Bending the Arc

This is the fifth episode in the podcast series Moving Toward Healing focused on the incredible work of ThirdSpace Action Lab, a racial equity consulting firm based in Cleveland. The series features seven episodes exploring the philosophy, strategies, and achievements of this extremely unique and innovative changemaking powerhouse.

In this episode we focus on a specific example of ThirdSpace magic with a deep dive on the monthlong celebration of Juneteenth this past summer that they called the Summer of Soul, with the theme Bet on Black. We’re joined by two of the ThirdSpace team members who had lead roles in bringing the Summer of Soul to life. 

Dr. Martha Potts (affectionately known as Dr. Bibi) left a career at the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority to pursue a doctorate in organizational behavior at Case Western Reserve University. Her research was conducted in Rwanda, Africa and focused on human systems transformation. She retired from a career in non-profit sector but then came out to retirement to join ThirdSpace Action Lab where she functions as the Awareness Building Manager. Her current interest is supporting and nurturing the multidimensionality of Black identities in an anti-Black society in which systems, institutions and policies built for disenfranchisement. 

Jenn Short is the Executive Coordinator at ThirdSpace Action Lab. Prior to joining ThirdSpace, she served as the Content Support Coordinator at Ideastream Public Media and as an Executive Assistant at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Drawing on a wealth of experience in administrative coordination and creative collaboration, Jenn is passionate about amplifying impactful projects and fostering meaningful change.

We are coming up on two years since we launched a period of reflecting, reimagining and recommitting at our center’s tenth anniversary. We are now fully into a major strategic pivot on our quest to promote place-based social transformation. We dedicate this episode to bring our listeners fully up to speed on the next chapter of our mission. To describe the details of our organizational pivot, I am joined by two colleagues who are helping us to bridge from our first decade of work and a third colleague who has recently joined to advance our new focus.

Debbie Wilber is our Associate Director at NIMC and a Research Associate at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western. Debbie serves both as our COO and as a leader of some of our project work. She’s been with us for five years.

Salin Geevarghese is the principal of his consulting firm SGG Insight and has been a constant collaborator with our center since 2016. He has helped lead our Mixed-Income Strategic Alliance work as well as our consultation with the Washington Housing Conservancy in D.C.

Laylah Allen joined us two months ago as our first ever Senior Community Builder on staff. She brings experience in community outreach, strategic partnerships, and youth mental health and wellness. She joined us from the Swetland Center for Environmental Health at Case Western.

This is the fourth episode in the podcast series Moving Toward Healing focused on the incredible work of ThirdSpace Action Lab, a racial equity consulting firm based in Cleveland. The series features six episodes exploring the philosophy, strategies, and achievements of this extremely unique and innovative changemaking powerhouse. In this episode we focus on the Space in ThirdSpace, liberated space that is. And, for the first time ever, we recorded on-site at a guest location. We were joined by three members of the team who lead the space cultivation and hosting in the ThirdSpace Reading Room and the Black Radical Imagination Bookstore.

Celia Williamson is the Community manager at the ThirdSpace Reading Room. Born and raised on Cleveland’s East Side, Celia moved to NYC after graduating from the University of Akron. While in NY, Celia worked in various fashion industry settings but spent 9 years at Brooks Brothers as a marketing stylist. A recent return to Cleveland has allowed Celia to join the team at the Reading Room while continuing to grow her interior design practice.

Harry Atwell is a native Clevelander, born and raised in Glenville in a multigenerational household by grandparents who moved here from West Virginia in 1950. Harry’s work experience varies across several industries, including graphic design and health care, including 17 years at Cleveland Clinic but he is most proud of the work he did during his two years as Community Manager and caregiver of ThirdSpace Reading Room. He stepped away from his position last year to pursue personal creative passions in residential interior design.

Sean Clark is the current Marketing Director for ThirdSpace Action Lab. A Cleveland transplant by way of Brooklyn, NY, and a graduate of Morehouse College, Sean has worked in marketing and advertising for the past 13 years after a brief stint as a union organizer with SEIU. He has worked to craft large-scale digital marketing campaigns for brands such as Microsoft, Samsung Electronics, Hennessey, Amazon, Marriott, and Vevo,

This is the third episode in the podcast series Moving Toward Healing focused on the incredible work of ThirdSpace Action Lab, a racial equity consulting firm based in Cleveland. The series features six episodes exploring the philosophy, strategies, and achievements of this extremely unique and innovative changemaking powerhouse. ThirdSpace Action Lab was launched five years ago and is based in the historically Black neighborhood of Glenville where they also have a café and bookstore. They describe their purpose as follows: “The future of this country’s neighborhoods depends on our collective efforts to transcend the limitations of the popular imagination.” They like to say, imagine if Parliament Funkadelic and McKinsey Consulting had a love child – that is ThirdSpace Action Lab – and they are poised to turn their call for radical imagination into reality. 

In this episode we focus on the ThirdSpace approach to antiracist community development.  Antiracism was at the core of the founding of ThirdSpace and their first major programming was a series of racial equity and inclusion workshops offered to the community development and nonprofit sector in Cleveland. With a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the ThirdSpace team conducted research and produced a report laying out principles and imperatives of antiracist community development. For this episode, we’re joined by the three members of the ThirdSpace team who lead the Peoples Practice, the hub for the organization’s focus on antiracist community development.

Monica Copeland is the Project Director of The People’s Practice at ThirdSpace Action Lab. Prior to working at ThirdSpace, Monica was the MDI Network Director at Inclusiv where she helped provide technical assistance and resources to help strengthen community development credit unions led by communities of color. She has also worked with several other financial empowerment and asset building organizations. She earned a dual B.A. in Sociology and African & African American Studies from Duke University and an M.S. in Social Work from Columbia University.

Curtis Minter, Jr. is the Senior Fellow of Community of Practice + Convenings at ThirdSpace Action Lab. He previously launched Talented Xth Consulting and served as Operations Director of The Well CDC in Akron, OH. He has more than a decade of experience working in the nonprofit sector and supporting coalition building.

Karis Tzeng is the Senior Fellow for Content + Research at ThirdSpace Action Lab. She has worked in community development for 10 years, including most recently as Vice President of Planning for MidTown Cleveland, where she led neighborhood planning and place building efforts in the MidTown and AsiaTown neighborhoods. She has a Bachelor of Arts in urban studies from the University of Pennsylvania and Masters of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Michigan.

This is the second episode in the podcast series Moving Toward Healing focused on the incredible work of ThirdSpace Action Lab, a racial equity consulting firm based in Cleveland. The series features six episodes exploring the philosophy, strategies, and achievements of this extremely unique and innovative changemaking powerhouse. ThirdSpace Action Lab was launched five years ago and is based in the historically Black neighborhood of Glenville where they also have a café and bookstore. They describe their purpose as follows: “The future of this country’s neighborhoods depends on our collective efforts to transcend the limitations of the popular imagination.” They like to say, imagine if Parliament Funkadelic and McKinsey Consulting had a love child – that is ThirdSpace Action Lab – and they are poised to turn their call for radical imagination into reality. 

In this episode we explore the ThirdSpace approach to community collaboration and we hear from four dynamic young leaders brimming with passion for the creative social impact they are engaged in every day. At ThirdSpace, they are bringing to life modes of collaboration that are boldly authentic and empowering for community members.

Dr. Sherrae Mack currently serves as a Senior Consultant with ThirdSpace Action Lab, drawing on her experience in areas of racial equity, anti-oppression, community engagement, intergenerational change, and community branding. She has a Ph.D. in African American and African Studies and a graduate certification in Urban Education from Michigan State University. Her B.A. is from Tennessee State University in Speech Communications.

Dr. Chavone Nash serves as the Project Director of the Partnership for Equitable + Resilient Communities with ThirdSpace Action Lab and also leads the Cleveland Freedom Dreams Coalition, which focuses on Housing, Civic Infrastructure, Equitable Democracy Building and Economic Development. She obtained her Doctorate in Education in Organizational Leadership and Policy at the University of Dayton and she holds a Master's in Urban Studies and Development from University of Akron and a Bachelor's in Political Science from Alabama A&M University. 

Tristen Hall is a Senior Consultant for Digital Media & Storytelling at ThirdSpace Action Lab. Tristen is currently a 4th year PhD candidate at Miami University in Ohio where her research explores how the social networks of students of color impact their attitudes on community and coalition building. Tristen has a Masters in Higher Education and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Cincinnati.

Evan Green is a Senior Consultant with ThirdSpace Action Lab deploying his experience from a career in higher education, with work focused on intercultural programming and fostering inclusive environments. Evan earned a Master of Arts in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary, specializing in Black Theology and Black Church Studies.

This episode launches a new podcast series Moving Toward Healing focused on the incredible work of ThirdSpace Action Lab, a racial equity consulting firm based in Cleveland. The series features six episodes exploring the philosophy, strategies, and achievements of this extremely unique and innovative changemaking powerhouse. ThirdSpace Action Lab was launched five years ago and is based in the historically Black neighborhood of Glenville where they also have a café and bookstore. They describe their purpose as follows: “The future of this country’s neighborhoods depends on our collective efforts to transcend the limitations of the popular imagination.” 

They like to say, imagine if Parliament Funkadelic and McKinsey Consulting had a love child – that is ThirdSpace Action Lab – and they are poised to turn their call for radical imagination into reality. 

We kick off this series with the two change warriors who kicked off the ThirdSpace journey. 

Evelyn Burnett is a co-founder and CEO of ThirdSpace Action Lab and Third Space Café. Her previous roles included Vice President for Economic Opportunity at Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, Associate Director for Program Strategies at Living Cities, and Project Director in the City of Cleveland’s Office of Sustainability. Evelyn holds a BA in Business and Organizational Communications and Public Relations and a master’s degree in Public Administration from The University of Akron.

Mordecai Cargill is a co-founder and Creative Director of ThirdSpace Action Lab and Third Space Café. Prior to launching ThirdSpace, he served as the Director of Strategy, Research and Impact at Cleveland Neighborhood Progress. Mordecai earned his BA in African American Studies from Yale University, with a concentration on Black Culture in the 20th Century.

This episode, recorded in early Fall 2024, completes our 10th Anniversary podcast series focused on revisiting some of our favorite reports from our first decade. In this episode, we took a lookback at our very first podcast episode which focused on the Future of Mixed-Income Policy and Practice, in which we introduced our edited volume What Works to Promote Inclusive and Equitable Mixed-Income Communities. My guest for that episode was the Research Director at our center, Dr. Amy Khare. Amy has been on leave from our center working on a book and she returned for this lookback episode with me. As a bonus, we also discuss a preview of her recently completed book manuscriptPoverty, Power and Profit: How Chicago’s Public Housing Reforms Reproduced Racial Inequality.

Amy’s career has combined social work, community development and racial justice. She was formally trained as a social worker at the University of Kansas and has her Ph.D. in social welfare from the University of Chicago. She has had professional roles working for community development corporations, real estate development agencies, social service agencies, policy institutes and university research centers. Amy has been a colleague and friend for almost 20 years and has done so much to shape our work at the National Initiative on Mixed-Income Communities.

This episode continues our 10th Anniversary podcast series focused on revisiting some of our favorite reports from our first decade. In this episode, our guest host Salin Geevarghese revisits our Promising Practices in Inclusive Social Dynamics report which spotlights exemplary efforts to build inclusive communities across lines of income, race and ethnicity. The lead authors of the paper are Joni Hirsh and Mark Joseph. In this episode, Salin talks with two deeply experienced mixed-income community builders who have been part of the exemplary transformation initiatives we spotlighted in the paper.

Ashlei Hurst is the Director of Community Life at Mercy Housing California, which a major development partner in the HOPE SF initiative in San Francisco. Mercy Housing is leading a multi-phase mixed-income transformation of the Sunnydale public housing community.

Julio Rigores is the Tenant Engagement System Manager at the Toronto Community Housing Corporation. TCHC has been co-leading the multi-phase transformation of the Regent Park social housing development.

For the final episode in our podcast series on grassroots community leadership we are joined once again by Mayor Michael R. White, the visionary and driving force behind the Neighborhood Leadership Development Program in Cleveland. Mayor White launched our series in Episode 22 with an overview of NLDP and in this episode he reflects on lessons learned and shares some of his aspirations for the future of the program.

Mayor White served the City of Cleveland for three terms from 1990 to 2002. He is currently the Senior Policy Advisor at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation and Program Director for NLDP. Prior to serving as Mayor, he held elected office as an Ohio State Senator and as a Cleveland City Councilman. 

This episode continues our series focused on impacting community change through grassroots community leadership. In this episode, we go behind the scenes to talk with the team of coaches who are a vital part of the secret sauce of the Neighborhood Leadership Development Program here in Cleveland. Every NLDP participant is assigned a personal coach. Participants meet regularly with their coach for mentoring and self-reflection and are encouraged to keep up the coaching relationship after they graduate from the program. 

The current lead coach is Pam Turos and her fellow coaches are Joe Black, Audra Jones and Ian Heisey.

Pam Turos oversees communications and marketing at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation. Before joining the Foundation, Pam was a communications consultant working with a variety of nonprofit clients. She has also held social service roles that include Director of Social Work, Bereavement Coordinator, and ICU/ER Case Manager.

Joseph Black is the Senior Program Officer for Place-Based Community and Economic Development at The Cleveland Foundation, overseeing neighborhood investments and Racial Equity and Racial Justice Initiatives. Joseph is also the driving force behind the "Reverse Ride Along," an innovative community engagement training program that has successfully empowered and educated over 500 law enforcement and medical professionals, aiming to redefine community/police relations and elevate public safety standards.

Audra Jones is the founder and CEO of Krystal Klear Communications, L.L.C., a full-service communications design firm. She is also the Co-Owner and COO of Pulmonary Apps, L.L.C. and has over 10 years serving in the healthcare industry.

Ian Heisey is an Audience Support Coordinator at Ideastream Public Media, the Cleveland affiliate of NPR and PBS. Ian spent the majority of his career at Jefferson-Puritas West Park CDC as Mediation Coordinator and later Director of Community Engagement. He worked for two years as Coordinator for Project Peacemakers, an ecumenical peace and justice non-profit in Winnipeg, Canada.

This episode continues our podcast series focused on impacting community change through grassroots community leadership. In this series, we are shining the spotlight on local everyday community leaders. In this episode we talk with three community leaders who share a passion for community gardening and healthy eating.

Veronica Walton is the Executive Director for Food Depot to Health, a non-profit established in 2018 that supports cohorts of growers to participate in urban agriculture as a resource to community businesses. Over a 30-year period, she has managed over 450 farmer’s markets and participated in hundreds of food-related health fairs and presentations to positively impact health outcomes for youth and adults in communities across our region. Erika Ervin-Acy is founder and CEO of “We Are Unique TV, LLC” and the nonprofit Gardening in the District. Gardening in the District teaches neighborhood residents that growing fruits and vegetables helps to set the foundation for self-sustainability and healthy living. Mikki Smith is the Executive Director of the Little Africa Food Collaborative, which educates the community about nutrition and sustainable food systems. She has certifications as a Master Rain Gardener and Master Aquaponics Instructor and is an active member of the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association, the National Black Food Justice Alliance, and the Black Farmers Conference.

This episode continues our podcast series focused on impacting community change through grassroots community leadership. In this series, we are shining the spotlight on local everyday community leaders. In this episode we talk with three community leaders who share a passion for developing programs to build skills among youth and adults.  

Steph Mukenyi Wahome has been a Program Manager for City Year in Detroit and helped start a Charter school in Washington D.C. She is currently the Regional Cleveland Coordinator for Scenarios USA and a professor at Cuyahoga Community College. Mary Kauffman describes herself as an artistic, bohemian-techy and promotes connections to resources and programming through the innovative use of technology. One of her projects is TechBOOM, a community-based program that provides technology instruction through an entertaining gaming format. Jonathan Steirer is passionate about housing, equitable neighborhood development, transit access, and facilitating relationships between community members. He is involved with the Cleveland Global Shapers, Big Brothers Big Sisters and is a block club leader.

This episode continues our podcast series focused on impacting community change through grassroots community leadership. In this series, we are shining the spotlight on local everyday community leaders. In this episode we talk with three community leaders who share a passion for promoting health and wellness.  

Quiana Howard has transitioned her career over the past decade from nail technician to Cardiovascular Health Equity Scientist. While pursuing her doctorate in nursing at Case Western Reserve University, Quiana also works full-time and leads community health clinics offering free cardiovascular risk screenings for low-income Cleveland residents. In 2016, Becca Britton founded Neighborhood Pets Outreach and Resource Center, a community-based non-profit focused on supporting low-income pet owners. Neighborhood Pets uses a dynamic intuitive model based on relationship and trust-building within the community. Sarah Murphy is a proud alumna and now one of the leaders of Edna House, a nonprofit that ensures access to safe, supportive substance abuse recovery programming and longer-term residential housing. She has a lead role at The Edna House Residence and Education Center.

This episode continues our podcast series focused on impacting community change through grassroots community leadership. In this series, we are shining the spotlight on local everyday community leaders. Each of the leaders we will talk to are graduates of the innovative Neighborhood Leadership Development Program in Cleveland. Today we will be talking with three community leaders whose passion is helping youth and families to thrive: Letitia Lopez, Dennis Knowles, and Tonya Perkins Stoudemire.

Letitia Lopez is now the Executive Director of the Julia De Burgos Cultural Arts Center which is dedicated to transforming lives by preserving, educating and promoting Latino heritage through the teaching and practice of the visual, performing and literary arts. Dennis Knowles founded The Fishing Foundation in 2010 which aims to enrich youth’s lives through fishing by offering training and education on casting, water safety and conservation in a safe and secure environment with nurturing adults. Tonya Perkins Stoudemire founded Bessie’s Place in 2012, a facility that provides affordable housing for young women aging out of foster care and offers them a safe haven and life skills for leadership and career development.

This episode continues our podcast series focused on impacting community change through grassroots community leadership. In this series, we are shining the spotlight on local everyday community leaders. Each of the leaders we will talk to are graduates of the innovative Neighborhood Leadership Development Program in Cleveland. Today we will be talking with three community leaders whose passion is cultivating connections and partnerships among community members: Bridgette Smith-Jackson, Diana Sette and Josh Jones Forbes. 

Bridgette Smith-Jackson has spent much of her career at Vesta Corporation developing resident services for the families of Rainbow Terrace Apartments and the neighboring community. She is committed to working with families to address challenges and eliminate barriers by fostering community partnerships and developing non-traditional collaborations with existing organizations. Diana Sette has extensive experience in social and environmental justice work, from working with a radical political puppet troupe and numerous direct action projects focused on supporting communities, especially youth, and climate justice. She co-founded the Possibilitarian Garden, a community garden that has served as a resource incorporating educational workshops, art and culture events, ecological agriculture, and anti-racist activism. Josh Jones Forbes works as Director of Communications at Northwest Neighborhoods CDC, the nonprofit provider of affordable housing and community development services for Cleveland's Cudell, Detroit Shoreway, and Edgewater communities. Josh is also passionate about LGBTQ+ activism, racial justice, public transit, environmental sustainability, arts, and personal wellness, and he is the founder of a community-based fitness studio.

This episode launches a new podcast series focused on impacting community change through grassroots community leadership. In this series, we will shine the spotlight on local everyday community leaders. Each of the leaders we will talk to are graduates of the innovative Neighborhood Leadership Development Program in Cleveland. In this episode, to kick off the series, I’m joined by Mayor Michael R. White, who served the City of Cleveland for three terms from 1990 to 2002, and is the visionary and driving force behind NLDP. Mayor White is currently the Senior Policy Advisor at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation and Program Director for NLDP. Prior to serving as Mayor, he held elected office as an Ohio State Senator and as Cleveland City Councilman. There is no more passionate advocate for cultivating the community change power of everyday home-grown leaders here in Cleveland than Michael White.

Where to next in the quest for urban equity and inclusion? This episode returns to focus on our journey as an impact research center. In November 2023, the National Initiative on Mixed-Income Communities celebrated our 10th anniversary and kicked off a year of reflection, recommitment, and reimagining. In this episode I am joined by three of our longtime collaborators who are working closely with us to help shape our plans for our next decade. Dr. Alyssa Nickell is a Senior Research Associate with our center based in Chicago, Salin Geevarghese is Principal of the consulting firm SGG Insight based in the DC area, and Frankie Blackburn co-leads the community network-building firm Trusted Space Partners, based in North Carolina. We have an energizing conversation about what we’ve learned from our first decade of research and consulting and what pivots we’d like to make as we head into our second decade.

In this episode we conclude our special series focused on Urban Strategies, Inc., a national non-profit that exemplifies the quest for urban equity and inclusion. Urban Strategies works with more than 30,000 low- to moderate-income families in 31 communities across 24 major metropolitan areas. We welcome Esther Shin, President and CEO of USI, back to the podcast, and invite her to share her list of housing and social policies that are counterproductive in the quest to help marginalized households on their quest for economic mobility. She describes several problematic policies and indicates the changes that USI would recommend to provide better incentives and support and achieve greater impact.

We continue our special series focused on Urban Strategies, Inc., a national non-profit that exemplifies the quest for urban equity and inclusion. Urban Strategies works with more than 30,000 low- to moderate-income families in 31 communities across 24 major metropolitan areas. In this episode, we talk about the importance of not only aiming to increase incomes for marginalized households but to also promote wealth creation. I talk with Donovan Duncan, the Executive Vice President of Urban Strategies, and Kristie Stutler, the Vice President of Policy and Influence at USI. We discuss how USI defines “wealth,” what it means to center wealth-building in place-based initiatives, and implications for systems change and measuring results.

We continue our special series focused on Urban Strategies, Inc., a national non-profit that exemplifies the quest for urban equity and inclusion. Urban Strategies works with more than 30,000 low- to moderate-income families in 31 communities across 24 major metropolitan areas. In this episode, we talk about promoting housing and economic justice, the Urban Strategies way. I talk with Alicia Walter, Regional Vice President at USI and Ta’Londa Holland, Senior Director of Operations of Policy and Influence for USI. We delve deeply into USI’s experience leveraging place-based redevelopment initiatives as a platform to change families’ lives and advance broader systems change.

We continue our special series focused on Urban Strategies, Inc., a national non-profit that exemplifies the quest for urban equity and inclusion. Urban Strategies works with more than 30,000 low- to moderate-income families in 31 communities across 24 major metropolitan areas. In this episode I talk with Richard Baron, board chair of USI, Michael Bowen, USI board member, and Esther Shin, President and CEO of USI. We discuss the enhancements and re-release of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule by the Biden Administration and its promise and limitations. We consider housing as a platform for building household wealth and changing the trajectories of neighborhoods.

This episode kicks off a special series focused on Urban Strategies, Inc., a national non-profit that exemplifies the quest for urban equity and inclusion. Urban Strategies serves as a social impact partner in neighborhoods across the country that are undergoing a physical revitalization. USI designs and implements place-based human capital strategies to ensure that all families impacted by neighborhood redevelopment are stable and thriving.

Founded in 1978, and based in St. Louis, Missouri, USI stands out for the longevity, scale and depth of its national and local engagement and influence. Today Urban Strategies works with more than 30,000 low- to moderate-income families in 41 communities across 24 major metropolitan areas. Led by executives of color and staffed largely by people of color, USI is also exemplary for its explicit commitment to disrupting structurally racist practices and policies.

This kickoff episode focuses on USI’s origin story. I talk with Erika Wilson, Vice President of Marketing and Communications for USI, and Marlene Hodges, Assistant Project Manager of USI’s community initiatives in St. Louis. Both have been with USI for several years and have progressively moved into increasingly levels of leadership with the organization. They provide an in-depth perspective on the evolution of USI and what makes it unique in the community development field.

This episode explores the backstory behind the university research center that created and delivers these podcasts, the National Initiative on Mixed-Income Communities, based at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Time to give our listeners a glimpse into who we are and what we do. Colette Ngana is the guest host for this episode. She is a doctoral fellow with NIMC and is wrapping up her doctoral degree in sociology at Case Western. The guests for this episode are Mark Joseph, Founding Director of NIMC and the Leona Bevis and Marguerite Haynam Professor of Community Development at the Jack, Joseph and Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Debbie Wilber, Associate Director at NIMC and a Research Associate at the Mandel School, and Salin Geevarghese, President and CEO of SGG Insight and long-time collaborator with NIMC.

Mark is the co-host of Bending the Arc and founded NIMC almost ten years ago. Debbie has been with NIMC over three years and serves in part in a chief of staff operations role and in part as a leader on NIMC projects. Salin Geevarghese has been working as a close-in consultant with NIMC for almost seven years since he wrapped up his stint as a senior official in the Obama Administration. 

In this episode we talk with Dr. Ed Goetz, director of the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs and a faculty member at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. Ed co-authored an essay for the What Works volume with Anthony Damiano and Rashad Williams. Their critique is focused on why promoting economic advancement for low-income African Americans and other people of color often means having to leave their neighborhood and move to a “opportunity neighborhood.” They argue against a dominant focus on resident mobility to address segregation and marginalization and they advocate for a community development focus which would prioritize enabling low-income families of color to thrive in place.

Ed is the author of four books: The One-Way Street of Integration: Fair Housing and the Pursuit of Racial Justice in American Cities, New Deal Ruins: Race, Economic Justice, and Public Housing Policy, Clearing the Way: Deconcentrating the Poor in Urban America, and Shelter Burden: Local Politics and Progressive Housing Policy. Ed has served on the board of directors of nonprofit housing agencies in the Twin Cities, and on several regional commissions related to affordable housing and development. Early in his career, he worked at the Mayor's Office of Housing and Economic Development in San Francisco and for several nonprofit community developers in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Conversations with Ed are always lively and thought-provoking and this one is no exception. I

This episode is the first time we’ve explored in-depth the inner workings of one neighborhood as it transitions to a more socially and economically mixed community. Our guests, Matthew Martin and LC Johnson, are residents and change agents in Weinland Park in Columbus Ohio, a neighborhood that has been on a mixed-income journey for the last 20 years. Weinland Park is experiencing a complete revitalization from decades of neglect and disinvestment to now being one of the most intentionally cultivated mixed-income neighborhoods in the country. Matt Martin is the Director of Community Research at the Columbus Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation, Matt was a Senior Researcher at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University. Matt has a Masters of City and Regional Planning from Ohio State, and a Bachelor of Science in Urban Affairs from Wright State University. Along with his co-authors Kip Holley and Steve Sterrett, he contributed an essay on Weinland Park to our What Works edited volume on inclusive and equitable community building. LC Johnson is the visionary and social entrepreneur behind Zora’s House, a coworking space and leadership incubator based in Weinland Park that centers the creativity, leadership, and activism of women and non-binary people of color. Most recently, LC served as the Local Director of Community Entrepreneurship for Forward Cities in the Columbus area. LC has a B.A. in Women's Studies and Sociology from Duke University.

In this episode I talk with Bethany Friel, Vice President of Property Operations at the TREK Development Group real estate company which has properties throughout the Greater Pittsburgh Region. Our center and our partners have been working with Trek for over five years now and we’ve been eager to feature them on the podcast as a stellar example of a company working hard to strengthen its ability to promote thriving mixed-income communities. Bethany has a fascinating perspective on mixed-income development having worked her way into senior leadership at TREK through several roles in the company. She joined TREK in 2014 as the Supportive Services Coordinator and she has led the company’s community engagement initiatives and developed their approach to resident services. Most recently she completed the operational task of integrating resident services and property management divisions. Bethany is a proud alum of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland – she has her Master's in Social Science Administration from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences where our impact research center is based.

In this episode we talk with Dr. Bryan Grady and Carlie Boos on the topic of how state finance agencies can play a more innovative role in promoting mixed-income housing and mixed-income communities. Many of us have never thought much about the wide latitude and extensive tools that state housing finance agencies have to shape affordable housing policy and investment. Bryan and Carlie’s incredibly informative and compelling essay makes a strong argument that there are existing resources at the state level that could be used much more effectively and creatively. Both Bryan and Carlie have rich experience in housing policy and as you’ll hear, they worked closely together to help advance some innovative strategies when they both worked at the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, Bryan in a research role and Carlie in a policy design and implementation role. Bryan currently serves as the Labor Market Information Director for the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce. Prior to that, he was Chief Research Officer at the South Carolina State Housing Finance and Development Authority for three years. Carlie is currently the Executive Director of the Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio. Prior to that she served as Community & Economic Development Counsel at the Legal Aid Society of Columbus.

In this episode we talk with Dr. JaNay Queen Nazaire, a national leader on creating wealth and wellbeing for people of color, with a particular focus on Black communities. Dr. Queen Nazaire currently serves as a Senior Advisor for PSG and as a Senior Fellow at PolicyLink. She is the co-founder of Black Gravity, a collaborative focused on closing the racial wealth gap, and co-founder of Builder’s & Benefactors, a community of Black private equity and venture capital investors. Dr. Queen Nazaire wrote one of the closing essays in our What Works volume on mixed-income communities. She used her essay to introduce the person-role-system framework as a tool for promoting racial equity. We talk about practical ways to turn racial equity intentions and goodwill into actual everyday actions.

In this episode we talk with Dr. Tiffany Manuel, President and CEO of TheCaseMade, a strategic consulting firm that helps leaders build the public will to intentionally tackle the issues of systems change, equity and inclusion. Dr. T, as she prefers to be called, authored an essay for the What Works Volume that argues that strategic casemaking is critical for how we engage public audiences about poverty, place and race. In our conversation we explore specific examples of shaping public narratives that engage people across different identities, backgrounds, and geographies.

In this episode we talk with Dr. Akira Drake Rodriguez, Assistant Professor at the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania and Research Affiliate with the National Initiative of Mixed-Income Communities. Dr. Rodriguez co-authored as essay for the What Works Volume with Majeedah Rashid that applies a Black feminist lens to the issue of mixed-income community development. In our conversation we examine the tension between community development and community organizing and Dr. Drake Rodriguez introduces us to the notion of Black feminist-centered organizing as an approach to navigating this tension. She describes the specific case of Nicetown CDC on the north side of Philadelphia as a case of Black feminist-centered community organizing in action.

In this episode we talk with Frankie Blackburn and Bill Traynor of Trusted Space Partners, a consulting firm they created in 2011 to promote what they call community network building, a highly effective way to strengthen relationships and build social support across lines of difference. They work with resident leaders, real estate executives, property managers, service providers and others to design and advance creative approaches to shift the operating culture in organizations and neighborhoods. In this conversation, they talk about the community building philosophy and techniques that they have been deploying in mixed-income development efforts around the country. They provide specific examples from their work with the Trek Development real estate company in Pittsburgh.

In this episode we talk with Salin Geevarghese, President & CEO of SGG Insight and Founding Director of the Mixed-Income Strategic Alliance. Salin served for most of the two terms of the Obama Administration as a senior leader in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. His perspective on promoting comprehensive community change is particularly interesting given his wide-ranging professional experience across the corporate, philanthropic and public sectors. We recorded this conversation as the Biden-Harris transition team is deep into its preparations to take office, so Salin’s perspectives on lessons learned from the Obama Administration’s efforts to advance place-based strategies are particularly timely. We discuss his lessons learned about advancing place-based efforts in a more cross-silo, cross-sector and cross-jurisdictional way. We also touch on his perspectives, as an Indian-American, about advancing racial equity in the U.S., given how this topic can often be framed as a Black-White issue.

In this episode we talk with Dr. Clinton Boyd, Jr., a Postdoctoral Associate at the Samuel Dubois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University. Dr. Boyd is a rising young scholar who is building an expertise on the subject of black fathers. In our conversation we touch on a wide range of topics including our personal journeys as Black fathers, the undervaluing of Black men in general versus the idolizing of Black male athletes and entertainers, and what Clinton has learned from his research, including the Dads2Kids home visiting project. Clinton and Dr. Deirdre Oakley of Georgia State University co-authored an essay for the What Works volume on the role of Black fathers in mixed-income communities.

In this episode we talk with Hans Buder, founder of the Moving to Opportunity Fund, an innovative social investment fund with a focus on changing the lives of young children by helping their families move to neighborhoods with high-performing schools. Hans has been an elementary school teacher with Teach for America, an investment banker, and has worked for a large affordable housing developer. The MTO Fund has a double bottom line mission of putting kids from low-income households on a path to college and delivering market-rate returns for mainstream investors. Hans’ vision is for the Fund to ultimately impact thousands of low-income families without any government financing. The Fund recently purchased its pilot inclusionary property in Dallas.

In this episode we talk with Ben Metcalf, former senior official at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Director of the California Department of Housing and Community Development, and now Managing Director at the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California Berkeley. In his essay entitled “California For All: How State Action Can Foster Inclusive Mixed-Income Communities,” Metcalf wrote about how he and his team worked with Governors Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom to pass legislation and create programs to reduce barriers to creating affordable housing in high resource communities. In this conversation we hear about the innovations implemented on his watch and his lessons learned.

In the first episode of Bending The Arc we kick things off with a conversation with Dr. Amy Khare, the Research Director at the National Initiative on Mixed-Income Communities. We explore the challenges and opportunities of creating more inclusive and equitable neighborhoods. We review some of the insights and ideas from the volume of essays on mixed-income communities we have co-edited together.