She Been Ready! The Podcast

The marriage of heart and intellect is a beautiful thing, made so for its rarity. And yet, in my conversation with Dr. Yolanda (Yolie) Sealy-Ruiz, we get just that as she shares her work bridging the arts and academia to make layers of ourselves available for our own life practice and for our work and relationship with others. One such example is her program, Archaeology of Self, where she encourages new and seemingly seasoned teachers to do the inner work (in the trenches), socio-emotional work, to understand what motivates and informs their practice in the classroom. Dr. Sealy-Ruiz is an accomplished scholar in the areas of racial literacy, culturally responsive pedagogies, Black Girl literacies, and work with Black and Latinx high school boys. Her work is featured in her books and articles and made accessible in public forums, such as her TedX Penn Talk on Truth, Love, & Racial Literacy. Dr. Sealy-Ruiz is also the author of two volumes of poetry, The Love Vortex and The Peace Chronicles, in which she does the excavation work for herself that she coaches educators through. And she also hails from the South Bronx, USA! A lover of words and poetry, she is currently writing her forthcoming poetic memoir about coming of age in the 80's Regan Era economics, the war on drugs and Black and Brown communities, and the birth of hip hop which she will align with the 2023 50th anniversary of hip hop and the opening of the Universal Hip Hop Museum in the Bronx! Follow Yolie's work in a few places. Her website: https://www.yolandasealeyruiz.com/ Instagram: yolie_sealeyruiz X (formally Twitter): @RuizSealey Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ysealeyruizpoetry LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yolandasealeyruiz-714a24126/ To learn more about what Dr. Wendi is doing and thinking about, follow her at ⁠⁠@drwendiwilliams⁠⁠ on Instagram and Twitter and stay up with the latest on She Been Ready! The Podcast on Facebook ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/She_Been_Ready-The-Podcast-105193828770865 ⁠⁠ Music Credit: She Been Ready - Arranged, produced, and mixed by Shawn Nealy-Oparah Instagram: @drwendiwilliams Website: ⁠⁠www.drwendiwilliams.com⁠⁠

Black women are moving in and through in academia while cultivating movement within academic spaces. I see it up close in my own work and also in the work I witness and support others through as they navigate these complex and often intersectionally toxic contexts. And one woman whom I watch with bated breath and intrigue is Dr. Maryam Jernigan-Noesi. I simply want to see what she will do next! Author of academic texts and children's' literature, consultant and truth-teller, Dr. Jernigan - Noesi has rightly been called the "Olivia Pope of racism" as she utilizes her expertise in racial trauma and background as a counseling psychologist. CEO of Jernigan and Associates Psychology and Educational Consulting, she and her colleagues offer a myriad of comprehensive consultation services and professional development experiences to educators, mental health providers, health care settings, and corporations. In this conversation, I talk with Dr. Jernigan- Noesi about her experiences in academia, and how she created a "way out of her own way" to be an entrepreneurial psychologist within her private practice and consulting, while continuing to provide students with transformative professional development experiences while making her psychological expertise accessible to many more, including children and families in myriad ways, like her co-authored children's book, I Miss My Friend, a story of two Black girls grappling with the complex feelings of loss, change, and hope during the pandemic. Learn more about Dr. Jernigan - Noesi's work on her website and following her feed on Instagram (@mindfield_drj). To learn more about what Dr. Wendi is doing and thinking about, follow her at ⁠⁠@drwendiwilliams⁠⁠ on Instagram and Twitter and stay up with the latest on She Been Ready! The Podcast on Facebook ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/She_Been_Ready-The-Podcast-105193828770865 ⁠⁠

Dr. Wendi is in conversation with Nataki Garrett. Nataki is a change-maker and trailblazer, a nationally recognized director, and most recently, the sixth Artistic Director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF). She was the first woman to artistically lead a $44 million theater company and was OSF’s first Black female in this role. Born and raised in Oakland, CA, stemming from a family of educators, artists, and community organizers, her work and leadership are both inspired and inspiring.  How does one lead through retelling our collective stories in our collective image? What is required to disrupt the narratives that have erased so many of us?   These are the questions beneath the questions shaping my conversation with Nataki. She is brilliant, that is obvious, but she is more than that. She is brave because of her vulnerability and for that, I was honored to share space with her and grateful to share our conversation with you.  Follow Nataki’s very necessary voice defining more inclusive art and public discourse on Instagram @natakigarrett.   To learn more about what Dr. Wendi is doing and thinking about, follow her at @drwendiwilliams on Instagram and Twitter and stay up with the latest on She Been Ready! The Podcast on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/She_Been_Ready-The-Podcast-105193828770865  Music Credit: She Been Ready - Arranged, produced, and mixed by Shawn Nealy-Oparah Instagram: @drwendiwilliams Website: www.drwendiwilliams.com

Dr. Wendi is in conversation with Dr. Ife Udoh, Executive Vice President of Policy Advocacy and Science at the Black Women's Health Imperative (BWHI - @blkwomenshealth on Instagram). In this episode we bring one of our kitchen table conversations to the podcast. Mothering as leadership, leadership as mothering and how mother's and particularly Black mother's, comport themselves to nurture audacity despite, and perhaps in spite of the precarity of the Black life they carry. Ife is a public health professional, a scientist, and mother. In our conversation she cites the labor and intellectual contribution of the many Black women in the space of health advocacy who are providing critical care in the messaging and practices that are honed more and more by their critique and guidance to keep us ALL safe. As promised in the interview, I am naming their names: Drs. Monica McLemore, Marguerita Lightfoot, Vignetta Charles, Shanelle McGoy, Louisa Fitzpatrick, and Aisha Mays, to name a few. Follow Ife and the transformative work she does in the mothering space @ifeomaseesu on Instagram. And learn more and support the incredibly necessary and critical work of the Black Women's Health Imperative at https://bwhi.org/. To learn more about what Dr. Wendi is doing and thinking about, follow her at ⁠@drwendiwilliams⁠ on Instagram and Twitter and stay up with the latest on She Been Ready! The Podcast on Facebook ⁠https://www.facebook.com/She_Been_Ready-The-Podcast-105193828770865 ⁠ Music Credit: She Been Ready - Arranged, produced, and mixed by Shawn Nealy-Oparah Instagram: @drwendiwilliams Website: ⁠www.drwendiwilliams.com⁠

It is time for a rebirth. Welcome to the full thrust of spring and episode 5 of She Been Ready! The Podcast.  I am quite pleased to have Ife Obi, Founder and Owner of The Fit In Brooklyn join me today.  The Fit In is described as a wellness suite that provides a boutique fitness experience and thoughtfully-developed wellness programming to be a truly inclusive space.   The Root online magazine rightly states that The Fit In is “diversifying fitness in gentrified Brooklyn”. With locations in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn on familiar haunts like Malcolm X Blvd., Marcus Garvey, and Halsey, Ife began making the yoga, pilates, and core building fitness and wellness practices enjoyed by a white wellness industrial complex available to the historically Black Bedford Stuyvesant community available in color just as the community was “changing” or becoming aggressively gentrified.   Her work and movement has been featured in outlets such as Good Morning America, The Fit Bit Blog, Health, Refinery 29, Forbes, BET.com and even Beyoncé, to name a few.  It’s kinda of how you know you made it!  Listen in to this amazing conversation about wellness, fitness, health, and leadership and how, at least for Ife (and I agree) designing spaces from the inclusion perspective of Black women, may be just what is needed for EVERYONE to feel welcome.  You can learn more about Ife’s work and following her on Instagram @Ife_o and visit The Fit In online at thefitinbedstuy.com. To learn more about what Dr. Wendi is doing and thinking about, follow her at ⁠⁠@drwendiwilliams⁠⁠ on Instagram and Twitter and stay up with the latest on She Been Ready! The Podcast on Facebook ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/She_Been_Ready-The-Podcast-105193828770865 ⁠⁠ Music Credit: She Been Ready - Arranged, produced, and mixed by Shawn Nealy-Oparah Instagram: @drwendiwilliams Website: ⁠⁠www.drwendiwilliams.com⁠⁠

Dr. Wendi is in conversation with Jamor Gaffney and Nia Martin-Robinson of For the Culture.  Jamor and Nia are culture shifters. Along with their colleague, Sabrina Lakhani, they work with individuals and organizations to make changes in their organizational cultures that are for the culture. The DEI space has gotten quite crowded. In this episode, we delve into this work from the perspective of two impressive practitioners whose positionality as Black women shape their leadership in this space. Our Guests. Jamor Gaffney is an experienced consultant and organizational strategist with deep expertise advancing equity in K-12 education and the nonprofit industry. For over 10 years, she has turned her passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) into programs and events that seed transformation. She serves as an educational consultant designing K-12 curricula covering film, TV shows, and other cultural works. Nia E. Martin-Robinson, is a queer, femme, Black woman, born and raised in Detroit. Her values and approach to anti-racist equity work are rooted in Black Feminist theory and a deep desire to be in service to all Black people, particularly women, girls, and femmes. Throughout her almost 20-year career as a facilitator, trainer, and convener, Nia has shown an unwavering dedication and commitment to challenging racism and inequities in mainstream social movements and large non-profit organizations, such as the Sierra Club and Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Learn more about the work of For the Culture at their website and follow them on Instagram @shiftyourculture and their Beyond: Conversations Series in which they encourage a deeper dive into traditional observances. To learn more about what Dr. Wendi is doing and thinking about, follow her at ⁠⁠@drwendiwilliams⁠⁠ on Instagram and Twitter and stay up with the latest on She Been Ready! The Podcast on Facebook ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/She_Been_Ready-The-Podcast-105193828770865 ⁠⁠ Music Credit: She Been Ready - Arranged, produced, and mixed by Shawn Nealy-Oparah Instagram: @drwendiwilliams Website: ⁠⁠www.drwendiwilliams.com⁠⁠

Dr. Wendi is in conversation with Shri Deihl.  Shri Diehl (she/her) is a certified yoga teacher (E-RYT 500, YACEP) and recipient of the Yoga Alliance Advanced Training Scholarship. Her additional training in trauma-informed wellness complements how she facilitates. Her inspiration comes from living yoga beyond the postures and she is dedicated to being authentically present in all of her endeavors. She studied yoga and Ayurveda in Rishikesh, India, and has been teaching in cities across the United States since 2007. She gives much respect to her teachers and circle of elders who have given invaluable lessons about being well. Shri practices yoga to reaffirm her body and spirit. She teaches yoga to hold space for others as they navigate their own wellness journey.   Shri's current work involves co-leading in the healing collective, In Her Power,  which is dedicated to supporting self-generating wisdom for Black women using yoga, sound baths, and resource sharing.  She is also the founder of Yoga for Abundant Bodies, which are yoga spaces open to larger-bodied people who want to practice fully without the discriminatory gaze of most yoga spaces.  The wisdom of her teaching practice has been featured in The Shadow League and other publications and can be followed on Instagram at @grierdiehl. To learn more about what Dr. Wendi is doing and thinking about, follow her at ⁠⁠@drwendiwilliams⁠⁠ on Instagram and Twitter and stay up with the latest on She Been Ready! The Podcast on Facebook ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/She_Been_Ready-The-Podcast-105193828770865 ⁠⁠ Music Credit: She Been Ready - Arranged, produced, and mixed by Shawn Nealy-Oparah Instagram: @drwendiwilliams Website: ⁠⁠www.drwendiwilliams.com⁠⁠

Welcome to Season Two of She Been Ready! The Podcast. In this brief season intro, Dr. Wendi shares a bit of what drives the focus of the conversations this season.  While continuing to invite a diverse group of Black women leading in a range of circumstances and contexts, this season Dr. Wendi is in conversation with guests whose work has allowed them to lead with and alongside Black women.  We know you will enjoy the conversations this season so tune in and remember. You don't have to get ready when you stay ready. And you can trust in the leadership of a Black women because She Been Ready!  

Dr. Wendi is in conversation with Rachelle Rodgers-Ard, a colleague and friend who has translated her experience and expertise as an educational leader into teachable moments for the wider public. Rachelle has centered the concept of authenticity in her work, drawing connections between one’s capacity to be and accept their whole self while leading in order to do so effectively and competently. In our conversation, Rachelle articulates myriad gems. We discuss the foundational role of authenticity in leadership and her book on the subject, as well as the impacts of inauthenticity on one’s leadership practice and themselves.  Rachelle shares her perspective on the importance of making a pivot and how to do so with grace when necessary. Throughout our conversation, we experience the deep value of care Rachelle demonstrates for herself and others that inspires her work. Learn more about Dr. Rachelle Rodger-Ard’s work on her website at https://www.rachellerogersard.com/. There you can follow her podcast conversations, learn more about her critical race leadership consultation, perhaps work directly with her, or read her text, Black Educational Leadership: From Silencing to Authenticity. You can also follow her on Twitter @ebavdir and Instagram @dr.rachellerogersard. Follow Dr. Wendi at @drwendiwilliams on Instagram and Twitter and stay up with the latest on She Been Ready! The Podcast on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/She_Been_Ready-The-Podcast-105193828770865  Music Credit: She Been Ready - Arranged, produced, and mixed by Shawn Nealy-Oparah Website: www.drwendiwilliams.com

Dr. Wendi is in conversation with Dr. Robyn Fisher. Robyn is President and C.E.O. of R.T. Fisher Educational Enterprises, Inc. (RTF). Since founding RTF in 1999, Dr. Fisher has subsequently co-founded and chaired a number of initiatives directed towards academic excellence in the Bay Area’s communities of color, including The African American Regional Educational Alliance, Inc. (AAREA), and The Choose College Educational Foundation, Inc. (CCEF), of which she is President of the Advisory Board. I invited Robyn to the podcast to discuss her rationale for grounding her educational consultation connecting to the teaching and learning of Black students to the African Diaspora. Whether it be grounding STEAM educational experiences in slave revolt contextualized curriculum, shepherding educators in African Diasporic educational exchange experiences Learn more about Robyn’s work on her website https://www.rtfisher.com/rt-fisher-and-associates-educational-consulting/about-us/ and the work of the AAREA at their website https://www.theaarea.org/ and follow their online conversations on Twitter https://twitter.com/choose_college and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/choosecollege. To learn more about what Dr. Wendi is doing and thinking about, follow her at @drwendiwilliams on Instagram and Twitter and stay up with the latest on She Been Ready! The Podcast on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/She_Been_Ready-The-Podcast-105193828770865  Music Credit: She Been Ready - Arranged, produced, and mixed by Shawn Nealy-Oparah Website: www.drwendiwilliams.com

Dr. Wendi is in conversation with Precious Stroud. Precious founded the Black Female Project https://www.blackfemaleproject.org/) and began her consulting firm, PJS Consultants (https://pjsconsultants.net/), to positively impact the wellness and professional experience of Black women and to provide marketing communications services to organizational leaders who want to #dogood. I invited Precious to the podcast because of the mission she crafted for The Black Female Project. Centered on Black women’s empowerment in workplace contexts, Precious turned the lemons of her own workplace trauma into possibility, connection, and healing for Black women across diverse sectors. Her story is one we can all connect with and her decision to transition from a recipient of intersectional microaggressions at work to creating a sanctuary for Black women to process negative work experiences is a living model of Black women’s liberatory leadership praxis. In our conversation, I talk with her about the mission and the importance of relationships and work with and for Black women, including a very special project she did in collaboration with the Black Teacher Project centering the experiences of Black teachers, Teacher Truth. Learn more about Precious at her website http://preciousstroud.com/ and follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/PreciousStroudLiving/ and Twitter @pjsconsults.  Learn more about The Black Female Project at https://www.blackfemaleproject.org/ and tune into the project’s podcast at https://soundcloud.com/blackfemaleproject, including the conversation Teacher Truth (https://soundcloud.com/blackfemaleproject/2021-conversation-with-black-teacher-project?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing), we reference in this conversation. To learn more about what Dr. Wendi is doing and thinking about, follow her at @drwendiwilliams on Instagram and Twitter and stay up with the latest on She Been Ready! The Podcast on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/She_Been_Ready-The-Podcast-105193828770865 Music Credit: She Been Ready - Arranged, produced, and mixed by Shawn Nealy-Oparah Website: www.drwendiwilliams.com

Dr. Wendi is in conversation with Dr. Leeja Carter. Leeja is a dear friend and much more. She is a psychologist and an expert on inclusive and equity-focused practice in sport and health. I purposely invited Leeja to this conversation about the complexity of relationships between women and especially Black women in the context of our work and leadership experiences.  Touchy, yes, but we are able to handle it. We have the relationship strength to hold this conversation. In this episode, we talk about relationship ruptures between Black women, how to heal them, and the personal values and priorities in work and relationships that make healing possible. Leeja’s work and reach are phenomenal. As her friend, I have been so proud of how she has crafted the current iteration of her career. Realizing the breakdown of the social contract between the food service and restaurant industries and the food insecure at the start of the pandemic, Leeja developed what would become The Hunger Project of the Coalition for Food and Health Equity (https://www.coalitionequity.org/), a not-for-profit organization linking the food insecure on the NJ side of the Hudson Valley with the perishable food and empty restaurants in the area. The Coalition has raised significant public and private funding and was named a model program that continues to provide for a critical need during this desperate time in our nation. Leeja’s expertise at the intersection of Black feminism and sport has also been sought after in the wake of Naomi Osaka’s and Simone Biles’s refusal to perform their athleticism in the midst of their mental health challenges at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She has been featured on various news and podcast outlets discussing the topic, and her edited book, Feminist Applied Sport Psychology: From Theory to Practice (See link: https://bookshop.org/books/feminist-applied-sport-psychology-from-theory-to-practice/9781138483071) was the best resource for the moment. Learn more about Leeja at her website https://www.leejacarter.com/ and follow her on Instagram at @drleeja and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/LeejaCarterPhD.  Also, learn more about and donate to support the works of the Coalition for Food and Health Equity at https://www.coalitionequity.org/ and follow their work on Instagram @coalition_equity and on Facebook @CoalitionforFoodandHealthEquity. To learn more about what Dr. Wendi is doing and thinking about, follow her at @drwendiwilliams on Instagram and Twitter and stay up with the latest on She Been Ready! The Podcast on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/She_Been_Ready-The-Podcast-105193828770865  Music Credit: She Been Ready - Arranged, produced, and mixed by Shawn Nealy-Oparah Website: www.drwendiwilliams.com

Dr. Wendi is in conversation with Dr. Nadia Lopez, who is been lovingly called Ms. Lopez by innumerable young people and their families who attended Mott Hall Bridges Academy, the school she founded in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. In her TedTalk (https://www.ted.com/talks/nadia_lopez_why_open_a_school_to_close_a_prison?language=en), she says she opened a school to close a prison. In this episode, we discuss her path and experience as an educational leader and her decision to leave the profession to heal mentally and physically.  Nadia’s good work was made very public when one of her students named her as one of the most important people in his life in a Human’s of New York feature (see link: https://www.humansofnewyork.com/post/108838763416/a-couple-days-back-i-posted-the-portrait-of-a). Nadia’s impact on the lives of her students and the staff at her school was huge and unfortunately, it came at a cost to her health. In our conversation, she shares her experience and the alchemy she’s performed turning the professional pain she’s endured into powerful lessons learned that she now shares with educational leaders through her consultation.  Whether it is her Sunday support series, “Tea With Me”; organizational, individual, and group coaching consultation, or the development of her curriculum, The Blueprint (https://www.elevatedblk.com/the-blueprint), Nadia walks alongside her clients and community to find wholeness and wellness as they engage critical work for youth, schools, and communities. And most recently, Nadia launched a podcast, Detention (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/detention-with-dr-nadia-lopezpodcast-episode-1/id1614518774?i=1000554139618)  in which she invites disruptors and rebels in conversation about how to change the field of education for the better. Learn more about Nadia at her website http://www.thelopezeffect.com/tle/ and follow her on Instagram and Twitter @TheLopezEffect. To learn more about what Dr. Wendi is doing and thinking about, follow her at @drwendiwilliams on Instagram and Twitter and stay up with the latest on She Been Ready! The Podcast on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/She_Been_Ready-The-Podcast-105193828770865  Music Credit: She Been Ready - Arranged, produced, and mixed by Shawn Nealy-Oparah Website: www.drwendiwilliams.com

Dr. Wendi is in conversation with Mutale Nkonde.  Mutale is the founder and CEO of AI For the People (AFP; https://www.aiforpeople.org/). AFP is a non-profit communications agency that aims to eliminate the underrepresentation of Black professionals in the American technology sector by 2030. In this episode, we discuss her decision to launch AI for the People and the work she’s done to address race-based dis-and misinformation which was featured in an article, “Disinformation creep: ADOS and the strategic weaponization of breaking news” in the Misinformation Review published by the Harvard Kennedy School (see link:  https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/nkonde_disinformation_creep_ados_20210118_retracted.pdf. The article was later retracted. She has also discussed her work on several podcasts and media outlets including on Farai Chideya’s Our Body Politic which we mention during this episode (see link: https://our-body-politic.simplecast.com/episodes/our-body-politic-january-1-2021-BDZUuAIq_) In this episode, we also discuss her foray into film-making and the inclusion of her film, Blackness Unbound: Afrofuturism and the Revolutionary Imagination (see link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqXIR6BPxlk&list=PL6RlkQnoCx_XI6uS8ZuR_fvx8ZrCaWPan&index=22), which was included in the Smithsonian Afrofuturism Series, a collaboration between the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture (@NMAAHC ), and the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. Mutale is a fascinating artist and human. Follow her and the work of AI For the People on Twitter at @mutalenkonde and @AI4thePPL, respectively. To learn more about what Dr. Wendi is doing and thinking about, follow her at @drwendiwilliams on Instagram and Twitter and stay up with the latest on She Been Ready! The Podcast on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/She_Been_Ready-The-Podcast-105193828770865  Music Credit: She Been Ready - Arranged, produced, and mixed by Shawn Nealy-Oparah Website: www.drwendiwilliams.com

Introducing She Been Ready! The Podcast. A conversation about Black women’s liberatory leadership praxis. Follow Dr. Wendi at @drwendiwilliams on Instagram and Twitter and stay up with the latest on She Been Ready! The Podcast on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/She_Been_Ready-The-Podcast-105193828770865  Music Credit: She Been Ready - Arranged, produced, and mixed by Shawn Nealy-Oparah Website: www.drwendiwilliams.com

Wanda Swan, is the Founder and Director of the The Swan Center for Advocacy & Research, Inc., Founder and CEO of Start By Talking, an anti-oppressive education and multimedia company that helps White folx, leaders, and organizations map their Oppressive Muscle Memory to dismantle White Supremacy and anti-Blackness, and podcast host of Come Get Your White People; where she hosts conversations and engages in the theory-making and analysis that undergirds her work to unpack the taken-for-granted, automatic attitudes and behaviors that maintain racist practices and processes among people in relationships and organization. Our conversation is riveting and insightful, provoking the type of deep reflection I imagine happens for her clients in 1:1 leadership coaching, their online learning center, and organizational training and assessment. Follow Wanda on Instagram @startbytalking

We are in for quite a treat. Malesha (Mali) Taylor-Browning joins us to talk about the art of leadership. Malesha is an accomplished vocal artist, TEDx Speaker, strategist and the creator of The E.L.E.V.A*T.E. Framework: 8 Guiding Principles for BIPOC leaders and organizations. This framework has emerged from her lived-experience as a trained opera singer, Black woman, Mother, professor, arts administrator and consultant working across arts disciplines and multiple sectors for the past 25 years.   Often, Black women’s leadership praxis involves bringing together multiple complex aspects of ourselves and Malesha’s story and articulation of her work is no exception. I hope you all enjoy this conversation and walk away from it as full as I did.   Learn more about Malesha and her work at musesalon.org/ and follow Muse Salon on Instagram @muse_salon_collaborative To learn more about what Dr. Wendi is doing and thinking about, follow her at ⁠@drwendiwilliams⁠ on Instagram and Twitter and stay up with the latest on She Been Ready! The Podcast on Facebook ⁠https://www.facebook.com/She_Been_Ready-The-Podcast-105193828770865 ⁠

The final installation. Yes, we deal with our new client. They are a system. Their name is Whiteness. As a reminder, I invited @yolie_sealeyruiz and @mindfield_drj to a conversation of remembrance and reflection. We began this conversation Fall 2023 delighted that #ClaudineGay was named president of Harvard University all the while #JoanneAEpps and #OrinthiaMontague were both reported dead within weeks of one another at the start of the term. We were not a week into the 2024 new year when we learned that #BonnieCandia-Bailey completed suicide beneath a deluge of bullying and harassment at Lincoln University by her superior. What is it about the higher education context that makes it so fatal for Black women? While, Black people and Black women in particular have found access to respectable professional lives within a narrow range of roles, education has always been an access point. We’ve been lauded as excellent educators, and now we have must figure out how to survive in academia. Join me for this special 3-part SBR series with my dear colleagues, as we explore what is happening in academia for BIPOC folx, why it is happening (utilizing a framework of intersectional racial and gender trauma), and how we can enact acts of refusal to enable our own recovery. #SheBeenReady!ThePodcast was created for moments like these. Moments where we want to get voice and perspective from Black women thought- leaders about the experiences of us by us. What I know, what we all know is that Black women are not a monolith, nor are the negative experiences we face unique to us. What I also know is we offer a unique perspective that might, just might, lead us to a path of liberation. Somehow, like my grandmother, my mother, my aunties, and my sister “-friends, we survive these spaces and sometimes even thrive. Tune in. LINK IN BIO. #RefusalRecovery #SheBeenReady #RacialTraumaIsrael #DyingInAcademia #BlackWomenAtWork #YouWon’tBreakOurSoul #We’reTellingEverybody

Welcome to Part II our special She Been Ready! The Podcast Conversation of this engaging conversations with Drs. Maryam Jernigan-Noesi and Yolanda Sealy-Ruiz, Break My Soul: BIPOC Folks in Academia. In this portion of the conversation we dive deeper and try to unearth "the why". We want to understand why we see what we see happening for BIPOC folks in higher ed through the view of three Black women scholars utilizing frameworks of racial literacy and intersectional racial and gender trauma. Powerful! #RefusalandRecovery #SheBeenReady #RacialTraumaIsReal #DyingInAcademia #BlackWomenAtWork #YouWon’tBreakOurSoul #We’reTellingEverybody

Release the wiggle, release the job, release the stress, forget the rest! Beyoncé had it right. In the midst of so much sadness and despair, she released her album #TheRenaissance, or rather, welcomed us to it. And it is in the backdrop of her song #BreakMySoul, a refusal anthem, that I invited @yolie_sealeyruiz and @mindfield_drj to a conversation of remembrance and reflection. We began this conversation Fall 2023 delighted that #ClaudineGay was named president of Harvard University all the while #JoanneAEpps and #OrinthiaMontague were both reported dead within weeks of one another at the start of the term. We were not a week into the 2024 new year when we learned that #BonnieCandia-Bailey completed suicide beneath a deluge of bullying and harassment at Lincoln University by her superior. What is it about the higher education context that makes it so fatal for Black women? While, Black people and Black women in particular have found access to respectable professional lives within a narrow range of roles, education has always been an access point. We’ve been lauded as excellent educators, and now we have must figure out how to survive in academia. Join me for this special 3-part SBR series with my dear colleagues, as we explore what is happening in academia for BIPOC folx, why it is happening (utilizing a framework of intersectional racial and gender trauma), and how we can enact acts of refusal to enable our own recovery. #SheBeenReady!ThePodcast was created for moments like these. Moments where we want to get voice and perspective from Black women thought- leaders about the experiences of us by us. What I know, what we all know is that Black women are not a monolith, nor are the negative experiences we face unique to us. What I also know is we offer a unique perspective that might, just might, lead us to a path of liberation. Somehow, like my grandmother, my mother, my aunties, and my sister “-friends, we survive these spaces and sometimes even thrive. Tune in. LINK IN BIO. #RefusalRecovery #SheBeenReady #RacialTraumaIsrael #DyingInAcademia #BlackWomenAtWork #YouWon’tBreakOurSoul #We’reTellingEverybody