Parenting for the Future

Stephanie Malia Krauss is mother to two children. She has an extensive background in education, youth development, and social work, and has been a teacher, coach, school leader, and nonprofit executive. Today, she works at the intersection of education, human services, and workforce development with a relentless focus on what young people need to be ready for the world and what the world needs to be ready for them.

She joins us today to discuss her fascinating new book called Making It: What Today's Kids Need for Tomorrow's World. The book goes beyond the question of what young people need to succeed in school, to ask what they need to be ready for life. Making It is the essential reading for anyone who wants to ensure that young people are prepared to thrive and make their unique contribution in the challenging and ever-changing world in which they will come of age.

Dr. Rakesh Jain is stepfather to one son, a clinical professor at the Department of Psychiatry, Texas Tech University School of Medicine, and also has a private practice in Austin, Texas. Dr. Jain attended medical school at the University of Calcutta, India, and graduate school at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston. He served a three year residency in psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry, a two year fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry, and completed a post doctoral fellowship in research psychiatry at the University of Texas Mental Science Institute.

Dr. Jain has been involved in well over 100 research projects studying the effects of medications on short-term and longterm treatment of depression, anxiety, pain, mood overlap disorders, ADHD and psychosis in adult and child populations. He has co-authored six books that range from patient education to cutting edge neuro biological findings in psychiatry and mental health.

He joins us today to talk about ADHD in children, and share his advice for how parents of children with ADHD can ensure their wellbeing and that of their children during this challenging pandemic time.

Chris Tomkins is uncle to five children, a TEDx speaker, spiritual life coach, and LGBTQ inner advocate. Chris has been staunched LGBTQ+ advocate for over 15 years working organizations like the gay and lesbian Alliance against defamation or GLAAD.

What began as a letter, he wrote to his family to address a conversation that was not taking place, became an article, a TEDx talk, and is now a new book called Raising LGBTQ Allies. A Parent's Guide to Changing the Messages from the Playground. It is the first parenting book to focus on the prevention of homophobia, transphobia, and bullying, before they even begin.

He joins us today to shed light on on the deeper multifaceted layers of homophobia and his book that encourages families to have open and authentic conversations in a practical, timely, and inclusive way.

Roni Nocon and Amy Sage each have two children and are co-founders of ParentingEQ, a new subscription service for parents of children ages four to 11, designed to help parents nurture emotional intelligence in their children by creating a culture of emotional wellbeing in their homes.

Over the course of their careers as school counselors, they observed a decrease in children's overall wellbeing and an increase in depression, anxiety, self-harm, and negative self-worth. They found that a child's emotional health is greatly impacted by something over which schools have little influence, the family environment.

They join us today to discuss ParentingEQ's mission to bridge this gap through parent-led social-emotional activities, which focuses on the emotional intelligence skills children need to lead happy and successful lives.

Stephanie Dua is mother to three kind and brilliant daughters. She is an education entrepreneur and the co-founder and president of HOMER, the only early learning program proven to increase reading scores with just 15 minutes a day.

Stephanie launched HOMER after struggling to find tools to help her own daughter learn to read despite being surrounded by some of the leading minds in education. HOMER raised $50 million from the biggest names in education and entertainment, including Sesame Workshop, LEGO Ventures and Gymboree Music and Play.

Before HOMER, Stephanie served as CEO for the New York City Education Department's Fund for Public Schools, a senior advisor to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. She's a graduate of UCLA and the Harvard Kennedy School.

She joins us today to share her journey to launching HOMER and her love of bringing learning to others.

Kaya Henderson is a force of nature. She has positively impacted the lives of thousands of children. She is the CEO of Reconstruction, a technology company delivering a K-12 supplemental curriculum that situates Black people, culture, and contributions in an authentic identity affirming way, so that students of all backgrounds benefit from a complete understanding of our shared history and society.

Kaya is also the host of the uber popular podcast Pod Save the People. From 2010 to 2016, Kaya served as chancellor of DC Public Schools. Her tenure was marked by consecutive years of enrollment growth, increased graduation rates, improvements in student satisfaction and teacher retention, increases in AP participation and pass rates, and the greatest growth of any urban district on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

She joins us today to talk about Reconstruction, and the impact it is designed to have.

Jennifer Grant is mother to four children and an author. She has written six books for adults and several books for children including the picture book, Maybe God is Like That Too, Maybe I Can Love My Neighbor Too, and also A Little Blue Bottle.

Jennifer has written for several publications, including Woman's Day, Chicago Parent, and Patheos. For more than a decade, she wrote features for Sun-Times Media newspapers and was also a health and family columnist for the Chicago Tribune. She has a BA from Wheaton College and an MA in English and creative writing from Southern Methodist University.

She joins us today to talk about her latest book for children, Once Upon a Time Not So Long Ago, which is a picture book about the COVID pandemic.

On this final episode of Season 4, we are joined by Whitnee Hawthorne is mom to two phenomenal sons and the founder of the very popular Savvy Working Mom web platform, which is dedicated to helping working mothers thrive in every arena of their lives.

Whitnee is certified in goal setting, project management, strategy performance and life coaching. She is also a professional speaker, a time management and productivity expert and widely known as a self-care guru.

She joins us on Parenting for the Future to share some of her proven strategies for thriving at life and at work, strategies that allow her to live her personal credo, that working mothers don't have to choose between personal and professional success.

Dr. LaNitra Berger is a mother to two sons and associate director of the African and African American Studies program at George Mason University, as well as the senior director of fellowships in the office of undergraduate education at George Mason University. As an art historian, LaNitra's research focuses on the intersections of art and social activism in the Black and Jewish diasporas. She has taught art of the African diaspora, African American art history, South African modern art, intersections of African and Jewish diasporas, art and social activism, and racial justice and public monuments, among other courses.

She joins us on Parenting for the Future to discuss her first phonograph, Irma Stern and the Racial Paradox of South African Modern Art: Audacities of Color, and how lessons of Irma Stern's life can help our children become agents of change.

Dr. Susan Fisher is mother to two daughters, a researcher, and professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences in the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. For decades, she has been at the forefront of research on prenatal development. She has always been struck by the fact that while we parents teach our children about a lot of things, pregnancy is seldom one of those things. So, many of us grow into adulthood not fully understanding this most natural and consequential biological phenomena.

She joins us on Parenting for the Future to help break the pattern of secrecy and guesswork that surround pregnancy and birth, and to share the new trailblazing science and advice for safe births and healthy babies. She also discusses her new book called, Taking Charge of Your Pregnancy. This book is an indispensable guide to the revolutionary advances in the understanding of pregnancy and birth, and it is the topic of our conversation today.