In this episode of the Caring, Character, & Community Podcast, Hardin interviews Verneé Green and Andrew Wilkes about how equitable access to action-oriented civics education can work to foster positive youth development and to cultivate an engaged citizenry.

To watch this episode instead, please click here:

Verneé Green is the Chief Executive Officer of Mikva Challenge, a national civic education nonprofit which has engaged over 300,000 youth in its mission of developing youth to be empowered, informed and active civic leaders who will promote a just and equitable society. Verneé Green has over 25 years of experience in the education and nonprofit sectors and has been at Mikva Challenge for five years, most recently serving as the Executive Director of Mikva’s Illinois chapter. Verneé holds a Bachelor’s degree from Illinois Wesleyan University and a Master’s Degree from the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration. At the University of Chicago, she was a recipient of the McCormick-Tribune Fellowship in Urban and Community Leadership. Verneé is a fellow of Leadership Greater Chicago and in 2022 was a recipient of the Beacon Award, a recognition from The CAFE Group’s 1954 Project which honors the impact of Black leaders across the education ecosystem.

Andrew Wilkes serves as Generation Citizen’s Chief Policy & Advocacy Officer, where he leads GC’s thought leadership, coalition building, and policy initiatives as a part of the national leadership team. Andrew comes to this role with nearly ten years of experience in public policy, advocacy, and community organizing, particularly among congregations and community-based organizations. Prior to joining GC in 2017, he served as the executive director of the Drum Major Institute, a social change organization founded by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In that capacity, he executed public affairs events in Dallas, TX and Washington D.C. to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act; established the Beloved Community Initiative, a national resource on spirituality and social justice for faith communities; and relaunched the nationally renowned Marketplace of Ideas Forum – a forum for bringing policy ideas to an audience of changemakers, policy professionals, and nonprofit leaders.

As a Senior Grants Manager at The American Red Cross of Greater New York, he worked with elected officials, public agencies, and community stakeholders to administer a $45 million budget for Superstorm Sandy recovery in New York state and Connecticut. Before that, he worked at Habitat for Humanity – New York City, where he mobilized 140 faith communities across the city to serve, donate, and advocate for affordable housing.

Andrew is a graduate of Hampton University, Princeton Theological Seminary, the CORO public affairs fellowship, and is a doctoral candidate in political science at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He also serves on the board of directors for the Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State.

Please visit our archive to listen to previous episodes of the podcast, including interviews from Semester 1: “Leadership in Times of Crisis,” with PK-12, higher-education, and community-based-organization leaders, and Semester 2: “What’s Equity Got to Do With It?”

Thanks to Lizzie Barcay for the editorial and production work.

Music:

Bluesy Vibes by Doug Maxwell/Media Right Productions

Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

Music provided by FreeMusic109 https://youtube.com/FreeMusic109’’'

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ccsr.substack.com

In this episode of the Caring, Character, & Community Podcast, Hardin interviews Michael Dennehy and Reggie Jean of Boston University about how and why they became involved in their work: supporting equitable access, belongingness, and success for low-income and first-generation college students.

To watch this episode instead, please click here:

Michael Dennehy is the Executive Director of College Access & Student Success at Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. Mike has over 30 years of experience working in college access. As executive director, he oversees the unit within the Wheelock College of Education that coordinates a number of college access programs including both precollege, undergraduate and graduate programming. In this role, he also serves as the BU AACTE Holmes program coordinator, as the BU Posse Liaison and as the advisor to the Menino Scholars. Prior to his current position, Mike worked for Upward Bound and Upward Bound Math Science at Boston University from 1990 to 2014, serving as project director from 1999 - 2014. He has served as a state and regional president for TRIO professional associations, as a faculty member for national TRIO trainings, and as a member of a number of advisory committees related to issues of college access for Boston University and for groups working with the Boston Public Schools. Mike is a graduate of the Boston Public Schools and attended Boston University as a Menino Scholar where he earned his BA in English Literature. Mike also holds EdM in Higher Education Administration from Boston University.

Reggie Jean is currently director of Boston University Upward Bound (UB) and Upward Bound Math Science (UBMS) programs. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Reggie began a connection with Upward Bound as a tutor during the summer of 1994. After earning his undergraduate degree and becoming a teacher, Reggie would return each summer to work with UB to serve as a tutor, teacher, and dorm supervisor. He became a full-time UB staff member in 2001 and became director of UB classic in 2015 and UBMS in 2019. Reggie earned his bachelor’s degree in Sociology, with a focus in Social Studies Education, and a Master’s in Administration in Education from Boston University. Reggie is a past-president of the New England Educational Opportunity Association (NEOA). In addition to having served on committees with the Council for Opportunity in Education, MEFA and the College Board, he is also a past-president of the Massachusetts Educational Opportunity Association.

Please visit our archive to listen to previous episodes of the podcast, including interviews from Semester 1: “Leadership in Times of Crisis,” with PK-12, higher-education, and community-based-organization leaders, and Semester 2: “What’s Equity Got to Do With It?”

Thanks to Lizzie Barcay for the editorial and production work.

Music:

Bluesy Vibes by Doug Maxwell/Media Right Productions

Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

Music provided by FreeMusic109 https://youtube.com/FreeMusic109’’'

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ccsr.substack.com

In this episode of the Caring, Character, & Community Podcast, Hardin interviews Eva Mitchell, Chief of Accountability at Boston Public Schools. Eva discusses the relationship between accountability, responsibility, and success in pursuit of creating the conditions for collective flourishing within large, varied, and complex educational institutions.

The video version of this interview will be available on our YouTube channel shortly; in the meantime, please click the link below and subscribe for updates:

BU Wheelock College of Education and Human Development

Center for Character and Social Responsibility

“Caring, Character, & Community” Podcast Series

To prepare the next generation to become caring and effectively engaged citizens requires a multi-faceted approach. It includes a focus on personal development, professional development, program development and implementation, and on system change. As part of the CCSR’s focus on the personal and professional development of educators, parents, and community leaders, we use our podcast “Caring, Character, & Community” to introduce our community to people who are using the ethic of caring, a focus on their own and others’ character development, and a commitment to community to create environments in which children and adults can flourish. 

In this semester, as the world of education and positive youth development has begun to address the degree to which inequitable conditions interfere with the ability of many youth to flourish, we want to have conversations with educators and community members who are working to foster systems that are grounded in equity. In each interview, we will ask our guests to share their definitions of equity in learning, how they work to create communities that increase equity in learning, and how an ethic of caring and a commitment to community influences their work.  

As the Chief of the Division of Accountability, Eva is responsible for Transformation Schools, the ESSER funding strategy, and the Office of Data and Accountability. Eva previously served as the Associate Commissioner for District and School Accountability at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, where she worked on policy development and implementation of the Act Relative to the Achievement Gap, the state Accountability and Assistance Framework, qualitative and quantitative district and school reviews, and state receivership. Prior to that, she was Senior Lead at the Governor’s Office of Educational Quality and Accountability.

She began her career in Boston as a student-teacher at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School, taught at the Washington Irving Middle School, and later was a co-founder of the Harbor School, where she served as Assistant Principal. She served as the Deputy Chief of Education for the City of Boston and most recently as the BPS Deputy Chief of Strategy and Equity. 

An active member of the community, Eva has been deeply engaged in organizational and urban development to better serve Boston residents. Volunteering with the Neighborhood Development Corporation of Grove Hall, she wrote the grant that established Grove Hall Main Streets. She later chaired the Blue Hill Avenue Task Force, a collaboration between the City of Boston and 42 neighborhood organizations from Grove Hall to Dudley in order to ensure the design and economic benefits served the needs of those in the neighborhood. She currently serves on several boards, including the Roxbury Community College Foundation, Boston Debate League, and the Calculus Project. She is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta. 

Eva received her teaching certification at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard. During her time at Harvard, she worked with other students to revitalize the African-American Studies Department, studied under Henry Louis Gates and Cornel West, and received a Ford Foundation research grant from the Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics. She received her Master’s in Education Policy and Planning at Boston University through a Martin Luther King Fellowship and looks forward to completing her Doctorate in Education Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania in Fall 2021.

Eva lives in Hyde Park with her son, STEM Lead at Mass Robotics. Her daughter specializes in heritage seeds and seed sovereignty. The family stands on the shoulders of her mother, a single mom from Detroit, and grandparents, who moved there from Thomasville, Georgia as part of the Great Migration from the south.

Please visit our archive to listen to previous episodes of the podcast, including interviews from Semester 1: “Leadership in Times of Crisis,” with PK-12, higher-education, and community-based-organization leaders.

Thanks to Lizzie Barcay for the editorial and production work.

Music:

Bluesy Vibes by Doug Maxwell/Media Right Productions

Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

Music provided by FreeMusic109 https://youtube.com/FreeMusic109’’'

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ccsr.substack.com

In this episode of the Caring, Character, & Community Podcast, Hardin interviews Susan Lusi, President and CEO of Mass Insight Education & Research. Sue discusses her organization's work to support marginalized students and their teachers in working to overcome barriers to educational equity. Systems-change work, she says, is essential in order to provide all students with multiple, viable "onramps" towards college and career paths after high school.

To watch this episode instead, please click here:

BU Wheelock College of Education and Human Development

Center for Character and Social Responsibility

“Caring, Character, & Community” Podcast Series

To prepare the next generation to become caring and effectively engaged citizens requires a multi-faceted approach. It includes a focus on personal development, professional development, program development and implementation, and on system change. As part of the CCSR’s focus on the personal and professional development of educators, parents, and community leaders, we use our podcast “Caring, Character, & Community” to introduce our community to people who are using the ethic of caring, a focus on their own and others’ character development, and a commitment to community to create environments in which children and adults can flourish. 

In this semester, as the world of education and positive youth development has begun to address the degree to which inequitable conditions interfere with the ability of many youth to flourish, we want to have conversations with educators and community members who are working to foster systems that are grounded in equity. In each interview, we will ask our guests to share their definitions of equity in learning, how they work to create communities that increase equity in learning, and how an ethic of caring and a commitment to community influences their work.  

Susan Follett Lusi has worked in both urban and suburban settings, and in practice, policy, and research, during her over 30-year career. She has led Mass Insight Education & Research for six years. Prior to joining Mass Insight, she most recently served as Superintendent of Schools in Providence, R.I., where she was credited with increasing student achievement and opportunity. Most notably, she improved graduation rates as well as reading proficiency scores for Grades 4 and 11, particularly among English Language Learners.

Sue was a champion for Providence students. To enhance their college and career readiness, she and her team increased Advanced Placement, Career and Technical Education, and dual credit offerings in all high schools, as well as established partnerships with institutions of higher education. Sue also collaborated with the Providence School Board and Providence Teachers’ Union to develop board policy and teacher contract language supporting increased school autonomy.

Sue previously served as Superintendent of Schools in Portsmouth, R.I., Chief of Staff for Providence Schools and Assistant Commissioner for the Rhode Island Department of Education. She started her career at Brown University working for the Coalition of Essential Schools and the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, as well as serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Taubman Center for Public Policy.

Sue is the author of The Role of State Departments of Education in Complex School Reform (Teachers College Press, 1997). She holds a B.A. in Economics and a M.A. in Teaching Social Studies from Brown University, and a M.P.P. and Ph.D. in Public Policy from Harvard University.

Please visit our archive to listen to previous episodes of the podcast, including interviews from Semester 1: “Leadership in Times of Crisis,” with PK-12, higher-education, and community-based-organization leaders.

Thanks to Lizzie Barcay for the editorial and production work.

Music:

Bluesy Vibes by Doug Maxwell/Media Right Productions

Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

Music provided by FreeMusic109 https://youtube.com/FreeMusic109’’'

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ccsr.substack.com

In this episode of the Caring, Character, & Community Podcast, Hardin interviews Chris Smith, President and Executive Director of Boston After School and Beyond. Chris talks about helping youth-serving organizations “play to their strengths” and work on their relative weaknesses by providing clear data and useful recommendations in the context of a network built for thoughtful and purposeful collaboration.

To watch this episode instead, please click here:

BU Wheelock College of Education and Human Development

Center for Character and Social Responsibility

“Caring, Character, & Community” Podcast Series

To prepare the next generation to become caring and effectively engaged citizens requires a multi-faceted approach. It includes a focus on personal development, professional development, program development and implementation, and on system change. As part of the CCSR’s focus on the personal and professional development of educators, parents, and community leaders, we use our podcast “Caring, Character, & Community” to introduce our community to people who are using the ethic of caring, a focus on their own and others’ character development, and a commitment to community to create environments in which children and adults can flourish. 

In this semester, as the world of education and positive youth development has begun to address the degree to which inequitable conditions interfere with the ability of many youth to flourish, we want to have conversations with educators and community members who are working to foster systems that are grounded in equity. In each interview, we will ask our guests to share their definitions of equity in learning, how they work to create communities that increase equity in learning, and how an ethic of caring and a commitment to community influences their work.  

Chris Smith is the President and Executive Director of Boston After School and Beyond. Over the past two decades, Chris has created, scaled, and led cross-sector partnerships in education and workforce development. Under his leadership, Boston After School & Beyond has developed a nationally recognized model of summer learning that improves student outcomes, built a citywide program performance measurement system, and cultivated a network of more than 300 programs serving more than 20,000 students. Previously Chris worked at the Boston Private Industry Council, where he collaborated with business leaders to integrate work and learning in order to help thousands of students graduate, with universities on Boston’s first-ever study of college graduation rates of Boston Public Schools students, and with legislative leaders to address the dropout rate in Massachusetts. Chris began his career at the US Department of Education in Washington, DC, where he coordinated partnerships for the Secretary of Education. A native of Worcester, MA, Chris earned a BA in American Studies from Trinity College in Hartford, CT and an MBA from Babson College in Wellesley, MA.

Please visit our archive to listen to previous episodes of the podcast, including interviews from Semester 1: “Leadership in Times of Crisis,” with PK-12, higher-education, and community-based-organization leaders.

Thanks to Lizzie Barcay for the editorial and production work.

Music:

Bluesy Vibes by Doug Maxwell/Media Right Productions

Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

Music provided by FreeMusic109 https://youtube.com/FreeMusic109’’'

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ccsr.substack.com

In this episode of the Caring, Character, & Community Podcast, Hardin interviews Professor Margaret Hawkins of the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education. Maggie talks about her Global StoryBridges project, and how a thoughtful process of sharing stories, having discussions, and asking questions can foster openness and empathy across communities and cultures. As students learn to confront and understand the inevitable intrusion of their own perspectives and biases as they learn about other people, they develop a “critical cosmopolitanism” that is key, Maggie says, to the pursuit of equity in a globalized world.

To watch this episode instead, please click here:

BU Wheelock College of Education and Human Development

Center for Character and Social Responsibility

“Caring, Character, & Community” Podcast Series

To prepare the next generation to become caring and effectively engaged citizens requires a multi-faceted approach. It includes a focus on personal development, professional development, program development and implementation, and on system change. As part of the CCSR’s focus on the personal and professional development of educators, parents, and community leaders, we use our podcast “Caring, Character, & Community” to introduce our community to people who are using the ethic of caring, a focus on their own and others’ character development, and a commitment to community to create environments in which children and adults can flourish. 

In this semester, as the world of education and positive youth development has begun to address the degree to which inequitable conditions interfere with the ability of many youth to flourish, we want to have conversations with educators and community members who are working to foster systems that are grounded in equity. In each interview, we will ask our guests to share their definitions of equity in learning, how they work to create communities that increase equity in learning, and how an ethic of caring and a commitment to community influences their work.  

Margaret Hawkins is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education. Professor Hawkins’ work examines: classroom ecologies; families and schools; language teacher education; language, mobility and schooling; global digital partnerships for youth; critical and social justice-oriented education; and responses of new destination communities to mobile populations.  As a community-engaged scholar she has worked with schools, communities, families, community organizations and institutions of higher education in North America, Central and South America, Asia, Africa and Europe. Her current research investigates the communication, learning and relationships emerging in Global StoryBridges, her transnational project that digitally connects youth across the globe. You can reach Maggie at mhawkins[AT]education[DOT]wisc[DOT]edu.

Please visit our archive to listen to previous episodes of the podcast, including interviews from Semester 1: “Leadership in Times of Crisis,” with PK-12, higher-education, and community-based-organization leaders.

Thanks to Lizzie Barcay for the editorial and production work.

Music:

Bluesy Vibes by Doug Maxwell/Media Right Productions

Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

Music provided by FreeMusic109 https://youtube.com/FreeMusic109’’'

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ccsr.substack.com

In this episode of the Caring, Character, & Community Podcast, Hardin interviews Alia Verner, Director of Strategic School Support at Edvestors. Alia discusses using data, building relationships, and working to change our mental models in pursuit of cultivating an education system in which demographic data is no longer predictive of educational outcomes.

To watch this episode instead, please click here:

BU Wheelock College of Education and Human Development

Center for Character and Social Responsibility

“Caring, Character, & Community” Podcast Series

To prepare the next generation to become caring and effectively engaged citizens requires a multi-faceted approach. It includes a focus on personal development, professional development, program development and implementation, and on system change. As part of the CCSR’s focus on the personal and professional development of educators, parents, and community leaders, we use our podcast “Caring, Character, & Community” to introduce our community to people who are using the ethic of caring, a focus on their own and others’ character development, and a commitment to community to create environments in which children and adults can flourish. 

In this semester, as the world of education and positive youth development has begun to address the degree to which inequitable conditions interfere with the ability of many youth to flourish, we want to have conversations with educators and community members who are working to foster systems that are grounded in equity. In each interview, we will ask our guests to share their definitions of equity in learning, how they work to create communities that increase equity in learning, and how an ethic of caring and a commitment to community influences their work.  

Alia Verner joined Edvestors in August 2018 and currently serves as the Director of Strategic School Support overseeing Edvestors’ Seed Fund grantmaking and Blended Learning program within the Zeroing in on Math Initiative. Alia began her career in education as a STEM special education teacher for Teach for America at TechBoston Academy, where she spent three years teaching science and six years teaching mathematics. Prior to EdVestors, Alia worked as a Math Director, Instructional Coach, Curriculum Consultant, Special Education Liaison, Edvestors ZioM Fellow, and track coach alongside many other leadership roles in the district of Boston. During her time as an Edvestors ZioM fellow, she helped design and facilitate a sustainable professional learning model called “Bridging Classrooms” that was selected by the Nellie Mae Grant and piloted in Spring 2018. She also co-founded and served as a Regional Strategy Team Leader for the Boston Education Action Network, an organization committed to providing equal educational opportunities for all students in Boston through community organizing and collective action. Alia believes deeply that all students should have equitable education opportunities and is passionate about developing systems, structures, and policies that support students, schools, districts, and communities toward reaching this goal. Alia graduated from Boston College with a B.A. in Political Science and received a Masters in Teaching from Boston University and a Masters at Harvard in Education Policy and Management.

Please visit our archive to listen to previous episodes of the podcast, including interviews from Semester 1: “Leadership in Times of Crisis,” with PK-12, higher-education, and community-based-organization leaders.

Thanks to Lizzie Barcay for the editorial and production work.

Music:

Bluesy Vibes by Doug Maxwell/Media Right Productions

Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

Music provided by FreeMusic109 https://youtube.com/FreeMusic109’’'

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ccsr.substack.com

In this episode of the Caring, Character, & Community Podcast, Hardin interviews Larry Dieringer, executive director of Engaging Schools, who speaks about key mindsets and practices of equitable educational institutions. It takes “time, attention, and intention,” he says, to do the work of building equity into the foundations of our school communities by creating cultures of care, relational trust, safety, and belonging, and by implementing thoughtful instruction around civics, social emotional learning, and character.

To watch this episode instead, please click here:

BU Wheelock College of Education and Human Development

Center for Character and Social Responsibility

“Caring, Character, & Community” Podcast Series

To prepare the next generation to become caring and effectively engaged citizens requires a multi-faceted approach. It includes a focus on personal development, professional development, program development and implementation, and on system change. As part of the CCSR’s focus on the personal and professional development of educators, parents, and community leaders, we use our podcast “Caring, Character, & Community” to introduce our community to people who are using the ethic of caring, a focus on their own and others’ character development, and a commitment to community to create environments in which children and adults can flourish. 

In this semester, as the world of education and positive youth development has begun to address the degree to which inequitable conditions interfere with the ability of many youth to flourish, we want to have conversations with educators and community members who are working to foster systems that are grounded in equity. In each interview, we will ask our guests to share their definitions of equity in learning, how they work to create communities that increase equity in learning, and how an ethic of caring and a commitment to community influences their work.  

Larry Dieringer has been executive director of Engaging Schools for over 30 years. He leads the organization’s collaborations with district and school partners to create equitable and engaging classrooms and schools that support students’ social, emotional, and academic learning and development. Larry’s expertise includes the development of Codes of Character, Conduct, and Support, social and emotional learning, restorative and accountable discipline and behavior supports, schoolwide climate and culture, student engagement, continuous school improvement, and systemic reform. Larry began his career as a secondary school social studies teacher and youth wilderness program director. He has an Ed.M. from Harvard University.

Please visit our archive to listen to previous episodes of the podcast, including interviews from Semester 1: “Leadership in Times of Crisis,” with PK-12, higher-education, and community-based-organization leaders.

Thanks to Lizzie Barcay for the editorial and production work.

Music:

Bluesy Vibes by Doug Maxwell/Media Right Productions

Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

Music provided by FreeMusic109 https://youtube.com/FreeMusic109’’'

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ccsr.substack.com

As we have collectively waded through the challenges of living in an increasingly polarized country and world, many of us have found Ezra Klein’s book, Why We're Polarized to be equal parts moving and troubling. Between devastating wars, rising homicide rates, dislocations due to pandemics (covid and racism, to list two), economic uncertainty, and a combative political environment, it is easy to become overwhelmed by a sense of ever-rising dread. In this year’s Ryan Symposium, we interviewed Alicia Garza, who works in direct response to that dread. In this conversation, we hope that you can hear the voice of community being raised:  the voice of someone taking a deep responsibility for creating conditions in which all of us can flourish, and encouraging the rest of us to do the same. These efforts and actions are not void of conflict, and not everyone will agree on the same theory of change, or what the next best steps should be. What Alicia gets us to think about is the ends to which we must manage our differences, and the necessity of focusing on ends that serve the most vulnerable among us. We hope that you find this conversation as moving and encouraging as we did.

This special episode serves as a good kick-off to the second semester of our podcast series, Caring, Character, & Community, in which we will continue to share conversations with educators, community leaders, and citizens who are working hard to create and sustain caring communities. In this semester, we will focus on people who are centering a concept of equity in their work. We will be sharing these stories throughout the rest of spring and this summer.

To watch this episode instead, please click here:

Take care and be well.

From Alicia Garza’s website:

“Alicia believes that Black communities deserve what all communities deserve — to be powerful in every aspect of their lives. An innovator, strategist, organizer, and cheeseburger enthusiast, Alicia founded the Black Futures Lab to make Black communities powerful in politics. She is the co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter and the Black Lives Matter Global Network, the Strategy & Partnerships Director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and the co-founder of Supermajority, She shares her thoughts on politics and pop culture on her podcast, Lady Don’t Take No. Alicia warns you: hashtags don’t start movements — people do.”

To listen to (or watch) the first semester of the Caring, Character, & Community podcast, please visit our website at ccsr.substack.com.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ccsr.substack.com

In this episode of the Caring, Character, & Community Podcast, Hardin interviews Mossik Hacobian, Executive Director of Boston’s Higher Ground. Mossik speaks to the importance of taking meaningful risks and having courage to make mistakes when it comes to meeting the needs of historically marginalized communities — particularly their youth.

To watch this episode instead, please click here:

BU Wheelock College of Education and Human Development

Center for Character and Social Responsibility

“Caring, Character, and Community” Podcast Series

To prepare the next generation to become caring and effectively engaged citizens requires a multi-faceted approach. It includes a focus on personal development, professional development, program development and implementation, and on systems change. As part of the CCSR’s focus on personal and professional development of educators, parents, and community leaders, we are pleased to announce our upcoming podcast, “Caring, Character, and Community.”

 Season One of this series will focus on how leaders integrate the ethic of caring, their own and others’ character development, and a commitment to serving the needs of others to guide and inform their leadership in times of crisis. Part One will focus on PK-12 leaders, Part Two will focus on Higher Education Leaders, and Part Three will focus on leaders of youth-serving, community-based leaders. Each part will include 4 podcasts and an interactive webinar, during which listeners can participate in a Q&A with the leaders who have shared their stories in the podcasts. 

In this episode of the Caring, Character, & Community podcast, the fifth of our community-based organizations series, Mossik Hacobian, Executive Director of Boston’s Higher Ground, speaks to the importance of taking meaningful risks and having courage to make mistakes when it comes to meeting the needs of historically marginalized communities — particularly their youth.

Mossik Hacobian has served as the Executive Director of Boston’s Higher Ground since June 2011. Prior to serving at Higher Ground, he worked for 33 years at Urban Edge, a recognized leader in community development corporations (CDCs) in the Northeast.  During his tenure at Urban Edge, he served for three years as President and 22 years as Executive Director. When recognized as a Barr Fellow in 2005, Mossik was executive director of Urban Edge.  

Mossik has worked briefly as a consultant with Serrafix, a strategic consulting group focused on advising clients on ways to save energy, improve transportation systems and implement smart growth. His awards include: Citizens Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA) Community Service (1998), LISC Mike Sviridoff Leadership (2005), Mass. Association of CDCs Richard Smith (2010), UMass Robert H. Quinn Award for Outstanding Community Leadership (2011) and Mass. Immigrant and Refugee Alliance (MIRA) Coalition Give Liberty a Hand (2011).

Mossik is a Trustee of the Foley Hoag Foundation, member of the Boston Advisory Board of the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance, member of the Advisory Committee of the Boston City to City Leadership Exchange and board member of MIRA and Thompson Island Outward Bound. He has a BA from Columbia College and studied architecture at Columbia University.

Welcome to Semester One of “Caring, Character, and Community,” a podcast from the BU Wheelock College of Education and Human Development Center for Character and Social Responsibility. In this season, we will focus on learning from leaders about how they integrate the ethic of caring, a focus on their own and others’ character development, and a commitment to serving the needs of their community, in order to guide and inform their leadership in times of crisis. 

Part One: PK-12

September 7, 2021 CCC Semester One, Part One, Episode One: Karen Bohlin, Principal of Practical Wisdom Group,  discusses the importance of developing a caring and compassionate framework, a compass, for guiding a leader’s and community’s response to crisis.

September 14, 2021 CCC Semester One, Part One, Episode Two: Brenda Cassellius, Superintendent of the Boston Public Schools shares with us how centering on the needs of children, with commitment to caring, helps organize the efforts of adults in the community to help children flourish-- even, and especially, in times of crisis.

September 21, 2021 CCC Semester One, Part One,  Episode Three: Julie Lawton, Chief Academic Officer of YueCheng Education in Beijing PRC shares the a story of how creating a school that is centered on caring and compassion facilitates positive outcomes in times of crisis

September 28, 2021 CCC Semester One, Part One, Episode Four: Dana Weeks, Head of Germantown Friends School, discusses the importance of integrity and trust in building and sustaining a caring school community that helps children to flourish.

Part Two: Higher Education

October 14, 2021 CCC Semester One, Part Two, Episode One: Nicholas Covino, President of William James College, shares with us the importance of showing up — being present and available to one’s community — as foundational to effective leadership in crisis.  He discusses the challenges this commitment can pose to one’s sense of well being, and how gratifying this level of commitment can be.

October 21, 2021 CCC Semester One, Part Two, Episode Two: Kenneth Elmore, Associate Provost and Dean of Students at Boston University, discusses being guided by compassion, along with attention to detail and a willingness to actively navigate the tension between upholding community values and also holding space for disagreement and thoughtful discourse. When it comes to caring for one’s many community members in the higher education space, it is important to highlight opportunities to see and harness “unity of feeling,” where groups with different goals can find common ground in their core values.

October 28, 2021 CCC Semester One, Part Two, Episode Three: Pam Eddinger, President of Bunker Hill Community College, shares with us the importance of meeting the needs of community college students with both deep care and great expectation.

November 4, 2021 CCC Semester One, Part Two, Episode Four: Don Pope-Davis, Dean of The Ohio State University’s College of Education and Human Ecology, shares the challenges of transforming a school to be centered on using its research and teaching mission to meet the needs of local communities, particularly those that have been historically marginalized, while also creating a community that is caring and supports the personal and professional development of all its members. 

November 21, 2021 CCC Semester One, Part Two, Special Episode: Nicholas Covino (President of William James College), Kenneth Elmore (Associate Provost and Dean of Students of Boston University), Pam Eddinger (President of Bunker Hill Community College), and Don Pope-Davis (Dean of The Ohio State University’s College of Education and Human Ecology) gather to share their ideas about what is next in higher education to create a more caring community.  While there was no consensus as to what are the most important levers of change, there was a shared sense that we need to work across multiple settings to increase access to opportunity, and that we need to learn how to better cooperate across our silos.  They leave us to wonder how we can find common cause across the world of late-adolescent and early-adult learning. 

Part Three: Community-Based Organizations

November 11, 2021 CCC Semester One, Part Three, Episode One, Ayele Shakur, Executive Director of BUILD speaks to the importance of giving space to youth to find their place in their community by learning how to create an enterprise.

November 27, 2021 CCC Season Two, Part Three, Episode Two, Charmane Higgins, Executive Director of Boston Trinity Connects, shares the challenge of providing children who have been in traumatizing situations with a sense of being valued and cared for, and discusses the demands that such care places on the adults who serve them.

December 4, 2021 CCC Season Two, Part Three, Episode Three, Will Parish, Founder and President of 10 Strands, describes character as a function of one's actions, and centers the importance of developing environmental literacy as a key component of character development in the modern era.

December 18, 2021 CCC Season Two, Part Three, Episode Four, Alex Oliver-Dávila, Executive Director of Sociedad Latina, discusses the importance for culturally and linguistically diverse youth of being part of a community that represents them.

December 26, 2021 CCC Season Two, Part Three, Episode Five, Mossik Hacobian, Executive Director of Boston’s Higher Ground, speaks to the importance of taking meaningful risks and having courage to make mistakes when it comes to meeting the needs of historically marginalized communities — particularly their youth.

Thanks to Lizzie Barcay for the editorial and production work.

Music:

Bluesy Vibes by Doug Maxwell/Media Right Productions

Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

Music provided by FreeMusic109 https://youtube.com/FreeMusic109’’'

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