Thriving in Intersectionality

How much of someone's story do we really know from their role or the work they do?

In this episode of Thriving in Intersectionality, Dr. Lola Adeyemo welcomes Dr. Nneka Oluoha, a Nigerian American physician, mother, and novelist, to talk about identity, career transitions, cultural expectations, and the many parts of ourselves that aren't always visible to others.

Nneka's journey began in Nigeria, where she studied and practiced medicine before immigrating to the United States. Building her medical career in a new country meant navigating licensing exams, residency, unfamiliar systems, and moments when others assumed her professional identity before she could even introduce herself. Through it all, she carried a lifelong love of storytelling and eventually found a way to pursue that passion alongside medicine and motherhood.

Together, Dr. Lola and Nneka explore what it means to build a life that makes room for more than one calling, how our experiences shape the way others perceive us, and why empathy and curiosity matter in our workplaces, families, and everyday interactions.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Why different people know different sides of Nneka depending on where they meet her.
• How her childhood interests and family influenced her journey into medicine.
• What it took to transition from practicing medicine in Nigeria to rebuilding her medical career in the United States.
• A memorable encounter that revealed how quickly people make assumptions about professional identity.
• Why research, flexibility, and perseverance matter when navigating career transitions.
• How Nneka found room for a lifelong creative passion alongside a demanding medical career and motherhood.
• How storytelling helps her communicate complex medical information to patients.
• What exploring depression, anxiety, and family relationships through fiction taught her about empathy.
• Why being a safe person for someone to talk to can make a meaningful difference.

One takeaway

We are more than the roles people see. And sometimes thriving means making room for the parts of ourselves that have been waiting to be expressed.

About Dr. Nneka Oluoha

Dr. Nneka Oluoha is a Nigerian American internal medicine physician, novelist, and speaker. After training and practicing medicine in Nigeria, she continues her career in the United States, bringing a perspective shaped by immigration, healthcare, family, and storytelling. She is the author of Live for Me, Nkem, a novel exploring mental health, family relationships, cultural expectations, and resilience.

Connect with Nneka

• Website: https://www.nnekaoluoha.com/
• Instagram: @Nneka.Oluoha

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Thank you for listening to Thriving in Intersectionality with Dr. Lola Adeyemo.

This podcast explores how identity, lived experience, and leadership intersect in today's workplace and beyond. Through conversations with leaders, founders, educators, entrepreneurs, and changemakers, we uncover stories and insights that help people thrive across the many intersections of their lives.

💬 Share your thoughts: Have a thought or question about this episode? Send me a Fan Mail message directly on our Buzzsprout podcast page. I'd love to hear what resonated with you.

❤️ Support the show: If these conversations bring you value, consider becoming a supporter. Your support helps keep meaningful stories, diverse perspectives, and new conversations coming.

⭐ Help others discover the podcast: Follow, share, rate, or review the show.

📬 Continue the conversation: Read my companion reflections, After the Conversation, on Substack.

🌍 For immigrant and first-generation professionals: Join our free community at Immigrants in Corporate.

Keep thriving in your intersections. Your story matters.

We all bring a culture into the workplace. But how often do we stop to understand the experiences that shaped it?

In this episode of Thriving in Intersectionality, Dr. Lola Adeyemo sits down with Omar L. Harris, former global pharmaceutical executive, culture systems architect, and author, to explore how identity, lived experiences, and career journeys shape the way we see the world, lead others, and influence the environments around us.

Born in Pittsburgh, raised across different parts of the United States, and shaped by his African American identity and Islamic upbringing, Omar went on to build a career spanning four continents. His journey took him from pharmaceutical sales to international executive leadership, including a remarkable progression from intern to country president in Brazil. Along the way, he pursued a childhood dream of becoming a novelist, spending 12 years writing his first book while building his corporate career.

Today, Omar draws on those experiences to help organizations build stronger workplace cultures. Together, he and Dr. Lola discuss why understanding people requires looking beyond their professional profiles, how curiosity and practical experience shape leadership, and why the culture an organization promises must align with what employees experience every day.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• How Omar's identity, upbringing, and international experiences shaped his perspective on people and leadership.
• What his journey from pharmaceutical sales to executive leadership across four continents taught him.
• Why he spent 12 years writing his first novel and how that experience unexpectedly strengthened his corporate career.
• What it means to recognize that every person brings their own culture into the workplace.
• Why learning through experience is essential, even with formal education and professional credentials.
• How principles, priorities, processes, and practices shape organizational culture.
• Why character, not just skills and résumés, matters when building effective teams.
• How managers influence whether employees experience the culture their organizations promise.
• Omar's advice for emerging professionals on patience, curiosity, relationships, and understanding how organizations work.

One takeaway

The cultures we carry shape how we see and engage with others. The cultures we create reflect what we choose to do with that understanding.

About Omar L. Harris

Omar L. Harris is a culture systems architect, executive coach, founder of Intent Consulting, and author of nine books. Drawing on 22 years of global executive leadership experience, he helps organizations strengthen their leadership, team performance, and workplace cultures. He is also the creator of the WHOM character intelligence framework, focused on Work-Ethic, Heart, Optimism, and Maturity.

Connect with Omar

• Free WHOM Character Assessment: https://characterdna.com
• Intent Consulting: https://intentconsultants.co
• Grow With WHOM: https://growwithwhom.com
• LinkedIn: Omar L. Harris — https://www.linkedin.com/in/omar-l-harris/

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Thank you for listening to Thriving in Intersectionality with Dr. Lola Adeyemo.

This podcast explores how identity, lived experience, and leadership intersect in today's workplace and beyond. Through conversations with leaders, founders, educators, entrepreneurs, and changemakers, we uncover stories and insights that help people thrive across the many intersections of their lives.

💬 Share your thoughts: Have a thought or question about this episode? Send me a Fan Mail message directly on our Buzzsprout podcast page. I'd love to hear what resonated with you.

❤️ Support the show: If these conversations bring you value, consider becoming a supporter. Your support helps keep meaningful stories, diverse perspectives, and new conversations coming.

⭐ Help others discover the podcast: Follow, share, rate, or review the show.

📬 Continue the conversation: Read my companion reflections, After the Conversation, on Substack.

🌍 For immigrant and first-generation professionals: Join our free community at Immigrants in Corporate.

Keep thriving in your intersections. Your story matters.

What if becoming a better leader isn't about having more answers, but learning to ask better questions?

In this episode of Thriving in Intersectionality, Dr. Lola Adeyemo welcomes Mike Lynch, leadership advisor, executive coach, author, and founder of MJL Consulting Group, for a conversation about identity, curiosity, career transitions, and the experiences that shape how we lead.

Mike's journey is anything but conventional. From ski instructor and whitewater rafting guide to boarding school teacher, 25 years in corporate HR leadership, and eventually launching his own consulting practice, each chapter challenged him to learn and adapt. Living and leading internationally also helped him recognize that his version of normal wasn't necessarily everyone else's.

Together, Dr. Lola and Mike explore what it means to look beyond our own experiences, recognize the influence of identity and privilege, and move from good intentions to meaningful leadership action.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• How Mike's unconventional career shaped his approach to leadership.
• Why curiosity and learning agility matter during career transitions.
• What living and leading internationally taught him about culture and perspective.
• How our identities influence what we notice—and what we overlook.
• Why well-intentioned leaders sometimes stay silent during difficult workplace conversations.
• What it takes to move beyond passive allyship toward active participation.
• Why leaders must become comfortable admitting what they don't know.
• Mike's advice for professionals navigating their careers and defining success.

One takeaway:

Better leadership begins when we stop assuming our perspective is the complete picture and start asking what we might be missing.

About Mike Lynch

Mike Lynch is a leadership advisor, executive coach, and founder of MJL Consulting Group. With more than 30 years of HR and leadership experience, including executive roles at Capital One, he helps leaders build more inclusive workplace cultures. He is the author of From Ally to All-In: The Five Stages of Moving Beyond Privilege and Becoming a More Inclusive Leader.

Connect with Mike:

• LinkedIn
• MJL Consulting Group
• Free Ally to All-In Self-Assessment Guide

Connect with Dr. Lola Adeyemo

Follow Thriving in Intersectionality for conversations about identity, career journeys, workplace experiences, and leadership.

• Connect with Dr. Lola on LinkedIn
• Explore Dr. Lola's website

Enjoyed this conversation? Follow the podcast, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who is learning to lead beyond their own experiences.

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Thank you for listening to Thriving in Intersectionality with Dr. Lola Adeyemo.

This podcast explores how identity, lived experience, and leadership intersect in today's workplace and beyond. Through conversations with leaders, founders, educators, entrepreneurs, and changemakers, we uncover stories and insights that help people thrive across the many intersections of their lives.

💬 Share your thoughts: Have a thought or question about this episode? Send me a Fan Mail message directly on our Buzzsprout podcast page. I'd love to hear what resonated with you.

❤️ Support the show: If these conversations bring you value, consider becoming a supporter. Your support helps keep meaningful stories, diverse perspectives, and new conversations coming.

⭐ Help others discover the podcast: Follow, share, rate, or review the show.

📬 Continue the conversation: Read my companion reflections, After the Conversation, on Substack.

🌍 For immigrant and first-generation professionals: Join our free community at Immigrants in Corporate.

Keep thriving in your intersections. Your story matters.

What happens when what you know is bigger than what you can communicate in the moment?

Executive communication coach Douglas Brewer works with accomplished non-native English-speaking professionals who are already fluent—but don't always feel like the full version of themselves when the stakes are high. It's an experience he understands from his own journey: growing up in North Carolina, moving to China and becoming fluent in Mandarin, building a career in education and hospitality leadership, and later moving to Spain and learning Spanish. 

In this conversation, Dr. Lola and Douglas explore the relationship between language, identity, communication and competence. Dr. Lola reflects on how her own voice changed after immigrating to the U.S., while Douglas challenges us to consider how easily we can underestimate someone's intelligence or expertise simply because of how they communicate in a particular language.  

In this episode, you'll hear:

• How Douglas's childhood as a performer eventually connected to his work in communication.
• Why moving to China became a formative experience in language, culture and identity.
• How teaching English to international hospitality employees led Douglas into training and executive leadership.
• Why fluency doesn't always mean feeling fully like yourself in another language.
• How Dr. Lola's communication changed after immigrating to the United States.
• Why language and accent can influence how we perceive competence.
• How learning another language can reveal different parts of our identity.
• Why communication requires effort from both the speaker and the listener.  Pasted text

A takeaway to carry with you:

Someone searching for a word, speaking with an unfamiliar accent or saying less in a meeting doesn't tell you everything they know.

About Douglas Brewer

Douglas Brewer is an executive communication coach who helps non-native English-speaking leaders communicate with greater confidence and presence. A former university professor and hospitality executive, Douglas is also a multilingual adult language learner who brings his own cross-cultural experiences to his coaching.  Pasted text (2)

Connect with Douglas:
LinkedIn: Douglas Brewer
Website: www.thedouglasbrewer.com
Fully Yourself in English Retreat: www.fullyyourself.com

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Thank you for listening to Thriving in Intersectionality with Dr. Lola Adeyemo.

This podcast explores how identity, lived experience, and leadership intersect in today's workplace and beyond. Through conversations with leaders, founders, educators, entrepreneurs, and changemakers, we uncover stories and insights that help people thrive across the many intersections of their lives.

💬 Share your thoughts: Have a thought or question about this episode? Send me a Fan Mail message directly on our Buzzsprout podcast page. I'd love to hear what resonated with you.

❤️ Support the show: If these conversations bring you value, consider becoming a supporter. Your support helps keep meaningful stories, diverse perspectives, and new conversations coming.

⭐ Help others discover the podcast: Follow, share, rate, or review the show.

📬 Continue the conversation: Read my companion reflections, After the Conversation, on Substack.

🌍 For immigrant and first-generation professionals: Join our free community at Immigrants in Corporate.

Keep thriving in your intersections. Your story matters.

Sometimes the person who changes the direction of your life enters it when neither of you knows what that moment will become.

Before Dr. Desiree Williams built a 20+ year career in healthcare leadership, she was a teenage mother and later a motel general manager. One day, a woman staying there with her young son told Desiree she couldn't afford to remain until her next paycheck. Desiree found a way to give her time to get back on her feet.

Weeks later, that same woman returned with an unexpected offer: the healthcare organization where she worked was hiring, and she would teach Desiree what she needed to know.

She did. She taught Desiree the basics of healthcare, helped prepare her résumé, and coached her for the interview. Desiree got the job—and began a healthcare career that would eventually take her from frontline roles to operational leadership, teaching and earning her doctorate.  Pasted text

But the people who change our paths aren't always the ones ahead of us.

Sometimes they're watching from behind.

Years later, when Desiree's oldest daughter was preparing to graduate from high school and questioned whether she needed college because her mother had succeeded without graduating, Desiree realized what her daughter was learning from her example. So she went back to school with one goal: graduate before her daughter did.

She did—and kept going.

Today, Dr. Desiree Williams holds a Doctor of Healthcare Administration, leads Access Center Operations at UChicago Medicine, and teaches as an adjunct professor.  

In this episode of Thriving in Intersectionality, Dr. Lola Adeyemo and Dr. Desiree Williams explore how our lives and leadership are shaped by the people we encounter—and how the way we show up can quietly shape someone else's path too.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How becoming a mother as a teenager shaped Desiree's belief that leadership cannot be centered only on ourselves.
• Why her experience in frontline healthcare roles still influences the way she makes decisions as a senior leader.
• How one act of kindness at a motel unexpectedly opened the door to her healthcare career.
• Why her daughter's college decision prompted Desiree to return to school herself.
• What Desiree means when she says, “People don't follow plans. They follow people.”
• Why employees need more than a leader's strategy—they need context, communication, and connection.
• How seemingly clear leadership messages can be interpreted very differently by the people receiving them.
• Why the people closest to the work need a voice in decisions affecting the work.
• How Desiree thinks about the relationship between connection, culture, and performance.
• Why your current circumstances don't have to determine where your story ends.  

A takeaway to carry with you

Desiree became a teenage mother at 16 and remembers people around her saying:

“She was so smart. Now look at her.”

She could have allowed that moment to define what was possible next.

Instead, she offers this reminder:

Your future, she says, is shaped by the decisions you continue to make—not only by the circumstances you find yourself in today.  

And perhaps that's part of what makes this conversation about more than Desiree's career.

A woman Desiree helped eventually helped her enter healthcare.

Her daughter influenced her decision to return to school.

The university that poured into her became a place where she could later teach and pour into others.

Employees she has led have asked to follow her when she moved to another organization.

The influence keeps moving in both directions.  

We are shaped by people—and, often without realizing it, we are shaping people too.

About Dr. Desiree Williams

Dr. Desiree J. Williams is a healthcare leader, adjunct professor, published author, and leadership speaker with more than 20 years of experience across healthcare operations, patient access, organizational culture, and employee engagement.

She currently serves as Director of Access Center Operations at UChicago Medicine, where she leads enterprise access initiatives and a team of 79 professionals. She is also an adjunct professor at Governors State University, teaching Lean Six Sigma Green Belt coursework for healthcare professionals. Dr. Williams holds a Doctor of Healthcare Administration and is the author of The Healthcare Manager's Practical Guide: 10 Proven Strategies to Increase Patient Satisfaction Scores. 

Connect with Dr. Desiree Williams:
Website: www.DrDesireeSpeaks.com
LinkedIn: Dr. Desiree J. Williams
TikTok: @Dr.Desiree.Leads

Dr. Desiree also offers a free Leadership Translated resource exploring how what leaders say can differ from what employees hear, with practical examples related to communication, culture, and psychological safety.  Pasted text

And, of course, the meal...

For this Chicago leader, it had to be pizza.

Deep dish or thin crust, Desiree sees a connection to teams: every ingredient brings something different, but each contributes to what the whole becomes.

Different strengths. Different contributions. One very good pizza. 🍕

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Thank you for listening to Thriving in Intersectionality with Dr. Lola Adeyemo.

This podcast explores how identity, lived experience, and leadership intersect in today's workplace and beyond. Through conversations with leaders, founders, educators, entrepreneurs, and changemakers, we uncover stories and insights that help people thrive across the many intersections of their lives.

💬 Share your thoughts: Have a thought or question about this episode? Send me a Fan Mail message directly on our Buzzsprout podcast page. I'd love to hear what resonated with you.

❤️ Support the show: If these conversations bring you value, consider becoming a supporter. Your support helps keep meaningful stories, diverse perspectives, and new conversations coming.

⭐ Help others discover the podcast: Follow, share, rate, or review the show.

📬 Continue the conversation: Read my companion reflections, After the Conversation, on Substack.

🌍 For immigrant and first-generation professionals: Join our free community at Immigrants in Corporate.

Keep thriving in your intersections. Your story matters.

What happens when you've built a successful career—and finally ask whether the life you're building is actually the one you want?

Trisha Daho had done what many professionals spend years working toward. She made partner at a Big Four accounting and advisory firm, built multimillion-dollar practices, led large teams, and developed leaders who went on to become executives themselves. 

But underneath the accomplishments was another story.

Trisha had spent much of her life learning how to navigate being an outsider—the new girl, the person entering a community she didn't quite belong to, the professional learning how to prove her value. And in corporate life, she became very good at producing.

So good, in fact, that she later recognized one of her biggest mistakes: she thought people primarily wanted to see what she could produce, so she didn't let them see enough of who she was. 

Then, while on vacation and taking yet another conference call, her now-husband asked a deceptively simple question:

“Do you really love this that much?” 

No one had ever asked her that before.

In this episode of Thriving in Intersectionality, Dr. Lola Adeyemo and Trisha explore what happened when she began moving from proving toward choosing—and how that shift eventually took her from Big Four partner to entrepreneur, people and culture advisor, and even across the Atlantic to build a life in France.

In this episode, you'll learn:

•  How moving frequently as a child shaped Trisha's experience of being an outsider 
•  Why class became one of the most important dimensions of identity for her to examine 
•  How recognizing her own class bias changed the way she thought about opportunity and other people's careers 
•  Why Trisha considers hiding much of her personal self one of her biggest corporate mistakes 
•  The question that caused her to reconsider a successful Big Four career 
•  Why she wondered at 39 whether it was already too late to do something different 
•  How her own experience of feeling disempowered eventually inspired the name Empowered
•  Why different people can want completely different things from work—and both can be right 
•  How Trisha has allowed her business to evolve as she has evolved 
•  Why moving to France was the first major decision she says she made purely because she wanted it 
•  What becoming an immigrant herself taught her about language, intelligence and belonging 
•  Why self-awareness, emotional intelligence and being comfortable in your own skin matter in leadership 
•  Why Trisha believes we often underestimate the options available to us 

One idea to carry with you

“Don't ever believe that you don't have options. You always have options.” 

This isn't a conversation about everyone leaving corporate America.

It's about knowing yourself well enough to recognize the difference between the life you're successfully performing and the life you actually want.

Sometimes staying is the choice.

Sometimes leaving is the choice.

Sometimes evolving what you've already built is the choice.

The important question may be whether you are actually choosing.

About Trisha Daho

Trisha Daho is the founder of Empowered and a fractional Chief People Officer who helps organizations build thriving cultures, stronger leaders and high-performing teams. Her work spans culture strategy, talent acquisition and retention, leadership development, performance management, organizational change and executive advisory. 

Before founding Empowered, Trisha spent more than 15 years with Ernst & Young, where she became a partner, built multimillion-dollar businesses across multiple regions, led international teams of 50–100 people, and worked with Fortune 500 organizations on complex business challenges. She holds a J.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Law and a B.S. in Economics, Finance and Sociology from Miami University. 

Today, Trisha works across the U.S. and Europe, helping organizations strengthen the connection between their people, culture and business performance.

Connect with Trisha:
Empowered Leadership Cultivation
Trisha Daho on LinkedIn

And for the closing meal question?

Trisha would bring real Mexican food to France.

After several years there, a good taco remains one of the things she misses most. 🌮 

🎧 Listen, follow and share Thriving in Intersectionality wherever you get your podcasts.

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Thank you for listening to Thriving in Intersectionality with Dr. Lola Adeyemo.

This podcast explores how identity, lived experience, and leadership intersect in today's workplace and beyond. Through conversations with leaders, founders, educators, entrepreneurs, and changemakers, we uncover stories and insights that help people thrive across the many intersections of their lives.

💬 Share your thoughts: Have a thought or question about this episode? Send me a Fan Mail message directly on our Buzzsprout podcast page. I'd love to hear what resonated with you.

❤️ Support the show: If these conversations bring you value, consider becoming a supporter. Your support helps keep meaningful stories, diverse perspectives, and new conversations coming.

⭐ Help others discover the podcast: Follow, share, rate, or review the show.

📬 Continue the conversation: Read my companion reflections, After the Conversation, on Substack.

🌍 For immigrant and first-generation professionals: Join our free community at Immigrants in Corporate.

Keep thriving in your intersections. Your story matters.

What does it look like to pursue exceptional business results without sacrificing the people responsible for producing them?

Kathy Miller started working on a factory floor at 17 years old. She went on to lead global operations across automotive, aerospace and industrial manufacturing—including responsibility for billions of dollars in operations and thousands of employees.

But some of the experiences that shaped Kathy most aren't found in the executive bio.

Growing up as the oldest daughter with three younger brothers. Entering a male-dominated workplace while still a teenager. Experiencing loneliness at a young age while appearing confident and high-achieving on the outside. Watching a 50-year-old manufacturing plant close and seeing firsthand what the loss of a workplace could mean to employees, families and an entire community.

Those experiences influenced a leadership philosophy Kathy carried throughout her career: results matter, but they shouldn't come at the expense of human dignity.

In this episode of Thriving in Intersectionality, Dr. Lola Adeyemo and Kathy explore the experiences behind her leadership journey—from engineering and global operations to positive psychology, coaching and what she calls “Kathy 2.0.”

In this episode, you'll learn:

•  How Kathy's upbringing as the oldest daughter with three brothers shaped the way she entered male-dominated environments 
•  Why she began working on a factory floor at just 17 years old 
•  How loneliness early in her career helped deepen her empathy for what employees may be carrying beneath the surface 
•  Why witnessing a major plant closure changed the kind of leader Kathy wanted to become 
•  How an assignment she initially viewed as being “sidelined” became one of the most important opportunities of her career 
•  Why Kathy encourages professionals to sometimes say yes before they can see exactly where an opportunity will lead
•  What she learned from being one of the few women in manufacturing leadership—and why representation eventually became more important to her 
•  Why leaders don't have to become copies of the people already in the room 
•  How positive psychology helped Kathy put research behind leadership practices she had developed through decades of experience 
•  Why there is real leadership power in learning to pause before reacting
•  How coaching helped Kathy ask a pivotal question: What do I actually want to do next?
•  Why strong business performance and human flourishing don't have to compete 

Kathy’s current work builds on more than three decades leading transformations across organizations including General Motors/Delphi, Parker Hannifin, Rolls-Royce and Vertiv. Today she advises manufacturing executives and HR leaders on connecting leadership, culture and operating performance. 

One idea to carry with you

Kathy offered a simple challenge to leaders:

Learn the business. Speak the language. Ask good questions. But don't become a copycat of everyone else in the room.

Your identity and leadership style don't need to disappear in order for you to produce results.

As Kathy put it, the goal is to achieve those results without sacrificing the human dignity of the people you lead.

About Kathy Miller

Kathy Miller, MAPP, MBA, ACC, is a senior advisor to manufacturing executives and HR leaders, board director, keynote speaker and author. Over more than three decades, she progressed from shop-floor industrial engineer to global operations executive, holding senior leadership roles with organizations including General Motors/Delphi, Parker Hannifin, Rolls-Royce and Vertiv. 

She previously served as Global Director of Manufacturing, Assembly & Test for Rolls-Royce Defense, with responsibility for more than $3 billion in operations across facilities in the United States and United Kingdom. She is a Women in Manufacturing Hall of Fame inductee, a Shingo Prize recipient, and the author/co-author of MORE Is Better and Steel Toes and Stilettos. 

Kathy also holds a master's degree in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, an MBA from Ball State University and an Associate Certified Coach credential from the International Coaching Federation. 

Today, through MORE 4 Leaders, she works with leaders and organizations to strengthen leadership, culture and performance. 

Connect with Kathy

Website: www.more4leaders.com
LinkedIn: Kathy Miller, MAPP, MBA, ACC

And for the meal…

If Kathy were sharing a meal with her coworkers, she'd create a baked potato bar—potatoes plus all the toppings people could choose for themselves.

And, very on-brand for someone who studied psychology, she admitted she'd probably also be curious about why everyone chose what they chose. 😄

A question to reflect on

What opportunity in your career initially felt like a detour, disappointment or step sideways—but ultimately prepared you for something much bigger?

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Thank you for listening to Thriving in Intersectionality with Dr. Lola Adeyemo.

This podcast explores how identity, lived experience, and leadership intersect in today's workplace and beyond. Through conversations with leaders, founders, educators, entrepreneurs, and changemakers, we uncover stories and insights that help people thrive across the many intersections of their lives.

💬 Share your thoughts: Have a thought or question about this episode? Send me a Fan Mail message directly on our Buzzsprout podcast page. I'd love to hear what resonated with you.

❤️ Support the show: If these conversations bring you value, consider becoming a supporter. Your support helps keep meaningful stories, diverse perspectives, and new conversations coming.

⭐ Help others discover the podcast: Follow, share, rate, or review the show.

📬 Continue the conversation: Read my companion reflections, After the Conversation, on Substack.

🌍 For immigrant and first-generation professionals: Join our free community at Immigrants in Corporate.

Keep thriving in your intersections. Your story matters.

What if the parts of your career that look disconnected on paper are actually the experiences that make you uniquely equipped for the work you're doing now?

Kim Peirano's career has been anything but linear. She studied television production, business and art. She became an acupuncturist, built businesses, founded a nonprofit, worked in nightlife and eventually returned to school to study industrial and organizational psychology.

Along the way, she was also diagnosed with ADHD later in life, began living with Long COVID, and spent eight years in a high-control spiritual group—an experience that ultimately contributed to her interest in understanding destructive leadership and the organizational conditions that allow harmful leaders to thrive. 

In this episode of Thriving in Intersectionality, Dr. Lola Adeyemo and Kim explore what happens when we stop viewing a nonlinear career as evidence that someone couldn't stick with one thing—and start recognizing the perspective, skills and pattern recognition that can come from moving across different worlds.

Their conversation also moves beyond Kim's personal journey into her work as an organizational psychologist: why destructive leadership is often a systems problem, how organizational conditions can enable harmful behavior, and why workplaces designed to support neurodivergence and invisible illness can ultimately work better for everyone.

In this episode, you'll learn:

•  How receiving an ADHD diagnosis later in life changed the way Kim understood her career and experiences 
•  Why a nonlinear career can create valuable perspective rather than signal a lack of direction 
•  How seemingly unrelated experiences can build on one another over time 
•  Why knowing when to leave a career, role or environment can be as important as knowing when to stay 
•  How Kim's experience in a high-control spiritual group influenced her study of destructive leadership 
•  Why destructive leadership isn't always simply a “bad leader” problem 
•  How organizational structures, unclear boundaries and lack of accountability can allow harmful leadership behaviors to thrive 
•  Why some destructive leadership behavior may reflect undeveloped leadership skills rather than malicious intent 
•  What it means to move beyond workplace accommodations toward genuine inclusion 
•  How ADHD, Long COVID and invisible disability have shaped Kim's approach to organizational design 
•  Why organizations may be excluding neurodivergent talent before candidates ever enter the hiring process 

One idea to carry with you

A career doesn't have to make sense in a straight line to make sense.

We often assign greater credibility to people whose careers follow an easily recognizable path: choose a field, build expertise, move upward.

Kim's story challenges that assumption.

Art, entrepreneurship, healthcare, nonprofit leadership, personal experiences with coercive environments, neurodivergence and organizational psychology may look like separate chapters. But each added another lens through which she learned to see people, organizations and systems.

Sometimes the value of a career becomes clearer when you stop asking whether every step followed the plan—and start asking what each step taught you.

About Kim Peirano

Kim Peirano is an organizational psychologist, consultant, entrepreneur and founder of Integrity Catalyst. She specializes in organizational culture diagnostics, leadership development, destructive and coercive leadership, and workplace inclusion for neurodivergent employees and people living with invisible illness.

Kim holds a Master of Science in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from the University of Hartford. Her graduate work explored destructive leadership and the organizational conditions that allow harmful leadership behaviors to thrive. She also serves as an alumni research assistant with the university's SHINE Lab, where her research includes neurodivergence and workplace inclusion. 

Through Integrity Catalyst, Kim works with organizations on culture diagnostics, ethical leadership development, team effectiveness and building workplaces that better support the range of humans within them. 

Connect with Kim

Integrity Catalyst: integritycatalyst.com
LinkedIn: Kim Peirano
Instagram: @kimpeirano
TikTok: @kimpeirano
Substack: Kim Peirano

And because every story ends with food...

If Kim were sharing a meal with coworkers, she'd take them to one of her favorite San Francisco restaurants for sweet potato gnocchi—the kind of dish she says is so good you have to slow down to eat it. 

A question to reflect on

What part of your career once looked like a detour—but you now recognize as part of what prepared you for where you are today?

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Thank you for listening to Thriving in Intersectionality with Dr. Lola Adeyemo.

This podcast explores how identity, lived experience, and leadership intersect in today's workplace and beyond. Through conversations with leaders, founders, educators, entrepreneurs, and changemakers, we uncover stories and insights that help people thrive across the many intersections of their lives.

💬 Share your thoughts: Have a thought or question about this episode? Send me a Fan Mail message directly on our Buzzsprout podcast page. I'd love to hear what resonated with you.

❤️ Support the show: If these conversations bring you value, consider becoming a supporter. Your support helps keep meaningful stories, diverse perspectives, and new conversations coming.

⭐ Help others discover the podcast: Follow, share, rate, or review the show.

📬 Continue the conversation: Read my companion reflections, After the Conversation, on Substack.

🌍 For immigrant and first-generation professionals: Join our free community at Immigrants in Corporate.

Keep thriving in your intersections. Your story matters.

In this episode of Thriving in Intersectionality, Dr. Lola Adeyemo sits down with Joaquin Martinez, global energy leader, entrepreneur, author of The Super Generation, and founder of Mariposa Energy Consulting.

Joaquin grew up in a low-income single-parent household in Southern Arizona and became the first person in his family to attend college. As a young engineering student, he entered professional spaces without the networks, examples, or unwritten guidance that many others around him may have had.

But over a career spanning more than three decades and leadership roles across North America, South America, Africa, and Asia, Joaquin began recognizing something important: many of the experiences he once saw as disadvantages had already taught him how to lead.

• Supporting family had taught him how to develop and care for people.
• Learning to create with limited resources had taught him innovation.
• Navigating unfamiliar environments had built resilience.
• And being different had taught him how to enter new spaces while carrying his identity with him. 

In this conversation, Joaquin and Dr. Lola explore:

•  Growing up in a single-parent household and becoming the first in his family to attend college 
•  How his Hispanic and Native American identities shaped his perspective 
•  Choosing engineering as a pathway to breaking a cycle of poverty 
•  Building a 30+ year career in the global energy industry 
•  Why the skills developed through first-generation experiences can become leadership strengths 
•  Joaquin's SUPER framework: Supportive, Unique, Passionate, Enterprising, and Resilient 
•  Why leadership development shouldn't begin only after someone receives a leadership title 
•  The role humility and listening have played in Joaquin's global leadership 
•  Why relationships may be one of the most important long-term investments a professional can make 
•  The idea of building a career through "1,000 cups of coffee" 
•  Why Joaquin wrote The Super Generation to help fill the development gap first-generation professionals can encounter after entering the workforce 

One of the most powerful ideas in this conversation is that being first doesn't mean arriving empty-handed.

First-generation professionals may enter spaces without inherited knowledge of how those spaces work. But they also arrive carrying experiences, capabilities, cultural knowledge, resilience, and ways of solving problems that have been developing long before their first professional title.

Joaquin's journey invites us to stop looking only at what first-generation professionals may not have been given—and start recognizing what they already bring.

About Joaquin Martinez

Joaquin Martinez is an author, global energy leader, entrepreneur, and founder and president of Mariposa Energy Consulting. His career spans more than 30 years across engineering, operations, operational excellence, asset management, and international executive leadership.

After retiring from corporate leadership in 2020, Joaquin launched Mariposa Energy Consulting, where he helps organizations solve complex operational and leadership challenges. His book, The Super Generation, translates lessons from his own first-generation journey and decades of mentoring into practical guidance for professionals navigating spaces they may be the first in their families to enter.  

He is also working with academic institutions to develop curricula based on the guidance in The Super Generation.

Connect with Joaquin

Connect with Joaquin Martinez on LinkedIn

Instagram: @jmartinez77005

Look for The Super Generation wherever you purchase books.

A Question to Reflect On

What experience from your own background have you underestimated because no one taught you to recognize it as a professional strength?

And, of course, stay through the end to hear what Joaquin would bring to share with his coworkers: chile colorado, a dish that connects him to Southern Arizona, culture, home, and the kind of humble hospitality he brings to leadership.

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Thank you for listening to Thriving in Intersectionality with Dr. Lola Adeyemo.

This podcast explores how identity, lived experience, and leadership intersect in today's workplace and beyond. Through conversations with leaders, founders, educators, entrepreneurs, and changemakers, we uncover stories and insights that help people thrive across the many intersections of their lives.

💬 Share your thoughts: Have a thought or question about this episode? Send me a Fan Mail message directly on our Buzzsprout podcast page. I'd love to hear what resonated with you.

❤️ Support the show: If these conversations bring you value, consider becoming a supporter. Your support helps keep meaningful stories, diverse perspectives, and new conversations coming.

⭐ Help others discover the podcast: Follow, share, rate, or review the show.

📬 Continue the conversation: Read my companion reflections, After the Conversation, on Substack.

🌍 For immigrant and first-generation professionals: Join our free community at Immigrants in Corporate.

Keep thriving in your intersections. Your story matters.

What does it take to create environments where people can actually thrive?

For Dr. Melissa Durham, the answer has been shaped across many different parts of her life—as a woman, single mother, healthcare professional, educator, clinician, and organizational leader.

In this episode of Thriving in Intersectionality, Dr. Lola Adeyemo sits down with Dr. Durham, Associate Professor of Clinical Pharmacy and Associate Dean of Organizational Success and Well-being at the USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, to explore how those experiences have shaped the way she thinks about leadership, belonging, well-being, and organizational success. 

Melissa shares the unconventional journey that took her from choosing pharmacy as a young woman seeking stability, to academia and chronic pain care, to experiencing a significant period of professional burnout that forced her to reconsider her relationship with work and leadership.

That experience became part of what shaped the work she does today.

Across her roles—as a mother, clinician, educator, and organizational leader—Melissa keeps returning to a common idea: people are more likely to succeed when the environments and systems around them are intentionally designed to support their success. 

In this episode, you'll learn:

•  How Melissa's experiences as a woman, single mother, healthcare professional, educator, and leader have shaped her approach to leadership 
•  The burnout experience that changed the trajectory of her career 
•  Why belonging and well-being are connected to organizational success 
•  How Melissa's clinical experience influences the way she approaches organizational leadership 
•  Why sustainable change requires moving beyond programs and events to systems and structures 
•  The importance of listening to people rather than assuming what they need 
•  Why accountability and compassion don't have to be opposites 
•  How values, data, strategy, and stakeholder input can guide organizations through change 
•  Why developing new leaders is essential to building communities and initiatives that last 
•  Melissa's refreshingly simple advice for navigating an uncertain future: do something useful 

One of the biggest reminders from this conversation:

Belonging and well-being aren't separate from organizational success. They're part of the conditions that make success possible.

Whether you're leading a healthcare team, university, corporation, employee community, nonprofit, or simply thinking about the environments you create for the people around you, this conversation invites us to consider a bigger question:

Are we asking people to thrive—or are we intentionally building the conditions that allow them to?

About Dr. Melissa Durham

Dr. Melissa Durham, PharmD, MACM, is an Associate Professor of Clinical Pharmacy and Associate Dean of Organizational Success and Well-being at the USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. She also practices as a clinical pharmacist at the USC Pain Center, bringing nearly two decades of experience across pharmacy education, chronic pain management, clinical practice, organizational leadership, and well-being. 

Her work bridges clinical rigor and human-centered leadership, with a focus on creating systems where people can learn, contribute, belong, and succeed.

Connect with Dr. Melissa Durham

🌐 The Pain Pharmacist
💼 LinkedIn

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Thank you for listening to Thriving in Intersectionality with Dr. Lola Adeyemo.

This podcast explores how identity, lived experience, and leadership intersect in today's workplace and beyond. Through conversations with leaders, founders, educators, entrepreneurs, and changemakers, we uncover stories and insights that help people thrive across the many intersections of their lives.

💬 Share your thoughts: Have a thought or question about this episode? Send me a Fan Mail message directly on our Buzzsprout podcast page. I'd love to hear what resonated with you.

❤️ Support the show: If these conversations bring you value, consider becoming a supporter. Your support helps keep meaningful stories, diverse perspectives, and new conversations coming.

⭐ Help others discover the podcast: Follow, share, rate, or review the show.

📬 Continue the conversation: Read my companion reflections, After the Conversation, on Substack.

🌍 For immigrant and first-generation professionals: Join our free community at Immigrants in Corporate.

Keep thriving in your intersections. Your story matters.