by Congress and greater cross-pollination of ideas and resources amon