Saturday Mornings with Joy Keys

PRE-RECORDED INTERVIEW

2022 Stroke Awareness Month- Stroke is a leading cause of death in the United States and is a major cause of serious disability for adults. It is also preventable and treatable.

***Dr. Rani Whitfield-I have been in Private Practice and living in my home town of Baton Rouge since 2000. My specialty in Sports Medicine has allowed me to grow my outreach to youth in the Baton Rouge area and across the nation. I speak frequently for the American Heart/American Stroke Association and have been featured on CNN- House Call with Sanjay Gupta, the Michael Baisden Show, The Tom Joyner Morning Show, traveled with Tavis Smiley and his Road to Health Tour, and have recently been featured in Ebony, Jet, and Essence. I have developed a comic book series to educate youth on health issues (www.legionofhealth.com) and several music CD's with the same goals in mind.

***Hyvelle Ferguson--Davis-Stroke, Hewart Attack and Diabetes survivor- She is 48 and now motivating others, especially African Americans. Hypertension, a leading cause of stroke and heart attack, affects more than half of African American adults. Last year, Ferguson-Davis became an ambassador for Know Diabetes by Heart, a joint health and education initiative of the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association. She also recently started her own group for African American women called Heart Sistas, where members, including her sister Judy Ferguson-Missick, share heart-healthy information and motivation. One of their sisters recently died from a stroke, Ferguson-Davis said.

Thabiti Lewis is from St. Louis Missouri, where he grew up in West and North St. Louis. A graduate of the University of Rochester, he received degrees in both English and History (with honors), and the Masters in the Art of Teaching (English) from the University of Rochester’s School of Education.

He obtained a doctorate in English from Saint Louis University with a special focus on American literature and culture between the 1950s-1990s and Black Feminist writer Toni Cade Bambara. While completing his doctorate he earned a fellowship at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.

Tajja Isen is a writer, editor, and voice actor. Her first book, Some of My Best Friends: Essays on Lip Service, is forthcoming in 2022 from Atria/One Signal Publishers in the US, and from Doubleday Canada north of the border. She is the co-editor of the essay anthology The World As We Knew It: Dispatches from a Changing Climate, also forthcoming in 2022, from Catapult. Her essays have appeared in dozens of outlets across the US and Canada.

She is the editor-in-chief of Catapult magazine, the former digital editor for The Walrus, and has also edited for Electric Literature. A voice actor for over two decades, Tajja can be heard assuming various guises and accents on such animated shows as Atomic Betty, The Berenstain Bears, Super Why!, Go Dog Go, My Big Big Friend, Jane and the Dragon, and many others––a habit she can’t easily discard when she leaves the studio. She went to law school, but it didn’t stick.

Special guest: Belinda Birnbaum, MD, Rheumatologist at Bryn Mawr Medical Specialists. Medical degree from University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.  Member of American College of Rheumatology and lPhiladelphia Rheumatism Society.. Previous positions : Temple University; Assistant Professor of Rheumatology 2005-2007 and The University of Pennsylvania; Assistant Professor of Rheumatology 2008-2016. Affiliated with Lupus Foundation of America.

Special guest:  Cheri M. Perron, Chair of the Board of Directors 2022. Cheri Perron, of Philadelphia, PA, has been a volunteer for the Lupus Foundation of America, Philadelphia Tri-State Chapter for more than 20 years. She is chair emeritus of the Chapter Board of Directors and has previously served in the role of Board Chair, Vice Chair and Secretary. Cher is a Chapter Ambassador, advocate, SLESH (SLE Self Help Course) facilitator, and Peer Mentor.. Cheri was diagnosed with lupus in 1994. Lupus Foundation of America: http://ww.lupus.org

Special guest: Dr. DeAnna Baker Frost is an adult rheumatologist and physician-scientist. A native of Baltimore, MD, she completed a combined M.D. and Ph.D. degree program at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in 2012 and an Internal Medicine residency at Duke University in 2014. Upon completion of her residency, she became a certified American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) physician and returned to MUSC as an adult rheumatology fellow in the ABIM physician-scientist research pathway. Dr. Baker Frost was chosen as the Chief Rheumatology Fellow in 2017 and an American College of Rheumatology Distinguished Fellow in 2018. She then joined faculty at MUSC as an Assistant Professor in 2018 and became an ABIM-certified adult rheumatologist

Dorothy Roberts is the George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. A contributor to the 1619 Project, she is the author of four books, including Killing the Black Body. Her other books include Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-first Century (New Press, 2011);  and Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare (Basic Books, 2002),.

Many believe the child welfare system protects children from abuse. But as Torn Apart uncovers, this system is designed to punish Black families. Drawing on decades of research, legal scholar and sociologist Dorothy Roberts reveals that the child welfare system is better understood as a “family policing system” that collaborates with law enforcement and prisons to oppress Black communities. Child protection investigations ensnare a majority of Black children, putting their families under intense state surveillance and regulation. Black children are disproportionately likely to be torn from their families and placed in foster care, driving many to juvenile detention and imprisonment. 

 

The only way to stop the destruction caused by family policing, Torn Apart argues, is to abolish the child welfare system and liberate Black communities.

Zain Ejiofor Asher was born to first-generation Nigerian parents in South London. A graduate of Oxford University and Columbia University, she is currently an anchor for CNN International. She anchors the weekend edition of CNN Newsroom and is currently launching One World with Zain Asher, her own global news program on the network. Ejiofor Asher’s brothers are Oscar-nominated actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, successful entrepreneur Obinze, and medical doctor Kandibe. She is passionate about her family, career, and being of service. She lives in NYC with her husband and two sons.

Umar Turaki's writing has been shortlisted for the Miles Morland Scholarship, longlisted for the Short Story Day Africa Prize, and has won the AFREADA Photo-Story Competition. Umar's short films have screened in numerous festivals, and his work in television both as a writer and director has been broadcast on various stations.  Umar lives in Kelowna, British Columbia with his wife and daughter, where he is an MFA candidate in Creative Writing at UBC Okanangan.

SUCH A BEAUTIFUL THING TO BEHOLD, is literary, dystopian, and in this age of COVID, all too plausible. An African village is cut off from the world when a mysterious illness called the Grey spreads rapidly, affecting the villagers’ eyes and minds, leaving many dead.With the village surrounded by military blockades, a family of estranged siblings are forced to re-evaluate their relationships when they come face-to-face with an unstoppable evil.

Dr. Divya Patel’s focus is to improve the clinical care of patients with sarcoidosis and to be an advocate for them. She has completed specialized training in sarcoidosis and participates in clinical research with the aim to improve the quality of life of patients. She routinely recruits patients for both single-center and multi-center clinical studies including industry sponsored and investigator initiated clinical trials. 

Dr. Patel is a Clinical Associate Professor of Pulmonology and Director of the Sarcoidosis and ILD Programs at the University of Florida. 

Erica Courtenay-Mann was diagnosed with sarcoidosis in 2011 after it attacked her larynx and deactivated one of her vocal cords. It was later detected in her lungs, resulting in pulmonary sarcoidosis. After a bout of remission due to the various treatment and lifestyle changes, Erica came out of remission in 2017 and now has oral / perioral sarcoidosis.

A three card-Monty winner with sarcoidosis does not stop her from being a FSR advocate, talking with others about living with a chronic illness, and enjoying all that life has to offer. Erica holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Illinois at Chicago, but her true passion is helping others.

Actor and producer Ryan Michelle Bathé currently stars in NBC’s high-stakes thriller series THE ENDGAME. She portrays the relentless and socially-outcast FBI agent Val Turner, who is on the hunt for an international arms dealer. In 2020, Bathé starred in the Emmy nominated Amazon film SYLVIE’S LOVE, directed by Eugene Ashe, and in CBS’ ALL RISE, opposite Simone Missick. Since 2019, she has starred in the BET+ dramedy FIRST WIVES CLUB, based on the classic 1996 film of the same name. Bathé portrays Ari, a confident, type-A attorney with impeccable style who is reunited with her best friends after a crisis.

In 2020, Bathé launched DOWN ON MAPLE PRODUCTIONS and signed a first look deal with ViacomCBS MTV Entertainment Group. The partnership covers content created and/or developed for television and new media, with the focus on identifying emerging talent and underrepresented voices.

Bathé’s diverse television credits include roles in ABC’s THE ROOKIE, Fox’s EMPIRE, NBC’s THIS IS US, Lifetime’s ARMY WIVES and TV Land’s RETIRED AT 35. She has also appeared in GOOD FENCES, ER, DR. KEN, MEDIUM, BOSTON LEGAL, TRAUMA, HALF & HALF, HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, THE EDUCATION OF MAX BICKFORD and HARRY’S LAW. In film, Bathe co-starred in Lionsgate’s ONE FOR THE MONEY, as well as the independent features ALL ABOUT US, BROTHER TO BROTHER and LEAVING BARSTOW, for which she received critical acclaim on the festival circuit.

Award-winning and USA Today bestselling author Sharon C. Cooper loves anything that involves romance with a happily-ever-after, whether in books, movies, or real life. Sharon writes contemporary romance, as well as romantic suspense and enjoys rainy days, carpet picnics, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. She’s been nominated for numerous awards and is the recipient of Romance Slam Jam Emma Awards for Author of the Year 2019, Favorite Hero 2019 (Indebted), Romantic Suspense of the Year 2015 (Truth or Consequences), Interracial Romance of the Year 2015 (All You'll Ever Need), and BRAB Award-Breakout Author of the Year 2014, to name a few. When Sharon isn’t writing, she’s hanging out with her amazing husband, doing volunteer work or reading a good book (a romance of course). To read more about Sharon and her novels, visit www.sharoncooper.net.

Business Not As Usual: I am beautiful. I am confident. I am lovable. I am a lottery winner. This is the mantra that will get Dreamy Daniels through each day until she makes it big. So what if she lives in a seedy part of Los Angeles in a house that’s one earthquake away from crumbling, or works an unfulfilling secretarial job while struggling to finish her bachelor’s degree? All Dreamy needs to do is win the lottery, which she’s been entering in as a weekly tradition with her grandfather. When she catches the attention of her boss’s potential investor, Dreamy has to remind herself to focus on her career goals so she can be her own boss. Who cares if he has the social grace of the Duke of Sussex and the suaveness of Idris Elba? No distractions allowed.