Leading Queer

New Year, Same Queer! To kick off the new year, the Leading Queer team presents a special episode to inspire hope in these challenging times. This is an audio recording of a speech done on our campus by Representative Becca Balint, the first woman and LGBTQ+ person elected to the U.S Congress from Vermont.

Becca's career from the beginning, has been rooted in empathy and justice - first as an educator who taught middle school for fourteen years, then as an activist and State Senator and, ultimately, as the President Pro Tempore of the Vermont State Senate in 2021, before moving on to the national stage in U.S. House of Representatives. While times are hard, we invite our fellow Leading Queers to listen to this speech and know you are not alone. We are with you, and we will persevere. Joy and love win!

Happy Holidays, Leading Queers! In this month's episode, we are talking all things Space: The Final Frontier with Colonel Bree Fram. Bree Fram is an author, podcaster, keynote speaker, and active-duty colonel and astronautical engineer in the United States Space Force. Bree also co-leads the Department of the Air Force LGBTQ+ Initiatives Team, dedicated to eliminating barriers to LGBTQ+ military service in the Air and Space Force.

Bree came out publicly as transgender on the day the transgender ban in the military was dropped in 2016. She transitioned while in a command position and served through the re-imposition of a transgender ban from 2019-2021. She is currently one of the highest ranking out transgender officers in the United States military.

Bree has appeared on national and international media. She hosts the “Forged in Fire” podcast. Her books include:  With Honor and Integrity: Transgender Troops in Their Own Words (its sequel, Valor and Visibility: The Next Chapter of Transgender Service, is scheduled for publication next month), and Forging Queer Leaders: How the LGBTQIA+ Community Creates Impact from Adversity.

Are you ready to GOBBLE up this month's episode? This month, the BQLP is thankful to be speaking with award-winning researcher and educator, Chad Topaz. Chad is Professor of Complex Systems at Williams College and co-founder of an independent nonprofit organization: Institute for the Quantitative Study of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (QSIDE), a research-to-action institute working at the intersection of social justice and data science. The author of 70 scientific papers and pieces of public scholarship, Chad’s work has been covered nationally and internationally in The Atlantic, Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Mother Jones, People, Smithsonian Magazine, and more. He is driven to engage the public about the synergy of data science and social justice.

Boo! Did we scare you? This Hallows eve episode, the BQLP chats with Florida activist and icon, Nadine Smith. Nadine is the Executive Director of Equality Florida, the state's largest organization dedicated to ending discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In 2022, she was named to the Time100, TIME Magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. An award-winning journalist turned organizer, Nadine was one of four national co-chairs of the 1993 March on Washington. She served on the founding board of the International Gay and Lesbian Youth Organization. Nadine was part of a historic meeting with then-President Bill Clinton, the first Oval Office meeting between a sitting President and LGBTQ community leaders. She also served on President Obama's National Finance Committee. 

Nadine has been named one of the state's "Most Powerful and Influential Women" by the Florida Diversity Council. She has received the League of Women Voters' Woman of Distinction Award, and in 2018 was named one of the 100 Most Influential Floridians by Influence Magazine. She is a Florida Chamber Foundation Trustee and currently serves as chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Florida Advisory Committee.

https://www.eqfl.org/team

Happy 1st Birthday to the BQLP! This episode, we reflect on 1 year of the BQLP and Jim Fielding's book All Pride, No Ego. As one of the first openly gay CEOs of a Fortune 500 company, Jim has paved the way for Queer leaders in the corporate world and beyond. Some of the companies he's headed you might have heard of! Do Disney Stores Worldwide, Claire's, and 20th Century Fox ring some bells? Fielding now shares his philosophies on how to lead with pride while dismantling one's ego for the betterment of both the self and the collective, whether that be a company, program, or individual. He was also the inaugural guest for the BQLP Queer Leaders Vision Forums, a quarterly talk series on Simon's Rock campus for invited Queer Leaders.

Back to school with the BQLP! In this month's episode, we chat with educator and Director of Education Programs for New York City's PFLAG, Clark Wolff Hamel. An alum of Bard College, Clark shares his philosophies on advocating for inclusive education, LGBTQIA+ classroom resources, and how to navigate what can be an increasingly hostile environment for Queer individuals--as both an educator and lifelong learner

https://www.pflagnyc.org/

Did you just fall out of a coconut tree? This guest certainly didn't! This month the BQLP is happy to chat with Representative Malcolm Kenyatta, member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, Philly native, and candidate for Pennsylvania Auditor General. Please, check your registration and VOTE! For more information:

"In the legislature, he holds multiple leadership roles, including as a member of the Philadelphia Delegation leadership team. He serves on several committees: State Government, where he chairs the subcommittee on Government Operations; Commerce, where he chairs the subcommittee on Financial Services and Banking; and as a member of the Finance, Liquor Control, and Judiciary committees.

Breaking barriers, Kenyatta became the first openly LGBTQ+ person of color and one of the youngest members of the PA General Assembly in 2018. In 2022, he made history as the first openly LGBTQ+ person of color to seek a U.S. Senate seat. In April 2024, he became the Democratic nominee for Auditor General, marking the first time an openly LGBTQ+ person was nominated for statewide office by a political party in Pennsylvania. In 2020, he was chosen to give the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention as part of a group of ‘Rising Stars.’

In 2023, President Joe Biden appointed Kenyatta to chair the Presidential Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans."

Happy Pride Month! For your pleasure, this month we are in conversation with Andrea Barrica, the founder of O.School, a sex education platform. Andrea has also co-founded financial services companies, worked as a venture capital investment advisor, and is a managing partner at Mahway which provides a unique model for business creation.

https://www.o.school/

On this week's episode, the BQLP chats with Ms. Joy Redmond (she/her), a composer and musician based in New York City. Joy holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees from The Juilliard School, where she studied composition with Matthias Pintscher. Currently, Joy’s musical pursuits include composing for concert, stage, and media works, collaborating with other artists as a producer and arranger, and performing on keyboards in a variety of genres. In January, Joy’s one-act opera “Hairpiece,” exploring the power of authentic gender expression, debuted as part of the American Opera Initiative at the Kennedy Center.

https://www.kennedy-center.org/video/digital-stage/opera/2024/american-opera-initiative-hairpiece/

The Bard Queer Leadership Project (BQLP) kicks off our inaugural episode in conversation with Dr. Joel Davis Brown, the founder and Visionary Leader of Pneumos, a global management & consulting firm. Dr. Brown is also the author of The Souls of Queer Folk: How Understanding LGBTQ+ Culture Can Transform Your Leadership Practice, required reading for the revolutionary new BQLP.