The Gap Minders

In this excellent episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in the studio by Kazeem Omidiji, theDirector of Community Relations at San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E). Kazeem talks about how his journey from Nigeria to the US impacted his life. He remembers how the middle school library turned into a haven where he discovered a love for reading, grew knowledgeable about global flags, and adapted to...

In this excellent episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in the studio by Dr. Maria Murray, Founder, President, and CEO of the Reading League. They discuss the mission and impact of The Reading League, a nonprofit focused on advancing the awareness, understanding, and use of evidence-aligned reading instruction, commonly referred to as the science of reading.  Maria emphasizes the significance of this...

In yet another excellent episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in the studio by John Thill, an author, a learning and development specialist, and a literacy advocate.  When we say author, we mean storyteller.  A story of love, family, California history and how families are made.  "A California Love Story" starts in the 1920s with John's grandparents, future husband and wife Ray and Dora and their 20...

In this excellent episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in the studio by Gregory Smith, the Chancellor of the San Diego Community College District . What a journey.  The feeling that Gregory Smith must have when he visits any of the four colleges within the District.  The feeling of once having been a community college student to now running four community colleges which serve over 90,000 San Diegans...

In this excellent episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in the studio by Allison Ohle, the Executive Director of the Diamond Educational Excellence Partnership (DEEP). Listen to Ohle talk about the efforts her group is making to raise the literacy rates in San Diego Unified's elementary schools. The three primary goals of Deep, also known as the Diamond Educational Excellence Partnership, are to supp...

In this excellent episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in the studio by children's book author RaShonne Darling who published the book, The Curl Girls: Every Curl is Magic. RaShonne was inspired to teach her daughter Olivia to value her natural curls since she wanted straight hair. Four curly-haired superheroes in the story empower Olivia by revealing the magical powers hidden within her curls. RaSh...

In yet another great episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in the studio by Dr. Ellen Neufeldt, the President of CSU San Marcos, one of the top universities in the country for social mobility.  To be more specific, Dr. Neufeldt leads a university ranked in the top 1% nationally in supporting students as they move up in life, change their own story arc, become role models for their families, all while...

In this excellent episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in the studio by Carrie Scott, a longtime champion of literacy and the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the San Diego County on Literacy.  And it all happened for Carrie somewhat serendipitously - she saw a sign looking for volunteers to help folks learn how to read and she decided to use the payphone and call them!  The rest is history....

In this excellent episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in the studio by Cheryl Morrow, a San Diego Community Activist, CEO of California Curls, and the Founder of the San Diego Monitor News Network. She talks about her varied pursuits and her opinions on social concerns. In fact, Cheryl's podcasts are all dedicated to dispelling falsehoods. She draws attention to the book "Imperial Leather," which e...

In this excellent episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in the studio by Zach Hebert, a friend with a unique educational and personal journey. Zach has a very high IQ even though he struggles greatly with reading and was diagnosed with ADHD later in life. He describes how these difficulties had an impact on his education and caused him to repeatedly drop out of high school and college. Zach overcame...

In this excellent episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in the studio by Adriana Brunner and Daniel Nagey from MyPoint Credit Union. The vice president of community and business development, Adriana, talks about how important financial literacy is as a life skill and shares her passion for it. She talks about her Colombian origins and how her volunteer work shaped her dedication to improving the San...

In this excellent episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in the studio by Alex Mazloom, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Mind Treasures The journey Alex took from Iran to create a special financial literacy program with spiritual underpinnings is covered in this episode. Despite Iran's lack of school libraries, Alex and his spouse were motivated to spread financial literacy. They combined financia...

In this excellent episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in the studio by Chase Peckham, the Director of Community Outreach at the San Diego Financial Literacy Center.  Learn about Chase's experience and observations around financial literacy. He reflects on his early experiences of being read to by his parents and how he later discovered his talent for storytelling when reading to his own kids. He th...

In this excellent episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in the studio by William York, the CEO and president of San Diego Health Connect, and 211 San Diego/Community Information Exchange. Hear William talk about the different groups and how they help the community.  William emphasizes how crucial these groups are to meeting the needs of the community, particularly in regards to social services and he...

In this excellent episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in the studio by Ivy Stein, an Impact Manager at the United Way of San Diego County. Learn about the importance of having a positive community effect, particularly in San Diego County where over one-third of households experience financial hardship. Ivy talks about the coalition that she oversees, emphasizing the significance of the Earned Incom...

In this excellent episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in the studio by Afira Devries, the President and CEO of the Monarch School Project. The Monarch School is the only public school in the US that serves only homeless pupils, offering kindergarten through high school education and support.  Afira talks about her experience working at the school, showing how it grew from a little one-room facility...

In this excellent episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in the studio by Jim Chilton, the CEO and founder of the Society for Financial Awareness (SOFA). Jim talks about the goal of SOFA, which is to educate people about money all around the country through online seminars and events. In addition to explaining his own experience and the reasons he founded the organization, he highlights the significan...

In this excellent episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in the studio by Carol Dedrich, the CEO of Girl Scouts San Diego, Carol Dedrich. Hear about Carol and the organization's illustrious past and goals of empowering young women. The Girl Scouts, an organization founded by Julia Gordon Lowe to encourage girls and women to be self-sufficient, have a long history of developing strong people. The progr...

This excellent episode features a riveting discussion between Nancy Sasaki, the CEO of United Way of San Diego County, and Jose Cruz, CEO of the San Diego Council on Literacy. Throughout this episode, Nancy and Jose reflect on their journey over the past 100 episodes, celebrating their milestones and reminiscing on their favorite moments. The discussion covers a wide range of subjects, including t...

In this milestone 100th episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in the studio by Tony Thurmond, the Superintendent of Public Instruction for the California Department of Education Listen in as Thurmond discusses his own reading history, crediting his mother's influence and his own upbringing for his early passion with comic books and biographies. He emphasizes the value of taking in knowledge from a va...

In this excellent episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in the studio by Dr. Eduardo Reyes, the Superintendent of the Chula Vista Elementary School District.  Dr. Eduardo Reyes offers insightful commentary on educational leadership, community involvement, and the critical role that literacy plays in influencing students' futures throughout the whole program. Listen as Dr. Reyes highlights how educati...

In this excellent episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in the studio by Dr. Ricky Shabazz, the president of San Diego City College. Listen as Dr. Shabazz talks about how artificial intelligence (AI) is affecting education, especially when it comes to content correctness and sentence form. This episode also discusses the significance of artificial intelligence (AI) in teaching critical thinking, as w...

In this excellent episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in the studio by Dr. Lydia Burgos, the Principal of J. Calvin Lauderbach Elementary. Take a listen as Dr. Burgos talks about how she went from wanting to be a teacher at a young age to being a principal throughout a 16-year career in education. Dr. Burgos' current school, Lauderbach Elementary offers a 50/50 bilingual curriculum and is a dual im...

In this excellent episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in the studio by Sonia Teder-Moore, the Children's Outreach and Event Coordinator at Warwick's Bookstore in La Jolla. Sonia highlights the value of independent bookshops in creating thriving communities by sharing her visit to Warwicks, the oldest family-run bookstore in the United States. The show also discusses Warwicks' participation in progr...

In this excellent episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in the studio by Austin Martin, the CEO of "Rhymes with Reason." Rhymes with Reason is an online application created to use song lyrics to teach vocabulary and improve literacy in pupils. Austin explains that while the app is the main focus, they also do workshops, build curricula, and engage in other activities to make it a whole programming ex...