Christopher. Lafayette is an Emergent Technologist in medtech, virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, climate and applied sciences. He is a Silicon Valley national and international speaker, Thought Leader and Culture & Inclusion Advocate. He is the Founder of Black Technology Mentorship Program (BTMP)
Category Archives: Podcasts
Podcast interviews with movers & shakers and diverse innovators.
Dr. Janét Aizenstros Podcast: Global Social Entrepreneur
Dr. Janét Aizenstros is a signatory with the United Nations Business Action Hub (UNBAH) for the United Nations Global Compact Network. She is an award-winning businesswoman with several leadership awards such as the Top 40 under 40, a recipient of the 2020 WXN Canada’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneur Award: Top 100, the Stevie® Award winner for Female Entrepreneur of the Year Canada. She also received Employer Of The Year for Canadian Business which ranked her company 12th on Canadian Business ’s 2020 Growth List. Thus, she became the first Black Canadian woman in history to scale a 9-figure organization and sole female founder to be featured on the list.
Dr. Janét Aizenstros is also a member of the Young President’s Organization (YPO), a participant with Concordia Leadership Council and a Global Goodwill Ambassador for the Global Goodwill Ambassadors Foundation.
CLICK for interview of DR. JANET AIZENSTROS
You might also like to see Entrepreneurship Interview with Deborah Levine by Fatima Williams
Glynn Hodges Mastermind Coach: Discover your “Why”
Glynn Hodges is a certified Keynote Speaker, Coach and Teacher. and Executive Director at The John Maxwell Team. His story, which began in rural Georgia, is an international inspiration. He is the Former President/ Owner at ATS Staffing Services and Former Sales manager at Westinghouse. As a Coach and Motivational Speaker, Glynn helps people discover their “Why” the John Maxwell way. His mantra is Helping You To Be The Best You.
CLICK for interview with Glynn Hodges
Forest Harper: INROADS Closing Corporate DEI Gap
Forest T. Harper Jr. is the President and CEO of INROADS, the nation’s largest non-profit model of salaried corporate DEI internships and corporate and community leadership development for outstanding ethnically diverse talent at the pipeline and mid-career level.
This year marks 50 years for INROADS. Hear how the organization is important to corporate America’s landscape today and is proving effective in closing America’s Racial Wealth Gap. Understand how to execute diversity & inclusion strategies to accelerate organizations in today’s multicultural market. Harper shares how vital it is to establish talent pipeline development for attracting, recruiting and sustaining diverse talent as well as securing C-Suite alignment.
CLICK for INROADS podcast
Laurel Taylor: Student Debt Specialist
Laurel Taylor is the Founder and CEO of FutureFuel.io, a student loan repayment platform that uses innovative, technology driven solutions for customers to pay down student debt quickly and efficiently. Financial wellness and equal opportunities should go hand in hand, however, historically that’s not always the case. Regardless of one’s diverse background, financial literacy should be at the forefront of an overall healthy relationship with financial wellness. Laurel has used her own personal experiences with student debt as a catalyst to founding FutureFuel.io and dedicating her life to help those burdened with student debt.
CLICK to hear Laurel Taylor’s podcast interview
Dr. Zibin Guo: Tai Chi for Wellness
Dr. Zibin Guo: Professor of Medical Anthropology at University of Tennessee Chattanooga.
He specializes in teaching and conducting research in the field of medical anthropology. He employs an applied anthropological approach to study human beliefs and practices related to physical and mental health; and to develop innovative programs to promote populations’ well being in the context of cultural relativism:
• Wheelchair Tai Chi program.
• Bringing Wheelchair Tai Chi Chuan to the Paralympics
• Cross-culture dementia research
• Asian Americans’ health cultural adaptation in the United States.
CLICK for Dr. Guo’s Podcast Interview
For more information about Dr. Zibin Guo and his work, CLICK on these websites:
Appllied Tai Ji
Adaptive Tai Chi International
Tai Ji Community
Natasha Copeland: Award-winning NBC 4 Journalist
Natasha Copeland is an Emmy award winning journalist, with more than two decades of experience. She is a news assignment editor for NBC 4 in Washington, DC. Natasha develops, plans and fact checks daily breaking news, community -related news, and major local and national news. She has been the logistical lead for stories that include General Elections to live community events. Currently, most news coverage revolves around the Covid 19 pandemic.
Natasha’s focus is on The People in her private life as well as her media career. She and her husband, now retired from law enforcement, are community advocates and activists for the underserved.
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Editor’s Note: It was truly a pleasure interviewing Natasha whose compassion for the people she serves is matched by her perseverance in becoming a leader in an industry where there are few women of color. Now working from home given COVID-19, she maintains both her family and her NBC staff with grace and extraordinary skill. Dealing with the heart-breaking stories of the pandemic era, Natasha Copeland is an inspiration. She’s a reminder that media, like medical personnel, serve on our front lines.
CLICK for Video Recording/Podcast of Natasha Copeland’s interview
Charlie Buhler: Bi-Racial Film Director
Charlie Buhler is a film director who has been strongly influenced by her upbringing as a bi-racial woman growing up in a predominantly white area in South Dakota. Charlie uses her work to make sense of the dichotomy between how she experienced the world and how the world experienced her through the lenses of race and gender.
Hear her speak about her path to becoming a film director and the importance of representation on-screen. Be inspired by Charlie’s experience as a woman of color in the film industry.
CLICK for Interview with FILM DIRECTOR CHARLIE BUHLER
Dr. Elwood Watson: African American History
Dr. Elwood Watson is Professor of History and African American Studies at East Tennessee State University. His areas of specialty are in 20th Century Post World War II U.S. History, African American History, African American Studies, Gender Studies, Popular Culture, and ethnographic studies. He is one of the editors of Mentoring Faculty of Color: Essays on Professional Development and Advancement in Colleges and Universities. In addition, he is the recipient of the Faculty Teaching Award and Faculty Distinguished Research Award from the College of Arts & Science. See the review of his latest book, Keepin’ It Real: Essays on Race in Contemporary America.
CLICK to hear Elwood’s podcast
Kellie Wise: Inclusion in Financial Field
Kellie Wise is a Principal at Edward Jones, responsible for field-based Inclusion and Diversity. Kellie promotes the programs and policies that create financial advisor and branch team inclusion in the field including: Race, Ethnicity, Gender & Orientation