The Perkins Platform

Writer, college professor, and advocate for Black business women, Elizabeth Leiba joins on Wednesday, February 8 @ 6pm EST to share her thoughts about women in the workplace and discuss her upcoming book, I’m Not Yelling: A Black Woman’s Guide to Navigating the Workplace. Elizabeth’s passion for Black history changed her life and catapulted her into a fulfilling line of work as a powerful advocate of social justice and equity for Black women, and a creator of resources which support, empower, and amplify Black business women and their businesses. She was featured in the 2020 New York Times article, “Black LinkedIn Is Thriving. Does LinkedIn Have a Problem With That?,” which highlighted her social justice advocacy work. The response to this article spurred her to launch her online, accessible e-learning platform, Black History & Culture Academy, the stunning educational resource which earned her the recognition of a LinkedIn TOP VOICE in Education in 2020. She is also the host of Black Power Moves, a podcast on EBONY Media Covering Black America Podcast Network and is a published writer. In early 2022, Elizabeth launched her website directory, Black Women Handle Business, which is the premier website for Black women entrepreneurs and professionals to network, collaborate and share resources.

Advertising and marketing leadership creative professional with leadership experience in advertising, experiential marketing and client-side brand development, Neal Foard joins us to discuss how to incorporate storytelling into your leadership style. Neal has spent 25 years in advertising and marketing, creating award-winning campaigns for global power brands like Budweiser, Lexus and Sony. For his work on Toyota, Neal ranked among the top ten most awarded creative directors in the world in 2002. As the author of an innovative coaching series Neal was named Worldwide Director of Creative Learning for global ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi. He has consulted on creative messaging for Fortune 500 companies and universities, and been a featured speaker at TEDx conferences. Most recently, Neal has gained a following on social media for his inspirational videos about the better side of everyday people. Tune in on Wednesday, February 1st @ 6pm EST!

Join us on Wednesday, January 25 @ 6pm EST for an insightful conversation with Writer and Content & Community Leader, Nisha Ramchandani, discussing her article posted with the World Economic Forum on Adaptive Leadership. In a career spanning 15 years, Nisha has diversified from providing communications counsel to also leading content and community (CCC), thereby approaching a brand’s identity from a 360 degree perspective. Her experience spans across industries (B2B, consumer and healthcare to a Seed Fund and with an early stage B2B startup). Lastly, in addition to working with large brands, she has also been a content creator with 50+ articles on the ‘future of work’, writing for moneycontrol.com, CNBC, Quartz India and more!  Her content ethos: "We live in an age of Twitter threads and borrowed thoughts. Very rarely do we see brands/ individuals wanting to break the norms or come up with anything original. As someone passionate about the written medium, bringing trust and credibility back to information we consume is something I deeply contemplate about".

Boys and men are struggling: in the classroom, the workplace, and in the family. Writer and scholar Richard V. Reeves joins us to expand on his new book, Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It (Brookings Institution Press; September 27, 2022), where he examines this crisis and argues that helping our boys and men does not mean abandoning the ideal of gender equality. Richard is a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution, where he holds the John C. and Nancy D. Whitehead Chair. He is the author of Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do about It, and a regular contributor to the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic. Tune in on Wednesday, January 18 @ 6pm EST!

National Director of Education Innovation and Research for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Dr. Ivory A. Toldson joins us for an insightful conversation on his work at NAACP and shares some highlights from his new book about how national statistics have wrongly communicated facts about black progress and performance. Dr. Toldson is also a professor of counseling psychology at Howard University and editor-in-chief of The Journal of Negro Education. Previously, he was appointed by President Barack Obama to devise national strategies to sustain and expand federal support to HBCUs as the executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Dr. Toldson is also the executive editor of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Research, published by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc. and author of Brill Bestseller, No BS (Bad Stats): Black People Need People Who Believe in Black People Enough Not to Believe Every Bad Thing They Hear about Black People. Dr. Toldson is ranked among the nation’s top education professors as a member of Education Week’s Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings, an annual list recognizes university-based scholars across the nation who are champions in shaping educational practice and policy. Tune in on Wednesday, January 11 @ 6pm EST!

Founder and Managing Partner at Thrive People Strategies, a consulting & coaching practice that supports clients in creating extraordinary workplaces, Lia Bosch joins us to share her thoughts and advice for new managers. Her consulting practice provides strategic and operational coaching in total rewards, leadership development, team effectiveness, and organizational change. Lia has over 30 years’ experience in human resources management and total rewards, including roles as CHRO in the Energy Industry in Canada and as independent consultant. With her experience as a small business owner, Lia also brings a business mindset to her work. She has a Master of Science Degree in Organization Development from Pepperdine University. Her undergraduate studies are in HR from the University of Toronto. Lia is also a published author on topics related to leadership, total rewards, employee engagement, teamwork, fitness, nutrition, and relationships. Her certifications include CCP-C, SHRM-SCP and CPT. Tune in on Wednesday, January 4 @ 6pm EST!

Researcher at the NeuroLeadership Institute (NLI), Emma Sarro, PhD, joins us to share her thoughts about using discomfort to your benefit as a leader. At NLI, Emma translates cognitive and social neuroscience into actionable solutions for organizations as well as helps to communicate relevant research in an accessible manner for the public. Her background in neuroscience allows her to gather and share key insights from science to help create more innovative, inclusive, and healthy environments for the benefit of employees and organizations. Emma has always been fascinated with the complexity of the brain and how it relates to and modifies our behavior. Specifically, her interests and research have focused on the brain’s ability to demonstrate plasticity in response to all kinds of experiences. Her work has led to peer reviewed articles, contributions to book chapters as well as academic texts. Before joining NLI, Emma was a tenured professor of Biology and Neuroscience at Dominican College in New York, whose students explored experience-dependent changes in learning and memory of invertebrates and human models. She received her BS from Brown University in Human Biology, and PhD in Neuroscience from the Center for Neural Science at New York University. Tune in on Monday, December 19 @ 6pm EST!

Emmy-winning filmmaker, author, activist and son of civil rights icon, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, Loki Mulholland, joins us to discuss his amazing work. Loki’s work has received over 40 Telly Awards and his films on race and social justice issues have won 20 Best Documentary awards. His first book, "She Stood For Freedom" was nominated for the 2017 Amelia Bloomer Award. His films have appeared on Showtime, PBS and Amazon where “The Uncomfortable Truth” has been viewed over two million times. Loki is a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated and speaks all over the country on issues of race and social justice. He is the founder and Executive Director of the Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Foundation which was created to end racism through education. Tune in on Wednesday, December 14 @ 6pm EST!

Credentialed Leadership Development Coach, Trainer, and Founder of Tajan Renderos Coaching, LLC, Tajan B. Renderos joins us to share her thoughts about the 9 HabitsThat Lead to Successful 1:1 Meetings. Tajan helps companies integrate a coaching approach to management for their leaders so they can easily navigate the most challenging parts of people management, such as conflict and tough conversations with ease, utilizing workshops, coaching,and  consulting. She has managed national training centers, served as a former Equity Director at JSI, and conducted trainings for companies including Twitter, Cooley, LLP, Intel and others. She's coached hundreds of clients based on her proprietary MCDC framework, and has been featured in Thrive Global, Modern Health, Noomii, and TEDx BU. (www.tajanrenderos.com; LinkedIN). Tune in on Wednesday, December 7 @ 6pm EST!

Join us for the 2nd installment in a yearlong exploration of world religions on Weds, November 30 @ 6pm EST.  This is a conversation with writer, educator, and activist Dr. Simran Jeet Singh to discuss Sikhism and his new book, The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life. Dr. Singh is the executive director for the Aspen Institute’s Religion and Society Program, a Soros Equality Fellow with the Open Society Foundations, a Senior Adviser on Equity and Inclusion for YSC Consulting, and a Visiting Professor at Union Seminary. In his work and contemplative talks, he offers a fresh approach to ethical living—one in which love, caring, and service go hand-in-hand with personal happiness. He shares the skills and insights that kept him engaged in his commitment to activism, and how to use compassion as the antidote to anger, self-pity, or social justice burnout.