Hosted By: J. Robin Moon and Mandy LaBreche

Guests: Davine Holness and Shoba Ramanadhan

This week, we talk to Team Boston from our last Cohort 7. Our guests are Davine Holness and Shoba Ramanadhan, who led the project called “Identifying practice-based strategies to promote mental health among LGBTQ+ youth of color in the context of structural racism and anti-LGBTQ+ stigma.” We also include their self-introductions in the show notes, which they beautifully crafted in the form of poems. Hear about how IRL has been a life-changing experience for them - professionally and personally - and how IRL’s prioritization of operationalizing what it means to center community has sealed it as their promising practice.

Davine Holness (she/her) is a Black, queer, neurodivergent therapist, researcher, story-teller, and justice-seeker. As a clinical social worker, she specializes in working with People of Color, the LGBTQ+ community, autistic adults, and trauma survivors. Her approach is anti-oppressive, trauma-informed, solution-focused, and neurodiversity-affirming. As a researcher, she focuses on community-based participatory research, bringing a practitioner’s perspective to work addressing LGBTQ+ mental health. She is passionate about musical theatre, sociolinguistics, and songbirds.

Shoba Ramanadhan, ScD, MPH, is an Associate Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. For over 17 years, her research has supported community-based organizations, like YMCAs, to leverage the best available research- and practice-based evidence to address cancer and other health inequities in the US and India. Dr. Ramanadhan uses community-engaged research approaches, routinely working in partnership with health-focused coalitions and local nonprofits, particularly those serving racial and ethnic minority populations and LGBTQ+ communities. She loves to dance, cook, and hang out with her family.

Mentioned:

* IRL LinkedIn Page

* IRL Promising Practices Podcast Page

* Team Boston’s IRL Project overview: https://irleaders.org/team/identifying-practice-based-strategies-to-promote-mental-health-among-lgbtq-youth-of-color-in-the-context-of-structural-racism-and-anti-lgbtq-stigma/

* Davine’s website: https://alafiacenter.square.site

* Shoba’s website: https://hsph.harvard.edu/profile/shoba-ramanadhan/

* Ramanadhan Lab: https://hsph.harvard.edu/research/ramanadhan-lab/

* Boston GLASS: ri.org/glass & https://give.jri.org/give/254111/#!/donation/checkout

* One thing everyone should know about community-engaged research: https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/shoba-ramanadhan-community-engaged-research/

Davine’s intro poem:I am from a long line of women who take in all the village children, and talk to their plantsWho learn from nature and from every bad situationFrom dozens of cousins, most of whom are actually related to me

I am from salt and water - ocean, sweat, tears, and chicken foot soupFrom people who were strong because there was no other choice

I am from proud Jamaicans who know how to work hard and know how to have a good timeFrom collectors, mediators, and storytellersPillars of the community who have practiced social work since before colonizers coined the term

I am from self-taught musicians teaching others how to be self-taughtSinging their ancestors’ songs in a strange land

I am from all three corners of a triangular trade route that marred history and the Atlantic with blood

I am from a pizza shop on 4th Ave where my mom taught me phonics by writing on the napkins

From extra homework assigned either at my parents whim, or because we asked a question about our regular homeworkFrom libraries, drama club, and a karaoke machine

I am from a vibrant community of immigrants and their childrenFrom an early start to activism, organizing against our own separate and unequal education

I am from a bittersweet syncretism that kept us safe

I am from lineages of pain, persistence, and promise

I am from rest is a privilege we cannot afford

And an ongoing struggle to reclaim rest as a birthrightI am from pay it forward and pass it on

Shoba’s intro poem:

I am from

Indian parents banging around as loud as possible early on weekends when I was a teenager.

Saris of mustard and maroon, turquoise and purple

Sounds of the soccer field

Deep in the heart of Texas

I am from

Rasam as a source of comfort

Chili crab on East Coast Parkway

I am from

I love yous

Being called Kannamma

I am from

The chaos family

A grandfather who served in the British Indian Army and then the Indian Army

A grandmother who led by example

Civil servants, teachers, and a proud college graduate given a parade on an elephant because he was the first in his village

A plane ride to the US with $7 in a pocket

Thoughts? Suggestions? Email us at [email protected]

You can find show notes, transcripts, and more episodes of “Promising Practices for Health Equity” at Promising Practices for Health Equity Podcast: Introduction - Interdisciplinary Research Leaders.

This episode of “Promising Practices for Health Equity” was produced by Studio Americana, and prepared by Cody Cotton, Mandy LaBreche, Krystal Lee, and J. Robin Moon of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Interdisciplinary Research Leaders Podcast Team.

To kick off our Season 2, we had a wonderful conversation with Team North Port St. Joe of Florida, from our last Cohort 7. Our guests are Dannie E. Bolden, Dr. Kwame N. Owusu-Daaku, and Dr. Christian Wells, who launched their ambitious and amazing project “Using Transformative Scenario Planning to Address Structural Racism in Health in North Port St. Joe, Florida.”

Guests:

Dannie E. Bolden is the managing partner of Bolden and Associates Consulting Services LLC, a minority and veteran-owned business, with offices in Port St. Joe, Florida, and Columbus, Georgia. His company specializes in nonprofit startups, affordable housing construction, and community redevelopment. He is a community organizer and committed advocate for poor and disenfranchised individuals and families. For the last 20 years, he has engaged his skills and expertise to address head-on the struggles facing African Americans in North Port St. Joe. In doing so, he has engaged exceptional business associates, collaborative partners who are subject-matter experts, and many residents who are committed to bring about positive change in their community.

Dr. Kwame N. Owusu-Daaku, an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of West Florida, is a qualitative researcher with teaching and research interests in human geography, planning, international development, sustainability, community engagement, and civic scholarship. His research focuses on the impacts of climate change and pollution on different groups in various (rural, urban, local, international) communities and the efforts of these groups to build resilience to these impacts. The goal of his scholarship is to pair this focus on unequal impacts with community-led strategies to build awareness of — and inspire action to improve — socio-environmental problems.

Dr. Christian Wells is professor of anthropology and director of the Center for Brownfields Research & Redevelopment at the University of South Florida, where he served previously as the institution’s chief sustainability officer. Dr. Wells is an environmental anthropologist with a diverse portfolio of research projects aimed at improving human and environmental health outcomes of re/development efforts in underserved communities. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a past president of the Florida Brownfields Association. He recently received the 2025 Comitas Award for Social Innovation and Public Engagement from the Society for Applied Anthropology.

Mentioned:

* IRL LinkedIn Page

* IRL Promising Practices Podcast Page

* Dannie E Bolden:

https://www.northportstjoecdc.org

* Dr. Kwame N. Owusu-Daaku: https://uwf.edu/hmcse/departments/earth-and-environmental-sciences/faculty/dr-kwame-owusu-daaku.html

* Dr. Christian Wells: https://www.usf.edu/arts-sciences/departments/anthropology/people/e-christian-wells.aspx

* Team North Port St. Joe’s IRL Project overview: https://irleaders.org/team/using-transformative-scenario-planning-to-address-structural-racism-in-health-in-north-port-st-joe-florida

* Transformative Scenarios Planning overview: https://reospartners.com/transformative-scenarios

* Port St. Joe Health Equity Futures Transformative Scenarios: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sNpEfntmQexA4o-5LwXcORpTQNQS7g6C_JP-1H76BLc/edit?usp=sharing

* Media:

* https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIsyl2r_KOvLZVbqgClAZ9XhE_7EEkdfm&si=SUgkUeMmh_kxOgZC

* https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iG5QdYAOGiGuFtE1xFHB-ex1ahzfK8Jw/view

* News:

* https://uwfvoyager.com/4223/features/contamination-without-representation/

* https://www.eenews.net/articles/gas-project-ej-concerns-collide-in-the-florida-panhandle/

* https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07052023/florida-port-st-joe-lng/

Thoughts? Suggestions? Email us at [email protected]

You can find show notes, transcripts, and more episodes of “Promising Practices for Health Equity” at Promising Practices for Health Equity Podcast: Introduction - Interdisciplinary Research Leaders.

This episode of “Promising Practices for Health Equity” was produced by Studio Americana, and prepared by Cody Cotton, Mandy LaBreche, Krystal Lee, and J. Robin Moon of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Interdisciplinary Research Leaders Podcast Team.

Season 2, which we are calling the “main entree” of the podcast series, features the experiences and testimonies of our diverse fellows and alums. In this episode, co-hosts gather and discuss the themes that Season 2 features, including what it means to acknowledge and amplify unheard voices, understand the importance of process-centered community-engaged research, and redefine what we mean by impact. We hope that this season opens up new possibilities and opportunities for our listeners to reimagine, inspires those in community-engaged research, and demonstrates that the key ingredient to success is to learn to be vulnerable, honest and open, and to trust the community.

If you are new to our podcast, check out Season 1 to learn about who we are and why we are creating this podcast!

Guests:

* Cody Cotton

* Mandy LaBreche

* Krystal Lee

* J. Robin Moon

Mentioned:

* IRL LinkedIn Page

* IRL Promising Practices Podcast Page

* Storytellers for Change, Luis Ortega

* Emergent Strategy, adrienne maree brown

Thoughts? Suggestions? Email us at [email protected]

You can find show notes, transcripts, and more episodes of “Promising Practices for Health Equity” at Promising Practices for Health Equity Podcast: Introduction - Interdisciplinary Research Leaders.

This episode of “Promising Practices for Health Equity” was produced by Studio Americana, and prepared by Cody Cotton, Mandy LaBreche, Krystal Lee, and J. Robin Moon of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Interdisciplinary Research Leaders Podcast Team.

Hosts: Cody Cotton, Mandy LaBreche, Krystal Lee, J. Robin Moon

Episode Description:

After a full Season 1, the hosts gathered to debrief and share their own learnings and reflections. Our podcast is short of a homegrown, in-your-garage DIY production (except for the incredible help by Studio Americana!), done by folks who have never conceived of creating podcasts, much less listening to them. We decided to do this, and are learning as we go, with one common magnetic desire - to share our IRL experiences that changed our lives, and to share our fellows’ promising practices in our movement of bringing true health equity. Take a listen and be part of this movement we are marching on.

If you are new to our podcast, kindly consider listening to our prologue (Episode 1) to hear more about why we are creating it, who this is for, and what the three seasons are about. We also define some terms that we use and lay out what assumptions we make in framing our dialogues.

Guests:

* Cody Cotton

* Mandy LaBreche

* Krystal Lee

* J. Robin Moon

Mentioned:

* IRL LinkedIn Page

* IRL Promising Practices Podcast Page

* B.R.E.A.T.H.E. Collective, Ashley Ellis

* Storytellers for Change, Luis Ortega

* Emergent Strategy, adrienne maree brown

Thoughts? Suggestions? Email us at [email protected]

You can find show notes, transcripts, and more episodes of “Promising Practices for Health Equity” at Promising Practices for Health Equity Podcast: Introduction - Interdisciplinary Research Leaders.

This episode of “Promising Practices for Health Equity” was produced by Studio Americana, and prepared by Cody Cotton, Mandy LaBreche, Krystal Lee, and J. Robin Moon of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Interdisciplinary Research Leaders Podcast Team.

In this episode, you will meet Andriana Abariotes, who was an IRL partner (2016-2018) while at Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Twin Cities, then as IRL Co-Director through the end of 2020, and Bonnie Cluxton, who represented Academy Health also as IRL’s partner from the beginning until she retired in 2022. Both come from non-academic settings - Andriana is a practitioner with a deep connection and experience in community development, and Bonnie is a facilitator between research and practice. They discuss how RWJF was setting IRL out to be a fundamentally different model from their usual funding programs at that time, to be about translating research to action instead of research being the primary goal. They both agree on their appreciation of IRL trying to tread the balance between people and place in achieving health equity, and emphasize the importance of investing in human and social capital, and not just financial and physical capital. Take a listen to these two fabulous women’s stories!

Hosts: Krystal Lee, J. Robin Moon

Guest bios:

Andriana Abariotes is an executive leader in the non-profit and philanthropic sectors with over 25 years of experience in advancing public-private partnerships, supporting capital investment strategies, and enhancing organizational change, leadership development and creative problem solving for complex issues. While at the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), Andriana led over $250 million in investments in place- and people-based strategies to promote physical, economic, human and social capital development in neighborhoods and communities across the Twin Cities metro area. She also served as a senior advisor and Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Research Leaders program. She currently serves on the board of directors for Springboard for the Arts. Andriana holds a B.A. from Macalester College and M.A. in Public Affairs from the University of Minnesota. In 2012, she was recognized as a Top Woman in Finance, and in 2014, she was selected as Bush Foundation Fellow to explore community health and advance innovative health partnerships.

Bonnie Cluxton retired in 2022 as a Vice President from AcademyHealth, one of the IRL partner organizations. She spent much of her 21 years at AcademyHealth conducting programmatic and grantmaking activities on a number of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation projects with an emphasis on facilitating the use of research in policy and practice.

Mentioned:

LISC Twin Cities

Alina Health MN

Academy Health

Thoughts? Suggestions? Email us at [email protected]

You can find show notes, transcripts, and more episodes of “Promising Practices for Health Equity” at Promising Practices for Health Equity Podcast: Introduction - Interdisciplinary Research Leaders.

This episode of “Promising Practices for Health Equity” was produced by Studio Americana, and prepared by Cody Cotton, Mandy LaBreche, Krystal Lee, and J. Robin Moon of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Interdisciplinary Research Leaders Podcast Team.

Hosts: Cody Cotton, J. Robin Moon

Episode Description: Continuing on our reflection, we feature in this episode Kathleen Call, the former, now-retired, associate director of community engagement of IRL until the fall of 2024, and Ms. Bob-e Simpson Epps, a senior advisor of IRL. They have both been with the program from the beginning. In this very open and frank conversation, they discuss with us how they saw the program and the humans in it evolve: from One-way (academic) conversation to two-way conversation to truly meet the fellows where they are; from instruction-driven, content-driven to value-driven, relationship-driven; from telling to listening and co-creating. They also share the reckoning of the need to: broaden the definition of “interdisciplinary” from mixing academic disciplines to much deeper cross-sector collaboration; redefine the meaning of “rigor” of (community-engaged) research; shift the focus of doing research to fostering leadership. Finally, reckoning that all of these shifts and pivots didn’t just happen by osmosis, but took resistance and resilience of the community partner fellows in keeping the program accountable.

Take a listen to ponder on how it takes community-driven, shared leadership to build great, “rigorous” community-engaged research.

Guest bios:

* Kathleen Call

* Ms. Bob-e Simpson Epps

Mentioned:

Emergent Strategy, adrienne maree brown

Thoughts? Suggestions? Email us at [email protected]

You can find show notes, transcripts, and more episodes of “Promising Practices for Health Equity” at Promising Practices for Health Equity Podcast: Introduction - Interdisciplinary Research Leaders.

This episode of “Promising Practices for Health Equity” was produced by Studio Americana, and prepared by Cody Cotton, Mandy LaBreche, Krystal Lee, and J. Robin Moon of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Interdisciplinary Research Leaders Podcast Team.

Hosts: Krystal Lee, Mandy LaBreche

In this episode, we had a deep conversation with Zinzi Bailey and Cody Cotton, the current Co-Directors of IRL, and Toben Nelson, Senior Advisor and one of the last Co-Directors of IRL. Some of the most critical reflections in the past years that set the program on continuous pivots include intentionality around what “community” means, how to truly engage with the community, what authentic leadership means, and honoring the process itself instead of just as a means to the end. It is connecting with one another at the human level first, through which intentional growth and the courage to navigate through tensions are born. Take a listen to what the trio has learned along the IRL process.

Guest bios:

* Cody Cotton

* Zinzi Bailey

* Toben Nelson

Mentioned:

* Emergent Strategy, adrienne maree brown

* Four Pivots, Shawn Ginwright

* Dobson, Annette. Redefining the Unacceptable, 1994:18(1). Australian Journal of Public Health.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Email us at [email protected]

You can find show notes, transcripts, and more episodes of “Promising Practices for Health Equity” at Promising Practices for Health Equity Podcast: Introduction - Interdisciplinary Research Leaders.

This episode of “Promising Practices for Health Equity” was produced by Studio Americana, and prepared by Cody Cotton, Mandy LaBreche, Krystal Lee, and J. Robin Moon of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Interdisciplinary Research Leaders Podcast Team.

Hosts: Krystal Lee, Mandy LaBreche

Episode Description: In this episode, we had a conversation with Nancy Fishman, former Senior Program Officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, who shepherded IRL from the very beginning through 2020 until she retired. You will hear Nancy’s deep reflection with us on the original inspiration, aspiration, and intention of IRL by the Foundation, how she saw the program evolve, and ways she had to pivot and reimagine the success of the program continuously. A 10-year program investment is a big deal, and instituting a paradigm shift is not easy. Take a listen to what Nancy has learned along the IRL process.

Guests & Bio:

Nancy Fishman, MPH, is a former senior program officer in the Research, Evaluation, and Learning Unit at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Nancy’s portfolio of evaluation/research grants covered a wide range of health and healthcare topics reflecting the Foundation's mission. In her position, she focused on effective policies that impact the integration of health systems, public health, and community services. In addition, Nancy worked on the Foundation’s change leadership programs and was a program officer for many grants reflecting her interest in issues around increased community capacity for long-term care for the elderly. Before joining the Foundation in 1997, she worked as a research specialist at the University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health. During her time in Pittsburgh, she worked as program director for a community outreach, education, and research project on cancer screening, and as a project coordinator on several National Institutes of Health-funded registries and clinical trials in the area of cardiovascular research. Nancy’s favorite nursing position was as a visiting nurse in the Boston metropolitan area. Nancy holds an MPH in epidemiology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a BS in nursing from the University of Connecticut.

Mentioned:

Emergent Strategy, adrienne maree brown

Thoughts? Suggestions? Email us at [email protected]

You can find transcripts (posted the day of the episode release) and more episodes of “Promising Practices for Health Equity” at Promising Practices for Health Equity Podcast: Introduction - Interdisciplinary Research Leaders.

This episode of “Promising Practices for Health Equity” was produced by Studio Americana, and prepared by Cody Cotton, Mandy LaBreche, Krystal Lee, and J. Robin Moon of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Interdisciplinary Research Leaders Podcast Team.

Hosts: Krystal Lee

Episode Description: In this episode, we share a podcast recording from 2020, the first episode of our original podcast effort, which was thwarted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a conversation between the two original co-directors of the IRL program, Dr. J. Michael Oakes, Senior Vice President for Research, Office of Research and Technology Management at the Case Western Reserve University, and Jan Malcolm, former Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Health under three governors. In their conversation, they talk about their intentions for IRL at the beginning in 2015, how IRL connects research evidence with community activism, and their hopes for the impact IRL could make.

Guests: 

Jan Malcolm

Michael Oakes

Mentioned:

IRL Page

Thoughts? Suggestions? Email us at [email protected] 

You can find transcripts (posted the day of the episode release) and more episodes of “Promising Practices for Health Equity” at Promising Practices for Health Equity Podcast: Introduction - Interdisciplinary Research Leaders.

This episode of “Promising Practices for Health Equity” was produced by Studio Americana, and prepared by Cody Cotton, Mandy LaBreche, Krystal Lee, and J. Robin Moon of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Interdisciplinary Research Leaders Podcast Team.

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Hosts: Krystal Lee, J. Robin Moon

Episode Description: To engage in the true transformation of our society, it is not enough to look at the external structural causes and conditions of our world. We must look even further and deeper into the mental landscape and models of the reality that are within us. To transform the world, we must transform ourselves (Grace Lee Boggs quoted by adrienne maree brown), and we start the journey with storytelling. In this second part of our prologue for Season One, we invited Luis Ortega, Director and Founder of Storytellers for Change, to have a conversation with us about the critical need for storytelling and narrative change in community-engaged research, and what motivated us to create this podcast.

Guest bio:

Luis Ortega (he/them), EdM, is a multidisciplinary storyteller, educator, facilitator, narrative strategist, and the founder and director at Storytellers for Change. Over the last 16 years, Luis has worked with youth, educators, and cross-sector leaders to harness the power of narrative to co-imagine, craft, and share stories to build an equitable world. His research and consulting work focuses on asset-based storytelling, racial equity, narrative change, healing, culturally responsive education, leadership, and organizational development. His work, writing, and projects have been featured at the Harvard DACA Seminar, HBO’s “Where Do You Exist?” podcast, the Kauffman Foundation’s Disruptor Speaker Series, the Seattle Design Festival, and The People’s Practice magazine. Luis is a W K. Kellogg Foundation’s Community Leadership Network Fellow, Co-Director of La Cima Bilingual Leadership Camp, and co-founder of the Expresión Storytelling Fellowship at the Latinx Education Collaborative. They also serve on the board of directors of School's Out Washington.

Luis has a BA in Political Science from the University of Washington and a Master’s in Education Leadership from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Luis was born and raised in Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) and now lives in the unceded and ancestral lands of the Duwamish and Coast Salish people (Seattle).

Mentioned:

* The Flourish Agenda

* The Four Pivots by Shawn Ginwright

* Storytelling for Social Justice by Lee Anne Bell

* Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey

* Crafting Anti-Racist Narratives for Community Development by Luis Ortega

* Principles for Equity-Centered Storytelling by Luis Ortega

* Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown

Thoughts? Suggestions? Email us at [email protected]

You can find transcripts (posted the day of the episode release) and more episode of “Promising Practices for Health Equity” at Promising Practices for Health Equity Podcast: Introduction - Interdisciplinary Research Leaders

This episode of “Promising Practices for Health Equity” was produced by Studio Americana, prepared by Cody Cotton, Mandy LaBreche, Krystal Lee, and J. Robin Moon of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Interdisciplinary Research Leader’s Podcast Team.

Please visit our website to learn more about our podcast.