Shows
She Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 304 | Fat Black and Nappy Leadership Praxis w/ Wanda SwanWanda 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...
2024-03-121h 20She Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 303 | The Art of Leadership: Articulating a Black Liberatory Praxis in the Vocal Arts w/ Malesha TaylorWe 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 ar...
2024-02-121h 26She Been Ready! The PodcastSBR | SPECIAL SERIES. Break My Soul: BIPOC Folx in Academia_ Part IIIThe 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...
2024-02-0932 minShe Been Ready! The PodcastSBR | SPECIAL SERIES. Break My Soul: BIPOC Folx in Academia_ Part II
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
2024-02-0736 minShe Been Ready! The PodcastSBR | SPECIAL SERIES. Break My Soul: BIPOC Folx in Academia_ Part I
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. W...
2024-01-1734 minShe Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 301 | Sacred Rage w/ Dr. Jennifer MullanDr. Wendi is in conversation with Dr. Jennifer Mullan, a clinical psychologist who is lovingly called the “Rage Doctor”.
Dr. Mullan is the creator and founder of Decolonizing Therapy and has merged her training as a psychologist with her lived experience to question the ways in which the practice of psychology works and doesn’t work, for whom, and why.
Her work is powerful and is outlined in her recent book, Decolonizing Therapy: Oppression, Historical Trauma and Politicizing your Practice. Dr. Mullan has cultivated her practice through her work as a professor preparing social workers, therapis...
2024-01-031h 18She Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 214 | Sister CEO w/ DCDr. Carole Dorham-Kelly, or as she is also known, DC, is the Chief Executive Officer of Rubicon Programs. At Rubicon, they do exceptional work to address the scourge of poverty by equipping participants in their programs to develop the economic mobility to move out of poverty through developing assets, income, wellness, and connections.
I asked DC to join me in conversation during our first meeting. We were invited to participate in a conference about workforce issues. I learned she was a counseling psychologist and in that moment I knew we had to meet.
I am a...
2023-12-011h 11She Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 213 | Black Women Will Save the World Nsé Ufot Former CEO, New Georgia ProjectActivist, Community Organizer, Change Maker. Nsé Ufot is nothing short of a transformative presence in our political landscape. Former CEO of the New Georgia Project, an organization founded by Stacey Abrams, Ufot's coalition building and organizing efforts turned the "Peach State Purple". In this incredible interview, I had the pleasure of being in conversation with a thought-leader and "doer" whose political labor in Georgia got voters' and the country's attention focused on the oasis of the southeast during the 2020 Presidential Election and the 2021 run-off election. We know, now, the impact of both of these elections on the political landscape o...
2023-11-2551 minShe Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 210 | On Poetics and Trenches: Teacher Education for the 21st Century w/ Dr. Yolanda Sealy-RuizThe 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...
2023-11-251h 03She Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 211 | Exodus Movement of Black Women AcademicsBlack 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...
2023-11-2559 minShe Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 209 | Into the Wild: Leading women to power and purpose in nature w/ Tia WilliamsHiking is healing! Yes, indeed, it is. Just ask, founder of Hiking is Healing Collective, Tia Williams. In this episode, Dr. Wendi is in conversation with Tia. Tia is an experienced social justice and safe space facilitator who has developed a passion for empowering young people around social justice issues and bringing cultural awareness to those around her. Tia’s identities help shape the work that she does on college campuses and in the community. She is a Black, queer, Buddhist woman living in the south, who loves talking about hiking and healing.
Tia holds an M.Ed...
2023-11-2551 minShe Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 212 | Story Telling: A PR Strategy for Black Women’s Leadership w/ Chelsea FullerDo Black women need a communications strategy? We might. Whether it be the negative media portrayals of Black women of ALL walks of life, the failure to consider the vast range of Black women's personhood and experience, or the willingness to believe the worst of us before and even after we've had an opportunity to tell our side of the story, we may need help to be seen accurately in the public sphere.
If only we could be Chelsea Fuller's client. Chelsea is the Managing Partner & Senior Strategist, for Black Alder, a radical story-telling and communications strategy...
2023-10-021h 11She Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 208 | The Art of Liberation w/ Nataki GarrettDr. 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 nar...
2023-06-031h 01She Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 207 | Mothering Audacity w/ Dr. Ife UdohDr. 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...
2023-05-201h 23She Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 206: Solidarity | The Role of Black and Asian American Women’s Leadership w/ Dr. Yuying TsongThe Month of May is quite special and for that reason we are offering two episodes. May 1, also called Worker’s Day or International Workers Day, commemorates the struggles and gains made by workers and the labour movement across the globe, observed on May 1 in many countries and in September on the first Monday of that month. Later in the month we will launch Episode SBR 207 on the labor of mothering audacity. Stay tuned!
May also marks the observation of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month. Given the heightened racialization and reckoning we’ve faced recently , I wan...
2023-05-021h 10She Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 205 | Let's Get Physical w/ Ife Obi, Owner of The Fit In Bed StuyIt 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...
2023-04-111h 33She Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 204 | Special Event: She Been Ready! The Podcast Instagram Live | Book Launch Black Women at Work: On Refusal and Recovery by Dr. Wendi WilliamsDr. Wendi is joined by Dr. Nadia Lopez and Precious Stroud, two guests of She Been Ready! The Podcast and reviewers of her new book, Black Women at Work: On Refusal and Recovery.
In this LIVE Episode of She Been ReadyI The Podcast the tables are turned and Dr. Wendi is joined by two sister-friends and colleagues who know a thing or two about being Black women at work and whose work centers supporting Black women (and others) to traverse problematic workplace dynamics.
To learn more about what Dr. Wendi is doing an...
2023-03-2359 minShe Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 203 | Unmasked: Black Man, Divine Feminine w/ Ashanti BranchAshanti Branch is a good brother. We met twice. Once, as I was seeking support to begin a podcast. So you all have him to thank for it.
And during that time, I learned that he was an alum of the teacher preparation program of the school I was running. As an educator, he wanted to understand what was happening with the boys in his school. The boys who were super smart, but distant and did not allow his lessons to permeate their bravado. Those boys in working-class and poor communities of the East Bay (Oakland, San Lean...
2023-02-111h 14She Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 202 | In the Belly of the Beast: DEI at the Intersection of Movement and Justice WorkDr. 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...
2023-02-091h 29She Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 201 | Embodying Abundance w/Dr. Shri DeihlDr. 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 w...
2023-01-161h 09She Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 200 | Gettin' Ready for Season 2Welcome 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 le...
2023-01-0905 minShe Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 10: On Ferocity OR And If You Think About Turning BackIn the final episode of season one, Dr. Wendi hands over the reins of the podcast to her trusted friend, Diane Wiltshire. Belovedly known as Fury by her friends and loved ones, of whom Dr. Wendi is one but refuses to call her outside her given name (another story for another day), it is, for this reason, she may be the best person to close out our first season of She Been Ready! The Podcast by interviewing our host about her leadership journey, the reason for the podcast, and why ferocity is a good thing (and anything else she...
2022-12-181h 20She Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 9: The Body is the Portal w/ Kharyshi WigintonThe Body is the Portal
Kharyshi Wiginton
Khayastar@gmail.com
Dr. Wendi is in conversation with her long-time friend and co-conspirator, Kharyshi Wiginton. All their lives, Kharyshi has been a bit of a firecracker and truth-speaker. Audacious really and in ways that were discouraged primarily because of her body.
In our conversation, Kharyshi shares her relationship with her body in the context of familial and societal fat phobia and racial uplift.
Educator, artist, auntie, activist, and friend, Kharyshi's leadership and wisdom have been disseminated in schools, on stage, and t...
2022-11-211h 31She Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 8: Combahee Flow w/ Margo Okazawa-ReyNOTE. Please be aware that the sound quality is a little shaky but accessible. Enjoy the conversation.
Dr. Wendi is in conversation with Dr. Margo Okazawa-Rey, scholar, activist, dancer, DJ, and overall phenomenal human and lover of life. Young at heart, our ongoing joke is that though she is retired and contributed to the Combahee River Collective Statement published the year I was born, she is the little sister.
Margo and her sistren blazed a trail for me and other Black women to live within an expansive definition of feminism that can hold our whole B...
2022-10-2350 minShe Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 7: Elders and Ancestors with Lurie Daniels-FavorsDr. Wendi is in conversation with Lurie Daniel Favors, Esq. Lurie is a sister-friend from way back and a solid companion in the struggle to bring thoughtful, engaging, and liberatory critique to assess the state of Black America. We met as her work-centered community-based education in Brooklyn, NY where she co-founded, Breaking the Cycle Consulting Services, and Afro State of Mind a book and blog highlighting the travails and triumphs of living life in a Black body and with Black hair.
A central element of Lurie’s work has been an unrelenting tethering between those of us str...
2022-09-2552 minShe Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 6 | Grace Under Fire w/Rachelle Rodgers-ArdDr. 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...
2022-08-2151 minShe Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 5 | Diasporic Visions w: Robyn FisherDr. 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 le...
2022-07-241h 00She Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 4 | Sister-Friend w/ Precious StroudDr. 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 se...
2022-06-261h 07She Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 3 | What we owe one another: The Mechanics of Black women’s care ethic while leading w/ Dr. Leeja CarterDr. 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 a...
2022-05-221h 07She Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 2 | Minding the Gap w: Nadia LopezDr. 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 goo...
2022-04-241h 03She Been Ready! The PodcastSBR 1 | Make a Way Out of No Way w/ Mutale NkondeDr. 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...
2022-03-201h 14
She Been Ready! The PodcastIntroducing She Been Ready! The PodcastIntroducing 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
2022-03-0100 min