Who Do You Love?

In this episode of Who Do You Love?, Whitney sits down with Selena Chávez — photojournalist, executive director of Fuerza Democrats Tennessee, and proud daughter of Colombian immigrants — to explore what it actually looks like to build power with a community rather than over it. Selena shares how she's organizing in one of the country's toughest political landscapes for immigrant communities, leading language justice work, poll safety efforts, and a first-of-its-kind support system for Latino candidates in Tennessee.

The conversation moves from the personal to the systemic: Selena's own journey with imposter syndrome and self-acceptance, growing up as one of the only Latina kids with curly hair in Chattanooga, and how her father's sacrifices as a refugee shaped her belief in showing up for people she'll never meet. Whitney and Selena dig into what collective power actually requires — listening before assuming, defining success beyond the obvious win, and holding urgency alongside the patience that real coalition-building demands.

This episode is a reminder that power isn't something you hoard at the head of the table — it's something you build by bringing more people to it.

Don’t forget to prepare for upcoming election dates in your area. For those in Tennessee with Selena, make sure to vote on August 6 for State and Federal Primary races, along with the General Election for open state judicial seats and certain county offices.

Links to engage with this week’s episode:

1. Selena's photography work — Instagram @MiradaBySelena 
2. Fuerza Democrats Tennessee — Instagram @FuerzaDemsTN or www.fuerzatn.org
3. Community Land Trust background — Whitney references this example of collective power building. For more information, read this Brookings article.
4. 287(g) agreement — Selena references this ICE/local law enforcement agreement. Read a bit about it from this MIRA Coalition explainer.
5. Festival of the Diaspora — Whitney and Selena first met volunteering at this annual gathering. Instagram @festival_diaspora
   

What happens when resilience isn't something you build alone, but something a whole community hands you, piece by piece? In this episode of Who Do You Love?, host Whitney Buchmann sits down with Asad Bandeali, founder and lead strategic consultant of A Spark Consulting, to explore resilience as a lifelong, communal practice rather than a solo pursuit.

Asad traces resilience across his own life — from immigrating to the U.S. as a teenager and quietly answering to the wrong name for two years, to becoming a father and learning that raising a child "takes a village" of perspectives, not just one. The conversation moves from the personal to the systemic: how funding instability is reshaping the nonprofit sector, how faith communities model showing up for people regardless of shared belief, and how designing for resilience means designing for everyone — introverts, non-English speakers, people who find solace in a pet or a book instead of a crowd.

Along the way, Asad and Whitney dig into what it really means to build interdependent communities on purpose — through mentorship, local "champions" models used during COVID-era outreach, and the discipline of stepping back so communities can lead themselves. It's a conversation about self-love as the foundation of showing up for others, and a reminder that no one — including Asad himself — has to go it alone.

• Asad's LinkedIn
• A Spark Consulting website 
• Asad's personal website
• Family Rise Together — the BIPOC-led, Northeast Minnesota fatherhood-focused organization Asad mentioned supporting
• UMMA Health (Los Angeles) - the faith-based clinic Asad mentions that was build to improve health access regardless of a person’s faith tradition
• TRS Health (Houston) — the mobile health clinic organization Asad’s friends run

What does it actually mean to live sustainably? In this first episode of Who Do You Love?, host Whitney Buchmann sits down with Kristen Kerr, founder of Cultivate the Creative and CEO of Creating Resilient Solutions, to explore how sustainability shows up far beyond recycling and clean energy. From a shared snowblower in a Nebraska cul-de-sac to extension cords strung across a Florida hurricane-hit neighborhood, Kristen and Whitney trace how community — not individual ownership — is what actually sustains us.

The conversation moves from the personal to the structural: Kristen shares how burnout taught her that sustaining a nonprofit means sustaining herself first, how tribal communities she works with model interdependence through shared energy sovereignty and intergenerational wisdom, and how grant funding rollbacks are leaving the most vulnerable communities further out of the conversation. Along the way, they talk about thrifting, Sagrada Família, Braiding Sweetgrass, and why "just found a nonprofit" isn't always the answer.

This episode asks a hard question: who are we leaving out of sustainability, and what would it actually ask of us to include them? Kristen's answer: usually just time, patience, and a little discomfort — the same price of any real relationship.

• Cultivate the Creative (Kristen's nonprofit) 
  • Instagram: @Cultivate_The_Creative 
  • Website: cultivatethecreative.org
  • Email: [email protected]
• Follow Kristen on LinkedIn to see more about her consulting work as the CEO Creating Resilient Solutions
• The Hub —a program offering St Petersburg, FL residents free therapy sessions and other support services to create a healthier, more resilient community.
• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (the book Whitney references)
• Sagrada Família — if you want a quick visual reference of this amazing nature-inspired architectural feat that Kristen references

Host, Whitney Buchmann, introduces the podcast and shares a story about why these topics matter from her personal life before reflecting on how these themes intersect with the July 4th celebration in the United States. Subscribe now to know when the first episode drops.