Season 3 Guests
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Dr. Charletta Wilson is an industrial & organizational psychologist, an International Coaching Federation (ICF) Certified Professional Coach, Global Team Coach, TEDx Speaker and Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator at CaPeesh Consulting LLC. For over two decades, she’s served thousands of clients in business startups, leadership and organizational development. In our interview, Dr. Wilson shares stories of how she was introduced to colorism and how it parlayed with stories of not being good enough. With this talk, she is able to put language to hard experiences that may, otherwise, go unnoticed in our everyday biases.
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Nikki Innocent is a 2-time TEDx speaker, certified women’s leadership coach, diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI) strategist and the host of the podcast Checkbox Other, that focuses on the journey toward belonging. Five years ago, Nikki left behind her career in Corporate America to live and lead fully as herself focusing on belonging, releasing the pressure to “fit in” and embracing the ways she differed as a creative, biracial, Millennial woman. Nikki’s work focuses on fostering a new generation of leaders looking to leverage their unique power and privilege to lead their lives authentically to make the future a more inclusive place.
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My guest this week is Dr. Shantel Gabrieal Buggs. Dr. Buggs is an assistant professor of sociology and African American studies at Florida State University, specializing in research on multiracial identity, representation, and romantic, sexual, and family relationships. She is currently working on an edited collection of essays on "queering" consent for LGBTQ people in the #MeToo era and her first monograph on the online dating experiences of multiracial women in Central Texas. She's also collaborating on several other projects exploring race, gender, and inequality within higher education.
Her primary research agenda focuses on multiracial identity, family dynamics, and interracial relationships (race, gender, intimacy, culture), and she has written about the online dating experiences of self-identified multiracial and multiethnic women as well as other pieces such as how the BLM movement is shaping how women vet partners and how multiracial women view their relationships as interracial.
Maris Lidaka is a filmmaker in Los Angeles and the creator of the Blended Future Project. Maris talks with me about his experience growing up mixed both in a mostly white suburb but also abroad in high school. This experience allowed him to gain some perspective on race and who he is.
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Natalie Forest, Ph.D. an intuitive transformational Mentor with a background in history and teaching. She is a teacher inside and out in all she does. She helps people going through a "midlife crisis" reconnect with their own unique self through addressing "the Hidden Power of Patterns" so that they can finally live their lives, their way.
Natalie is from Germany, studies U.S. and "USSR" history to become an experts in issues relating to equality in the U.S. through her studies of history, humanities, psychology and life - transferring skills all along the way. She lives in Maryland with her daughter and husband and enjoys volunteering with her daughter, reading, yoga, and travels. She is the CEO of the SAAS company iDueSystems, Executive Director for The Women of Global of Change, a columnist for The Los Angeles Tribune, a speaker, author and more.
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Sarah Lotus Garrett is a life coach working with mixed adults and monoracial parents of mixed children. She was born and raised in northern California and has lived in Northern Italy for the past 15 years. She is a woman, daughter, sister, mother, wife, auntie, friend, world citizen, chef, gardener, creator of beautiful things, a napper, and a joy seeker.
You can check out her work on her Mixed Bloom Room site, where can also learn about her courses. Don't forget to follow her on Instagram, too!
Meredith and Cindy Palomo are a super cool lesbian couple living in the Kansas City area. They recently paused a three-year endeavor as foster parents. They're lucky to have three amazing daughters, aged 20, 17, and 3. They have a passion for sharing what they know about trauma-informed care, and have a deep belief that every child deserves to grow up with a connection to their roots, biological and otherwise.
Meredith Palomo and Lauren Wiggins are sisters and grew up in the suburbs of Kansas City. Now mothers, each living in a city with a rich activist culture, they've started grappling again with what it means to be bi-racial, black, and women and what they hope to share with their children about their experiences.
LaFaye Noel began competing as a teen and now steps into a new division. She’s served as a coach, contestant, and even a pageant mom. After being deflected from competing due to her same-sex marriage, LaFaye was determined to make a difference with an organization that aligns with her beliefs and values.
Brittany George was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada and is the founder of Mixed Mental Health. She focuses on identity alignment and building confidence and community. Mixed men and women can find relatable content on her site about what it is liked to be mixed and how your mental health is affected by what we experience.
April Powers is the Managing Director of First Impression Rx, a full service consulting firm that helps fortune 500, nonprofits, and government agencies manage differences through training and diversity and inclusion strategy. She is also the Chief Equity & Inclusion Officer for the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators. Prior to this, she led inclusion efforts at NestléUSA as well as Amgen. She is Bluish (black and Jewish), bilingual, has lived in the US, South America and Europe and, thus brings a global perspective with local understanding to her clients' goals in the inclusion space.
Marlon Booker, Julian Booker, Shiranthi Goonathilika, Cenisa Gavin, and Janei Maynard are cast members from Volume 1 of the documentary, Blasian Narratives. Blasian Narratives is a multi-media “Docu-Theatre” project that intimately explores the intersection and identities of mixed race Black & Asian individuals through live performances and film. The project began as a collaboration between Morehouse and Spelman College students documenting and exploring the identity formations of individuals with mixed Afro-Asian heritage, colloquially known as “Blasians.”
The grassroots project aims to bring historically polarized communities together by illustrating the complexities and unity of identity awareness–how you see yourself vs how you are seen–in hopes of building solidarity along the way. The cast and crew now includes students and graduates from Stanford, NYU, and more.
Therese Kempf is a therapist in NYC. She specializes in working with trauma and couples, and has a unique focus in working with Racism as Trauma. Therese is also a body based therapist (Sensorimotor Psychotherapy) and helps her clients see the body as a main source of information as well as a primary channel for healing. She has also been featured in a short film called The Devolution of Love, where she is a couples therapist discussing the nuances of dating in the Tinder culture today. She was also in the Netflix film She Did That!, a film about black entrepreneurial women.
You can learn more about Therese and what she does when you check out her Instagram accounts here and here for more.
Zakiya Mabery has over 15 years experience in Human Capital Management and is passionate in Diversity and Inclusion (D&I). She is the founder of B Global Diversity & Inclusion Strategic Planning LLC and co author of The Humans Behind The Resources. Zakiya has also written The Complete Guide to: Diversity, Inclusion in the Age of COVID-19 First Edition, which will be available this fall.
Zakiya Mabery was featured on Great Day Washington (CBS) and Good Morning Washington (ABC) and has presented for small and large organizations such as the Department of Defense, University of Minnesota, The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), The American Association for Access, Equity and Diversity (AAAED), DisabilityIn, and The Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) in the U.S. Department of Labor.
Wanda Booth is a business strategist helping the Million Dollar Business Divas achieve financial freedom and purpose in their online business. She also served 25 years in the US Army where conversations of race, diversity, and equal opportunity are often discussed. Wanda currently lives in Kansas raising her three children to understand their true selves.
Richard Pierre is a filmmaker who was born in the US but is currently living in Toronto, Canada. He joins me to talk about his experiences that led him down the path to film-making and also talks about the day that he became black. Don't miss this episode as we dive deep into the nuances of race and culture and the power of seeing oneself reflected on-screen. Films like What Are You are and added importance when created by mixed folks.
Joshua Grant is currently a researcher working with the Transitional Justice Resource Center in Kosovo. He is passionate about issues of race in international relations and domestically.
Cedric Stout, aka Skycedi, is from the United States but is currently living in Seoul, South Korea. He is a filmmaker, photographer, and YouTuber. Cedric is a biracial Black & Korean American that was born in the states, raised in a military family and multi-ethnic household, and has lived in South Korea for the past 2 years.
Check out Cedric's YouTube channel, SkyCedi, about him and his girlfriend sharing stories of culture, whether it be from the lens of being half-Korean, or highlighting different aspects of Korea. They have discussions, short films, mini-documentaries, and vlogs on the channel. You can also find hime on Instagram: @skycedi for some of his photography.
Season 2 Guests
Carmen is Chinese and white and grew up just about all over Canada, in places like British Columbia (BC), Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, and the Northwest Territories. She moved back to British Columbia in 2014, to start university in Vancouver. She holds a BA in History (Honors) and International Relations from the University of British Columbia, with a focus on decolonization.
Ashley Boren is the author of the new book, Sounds Perfect, which will hit bookstores July 2020. She is from San Diego, CA and is a recent graduate from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she studied communication and professional writing. She is also a recipient of the University Service Award, given in recognition of dedicated service to the University, its students, and the community.
Jamie Keener is a biracial (Chinese and white-American) individual who has grown up between China and the US. She discusses her experiences as a child, especially while living in China, wanting to be white. At the international middle school she attended, she endured exclusion from cliques that didn't find her to be white enough. Listen to her story as she recounts wrestling with her identity as she got older and finally learning to accept and appreciate her Chinese heritage and appreciate the fact that she could be "both/and" while simultaneously being "neither/nor."
Nate Terrell, is a licensed clinical social work with 40 years of practice. Nate is the author of Achieving Self-Compassion. Dr. Anita Foeman teaches in the Communications and Media department at West Chester University and focuses on intercultural and organizational communication. Dr. Foeman was a guest on a previous two-part episode, "DNA and Identity".Together, the two have developed and facilitated diversity and inclusion training.
Dr. Jacqueline M. Chen is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Utah. A California native, she now lives and works in Salt Lake City. The majority of her research focuses on understanding how monoracial people (White Americans, Asian Americans, Black Americans) perceive and view multiracial individuals, specifically whether they are likely to view multiracial people as fellow group members.
Rebecca Godard is a graduate student at the University of British Columbia. She studies stigma and social support, particularly as it pertains to online communities and other forms of computer-mediated communication. In this episode she discusses the importance of her Chinese heritage, especially having spent some of her formative childhood years living in China.
Michaela Nee currently lives in San Francisco living & working in San Francisco and is working for a study abroad nonprofit bringing college & graduate students from US and international universities to the Bay Area for internships. Her education is in international studies & French, and she has a Masters in Nonprofit Administration. She grew up as a mixed kid in a military family and has experienced the ambiguity and difficulties of being mixed in a lot of places throughout the US, in addition to what it's like to be mixed while traveling internationally in various regions of the world. Like a lot of mixed people, she grew up never quite belonging to either side of my identity and have gone through different phases of acceptance/denial/wrestling with who she is and what exactly who she is "supposed" to be.
Dr. Chanel Meyers is a Post Doctoral Scholar and York University. Born and raised in Hawai‘i, she became interested in how racial diversity impacts how we deal with race and continues her work in social psychology to contribute to the knowledge bank of race and identity.
She's back to chat with us again!
Sarah Bacerra is an inclusion advocate, speaker, and activist in San Diego, CA. She has spent much of her career in leadership development and learning effectiveness, specifically through the lens of fostering belonging in organizations.
With a focus on intersectional activism, Sarah has served on the board for Women’s March San Diego since 2017 and in 2019 served as the March Co-Director. As a Learning & Performance Consultant for ELM Learning, she specializes in creative learning experiences that inspire growth and change in the world’s leading organizations.
Sarah has had the privilege of working with hundreds of non-profits, entrepreneurs, and startups, all with an eye to ensuring inclusivity and respect for all voices. Sarah’s daily inspiration are her two daughters, Lily and Ruby.
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Tahishia is the co-author of the Facebook Page Mixed Messages which is dedicated to combating racist behavior as well addressing the biases and problematic behavior in the biracial community. Their goal is to also uplift the voices of the communities of color that tend to get washed out by white supremacy.
Lisa Woolfork is the creator of Black Women Stitch, the sewing group where black lives matter. She is the host and producer of Stitch Please, the podcast that centers black women, girls, and femmes in the sewing community. She is also an English professor at the University of Virginia where she specializes in African American Literature and Culture.
Season 1 Guests
Analia Albuja is a PhD candidate in social psychology at Rutgers University who joins me to talk about her academic research, which explores the identity denial and identity questioning experiences of biracial and bicultural people. She has studied how frequently these experiences happen, how people interpret them, and the associated psychological outcomes that come as a result.
Sarah Bacerra is an inclusion advocate, speaker, and activist in San Diego, CA. She has spent much of her career in leadership development and learning effectiveness, specifically through the lens of fostering belonging in organizations.
With a focus on intersectional activism, Sarah has served on the board for Women’s March San Diego since 2017 and in 2019 served as the March Co-Director. As a Learning & Performance Consultant for ELM Learning, she specializes in creative learning experiences that inspire growth and change in the world’s leading organizations.
Sarah has had the privilege of working with hundreds of non-profits, entrepreneurs, and startups, all with an eye to ensuring inclusivity and respect for all voices. Sarah’s daily inspiration are her two daughters, Lily and Ruby.
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Troy Chapman is a jazz guitarist...and Sarah’s dad. Based on Whidbey Island, WA, Troy can be found playing gypsy jazz with The Hot Club of Troy, modern jazz guitar with The Troy Chapman Group and Baroque Guitar with The Island Consort.
Alongside collaborator Andre Feriante, Troy developed the captivating show “Cythara: The History of the World According to the Guitar,” a fascinating ride through musical history. As you might have guessed, Troy likes to play guitar.
Dr. Anita Foeman shares the details of her DNA Discussions Project and talks with me about how one's racial narrative may or may not change based on the results. Should you be extended certain rights dependent upon what the DNA test reveals? What if the results are completely different than what you expected? Shannon and I react to the insight and ponder the possibilities.
Dr. Foeman studies the sociological experiences surrounding DNA testing when it comes to one's narrative of their racial background. She teaches in the communications and media department at West Chester University and focuses on intercultural and organizational communication. She is the founder and co-investigator of the DNA Discussion Project (mentioned above).
Dr. Gaither is an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University in North Carolina and where she runs the Identity & Diversity Lab. She specializes in studies surrounding biracial and social identities as well as racial interactions, racial categorization, and social development. One of her areas of focus is understanding how having multiple social or racial identities affects behavior and fluidity of identity.