News from the Peak

In this episode we talk about hobbies people have outside of work. This topic was of particular interest to me as I know how important my time away from work is, and how it makes me better at my job and in so many other ways. In fact, everyone at Grays Peak has some kind of interesting hobby that they are passionate about. In the GPS Family, we have people who enjoy skiing, hiking, traveling, music, art, wine, fishing, horseback riding, kayaking and much more. We do our best to encourage these things, and provide space for people to pursue what they love, which in turn makes us a happier and more cohesive team.

We have a great group of 4 guests on the show. We start the show with Chad Dexter. Chad is the Child Support director for the State of Montana and is a Mountain Bike enthusiast – to say the least. We then speak with Ian Broughton, who works for the Michigan Child Support program as the Planning, Evaluation and Analysis manager, and who is an excellent singer and musician. Then we speak with Michael Adrian, also from the Michigan Child Support program, where he serves as the Program Development Division Director. Michael is an accomplished hiker, and enjoys biking, and Kayaking as well. We close the show speaking with Zach Steed, who works for Conduent providing services to a multitude of child support clients, and who is also an accomplished blue grass musician. Stay tuned until the very end to hear some extra content and some music from Zach's band.

We were so pleased to welcome to the podcast Ángela Quijada-Banks.

Ms. Quijada-Banks is a NAACP Image Award–nominated, American best-selling author, Founder and C.E.O of Soulful Liberation (a Book publishing company and podcast), and Consciously Melanated Queens, a community to support young women of color to uncover their divine purpose and holistically heal.

She came to our attention as the author of The Black Foster Youth Handbook: 50+ Lessons I Learned to Successfully Age-Out of Foster Care and Holistically Heal (Soulful Liberation Publishing).

News from the Peak is giving away a copy of the book to the first 5 listeners to post a comment on the News from the Peak section of our website with their favorite quote from the episode. So, enjoy the episode, and leave a comment. Even if you aren’t one of the first 5, we’d love to know what you think of the episode.

In our second Community Table Talks episode, we ask about leadership. This is one of the topics we tend to hear a lot about but can never get enough of. There are certainly plenty of books, trainings, articles, and other podcasts dedicated to this topic, but today we get perhaps a more practical view on some specific leadership questions – and some great conversations that came out of them. This episode features Veronica Riley, Bryan Hubbard, Erin Frisch and Irma Neal.

In a conversation with David Ramm, Maureen Leif and Robert Riddle, Dr. Karen Mahler combines the passion and acuity of a skilled psychologist with an educator’s unstinting concern for the interests and strengths of young people. She drives home the importance—really, the sheer practical necessity—of listening to young people at every stage in the process of creating programs intended to serve them.

To kick off Season two, we bring you our first edition of a community table talk format that we hope to use occasionally. The longer conversations are really great for getting into the details of a topic, but this is a good way to gather a multitude of perspectives on one or two questions. Today we welcome 6 great guests including Tanguler gray, the Deputy Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Human Services, Lee Fisher, Assistant Director from Ventura County California Child Support Services, Liesa Stockdale, the State IV-D Director for Utah, Charles Smith from CSR Consulting and a long time Child Support leader from Texas, Lisa Skenadore, a VP with Systems and Methods, and the current NCSEA President, and Dr. Rita Cameron Wedding, a previous guest on the show, from the Implicit Bias Training Institute. It's a great line up of guests answering two compelling questions. At the end of the show, you hear our own answers as well. We welcome your feedback on this format, as well as suggestions for future table talk questions and guests. 

We were pleased to welcome Mike Smith to the podcast for a number of reasons. First, I was so interested in the creative outlet he has maintained over the years, and I think a lot of us can relate to the need for something aside from work and chores and responsibility to focus on. Of course, given the year we have all had, this need has become even greater. On this episode we get a chance to talk to Mike about how music has been a part of his life, what has influenced him, and we get some specific insights into the latest Ocean Empire release, Summerland. We hope this will provide some inspiration to our audience to find their own outlet. The opening of Summerland is previewed at the very end of the episode. The poem read by e.e. cummings in in the public domain. 

Since mid-March our lives have been much different trying to adapt and be safe while living through a pandemic. Everyone has a different story, different stressors and a different experience but it’s probably safe to say we have all had periods of feeling down and stressed. We have been wanting to better understand the common questions of "how can I take care of myself, my family and my team during these stressful times." For Episode 16 of the News from the Peak, We welcome a friend and an expert Chelli Pumphrey, M.A., Founder and Clinical Director at Trilogy Holistic Mental Health. The basic take away is simple. To take care of others you need to put your mask on first.

In this episode we have a conversation with the brother of our own David Ramm, the wildlife artist Carl Ramm. Among other things, Carl is part of a team that manages bears—Alaska Peninsula brown bears, to be exact—at Brooks Camp in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. As part of a team of bear techs, he helps track the bears’ movement and, as much as possible, guides them away from the camp’s many visitors and toward a place that’s safer for bears and humans alike. We believe there is some link here to management, leadership, living in harmony with nature... but mostly is a really interesting conversation about bears. 

Our team developed a bond with Dr. Wedding and after the amazing attendance on the WICSEC Micro Learning we asked her to be on our podcast to which she quickly agreed. She’s also agreed to facilitate a WICSEC book club on the topic in the early part of 2021 (so stay tuned). In this podcast episode we delve deeper into systemic racism and why it is so important to be having these conversations and provide more training. We get personal and hear from Dr. Wedding on why this work means so much to her and how we all be part of the solution and lead from wherever we are.

In this episode of News from the Peak, Maureen Leif speaks with the leaders of the Leadership Pulse, Liz Bullard and Puni Kalra. They talk about the origin of the idea, the intended audience, and what to expect when you participate.  As always… listen all the way to the end for some bonus content. (#outtakes)