The Bridge for Women Worldwide

The BridgeBy Women – For Women Talk Show

The Bridge contributes to the beauty of the world by upholding women’s values and high standards in diverse life situations. The Bridge is an extension of our communities and well-informed circle of friends and addresses long-standing issues of the glass ceiling, harassment, condescension, inequality, and life-work balance. 

Originally a professional educator from Ukraine, Fiona  Citkin is among the successful women immigrants to the US. She  came to America as a Fulbright Scholar studying languages and cultures. She holds 2 doctorates, speaks 3 languages, and has published several books,  including the award-winning  Transformational Diversity. Fiona is Managing Director of Expert MS Inc. How They Made It in America – she interviewed 100 immigrant women and profiled 18 of them in this book.  CLICK to hear Fiona’s podcast about her book.

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The unexpected effects of #Putin’s war in #Ukraine appear to: 1) Unite all Ukrainian- and Russian-speaking Ukrainians plus the Ukrainian diaspora worldwide to fight invasion; 2) Give a vitamin injection to strengthen NATO; 3) Bond EU to support Ukraine—as they can be the next invasion victim; 4) Rally the freedom-loving people globally to send aid. Illustrating my Point One, is the talk-show episode with #OksanaLutshyshyna, a former Fulbright exchange student from Ukraine, now successfully teaching languages at UT-Austin. She mentions some prominent people from US diaspora, among them Serhiy Zhadan recently nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

 Among many traumatic experiences of 2020-2021, this one is too dangerous to table it. Since the start of the pandemic, domestic violence proliferated so much that the Time magazine called it a “pandemic inside the Covid-19 pandemic.” A global problem now, we need to raise awareness and prepare to educate our youth to cut domestic violence against women in the bud. Join me to speak against it!

We discuss an ethical principle, critical at the time of multilevel national crisis. Darlene Slaughter, Chief People’s Officer of March of Dimes speaks about role-modeling for taking the high road: preserving one’s reputation and telling the truth; being authentic; and having courageous conversations with those in power, no matter what. This is essential for all people who care about equal opportunities and want to oppose “alternative truths” of those who go low.

Essential for every culturally divided country – women and men alike – diversiculturalist expertise is uneven across the board and is an extremely competitive field. In this interview we explore ways of upping inclusion and discovering how our unconscious impacts our effectiveness. What is at stake? Our national unity!

All loving parents need to know: our teenagers became super sensitive under the pandemic situation, so we need to give them more attention than ever.  There is no easy way, no vaccine for parental lack of focus on children. Fiona Citkin interviewed Valerie Grison-Alsop who came from France and founded a nonprofit “Give Us The Floor” – providing peer support that teenagers need to deal with stresses of all kinds. Along the way, hear about cultural differences of working in France and the US.

This is all about critical issues for modern women and US-American culture. As President of Global Summit of Women, the interviewee Irene Natividad became a prominent uniter of women and a modern feminist. Fiona and Irene discussed modern feminist flavors that characterize different women who stand up for women’s – and their own – rights.

My guest for The Bridge interview Anne-Sophie Gueguen speaks from her experience of founding French American Academy. The point is: our children will do better in life and career if they speak at least one additional “super” language, such as French, Spanish, German, Mandarin Chinese, etc.

The Bridge talk-show interviewee, Cindy Gallop, quickly rose in the ranks at BBH-London—but finally founded her own brand “MakeLoveNotPorn” video-sharing website, which is all about good lovemaking. We discuss issues regarding women’s positioning in the modern world, ageism, US and New York City culture, how her London boss helped Cindy to build her Dream, role of mothers in our lives, the pandemic consequences, etc.

Kerry Bannigan is a success story of creativity: she started from scratch, then co-founded Nolcha Shows providing equal opportunities for independent designers, then identified OTHER niches for services, founding Conscious Fashion Campaign, an initiative in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Partnerships. Their partners collectively represent over $4.7 billion revenue and 800 events worldwide.

Listen to a Mexican lady speak about her way from a domestic-abuse victim in Mexico City, Mexico to becoming a Consul and Press Attaché in San Diego, CA. Adriana Bacelis Sotomayor shares her know-how and her success values with Fiona Citkin.

Many talented men and women live in diaspora, outside their big nation, where some elites look at them with irony or condescension. Listen to Dr. Oksana Lutsyshyna (UT College of Liberal Arts: (utexas.edu)) and find out how creative a Ukrainian diaspora in the US is—contributing to our intellectual and spiritual wealth with the strengths coming from her cultural heritage.

The topic is of top importance today when women devoted to their teaching profession continuously contribute to the beauty of the world—and are inspiring their students to do the same. Cultural heritage, upbringing, and values pay major roles in setting the women-teachers for success. Tetiana Seredynska, a talk-show guest who teaches English-for-Business at HEC-Montreal, is a role model for teaching and learning languages.

Now the time has come to broadly discuss the previously touchy-touchy issues of personal political belonging, race, and gender – intertwined. Let us come do it together, for the sake of our national well-being and unity. This will contribute to the US national well-being, stability and economic recovery.

Kaye Foster was a poor girl from Barbados when she first came to New York. Hear her story now: what it took her to reinvent self, become a part of the big Pharma industry, and stay firm as a woman of faith. She also helps the others amplify their own voices through her work in the Human Resources in the pharmaceutical company.

The USA is a country with more than 50 basic accents spoken nationwide, the “sexiest” being the Bostonian, New York, and Texan ones. Plus, there is a plethora of foreign accents at diverse immigrant communities. Research shows that some employers discriminate based on accent variation. However, people on the East and West Coasts – and especially in the liberal Silicon Valley – are typically more tolerant with respect to accents. Deborah Levine discusses how  in  America,  it is your expertise that counts, while accents are irrelevant in many professions.
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With half of the world’s population under pandemic lockdown, cases of domestic violence have been increasing – both in the USA and around the globe. Clearly, self-isolation coupled with financial troubles provokes aggression in some abusive types—and women must bear the burden of it, including severe beatings. We explore how to better counteract violence against women, worldwide and in the US.

Being an Inclusive Leader in High-Tech America

An engaging, rich-in-content interview with one of the most prominent women in high-tech America, former SVP and Head of Eriksson Silicon Valley. It is about women’s positioning in high-tech companies; inclusive leadership and global mindset; and upping creativity worldwide. Maya Strelar-Migotti also explains her role as CEO of 4PIA, a political-prediction Artificial Intelligence company, as well as investing in women-entrepreneurs and participating in thought leadership processes in Silicon Valley.

From Fearful to Fearless in the US

Success story of Veronica Montes from Mexico is nothing short of a breakthrough. She started in the US from scratch, as a daughter of a divorced immigrant mother – and moved up with PH.D. in Sociology, publications in prestigious journals on gender issues, and professorship at the upscale College in PA. Her journey of a fearful girl turning into a fearless personality and confident academic adds to a triumph of American University education system.

Can-Do Success in American Academia

Dr. Helen Schneider speaks about enablers of academic success in the US. Learn what they do at the University of TX in Austin to ensure safety during pandemic times, without sacrificing the quality of teaching. The host Fiona Citkin and her guest Helen Schneider also discuss the cultural characteristics of Ukraine as compared with the US. Helen Schneider shares advice which will help the viewers in many life-work situations when advancing in academia.

To learn more, read How They Made It in America

 

Deborah Levine Enterprises LLC