Dr. Nadia Lopez banked 156 unused sick days. When she finally got too sick to work, the Department of Education separated her from payroll and told her she could come back to work.

In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Dr. Nadia Lopez, award-winning educator, best-selling author of The Bridge to Brilliance, and the founding principal of Mott Hall Bridges Academy in Brownsville, Brooklyn, for a conversation about educator wellness, burnout, and what it costs to give a system everything you have.

Dr. Lopez never planned to teach. She trained as a critical care nurse, detoured through Verizon, and was rejected from the NYC Teaching Fellows before a mentor forced them to put the rejection in writing. They could not. She landed in a seventh grade special education classroom in Fort Greene and brought her nursing philosophy with her: know the child before you read the IEP, treat the behaviors and not the label, understand the context before you diagnose the problem.

She talks about asking her students whether they had a library at home and realizing they did not own a single book, while thousands sat unused in school storage rooms. She talks about the Global Teacher Prize taking her to Dubai, Sweden, and Korea, and what those systems understand about sustainability that we do not. She talks about her mentor Karen, who ignored her own symptoms the same way Dr. Lopez ignored hers.

And she talks about the autoimmune diagnosis that ended her principalship, the medical sabbatical the DOE denied her, and the fight to get insurance back so she could have surgery.

Tune in to hear why Dr. Lopez believes leadership is responsibility, not martyrdom, and what her HEART framework asks of leaders who have never once been asked how their heart and spirit are doing.

Chapters:

🩺 02:53 Dr. Nadia Lopez never wanted to be an educator, she was supposed to be a nurse

✉️ 06:56 Rejected by the NYC Teaching Fellows, until a mentor asked them to put it in writing

🏫 11:31 Seventh grade special education in Fort Greene, and the nursing philosophy she brought with her

📕 15:30 The question she asked every student: do you have a library at home

🇬🇹 20:27 Guatemala, the food pantry, and the child nobody knew was struggling

🌍 23:44 The Global Teacher Prize, teaching under a tree, and what other systems understand

❤️ 29:30 The question she asks educators everywhere: how is your heart and spirit

🕯️ 31:26 Karen Giles, glioblastoma, and the signs they both ignored

🚫 41:16 The HEART framework, 156 unused sick days, and the sabbatical the DOE denied

👩‍👧 45:14 Walking away as the lesson she was teaching her daughter about her own worth

📋 50:36 We have attendance protocols for students and nothing for leaders

💭 54:58 The Ronderings question: listen to your body or you become a hypocrite

Links:

Website: www.thelopezeffect.com
Work with Dr. Lopez: www.thelopezeffect.com/workwithme
Socials: @thelopezeffect on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and X

Dr. Lopez coaches women leaders in education on building careers they can sustain, and she is launching a new health and wellness endeavor. Reach out to her if you are leading a school or a system and no one has asked you lately how your heart and spirit are doing.

Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapatalo
Check Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473 

Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.com
Publish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.org
Start a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.com
Go from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org 

Julie Chan was a Yale and MIT-trained urban planner building a career in economic development when a spontaneous spiritual awakening opened intuitive abilities she never asked for and could not explain. Today she helps entrepreneurs and executives find their life purpose, and she is on a mission to bring science and spirituality back into the same room.

In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Julie Chan, founder of Being My Purpose and an intuitive life purpose coach, to talk about what happens when the analytical mind you built your career on suddenly is not the only way you know things.

Julie's path did not start with crystals and channeling. It started with degrees from Yale and MIT, work in healthcare technology, biotech, and small business development, and a very grounded life in New York City. Then the awakening arrived, unbidden, and with it came clairaudience, clairvoyance, and a set of experiences her training gave her no language for. Rather than run from it, she went looking for a framework big enough to hold both the data and the download.

She and Ron get into what it actually means to channel the Akashic Records, why she has written thousands of pages of guidance for clients, and how someone with her background makes peace with abilities that science has not yet caught up to. They talk about purpose as something you uncover rather than invent, the fear that keeps people from expressing it, and why Julie believes healthcare, education, and business are all overdue for a more expansive view of what human beings are capable of.

Ron brings his own curiosity and a little healthy skepticism, and Julie meets all of it with warmth and specificity.

Tune in to hear how a self-described analytical planner learned to trust a way of knowing she once would have dismissed.

Chapters:

🌱 02:05 Julie Chan on leaving urban planning for a life she never planned

🎓 05:30 What a Yale and MIT planner did before the awakening

⚡ 11:20 The spontaneous awakening that opened abilities she never asked for

👂 18:40 Clairaudience, clairvoyance, and learning to trust a new way of knowing

🗂️ 24:10 What it actually means to channel the Akashic Records

✍️ 27:29 Writing thousands of pages of guidance for clients

🧭 34:05 Purpose is something you uncover, not something you invent

😨 41:30 The fear that keeps people from expressing their purpose

🔬 46:15 Why science and spirituality belong in the same room

🏥 48:20 A bigger view of healthcare, education, and human potential

Links:

Website: beingmypurpose.com

Facebook: facebook.com/beingmypurpose

Instagram: @beingmypurpose

Connect with Julie Chan at Being My Purpose to learn more about her work helping entrepreneurs and executives uncover and express their life purpose through intuitive coaching and the Akashic Records.

Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapatalo
Check Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473 

Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.com
Publish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.org
Start a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.com
Go from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org 

A high school sports editor watched a fellow editor dismiss a brilliant Black student's writing. The question that moment raised never left him.

In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Jon Schnur, cofounder of New Leaders and CEO of America Achieves, for a conversation about leadership, education, and economic mobility in the age of AI.

Jon grew up just outside Milwaukee, the son of a mother who co-founded one of the country's first children's museums and the city's first racially integrated preschool. He went to that preschool. So when he later sat in segregated Milwaukee classrooms as a teenage reporter, he already knew another way was possible. That gap between what is and what could be became his life's engine: ask why, then ask what we can do about it.

That question carried him from a Chicago campaign volunteer job (he started as Bill Clinton's airport driver) through seven years in the Clinton administration, advising Al Gore, and co-founding New Leaders, which has since developed 8,000 school leaders reaching more than a million students. Ron has his own New Leaders story, and the two of them trace what made that community what it was.

Then Jon turns to what is next: the good jobs economy, and how states can prepare people for meaningful work as AI reshapes entire careers.

Tune in to hear why Jon believes the future is not something to predict, but something we decide through what we choose to do.

Chapters:

• 🎙️ 00:40 Welcome to Ronderings, and a full-circle reunion two decades in the making
• 🏛️ 04:24 Growing up in Milwaukee, and a mother who built museums and integrated preschools
• 📰 09:39 The high school newsroom moment that turned a sports editor toward education
• 🚗 20:26 From Clinton's airport driver to seven years in the administration
• 🏫 24:19 Why every great school had a great principal, and the idea behind New Leaders
• 🤝 31:15 Twenty-five years of New Leaders, and the people who built the community
• 🌎 38:12 How a search for an executive director led to Barack Obama
• 💼 53:30 The good jobs economy, and preparing people for work in the age of AI
• ❤️ 58:30 The Ronderings question: equal dignity, asking why, and taking action
• 📬 1:00:18 How to reach Jon, and a final word on responsibility over grievance
• 🎧 1:04:36 Closing reflections, and Podcasts That Matter at www.podcaststhatmatter.org

Links:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jon-schnur

America Achieves: linkedin.com/company/america-achieves

Email Jon directly: [email protected]

Reach out to Jon to talk leadership, the good jobs economy, and how states can prepare people for meaningful work in the age of AI. If you are part of the New Leaders community, he is genuinely inviting your ideas on what the next twenty-five years should look like.

Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapatalo
Check Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473 

Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.com
Publish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.org
Start a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.com
Go from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org 

George Suttles followed the money. Not for status, for impact, and from inside some of the most powerful funding institutions in the country, he is trying to redesign how philanthropy works.

In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with George Suttles, Executive Director of Commonfund Institute, Harlem-born and New York City-rooted, for a conversation about power, repair, and rebuilding the system from the inside out.

George traces his path from a father who coached every neighborhood team and a mother grounded in faith and service at Convent Avenue Baptist Church, to direct youth work across the city, to tech policy at the National Urban League, to philanthropic advising at U.S. Trust, and now to leading Commonfund Institute and chairing the board of the New York Foundation. The through line he names is older than any of it: generosity, abundance, and taking care of your neighbors, learned long before he had words like "nonprofit" or "philanthropy."

The conversation gets honest about the professionalization of philanthropy and the way metrics quietly became a gate. George unpacks the myth of merit-based funding, why the 5% payout was never built to be transformational, and the question he keeps asking in mainstream rooms: if foundations believe endowments are good, why not endow their grantees too?

He and Ron also talk about how to actually move an institution, why change starts at the board level, and why nobody is coming to save our communities, so we build our own things.

Tune in to hear why George believes radical love and radical imagination are the tools the moment demands.

Chapters:

• 🎙️ 01:40 Meet George Suttles: Harlem-born, NYC-rooted, and how he and Ron first met
• 🏙️ 02:27 A New York City kid: family, kinship, and a love story across the boroughs
• ⛪ 06:40 A father who coached the neighborhood and a mother grounded in the church
• 🤲 08:10 Generosity and abundance before he had the words for philanthropy
• 🚪 09:46 From frontline youth work to tech policy: seeing the cracks in the system
• 🔍 15:40 Peeking behind the curtain: gatekeeping versus gate-opening
• 📊 18:00 The professionalization of philanthropy and the myth of merit-based funding
• 🏛️ 26:33 Moving the institution: why real change starts at the board level
• 💰 43:29 Why nonprofits deserve endowments too
• 🔧 50:09 Repair, chronic under-resourcing, and building our own things
• ❤️ 55:31 George's Rondering: radical love and radical imagination

Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgesuttles
Email: [email protected]
Donate: NYC Racial Equity Endowment Fund

Connect with George Suttles to talk philanthropy, fiduciary duty, and values-aligned investing, or give directly to the NYC Racial Equity Endowment Fund and put the endowment idea he champions into practice for the communities that need it.

Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapatalo
Check Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473 

Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.com
Publish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.org
Start a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.com
Go from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org 

Chris Thompson, CFA, went from training to be a mechanic at a Brooklyn vocational high school to managing over a billion dollars on Wall Street. The thing that changed his trajectory wasn't talent. It was a math teacher who told him he was good at something he couldn't yet see in himself.

In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Chris Thompson, impact investor, executive coach, and JP Morgan investment banking alum, to trace one of the most improbable career arcs the show has covered. Raised in Crown Heights by his Jamaican immigrant mother after his father died when Chris was two, Chris enrolled at Automotive High School for one reason: to learn a trade fast and help put food on the table. Junior year, a Jamaican math teacher and a business teacher saw something in him and redirected everything, pointing him toward college credits, a JP Morgan scholarship, and a path nobody in his world had a map for.

Chris graduated valedictorian of Long Island University, earned an MBA from Duke and the CFA designation, and worked corporate credit through the 2008 financial crisis. He also carries a loss that reshaped everything: his mother died suddenly in front of him at 43, just as he was planning for business school.

Today Chris ties his finance skills to something bigger, deploying capital into affordable housing and community projects, and coaching the people coming up behind him. He and Ron, both children of immigrants who lost a parent young, get into mentorship, legacy, survivor's guilt, and the discipline of putting one foot in front of the other when you want to stop.

Tune in to hear why Chris calls that JP Morgan scholarship an impact investment in his own life, and what he'd ask his parents if he could.

Chapters:

🌱 01:47 Two island kids, children of immigrants, meet through a mutual friend

🍽️ 02:53 No vision, no path, just trying to see the next meal

💔 04:27 Losing his father at two and growing up with a superwoman mom

🔧 08:21 Choosing Automotive High School to learn a trade and help fast

📐 09:51 The math teacher who said, you're good at this, why not pursue it

🎫 13:18 The JP Morgan scholarship that changed everything

🏆 17:09 Graduating valedictorian and earning a seat at the investment bank

📉 20:08 Reading the warning signs before the 2008 crash

🕯️ 25:25 The hardest part of the story: losing his mother at 43

🤝 28:59 The village that carried him, and a sister he leaned on

🌍 31:42 Tying finance to purpose through impact investing and coaching

🌺 36:00 The question he'd ask the parents he lost

🚶 43:49 The Ronderings value: find a way to keep going, one step at a time

🔗 46:41 Where to find Chris and the work he's doing now

Links:

Email: [email protected]
Reach out to Chris Thompson directly by email to learn more about his work in executive coaching and impact investing.

Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapatalo

Check Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473

Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.com

Publish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.org

Start a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.com

Go from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org

For more great podcasts like this one, visit: https://podcaststhatmatter.org

Career expert Jeremy Schifeling says a referral used to give you a 10x edge in hiring. In today's AI-flooded job market, it's now 20x, because trust is the one thing a machine can't fake.

In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Jeremy Schifeling, founder of The Job Insiders and best-selling author of the top LinkedIn and AI job-search books on Amazon, for a conversation about how to actually get hired when applying online has stopped working.

Jeremy's story doesn't start with success. It starts with him, by his own admission, sucking at teaching. A kindergarten teacher in Bed-Stuy who once tried to win over a room of eighth graders with a Jeopardy game and got laughed out of the room, he learned the hard way that you have to understand people before you can lead them. That failure pushed him from the classroom to Teach For America, to Echoing Green and iMentor, to LinkedIn, and finally to building his own company helping the next generation find meaningful work.

Ron and Jeremy compare notes from both sides of the table: what Jeremy hears from buried job seekers, and what Ron sees as a recruiter watching a thousand applications land in three days. They get into why referrals now matter more than ever, why introverts should reach out to geek out instead of network, and why social connection is as essential as a good diet.

Tune in to hear Jeremy's challenge to treat 2026 the way the best of us treated 2006: go build your own luck.

🎙️ 00:39 Jeremy Schifeling on sucking at teaching and why that failure built his whole career

🧠 03:17 Why the people who pick the hard path tend to run everything later

🎒 10:18 The eighth-grade Jeopardy disaster that taught him to understand people before leading them

🛠️ 12:08 How running a school blog in Bed-Stuy quietly became a tech superpower

🚀 18:42 Leaving the safe path to bet on himself, ten years of mistakes and all

🪄 22:49 Turning workshops into a magic show instead of a lecture

📉 25:00 Two career experts compare notes on the toughest job market in years

🤝 32:44 Referrals jumped from a 10x to a 20x advantage, and AI is the reason

🌱 39:07 Why social connection is as essential to your life as a good diet

🧲 40:15 Reach out to geek out: networking advice for introverts who hate networking

💡 53:37 The Rondering: build your own luck and make the world a better place

Links:

Website: thejobinsiders.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/schifeling

YouTube: youtube.com/@jobinsiders

Books: Jeremy's best-selling LinkedIn and AI job-search books on Amazon

Reach out to Jeremy Schifeling, fellow LinkedIn nerd, to talk job searching, AI, and how to build your own luck. He would genuinely love to hear what you are seeing in the market, so connect with him on LinkedIn and keep the conversation going.

Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapatalo

Check Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473

Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.com

Publish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.org

Start a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.com

Go from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org

For more great podcasts like this one, visit: https://podcaststhatmatter.org

Some leaders climb out of a system and never look back. Dr. Patrick Fagan climbed out of New York City Public Schools and came back to lead it.

In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Dr. Patrick Fagan, Chief Talent and Human Resources Officer for New York City Public Schools, the largest school system in the nation, for a conversation about what it takes to lead people at a scale most of us will never touch.

Born in London to Jamaican parents and raised in East Flatbush, Patrick is a K-12 product of the very schools he now serves. He walks Ron through the full arc: playing trumpet at JHS 285, learning a trade at William E. Grady, and the doctorate in industrial-organizational psychology that taught him to read workplace behavior like a scientist.

Then he gets into the leadership. Why he traded "leadership" for "teamship" across his 10 executive directors. Why he refuses to be the bottleneck every decision runs through. Why he says you have to love people, not just like them, to last in HR. And how faith and a 5:30 AM gym routine keep him grounded while he oversees HR for 150,000 employees inside a $44 billion system.

There is also the line he tries to live by: every day is an interview. Not for the next job, but for trust.

Tune in to hear how Patrick brings the human back into human resources, and why he calls leading 150,000 people a privilege, not a burden.

🎙️ 00:16 Welcome to Ronderings, and a full-circle homecoming

📚 01:59 Want to publish a book that matters? Check out www.leveragepublishinggroup.com

🎺 06:38 From JHS 285 to a trade school, the path was never straight

🏢 17:19 The real scale: 150,000 employees and a $44 billion system

🛞 21:21 Teamship over titles, and why he refuses to be the bottleneck

🥧 30:12 The PIE framework, and bringing the human back to HR

💡 36:38 Got something worth saying? Talk to Dr. Kent at www.talktokent.com

🙏 37:18 Faith, wellness, and every day is an interview

❤️ 45:37 The Ronderings question: leave it stronger for the next generation

🎧 48:52 Podcasts That Matter, and a Stronger Podcast shout-out

Links:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/patrick-d-fagan-ph-d-mba

Reach out to Dr. Patrick Fagan to talk teamship, building talent pipelines inside the nation's largest school system, and the many careers in New York City Public Schools that don't require a classroom.

Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapatalo

Check Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473

Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.com

Publish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.org

Start a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.com

Go from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org

For more great podcasts like this one, visit: https://podcaststhatmatter.org

Most people think legacy is about dying. Shawna Wells builds her whole life around the opposite idea: legacy is about living, and you are leaving one with every choice you make right now.

In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Shawna Wells, CEO of 7Gen Legacy Group, executive coach, and self-described generationalist, for a conversation about leadership, generational thinking, and what it actually means to live a legacy instead of leaving one.

Shawna traces it back to a moment at age 10. She fell off her bike in Northeast Philadelphia, two grown men drove past without stopping to ask if she was okay, and she walked home and told her mom that when she grew up, she would make sure the people coming behind her were alright. 

That instinct became a career: teacher, school leader, and now a coach who helps CEOs, nonprofit leaders, and changemakers across the country align their daily decisions with the impact they say they want to make.

The conversation moves from the running track, where Shawna anchored relays and learned never to drop the baton, to the grandmother who left Wetumpka, Alabama and opened her home to hundreds heading north. Ron and Shawna dig into why social impact leaders feel under siege right now, why collective legacy beats clawing for funding alone, and the Las Vegas fellowship turning rival nonprofits into partners.

Tune in to hear Shawna's Rondering on generational health and the one question that cuts through everything: are you making it easier or harder for the people coming after you?

📚 01:38 Publish your book at www.leveragepublishinggroup.com

🪑 02:02 Meet Shawna Wells: educator, coach, and self-described generationalist

🚲 04:29 The bike fall at 10 and the promise that shaped a life

🏃🏽‍♀️ 09:36 Anchoring the relay and the grandmother who housed hundreds

🍎 12:14 Can you be a generationalist inside a system not built for it

✍️ 20:38 Find support for writing your impact-driven book at www.booksthatmatter.org

⏳ 21:44 Legacy is about living, not dying: the question that changes everything

🚕 25:01 Hamilton, Whitney, and the Uber drivers who tell you their life story

🧭 28:34 How to shift an organization to think in generations

✊🏽 31:22 Leading social impact work when you fear you may not survive the year

🤝 36:06 Intertwining legacies: the Align Fellowship and turning rivals into partners

🌟 39:24 If you are a leader or changemaker looking for support, check out www.geniusdiscovery.org

🔁 44:18 Shawna's Rondering: generational health and not dropping the baton

🎧 50:00 Want a podcast just like this one? Check out www.podcastsmatter.com

Links:

Website: https://7genlegacy.com

Connect with Shawna Wells and the 7Gen Legacy Group team to explore executive coaching, leadership development, and the Living Your Legacy experience, and to find the new Legacy Switch program launching in January 2026.

Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapatalo

Check Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473

Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.com

Publish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.org

Start a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.com

Go from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org

For more great podcasts like this one, visit: https://podcaststhatmatter.org

Board-certified psychotherapist Jessica Muñoz calls herself a visible survivor of gender-based violence and an expert in re-traumatizing systems designed to help. She built The Business of Healing™ to train the rooms most likely to encounter a survivor first: hotels, gyms, courts, workplaces.

In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Jessica, founder of The Business of Healing™ and a survivor leader with Sanctuary for Families, for a conversation about why early intervention blocks lethality and what trauma literacy actually looks like at a hotel front desk.

Jessica grew up in Scotland with a Hispanic last name, moved to West Harlem just before 9/11, and went through domestic violence, sexual assault, criminal court, family court, and the New York City shelter system as a first-generation immigrant. She points to the Diddy and Cassie hotel video as a textbook case of what her training is designed to interrupt. A staff member took a $100,000 payment to keep quiet. That, she argues, is the second wave of harm survivors meet after the first.

Ron and Jessica get into what trauma-informed hospitality looks like inside hotels, restaurants, and gyms, why the relationship is the vehicle to healing, and why the courts pay forensic evaluators rates so low that no trained professional will take the work. They also talk about Sanctuary for Families, The Bride's March, Kyra's Law, and why patriarchy is not about men versus women but about unearned power that hurts everyone, men included.

Tune in to hear why Jessica believes your story is necessary, not just for healing, but because it is the cultural expertise the system keeps refusing to pay for.

 
Chapters:

📚 01:13 Ron's call for voices: Leadership in a Time of Chaos, a book about saying something real

🛡️ 02:10 Meet Jessica Muñoz: board-certified psychotherapist and founder of The Business of Healing

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 04:20 Visible survivor of gender-based violence and expert in re-traumatizing systems

⚖️ 09:06 Patriarchy on steroids in the courts: judges and attorneys not literate in trauma

📜 15:31 Kyra's Law and the fight still on Governor Hochul's desk

🏨 17:14 Trauma-informed hospitality: what the Diddy and Cassie hotel video should have stopped

🌹 18:12 The Bride's March: a grassroots movement run by families who lost women

💪 23:00 The barbell section is therapy: inviting the mind back to the body

🎤 24:57 Hit a referral-only mastermind for impact-driven leaders at speakersthatmatter.com

🤝 27:12 Why the relationship is the vehicle to healing, from front desk to gym floor

💡 40:03 Got an idea that needs to get out into the world? Check out talktokent.com

🗣️ 43:51 Jessica's Rondering: your story is necessary, not just for healing

👥 45:42 Patriarchy is about unearned power, not men versus women

🎧 52:36 Podcasts That Matter makes Ronderings happen, check them out at podcaststhatmatter.org

Links:

Instagram: @jmunozpsychotherapy

Instagram (The Business of Healing): @businessofhealing

Sanctuary for Families: sanctuaryforfamilies.org

The Bride's March: @bridesmarch

Follow Jessica Muñoz and The Business of Healing™ to learn more about trauma-informed hospitality training and the clinical work behind early intervention in gender-based violence. 

Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapatalo

Check Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473

Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.com

Publish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.org

Start a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.com

Go from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org

For more great podcasts like this one, visit: https://podcaststhatmatter.org

In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Wenimo Okoya, educator, public health scholar, and founder of Healing Schools Project, for a conversation about why community itself is medicine and why the adults carrying the most trauma are the ones being asked to deliver wellness frameworks for kids.

Wenimo's path runs from a Newark classroom (where she lost her job in the Christie-era budget cuts that brought the Zuckerberg money in) to a Master's of Public Health and doctorate at Columbia, to the Children's Health Fund, to the JED Foundation, and now to leading Healing Schools Project, a nonprofit born out of pandemic-era healing circles for educators of color.

She introduces herself the way her colleagues at GirlTREK do, by her matrilineal lineage. She is Wenimo, the daughter of Grace, the daughter of Estolita, the daughter of Maude. The thread of women, entrepreneurship, and Caribbean healing wisdom runs through everything she builds.

The conversation lands on a simple frame Wenimo brings into every circle she holds: three questions. How are you arriving? What do you need? What do you have the capacity to give? Ron calls it the simplest leadership tool listeners will hear all year. The back half of the episode unpacks why connection has been overcomplicated and why trust is the metric organizations refuse to measure even though they could.

Tune in to hear why connection doesn't require innovation and why community is the public health intervention we keep walking past.

Chapters:

📚 01:23 Publish your book at www.leveragepublishinggroup.com

🌍 02:35 Meet Wenimo Okoya: Newark teacher, public health scholar, founder of Healing Schools Project

👵 03:32 Daughter of Grace, daughter of Estolita, daughter of Maude: introducing yourself by lineage

🏫 05:40 Teaching in Newark during the Christie cuts and the Zuckerberg money

🎓 08:11 Columbia, Carolyn Belell, and integrating public health and education when no one else was

🦠 13:00 Pandemic healing circles, the JED Foundation, and how Healing Schools Project was born

✍️ 15:14 Find support for writing your impact-driven book at www.booksthatmatter.org

🧪 21:13 Peppermint in the backyard: Caribbean healing wisdom and what immigrants kept

🪑 23:11 The three questions that beat any icebreaker

🌟 32:03 If you are a leader or changemaker looking for support, check out www.geniusdiscovery.org

📊 36:55 Trust is the metric organizations refuse to measure

🏛️ 40:28 Why funders won't pay for what's in the middle

💊 43:23 Wenimo's Rondering: micro-shifts beat massive change

🎧 48:23 Want a podcast just like this one? Check out www.podcastsmatter.com

Links:

Website: https://healingschoolsproject.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/healing-schools-project
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healingschools
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/healingschoolsproject

Connect with Dr. Wenimo Okoya and the Healing Schools Project team to learn more about their work bringing healing-centered practices and educator well-being into schools across the country.

Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapatalo

Check Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473

Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.com

Publish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.org

Start a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.com

Go from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org

For more great podcasts like this one, visit: https://podcaststhatmatter.org