Elevating Good | For Women of Faith Who Won't Give Up on People

Stephanie Acker always believed she was called to help refugees — until a Muslim immigrant neighbor named Zuleika invited her in for tea and quietly rewrote everything she thought she knew. Now, as founder of Everyplace, Stephanie partners with refugee-led organizations across nine countries to ask one disarming question: where does beauty live here? In this conversation, Morenike and Stephanie talk about the difference between helping and partnering, why beauty is treated as dignity rather than decoration, the "white savior" question Stephanie wrestles with as a white American doing this work, and what it looks like to let displaced communities lead the response to their own displacement.

Stephanie considers Boston home, but is from Southern California, the drawn-out "heyyy" never leaving her vocabulary. She moved to Florence, Italy, in 2021 for one year, and five years later is still there, where she lives with her much calmer and tidier husband Brian, their three kids, Nora (9), Otto (6) and Hugo (7 months), and their seven bikes.

CONNECT WITH STEPHANIE ACKER

Website: http://www.every-place.org/

Instagram:  

@everyplace_org

@steph_acker

Donate: The Paintbox, a monthly giving community

www.every-place.org/paintbox

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/everyplaceorg

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Everyplace-org/61585908107360/

CONNECT WITH ELEVATING GOOD PODCAST

Elevating Good is a podcast for women of faith who refuse to give up on people. Hosted by Morenike Ogebe — attorney, bridge builder, and people-centered leader — each episode shines light on the good God is doing in the world.

Substack (subscribe to bonus content): 

https://elevatinggood.substack.com

Instagram: 

https://www.instagram.com/elevatinggood

Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/elevatinggood

NEW! Elevating Good Everyday Bridge Builders Community: 

http://www.facebook.com/groups/elevatinggoodbridgebuilders/

If this episode moved you — share it. Leave a review.

CONNECT WITH STEPHANIE ACKER

Website: http://www.every-place.org/

Instagram:  

@everyplace_org

@steph_acker

Donate: The Paintbox, a monthly giving community

www.every-place.org/paintbox

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/everyplaceorg

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Everyplace-org/61585908107360/

Lisa Y. Jones didn't set out to become a wealth strategist — she set out to survive a decade of financially flying blind as a top Mary Kay sales director, then to dig her way out of $300,000 in debt with her husband, Keith. Today she's a faith-rooted wealth strategist and #1 best-selling author who helps women in the pre-retirement and retirement seasons build clarity, protection, and legacy with their money.

In this conversation, Lisa and Morenike trace the money story all the way back: the night Lisa's father died without life insurance, the mother who couldn't teach what she never learned, and the moment a mortgage broker asked a question Lisa couldn't answer — why do you have savings if you have debt? From there, Lisa unpacks the "family scratch" every household carries, the God Pocket she and Keith use to manage giving, and the three phases of retirement most people never hear about: accumulation, protection, and distribution.

If you've done the things you were told to do with your money and still feel unsure whether you're okay, this episode is your permission to stop suffering in silence and start asking better questions.

KEY THEMES & TAKEAWAYS

•      The "family scratch": the inherited money wound that shapes how we save, spend, and fear — and why naming it is the first step to healing it.

•      Faith-rooted stewardship: leading with belief before strategy, and building a deliberate system (the "God Pocket") for generosity instead of leaving it to impulse.

•      The $300,000 debt story: how a blended family paid off student loan interest, medical debt, and "ridiculousness" debt in five years — and what it cost relationally to get there.

•      Cash flow management over "budgeting": buffers, automation, and naming every pot of money so it has a job.

•      The three phases of retirement — accumulation, protection, and distribution — and why women 5–10 years from retirement need to shift from accumulating to protecting.

•      Infinite banking, demystified: leveraging cash value life insurance the way the Rockefellers did, and why access to your own money matters as much as growth.

•      Redefining freedom: not the size of the house, but coverage for a health scare, room to walk away from toxicity, and staying in step with God's will even when it's inconvenient.

CONTACT LISA JONES

Website: https:///www.Lisayjones.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisayjoneslyj

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisayjoneslyj/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lisayjoneslyj

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 703-624-8731

CONNECT WITH ELEVATING GOOD PODCAST 

Elevating Good is a podcast for women of faith who refuse to give up on people. Hosted by Morenike Ogebe — attorney, bridge builder, and people-centered leader — each episode shines light on the good God is doing in the world.

Substack (subscribe to bonus content): 

https://elevatinggood.substack.com

Instagram: 

https://www.instagram.com/elevatinggood

Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/elevatinggood

NEW! Elevating Good Everyday Bridge Builders Community: 

http://www.facebook.com/groups/elevatinggoodbridgebuilders/

If this episode moved you — share it. Leave a review.

Tania P. Brown, CFP® and founder of The Confident Quitter's Collective™, joins the host for a conversation that's as much a testimony as it is a financial masterclass. Tania shares how a childhood memory of her mother's financial despair, an Army-issued credit card, and a "performance review from hell" led her to a corporate exit she resisted for years — and how surrendering her own timeline to God's became the method she now teaches every client.

WHATS IN THIS EPISODE

• ​Tania's earliest money memory and the belief it planted
• ​Why her "Round 1" of business was disobedience wearing the costume of obedience
• ​Her Luke 10 "person of peace" framework for choosing the right clients
• ​The difference between quitting on data (bold) and quitting on hope (reckless)
• ​Her four financial blind spots: Pollyanna budgeting, benefits blindness, the business black hole, and pricing for poverty
• ​Why confidence is a coin you put in a tank, one action at a time
• ​Her closing charge, borrowed from Harriet Tubman

ABOUT TANIA 

Tania P. Brown, CFP®, a Job Exit Strategist™ and founder of The Confident Quitter's Collective™ joins us. From soldier to advisor to VP to business owner, she's mastered vocational transitions herself — and coached 2,000+ others toward financial goals along the way. After stress-testing her own exit against real-life curveballs, she built a method: a corporate-to-solo financial roadmap blending personal and business finances into one resilient plan. She helps professionals, especially women 40+, exit boldly — whether starting with $1,000 or $100,000. Featured in Forbes, Bloomberg, USA Today, and Business Insider.

CONNECT WITH TANIA

• ​Website: https://www.taniapbrown.com
• ​LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taniapellewbrown/
• ​Free 20-minute consult (come as you are)
• ​Quit Smart Quiz — 9 questions to find your unique blind spot

CONNECT WITH ELEVATING GOOD PODCAST 

Elevating Good is a podcast for women of faith who refuse to give up on people. Hosted by Morenike Ogebe — attorney, bridge builder, and people-centered leader — each episode shines light on the good God is doing in the world.

Substack (subscribe to bonus content): 

https://elevatinggood.substack.com

Instagram: 

https://www.instagram.com/elevatinggood

Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/elevatinggood

NEW! Elevating Good Everyday Bridge Builders Community: 

http://www.facebook.com/groups/elevatinggoodbridgebuilders/

If this episode moved you — share it. Leave a review.

By popular request — and because it's one of the top 5 most-played episodes in our catalog — we're bringing back this conversation with author and speaker Rotimi Iyun, now for the first time on video and available everywhere, including Substack and YouTube.

Rotimi is the author of Wait Is Not a Four-Letter Word: The Mature Woman's Guide to Living Single with Grace and Purpose. In this conversation, host Morenike Ogebe and Rotimi talk candidly about singleness in the church, waiting well, and what it means to build a life — not a holding pattern — while you wait.

If you loved our recent conversation with S5E11 Shell Peterson on her "season of shedding," this episode is the perfect companion: same theme of active faith through uncertainty, different vantage point.

ABOUT ROTIMI IYUN

Rotimi Iyun is an author, speaker, and singer whose work bridges the gap between mature single women and the church community around them. A senior consulting manager by trade, she also holds a doctorate exploring the evolution of marriage as a social institution. Her book took four years to write — not because of the research, but because of the vulnerability it required.

WHAT WE COVER

• Why it took four years to bring Wait Is Not a Four-Letter Word to print
• Answering "why aren't you married?" with grace instead of defensiveness
• "It's not material to God fulfilling His plan for me right now" — reframing singleness through God's perspective rather than your own
• The church's silence on divorce, remarriage, and abusive marriages — and what Scripture actually says
• Facing the fear of "what if I never get married?" head-on, and the practical steps that come after
• The difference between a good marriage and a “God marriage”
• Responding to the idea that waiting until marriage is "outdated"
• Waiting as a life skill every Christian needs — not just single people
• The "serial killer test": a humorous, pointed way to separate surface-level qualities from real character
• Practical ways to prepare spiritually, emotionally, and physically while you wait
• The "inner vow" concept — how unresolved childhood wounds quietly shape our expectations in relationships
• How to actually be a good friend to the single women in your life (and a few well-meaning habits to drop)

CONNECT WITH ROTIMI IYUN

Book: “Wait Is Not a Four-Letter Word” — available everywhere books are sold

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://rotimiiyun.com/

Music  

Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/artists/B07SSMJTKH/rotimi-iyun

Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/rotimi-iyun/1467303506

 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rotimiiyun

Related Listening

S5E11 “Positioned for the Blessing: Shell Peterson's Season of Shedding" — a natural companion episode on active faith through uncertainty.

CONNECT WITH ELEVATING GOOD PODCAST 

Elevating Good is a podcast for women of faith who refuse to give up on people. Hosted by Morenike Ogebe — attorney, bridge builder, and people-centered leader — each episode shines light on the good God is doing in the world.

Substack (subscribe to bonus content): https://elevatinggood.substack.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elevatinggood

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elevatinggood

NEW! Elevating Good Everyday Bridge Builders Community: http://www.facebook.com/groups/elevatinggoodbridgebuilders/

If this episode moved you — share it. Leave a review.

Our guest Shell Peterson is a single mom and entrepreneur who built her career from scratch — from a decade in optometry to founding A Courageous Beauty (a top DC blog), and Shell Social and Strategies, now leading marketing for The District Cup. In this episode, she opens up about her “shedding season” — a year of loss that prepared her to receive the exact opportunity she’d prayed for — and the courage and boundaries that carry her through single motherhood and entrepreneurship.

ABOUT SHELL PETERSON

Shell Peterson is a single mom, entrepreneur, and marketing strategist who's built a career out of pivots — from a decade in optometry, to a blog she started while pregnant and named after her daughter, to running her own agency and now leading marketing for The District Cup. In this conversation, Shell opens up about the year she called her "shedding season" — losing clients and friendships while praying one bold prayer for exactly the right opportunity — and how that season prepared her to receive it. She talks candidly about her faith, about being adopted at 12, choosing courage over the fear she grew up with, protecting her daughter's world from her public one, and why her real support system isn't people — it's time.

CONNECT WITH SHELL PETERSON

Business Instagram: @socialandstrategies

Personal (open to mom/entrepreneur questions): Instagram @sociallyshell

Email: [email protected]

Ventures: Shell Social Strategies, A Courageous Beauty, The District Cup

CONNECT WITH ELEVATING GOOD PODCAST 

Elevating Good is a podcast for women of faith who refuse to give up on people. Hosted by Morenike Ogebe — attorney, bridge builder, and people-centered leader — each episode shines light on the good God is doing in the world.

Substack (subscribe to bonus content): https://elevatinggood.substack.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elevatinggood

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elevatinggood

NEW! Elevating Good Everyday Bridge Builders Community: http://www.facebook.com/groups/elevatinggoodbridgebuilders/

If this episode moved you — share it. Leave a review.

Our guest Shell Peterson is a single mom and entrepreneur who built her career from scratch — from a decade in optometry to founding A Courageous Beauty (a top DC blog), and Shell Social and Strategies, now leading marketing for The District Cup. In this episode, she opens up about her “shedding season” — a year of loss that prepared her to receive the exact opportunity she’d prayed for — and the courage and boundaries that carry her through single motherhood and entrepreneurship.

 ABOUT SHELL PETERSON

Shell Peterson is a single mom, entrepreneur, and marketing strategist who's built a career out of pivots — from a decade in optometry, to a blog she started while pregnant and named after her daughter, to running her own agency and now leading marketing for The District Cup. In this conversation, Shell opens up about the year she called her "shedding season" — losing clients and friendships while praying one bold prayer for exactly the right opportunity — and how that season prepared her to receive it. She talks candidly about her faith, about being adopted at 12, choosing courage over the fear she grew up with, protecting her daughter's world from her public one, and why her real support system isn't people — it's time.

CONNECT WITH SHELL PETERSON

Business Instagram: @socialandstrategies

Personal (open to mom/entrepreneur questions): Instagram @sociallyshell

Email:

[email protected]

Ventures: 

Shell Social Strategies, A Courageous Beauty, The District Cup

CONNECT WITH ELEVATING GOOD

Elevating Good is a podcast for women of faith who refuse to give up on people. Hosted by Morenike Ogebe — attorney, bridge builder, and people-centered leader — each episode shines light on the good God is doing in the world.

Substack (subscribe to bonus content): https://elevatinggood.substack.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elevatinggood

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elevatinggood

NEW! Elevating Good Everyday Bridge Builders Community: http://www.facebook.com/groups/elevatinggoodbridgebuilders/

If this episode moved you — share it. Leave a review.

In this milestone 50th episode of Elevating Good, the host sits down with her sister, Pastor (Dr.) Manita Fadel — First Lady of RCCG The Americas I and a former pediatrician turned full-time minister. She oversees Children and Youth Ministries, leads Women in Ministry, and founded The Pastors' Wives' Forum. Author of Fifty and Fabulous and Diet and Lifestyle for Kingdom Living, Dr. Fadel candidly shares her midlife journey through insulin resistance, and how she found joy — not punishment — in the discipline of stewarding her body through diet and exercise.

ABOUT DR MANITA

Pastor Manita Fadel is the First Lady of RCCG The Americas I. She ministers with her husband, Pastor James Fadel, who is the Assistant General Overseer and Continental Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) The Americas I with headquarters in Floyd (Dallas), Texas.

RCCG The Americas I comprises the United States, Central America, and the Caribbean. RCCG Americas 1 is part of RCCG Worldwide, with headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria. The General Overseers for the RCCG Worldwide are Pastors Enoch and Foluke Adeboye.

Pastor Manita is a Pediatrician, with 10 years of experience, before she was called into full-time ministry. Her experience in medical practice, combined with receiving Christ at the early age of 9, fueled her passion for the spiritual growth of Children and Youth. She currently oversees Children and Youth Ministries for RCCG The Americas I.

Pastor Manita is also the President of Women in Ministry (WIM) in Americas 1 and founder of The Pastors’ Wives’ Forum (PWF)), a ministry of WIM.

As a Pastor’s wife for over 30 years, Pastor Manita created PWF in 2009 for Pastors' wives to share their burdens and challenges with one another while ministering with their husbands. The PWF vision is to Support, Encourage and Empower (S.E.E.) every Pastor’s wife so that they can fulfill their calling in The Kingdom.

Naturally creative, and a passionate sewist for over 45 years, Pastor Manita founded the “Threads of Life” initiative in the Spring of 2020. This allows her to use her professional sewing skills to teach others and support Women and Children’s shelters with the proceeds of her sewn items. She loves to organize and is a believer in excellence. She is a simple and practical teacher of the word, who ministers to children, youth, singles, married couples, women, and Pastors’ wives. She is a John Maxwell trained leader, who speaks at a wide range of leadership programs and conferences in the US and Nigeria.

Pastor Manita has also authored two books. The first is an illustrated book titled, Fifty and Fabulous, and her second book is titled Diet and Lifestyle for Kingdom Living, written as a result of her personal journey and passion for health and wellness.

She has been happily married to Pastor James Fadel, her college sweetheart, for over 35 years and together they pastor RCCG New Life Church in Dallas, Texas. They are blessed with three beautiful daughters.

CONNECT WITH DR MANITA

Instagram: 

@manitafadel

Facebook:

@manita.fadel

YouTube:

@RCCGFemaleParishPastors

Website: 

https://manitafadel.com

Book: Diet and Lifestyle for Kingdom Living — available at major book retailers

CONNECT WITH ELEVATING GOOD

Elevating Good is a podcast for women of faith who refuse to give up on people. Hosted by Morenike Ogebe — attorney, bridge builder, and people-centered leader — each episode shines light on the good God is doing in the world.

Substack (subscribe to bonus content): https://elevatinggood.substack.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elevatinggood

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elevatinggood

NEW! Elevating Good Everyday Bridge Builders Community: http://www.facebook.com/groups/elevatinggoodbridgebuilders/

If this episode moved you — share it. Leave a review.

In this milestone 50th episode of Elevating Good, the host sits down with her sister, Pastor (Dr.) Manita Fadel — First Lady of RCCG The Americas I and a former pediatrician turned full-time minister. She oversees Children and Youth Ministries, leads Women in Ministry, and founded The Pastors' Wives' Forum. Author of Fifty and Fabulous and Diet and Lifestyle for Kingdom Living, Dr. Fadel candidly shares her midlife journey through insulin resistance, and how she found joy — not punishment — in the discipline of stewarding her body through diet and exercise.

ABOUT DR MANITA

Pastor Manita Fadel is the First Lady of RCCG The Americas I. She ministers with her husband, Pastor James Fadel, who is the Assistant General Overseer and Continental Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) The Americas I with headquarters in Floyd (Dallas), Texas.

RCCG The Americas I comprises the United States, Central America, and the Caribbean. RCCG Americas 1 is part of RCCG Worldwide, with headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria. The General Overseers for the RCCG Worldwide are Pastors Enoch and Foluke Adeboye.

Pastor Manita is a Pediatrician, with 10 years of experience, before she was called into full-time ministry. Her experience in medical practice, combined with receiving Christ at the early age of 9, fueled her passion for the spiritual growth of Children and Youth. She currently oversees Children and Youth Ministries for RCCG The Americas I.

Pastor Manita is also the President of Women in Ministry (WIM) in Americas 1 and founder of The Pastors’ Wives’ Forum (PWF)), a ministry of WIM.

As a Pastor’s wife for over 30 years, Pastor Manita created PWF in 2009 for Pastors' wives to share their burdens and challenges with one another while ministering with their husbands. The PWF vision is to Support, Encourage and Empower (S.E.E.) every Pastor’s wife so that they can fulfill their calling in The Kingdom.

Naturally creative, and a passionate sewist for over 45 years, Pastor Manita founded the “Threads of Life” initiative in the Spring of 2020. This allows her to use her professional sewing skills to teach others and support Women and Children’s shelters with the proceeds of her sewn items. She loves to organize and is a believer in excellence. She is a simple and practical teacher of the word, who ministers to children, youth, singles, married couples, women, and Pastors’ wives. She is a John Maxwell trained leader, who speaks at a wide range of leadership programs and conferences in the US and Nigeria.

Pastor Manita has also authored two books. The first is an illustrated book titled, Fifty and Fabulous, and her second book is titled Diet and Lifestyle for Kingdom Living, written as a result of her personal journey and passion for health and wellness.

She has been happily married to Pastor James Fadel, her college sweetheart, for over 35 years and together they pastor RCCG New Life Church in Dallas, Texas. They are blessed with three beautiful daughters.

CONNECT WITH DR MANITA

Instagram: 

@manitafadel

Facebook:

@manita.fadel

YouTube:

@RCCGFemaleParishPastors

Website: 

https://manitafadel.com

Book: Diet and Lifestyle for Kingdom Living — available at major book retailers

CONNECT WITH ELEVATING GOOD

Elevating Good is a podcast for women of faith who refuse to give up on people. Hosted by Morenike Ogebe — attorney, bridge builder, and people-centered leader — each episode shines light on the good God is doing in the world.

Substack (subscribe to bonus content): https://elevatinggood.substack.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elevatinggood

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elevatinggood

NEW! Elevating Good Everyday Bridge Builders Community: http://www.facebook.com/groups/elevatinggoodbridgebuilders/

If this episode moved you — share it. Leave a review.

What do you do when the very thing you’ve built your whole life around — your voice, your purpose, your identity — is suddenly taken from you?

Adassa Candiani knows that question from the inside.

You may know her as the voice of Dolores Madrigal in Disney’s Encanto, the powerhouse behind the chart-topping “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.” But before the Oscar stage, before the Grammy, before the Golden Globe — there was a girl from a Colombian immigrant family carrying three generations of unrealized dreams. A mother of seven who stepped away from the spotlight to be fully present. And then there was COVID, which left Adassa paralyzed from the neck down, unable to speak, unable to sing, unable to care for herself or her family.

In this episode, Adassa shares the real story — the one that lives inside her debut memoir, Love Keeps Showing Up. We talk about what she found in the stillness of that season, how the voice of Dolores was born from a whisper, and what it means to recognize love when it shows up in the most ordinary and extraordinary ways.

This is a conversation about divine timing, about belonging to yourself across every intersection of your identity, and about refusing — even in the hardest seasons — to give up on people.

What You’ll Hear In This Episode

• How Adassa’s grandmother gave up her dream of singing to become a nurse, her mother got one song on the radio, and Adassa made a decision: I’m carrying that torch all the way.

• The YouTube video she filmed before getting tacos — and forgot about — that Disney found months later.

• What it felt like to be signed as the second dark-skinned Latina artist to a major bilingual record deal since Celia Cruz.

• The day after her Disney callback when she drove herself to the hospital and was paralyzed within 30 minutes — unable to speak, unable to move.

• The bathtub. The water rising. The moment she let go.

• Her husband Gabriel walking in “like Superman” — and the phone call that came while her head was in his lap.

• Why she whispered to Gabriel: “You call them if I’m dead” — and then took the part.

• How Dolores’ iconic soft-spoken voice was born directly from Adassa’s weeks of whispered survival.

• The shift from competing to contributing — and why she was finally willing to stand for something.

• What she wants every reader of Love Keeps Showing Up to walk away believing about love, community, and letting go of perfection.

  
  

ABOUT ADASSA

Adassa Candiani is an Oscar, Grammy, and Golden Globe recipient, platinum-selling recording artist, and the beloved voice of Dolores Madrigal in Disney’s Encanto. Born to Colombian immigrant parents, she began singing at church at age four and went on to collaborate with Pitbull, Flo Rida, Missy Elliott, Snoop Dogg, and many others. After stepping away from her career to raise her seven children, she was rediscovered through a YouTube video her husband filmed on a family vacation — a moment that led to the audition of a lifetime.

Her debut memoir, Love Keeps Showing Up, weaves together her personal testimony with an original album, connecting each chapter of her life to a song.

CONNECT WITH ADASSA

Instagram & TikTok: 

@ADASSAOfficial

Adassa’s Community for Women: Visible Now Club — a community of women supporting one another through every season of life

https://linktr.ee/visiblenowclub

Book: Love Keeps Showing Up — At all major book retailers

CONNECT WITH ELEVATING GOOD

Elevating Good is a podcast for women of faith who refuse to give up on people. Hosted by Morenike Ogebe — attorney, bridge builder, and people-centered leader — each episode shines light on the good God is doing in the world.

Substack (subscribe to bonus content): https://elevatinggood.substack.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elevatinggood

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elevatinggood

NEW! Elevating Good Everyday Bridge Builders Community: http://www.facebook.com/groups/elevatinggoodbridgebuilders/

If this episode moved you — share it. Leave a review.

What if the most powerful thing a photographer could do had nothing to do with the camera?

Jimell Greene — D.C.-based photographer, cinematographer, and the man behind the Department of Government Waste — joins Elevating Good to talk about seeing people the way they deserve to be seen.

From disposable cameras at Detroit parties to portraits of displaced federal workers against a weathered American flag, Jimell's career is built on one belief: let people be exactly who they are, and make it look beautiful. This conversation covers his origin story, Gordon Parks, the fear of repercussions in America, AI's threat to the creative industry, and what he'd tell any young Black kid picking up a camera today.

IN THIS EPISODE

• Jimell’s origin story — Detroit, a single mom, disposable cameras, and a slow-building 16-year career
• Calling moment — bringing his camera to his grandmother’s hospital bedside, and what those photos became
• Being a “blank canvas” — the gift of letting people feel no fear of judgment in front of you
• Department of Government Waste — the portrait project documenting displaced federal workers
• Fear of repercussion in America — the most surprising thing Jimell found when the project launched
• Gordon Parks, single images, and how a photograph changed the course of history
• Being a Black photographer in 2026 — honest, layered, and real
• AI’s threat to the creative industry — and what Jimell predicted in a Paris café in 2024
• Smartphones, social media, and what it means to be a professional visual storyteller today
• What he’d tell a young Black kid with a phone and a dream

ABOUT JIMELL GREENE

Jimell Greene is a Washington, D.C.-area photographer and cinematographer with 16 years of experience creating expressive portraiture, cinematic video, and documentary work for editorial features, commercial campaigns, government clients, and non-profits. He is known for rich color, dramatic mood, and an uncanny ability to capture the essence of a person, brand, or moment.

He is the co-creator of Department of Government Waste — an ongoing portrait project documenting the human faces behind the federal workforce displacement of 2025. Each subject is photographed against a weathered American flag and given the option to appear in silhouette or in full. The project asks not about politics, but about people: How are you doing? How is your family? How do you feel about America right now?

Jimell served on the board of the American Photographic Artists, D.C. chapter, following his protest photography in 2020. He is based in Baltimore, Maryland, and takes assignments across the United States.

CONNECT WITH JIMELL GREENE 

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://jimell.com

Jimell Greene on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jimellgreene

Jimell Greene on LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimell

Jimell Greene on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/jimellgreenephotography

Department of Government Waste: https://www.departmentofgovernmentwaste.com

Gordon Parks Foundation: https://www.gordonparksfoundation.org

OpenGovHub (mentioned in episode): https://www.opengovhub.org

American Photographic Artists – D.C.: https://www.apanational.com

CONNECT WITH ELEVATING GOOD

Elevating Good is a podcast for women of faith who refuse to give up on people. Hosted by Morenike Ogebe — attorney, bridge builder, and people-centered leader — each episode shines light on the good God is doing in the world.

Substack (subscribe to bonus content): https://elevatinggood.substack.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elevatinggood

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elevatinggood

NEW! Everyday Bridge Builders Community: www.facebook.com/groups/elevatinggoodbridgebuilders/

If this episode moved you, share it. Leave a review. And if you know someone who needs to hear Jimell’s story right now, you know what to do.