Varying Viewpoints

In this episode of the Varying Viewpoints podcast series, we invited Ahira Smith, Grief Coach and Speaker, Founder of From Grief to Life, LLC. Ahira shares her background on becoming a grief coach and how her work differs from therapy, as grief coaches focus on the present rather than going backward. Ahira highlights that grief is more than someone who passed away; it is a relationship with a pers...

In this episode of the "Varying Viewpoints" podcast series, host Alice Ginsberg, Associate Director for Research and Grant Development, talked with Natalie Passov, the Assistant Director of Communication and Research at the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions. Natalie discusses best practices for MSIs for advertising and promoting registered apprenticeship programs to students. She em...

In this episode of the Varying Viewpoints podcast series, we invited Leah Lattimore, Forté’s Director of Undergraduate Programs. Leah shares her work with Forté Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to women, providing access to business education, career development, and more. Leah highlights their Undergraduate Woman of Color leadership symposium, an in-person conference with panels an...

In this episode of the Varying Viewpoints podcast, two of our Visiting Scholars, Joanna Jenkins – consultant and affiliate professor at St. Joseph’s University – and Natascha Saunders – certified career coach – discuss the importance of equity in career coaching. Joanna and Natascha take us through the challenges faced by young people, including family expectations and lack of support. Throughout...

In this episode of the Varying Viewpoints podcast series, two university presidents, St. Edward's University President Montserrat Fuentes and Huston-Tillotson University President and CEO Melva K. Wallace, share about their ongoing collaboration as university leaders and as close friends. When faced with a university housing crisis, Montserrat and Melva came together and partnered to address the i...

In this episode of the Varying Viewpoints podcast series, we invited John Silvanus Wilson Jr., author of Hope and Healing: Black Colleges and the Future of American Democracy and Visiting Lecturer at Morgan State University. John shares his background and higher education – having attended both Morehouse College and Harvard University. John emphasizes the need for higher education institutions to...

In this episode of the Varying Viewpoints podcast series, Anna-Kaye C. Rowe, the Assistant Director for Career and Employer Engagement at Ohio University invited Hayley Haywood, an equity-centered Solutionist & Identity-Conscious Coach to explore issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in career development and the need for identity-conscious career planning in higher education. Anna-Ka...

In this episode of the Varying Viewpoints podcast series, we invited Paul LeMahieu, Senior Advisor to the President at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Marisol Morales, Executive Director of the Carnegie Elective Classifications (CEC) at the American Council on Education to explore the Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement and its impact on community...

In this episode of the Varying Viewpoints podcast series, one of our Visiting Scholars, consultant, and affiliate professor at St. Joseph’s University Joanna L. Jenkins, discusses her new book Insecure, Awkward and #Winning. Her book offers a fertile space to investigate how contemporary issues intersect, encouraging audiences to contemplate meaning and impact within their own lives, society, and...

In this episode of the Varying Viewpoints podcast series, one of our John Smartt Summer Scholars, Morgan Beatty hosted an episode with Timothy Fong, an Ethnic Studies professor at California State University, Sacramento and Director and Principal Investigator of the Full Circle Project. They discuss the influence of research and teaching universities alike. With research universities focusing on r...

In this episode of the Varying Viewpoints podcast series, we invited Carla Ortega-Santori, Strategic Initiatives Manager at the Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University and Stefanie Johnson, Director at the Doerr Institute. In collaboration with the American Council on Education, they launched the Carnegie Elective Classification for Leadership for Public Purpose (CEC LPP). Throughout th...

In this episode of the Varying Viewpoints podcast series, we invited Ginger Allison, Director at Jobs for the Future (JFF) – working with the Center for Apprenticeship & Work-Based Learning. As part of our partnership with JFF, we dive into the long-standing disparities within Registered Apprenticeship (RA) programs across the country and how Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) can help bring tra...

In this episode of the Varying Viewpoints podcast series, guest host and Visiting Scholar Bianca Neal invited Shetay Ashford-Hanserd, Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Organization, Workforce, and Leadership Studies at Texas State University, to talk about her journey in impacting diversity and cultural wealth of STEM academics. Inspired and encouraged by the successful women in h...

In this episode of the Varying Viewpoints podcast series, guest host and Visiting Scholar Bianca Neal invited Raphael Travis, professor and the MSW Program Director at Texas State University in the School of Social Work, to talk about his research and practice in social work and public health for social minority communities. His work is rooted in bringing Hip Hop culture into academia. Raphael div...

In this episode of the Varying Viewpoints podcast series, we invited Morteza Mahmoudi, Assistant Professor of Radiology and Precision Health Program at Michigan State University and Co-Founder of the Academic Parity Movement, to speak with us about his work in academic bullying. Morteza tells us of his decision to co-create the Academic Parity Movement, as the organization attempts to create a pla...

In this episode of the “Varying Viewpoints” podcast, we invited Glennis Daniels Bacchus, ADA/higher education consultant, and Katherine C. Aquino, assistant professor at Saint John's University, to highlight their recent surveys on how Long COVID and COVID-related mental health challenges have been affecting students in higher education. The surveys also explored how disability service offices hav...

In this episode, we spoke with Camille Z. Charles, Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg, Professor in the Social Sciences in the Departments of Sociology and Africana Studies, at the University of Pennsylvania. Camille discusses her new book, Young, Gifted, & Diverse: Origins of the New Black Elite. Camille highlights diversity among the new educated Black elite—those graduating from America’s selec...

In this episode, Leah Hollis, Visiting Scholar at the Proctor Institute spoke with Raquel Muñiz, Assistant Professor at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College. Due to familial obligations, women often take jobs or proceed through their careers constrained by numerous responsibilities. Raquel shares her experience “inheriting” a large family during her J.D./Ph. D stud...

In this episode, we invited Ellen Schrecker, Professor Emerita of History at Yeshiva University, to discuss her new book: “The Lost Promise: American Universities in the 1960s.” Ellen provides an overview of higher education in the 1960s and how contemporary American higher education compares. She highlights the historical and social context of universities and their involvement in major historica...

In this episode, we invited Cassidy Puckett, assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Emory University and author of Redefining Geek: Bias and the Five Hidden Habits of Tech-Savvy Teens. Cassidy describes her research findings on digital equity and how these sexist, racist, and classist assumptions about “natural ability” and “natural differences” shape tech participation. She notes h...

In this episode, one of our 2022 John Smartt Summer Scholar interns, Lesley Rivas, spoke with Joseph Soares, Professor of Sociology at Wake Forest University. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic higher education institutions were forced to rethink their admissions processes, specifically in terms of standardized exams. As a result, many institutions adopted test-optional policies which has car...

In this episode, we invited Julie Wu, Maya Patel, and Alexis Vanderhoof to speak on the one major tactic used by students at college and university campuses across the country – action planning. Julie Wu is the Youth Programs Manager & Creative Design Lead at Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote). Maya Patel is a graduate student getting a master's in public policy at Harvard Kennedy S...

In this episode, Alicia Nani Reyes, a 2022 John Smartt Summer Scholar, spoke with Theresa Stewart Ambo, an assistant professor of educational studies at the University of California, San Diego. The majority of higher education institutions in the United States are settled on stolen Indigenous Land, which has led to those colleges and universities reckoning with their past in the form of land ackno...

In this episode we spoke with Deja Joi Brewster, Program Coordinator at Student Veterans of America (SVA). The conversation reflects on CMSI and SVA’s year-long partnership, which included podcast episodes and a robust social media campaign, how the partnership has benefitted student veterans at MSIs, and what SVA has planned next.

In this episode, Alexis Weatherspoon, a 2022 John Smart Summer Scholar intern, spoke with Ajamu Webster, a professional engineer and president of Du Bois Consultants. Ajamu started his own structural and civil engineering firm in 1988, and has volunteered countless hours to serve Black students and the Black community through his firm. With the majority of civic professionalism research focusing o...