We Should Talk About That

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This has been a WEEK. JessB recounts her success, albeit uncomfortably, at achieving a huge goal with recording her TEDx talk (live streams 7/18!) and The Two Jess(es) discuss their final decisions regarding COVID school.

Show Notes:
If you are interested in viewing JessB giving her TEDx talk, you can purchase tickets here:
https://www.ted.com/tedx/events/38018

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It's all parents of school aged children can think about....their kids and school. Virtual, two days a week, homeschool? Will they stay in school, will they fall behind? Why are the schools making the decisions they are making and what do they have to say about them? Following the Secretary of Education's declaration that all schools should open in person, regardless of the current climbing pandemic, The Two Jess(es) sit down with two Fairfax County School Board members to get their take on the current crisis, and how it is affecting our kids.
This is an honest and at moments, uncomfortable conversation that must be had.

Show Notes:

Meet Rachna!
Rachna Sizemore Heizer is one of three At-Large Fairfax County School Board Members, the 10th largest school system in the United States in a county of over 1 million residents. She is the first Indian American person and first Asian American woman elected to a Fairfax County wide office. She is also the Program Coordinator of the Human Resource Development minor program and teaches employment law, leadership, and diversity and cultural competency online at Texas Tech University. She received both her Bachelor of Arts in Political Economy and her law degree from the University of California at Berkeley and started her career as a corporate and employment lawyer.  She has served on numerous community boards and spent over twelve years as a disability justice advocate, working with state and federal officials on education policy and criminal justice issues. Her goals on the school board are to bring a voice to those students who most need it while ensuring a strengths-focused and interdisciplinary education that fosters creativity, critical thinking, and real-world problem solving. 

Meet Laura Jane!
Laura Jane Cohen was sworn into office as the Springfield District School Board Member on December 12, 2019. Laura Jane grew up in Marietta, Georgia and is the daughter and granddaughter of public school teachers.

After graduating from the University of Georgia with a degree in Political Science, Laura Jane worked for the Lt. Governor and Secretary of State of Georgia. When she and her husband moved to Fairfax County in 2001, Laura Jane became the Director of Outreach for a National Parkinson’s nonprofit. Having two kids brought her back to her teaching roots. Laura Jane taught preschool for several years before becoming a long-term substitute teacher for Fairfax County Public Schools. Laura Jane also served on the Cherry Run Elementary School PTA for eight years, three years as Staff Relations Chair, two terms as PTA President, and as the liaison to the Fairfax County Council of PTAs. She is currently a proud member of the Lake Braddock PTSA.

Laura Jane is a proud volunteer with Moms Demand Action and has also served on the Fairfax County Democratic Committee’s LGBTQ+ Committee. She also served on the Career and Technical Education Advisory Committee as well as the Disputed Materials Committee for the FCPS School Board. 

In addition to her advocacy work, Laura Jane opened a vintage home decor shop in Clifton in 2015 and enjoys restoring furniture in her free time. Laura Jane and her husband, Seth, live in Burke with their two kids, two dogs, and Laura Jane’s mom.

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Dr. Rachel was such a hit on Monday, so The Two Jess(es) asked her to come back and answer questions submitted by the WeSTAT Community. If you are on the fence about whether or not it is safe for your child to go back to school this fall, or you are wondering whether it is advisable to get on an airplane, Dr. Rachel has her opinions, and the infectious disease science to back them up!

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If you are a parent feeling any sort of apprehension around having to make a decision regarding sending your child back to school, or whether to keep them home for virtual learning, then Dr. Rachel Orscheln, director of ambulatory Pediatric Infectious Diseases and the International Adoption Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Washington University, is here for a VERY INTERESTING CONVERSATION. Dr. Rachel offers really well rounded thoughts and answers TTJ(es) many many questions. What is herd immunity, really? Are our kids likely to catch COVID from each other while in class? What is the risk associated to the teachers? And SO MUCH MORE.

This is an offering to the WeSTAT community in hopes that it will help individuals who may not have had the opportunity to sit down for one hour with their health care provider.

Show Notes:

Meet Dr. Rachel!

Dr. Orscheln is the director of ambulatory Pediatric Infectious Diseases and the International Adoption Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Washington University. She is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine.  She completed her residency in Pediatrics at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and a fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Washington University. She has been a member of the faculty since 2005 and is currently an Associate Professor of Pediatrics.  Her special clinical interest is in the care of immunocompromised children.  Her current research interests include treatment of viral infections in normal and immunocompromised
children.  When she is not at work, she enjoys spending time with her husband and 3 children. 

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Who needs a feel good, uplifting and encouraging story to help redeem some of 2020 for them? Reba Riley will send you, on a weekly basis, words of kindness and courage that will do JUST THAT. She believes in kindness as being the hard, put on your work boots, work of true love, and so it is in that spirit that she began a texting initiative to encourage people who were feeling overwhelmed. And not only does she remind us that BRAVE is a VERB, she also has extended her initiative into the lives of frontline health care workers, making sure they are reminded how courageous they really are on a daily basis.

Show Notes:
https://encouragingtexts.com/
https://www.amazon.com/Post-Traumatic-Church-Syndrome-Memoir-Healing/dp/150112403X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Meet Reba!
Following a decade of success at Fortune 500 companies, Rebecca ‘Reba’ Riley penned a Simon & Schuster bestselling memoir exploring chronic illness and her exploration of thirty world religions. She is a keynote speaker on the topics of holistic health, everyday courage, and teambuilding, and a regular contributor to national media including TIME, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NPR. Most recently, Riley founded the nationwide kindness and courage campaign En#Couraging Texts, which enables the community to send supportive text messages of gratitude to frontline healthcare workers. Riley is currently pursuing her M.A. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at Harvard University, and her specific area of research is fulfillment and delight in the workplace. She was honored by the Ohio State University as an “Everyday Hero” in the alumni category and is a Cincinnati Business Courier Forty Under Forty nominee. She serves as an interfaith chaplain (volunteer) at the Christ Hospital and is the board chaplain for the Q-Kidz Dance Team for at-risk girls in Cincinnati, Ohio.

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This is the kind of conversation that makes podcasting #worthit. The Two Jess(es) sit down with the ultimate bad ass and the 'NRA's #1 Enemy', Shannon Watts. Founder of the grassroots organization Moms Demand Action, described as a 'movement of Americans fighting for public safety measures that can protect people from gun violence.' They pass stronger gun laws and work to close the loopholes that jeopardize the safety of our families. Shannon is the author of Fight Like a Mother: How a Grassroots Movement Took on the Gun Lobby and Why Women Will Change the World, and works tirelessly to empower women through her work with Emerge America in order to train and recruit women to run for office.
This conversation runs deep on some of the hardest issues to discuss right now. Privilege, equality, school shootings, gun sense as opposed to gun control, and fighting the NRA one mom organized lemonade stand at a time, are just a few.

Show Notes:

Meet Shannon!

Shannon Watts is a mother of five who, prior to founding Moms Demand Action, was a stay-at-home mom and former communications executive. The day after the Sandy Hook tragedy, Shannon started a Facebook group with the message that all Americans can and should do more to reduce gun violence. The online conversation turned into a grassroots movement of Americans fighting for public safety measures that protect people from gun violence. Moms Demand Action has established a chapter in every state of the country and is part of Everytown for Gun Safety, the largest gun violence prevention organization in the country, with nearly 6 million supporters. In addition to her work with Moms Demand Action, Watts is an active board member of Emerge America, one of the nation’s leading organizations for recruiting and training women to run for office.

https://www.amazon.com/Fight-like-Mother-Grassroots-Movement/dp/0062892568
https://momsdemandaction.org/about/
https://emergeamerica.org/

Local Alexandria Chapter of Moms Demand Action
https://www.facebook.com/MomsDemandActionVA/

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It's Friday! And it also happens to be JessK's birthday! TTJ(es) get a little silly and a lot deep in these 20 minutes as they discuss the article that came out in the Harvard Business Review entitled: 'That Discomfort You're Feeling Is Grief.' by Scott Berinato.
As we sit in our 16th week of a global pandemic, we continue to call out on behalf of Black and Brown voices, and we face the reality of what the next school year will bring, JessB and JessK contemplate leaning in to the suck and self care when they feel like it is just too much. There is hope in our choices, our options, our conversation, they decide.

Show Notes:
https://hbr.org/2020/03/that-discomfort-youre-feeling-is-grief
https://meweintl.org/
http://www.westories.org/

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The two Jesses (TTJ) thought they were going to do a book and podcast review and they ended up having a brutally honest and uncomfortable conversation about the intention vs the impact of our actions. 

As they discuss how they are approaching their "unlearning" within the context of white privilege, TTJ continue to be transparent about their difficult conversations in hopes that it will help others as they are having their own.

Books and podcasts discussed in this episode:
http://austinchanning.com/the-book
https://www.powells.com/book/stamped-9780316453691
https://brenebrown.com/podcast/brene-with-austin-channing-brown-on-im-still-here-black-dignity-in-a-world-made-for-whiteness/
https://www.chimamanda.com/book/americanah/

Becoming Anti-racist Graphic:
https://umich.app.box.com/s/d1zl3r2dlso7gs76wjfybv9z52m397ho

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How is your work going, WeSTAT Community? TTJ(es) set out to have a conversation about the books and podcasts they have been digging into, but of course, that led them down the road of hard questions and contemplation that will be aired on Monday (6/22). So, this is a prelude to Monday's episode, but also an honest review and a reminder to participate in the 'Black Out Bestseller Lists with Black Voices' initiative, which encourages people to purchase books authored by Black authors between June 14- June 20. In this episode, TTJ(es) discuss Stamped Junior by Ibram X Kendi and I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown.

Show Notes:
http://austinchanning.com/the-book
https://www.powells.com/book/stamped-9780316453691
https://brenebrown.com/podcast/brene-with-austin-channing-brown-on-im-still-here-black-dignity-in-a-world-made-for-whiteness/

For Book Suggestions:
http://www.westories.org/blogposts/2020/4/21/library-to-the-rescue-free-access-to-high-impact-diverse-books-and-stories

Other media suggestions:
https://parade.com/1046031/breabaker/anti-racist-tv-movies-documentaries-ted-talks-books/?fbclid=IwAR267BwbWttUK7jB_3iTr_ldwxp8IBbdJSM48Wuy1bKOpKLlZNImx_9kinI#.XtsxsSCiwGQ.facebook

Black Owned Independent Bookstores:
https://lithub.com/you-can-order-today-from-these-black-owned-independent-bookstores/

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The Two Jess(es) get a chance to chat with their friend and WeSTAT community member, Deirdre Taylor, about working on the front lines of COVID in New York City as a travel nurse for the last two months. Deirdre details her experience working with some of the hardest hit populations in NYC, her reasons for going, and how her family managed in her absence.

This is a hero's story within another hero's story. Deirdre shares her life long search for a fire fighter that had pulled her from a burning building as a child. While Deirdre spent the past weeks fighting for sick patients lives, she was rewarded with the phone number for HER fire fighter...after all these years.

Show Notes:
Deirdre Taylor resides in Alexandria, VA with her husband and two amazing children. She’s a former Army helicopter pilot who became a registered nurse after deciding to leave the military to focus on starting a family. She has spent the majority of her nursing career working in the Emergency Departments of busy, Level 1 trauma centers. 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fox5dc.com/news/alexandria-nurse-delivers-long-delayed-thank-you-to-nyc-firefighter-who-saved-her-life-when-she-was-a-girl.amp

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/05/26/us/nyc-covid-nurse-reunion-firefighter-trnd/index.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/28/nurse-thanks-firefighter-new-york/

https://www.nydailynews.com/coronavirus/ny-coronavirus-rescue-reunion-nurse-firefighter-20200526-s77umpqpb5ajxkppwli7bfrtam-story.html

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