All posts by Editor-in-Chief

Deborah Levine founded the American Diversity Report in 2006. She is a Forbes Magazine top "Trailblazer" and award-winning author of 20 books. Her published articles span decades including: American Journal of Community Psychology, Journal of Public Management & Social Policy, The Bermuda Magazine, The Harvard Divinity School Bulletin.
Make a Difference Podcasts, USA Culture Podcasts

Jed Mescon Podcast – Jewish in The South

Jed Mescon Jed Mescon is  a relationship builder, brand ambassador, dynamic speaker, creative thinker, persuasive communicator, veteran fundraiser, and community advocate. He is well known in Chattanooga having served as the host of the radio talk show Chewin the Chatt and as the morning news anchor for WRCB-TV.

Jed is a leader in the Jewish community of Chattanooga and serves on many nonprofit boards. He is passionate about connecting with people to find stories that need telling; creating ideas with the potential to spark change, and energizing the narrative to activate support for the greater good.

CLICK for Jed Mescon PODCAST

Black-Jewish Dialogue

Black-Jewish Dialogue – January 2022

Media and Community

Hear the online dialogue between two television / media experts discuss their ties to their respective communities, how they’re shaped by them, and how they report stories about them.
                               * Scroll down for the link. *

LaTriceLaTrice Currie  is a native Tennessean who  graduated from Hampton U. LaTrice joined Chattanooga’s Channel 3 Eyewitness News in 1995. She now co-anchors news at noon and 5:30 and also serves as Eye On Health Reporter and host of Trends on 3.

LaTrice’s awards include Chattanooga Woman of Distinction, Hamilton County Outstanding Citizen, Black Excellence Chattanooga “Best Media Personality,” Times Free Press “Best Chattanoogan, and NAACP Image Awards. She serves as ambassador for Go Red For Women and  on various boards:  Moccasin Bend Girl Scout Council, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Chattanooga, advisory board for Volunteers in Medicine, and Partnership for Families, Children, and Adults. 

Ilene Gould Ilene Gould is a photographer, writer, illustrator and full time news producer for NewsChannel9 in Chattanooga where she has produced every show from mornings, to dayside evening shows, to nightside. She also co-produced an hour long Town Hall called “Changing Chattanooga”. Ilene is a Michigan State Graduate with a degree in Media and Information, a concentration in Film and Video Production, and minors in Fiction Filmmaking and Music.

Ilene also works part-time as Community Manager at Better Sax, where saxophonist Jay Metcalf teaches and creates online lessons to learn to play the saxophone by ear.

CLICK TO HEAR DIALOGUE

Dialogue Partners:
American Diversity Report,  Chattanooga News Chronicle, Mizpah Congregation, Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga, C.U.R.B. – Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda

 

Make a Difference Podcasts

Rudy Ortega, Jr. Podcast: A Tribal Mission

Rudy Ortega Rudy J. Ortega, Jr. is the Tribal President of the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians. Rudy steers the continuing efforts of the Tribe’s missions of protecting the rights of Fernandeño Tataviam as Native American people and plays a supportive role with the Tribe’s non-profit, Pukúu Cultural Community Services (Pukúu) to provide community programs to Native Americans living in the Los Angeles County.

Hear Rudy speak about…

1. The First Peoples of northern Los Angeles County: the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians? (Tribal history)
2. Navigating our status as a State recognized tribe in one of the most densely populated metropolitan areas that are our homelands? (Tribal visibility, sovereignty, governance)
3. The challenge of federal recognition. How long has our Tribe been fighting for it and what does the process look like?

Visit their website to learn more:   www.tataviam-nsn.us.  

CLICK to hear PODCAST

Make a Difference Podcasts

Dr. Nagwan Zahry Podcast: Communicating DEI

NagwanDr. Nagwan R. Zahry is assistant professor of communication at U. of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC).  Originally from Egypt where she was a Sr. Program Manager for U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and U.S. Midwest Universities Consortium, Nagwan got her PhD from Michigan State U. in media and information.  After graduation, she became an assistant professor of communication and in 2018,  she joined UTC where she teaches social media marketing, public relations, media and diversity. Her research focuses on science communication, health communication and persuasive messaging.

Hear the discussion:
1- What are some of your research findings that surprised you?
2- would you elaborate more on your media and diversity course?
3- Does your research areas change overtime? If so, why?

And learn how to counteract scientists’ negative stereotypes as governors try to communicate empathy during Covid-19.

CLICK to hear Podcast

Editor’s Note: I am honored to be a frequent presenter at Dr. Zahry’s classes. Education is central to the future of DEI.
Zahry

Black-Jewish Dialogue

Black-Jewish Dialogue December 2021

Let there be music!

Be inspired! Hear these two creative souls who share a love of music from their respective religions.
Scroll down for the link to the recording.

music

 

Melvin Kindall Myles is a Mississippi native, born and raised in the Delta area of Clarksdale, MS; known as the birthplace of the blues. He is a Soulful Christian and Jazz Vocalist now based in Atlanta, GA where you will find him regularly serving in the Worship and Arts Ministry of the Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, the former pulpit of MLK Jr.

Rabbii

 

Rabbi Micah Lapidu works at The Alfred & Adele Davis Academy, a Reform Jewish Day School. He’s also a songwriter and composer of Jewish and spiritual music including four albums: Be a Blessing (2013), A Palace in Time (2015), Eit HaZamir (2016), and Menschology (2017). His music has been sung & performed at Jewish organizations around North America and Israel and in several churches including  Atlanta’s Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church.

CLICK to hear December Black-Jewish Dialogue

Dialogue Partners:
American Diversity Report,  Chattanooga News Chronicle, Mizpah Congregation, Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga, C.U.R.B. – Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda.

Black-Jewish Dialogue

Black-Jewish Dialogue November 2021

Black and Jewish

Welcome to the Black-Jewish Dialogue, a virtual exchange of information and perspectives . The November dialogue “Black and Jewish” has been recorded.  Scroll down for the link to the Dialogue recording.

Bryant  Bryant Heinzelman

Bryant is a veteran of the US Army, and a graduate of the Military Intelligence Cryptologic College of Corry Station, Pensacola. After a particularly difficult deployment to Iraq he shifted his focus from intelligence analysis to Jewish community building, interfaith outreach, and inclusion initiatives. Bryant is a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion consultant working primarily with North American Jewish organizations, a Jewish Educator, Teen Engagement Mentor, a 2018 Union for Reform Judaism Jew V’ Nation Fellow, and bluegrass hobbyist. Bryant is currently studying the “Intersections, Conflicts, and Alliances of the Black and Jewish Diasporas” at Western Washington University (in preparation for Rabbinic school), and resides in Bellingham, Washington.

Barbara Weitz  Dr. Barbara Weitz

Barbara is the former Director, Film Studies Certificate Program at Florida International University English Dept. She has done research for years with Dr. Tudor Parfitt and with the Kulanu Organization in identifying and supporting Isolated, Emerging and returning Jewish Communities around the world. She also has been on the steering committee of FCOS (Faith Communities Organizing for Sanctuary) and has spent time at our southern border trying to assist migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. She is currently heading up the organizing group preparing to help refugee Afghanis settle in the community. Through her research with Jews of Color, she has spoken at conferences and given webinars on the growing topic.

CLICK for DIALOGUE RECORDING

 

Dialogue Partners:
American Diversity Report,  Chattanooga News Chronicle, Mizpah Congregation, Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga, C.U.R.B. – Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda.

Make a Difference Podcasts

Angela McIver Podcast: Trapezium Math

Trapezium Math Real American Families

Angela McIver founded Trapezium Math,  an after-school math program after completed PhD at the U. of Pennsylvania with dissertation: Understanding the Numerical Reasoning of Middle School Students. She has interviewed children all over the country about their understanding of basic math concepts and develops math materials that are both engaging and confidence-building for young children. Trapezium provides ways to teach challenging math to very young children through Trapezium Math Club®, Trapezium Math at Home® and Trapezium Math for Schools®. Trapezium gives students, parents and teachers the tools they need to build fearless, confident math learners.

As part of their curriculum, Trapezium launched the Real American Families project to celebrate the country’s diversity, especially the many faces and lifestyles that define the modern American family.

Hear the discussion:

1. Why math education needs to change in America.
2. How families can help their own children build strong math foundations.
3. How important it is to include diverse representation in math education.
McIver

CLICK for Podcast

Workplace Strategies Podcasts

Sedruola Maruska Podcast: Social Justice

Social JusticeSedruola Maruska is an  Equity, Inclusion and Social Justice consultant focused on tapping into the power of individuals to transform companies and industries. Her areas of special interest include: Race & Ethnicity , Gender & Orientation, and Disability.

Hear the discussion:

1) That equity and inclusion need more focus than diversity
2) That individually we have the means to make a difference
3) Social justice is everyone’s problem not just the problem of a handful of people

CLICK to hear podcast