Power Station

We want to believe that all children in America, from birth through high school, are  equally positioned to learn, dream, and thrive. The reality, which is well-documented through unassailable data collected by Kids Count, a national initiative funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, is starkly different. As Kimberly Perry, executive director of DC Action says on this episode of Power Station, the input into our children isn’t equal so the outcome isn’t going to be equal. A failure to invest in quality childcare, public schools and out-of-school resources in Black and Brown communities is a direct result of public policies rooted in racism, leaving a legacy of discrimination that is embedded in our public systems. DC Action is dissecting these systems to better understand what is working and where change is needed. It works with parents and young people to create policy solutions and push for their passage into law by the DC Council and Mayor. DC Action is both a resource to lawmakers and a formidable advoca

The data tells the story: In the United States, 44 million people, including 1 in 5 children are food insecure, lacking the food and nutrition needed to thrive. This population includes not only individuals and families living in poverty and experiencing homelessness; it also extends to our employed neighbors, family members and the co-worker in the next cubicle. Until our national leaders fully invest in policy solutions that lift families out of poverty and make our transportation, health, and housing systems more equitable, hunger will persist. In fact, as L. Ron Pringle, President and CEO of Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, a North Carolina based nonprofit, explains on this episode of Power Station, the hardest part of his job is trying to convince people, from policymakers to corporate leaders, that hunger is a real issue. At the Food Shuttle, Ron and his team have created an eco-system of programs that feed people in need today while advocating for the elimination of hunger tomorrow. Feeding, teaching, growing

Facts matter. Data eclipses narratives steeped in bias, providing the foundation for policy solutions to economic inequities. At the Brookings Institution, a preeminent global think tank, scholars conduct research, generate data, and share knowledge for the purpose of improving policy and governance in America and around the world. That includes Senior Fellow Dr. Andre M. Perry whose research focuses on the value of assets, from homes to businesses and infrastructure, in American Black majority cities. His work exposes a devastating devaluation of assets, an underpricing of homes by 23%, robbing Black communities of some $156 billion in lost equity. As he shares in our conversation and in his tremendously important book: Know Your Price, Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities, these dollars could have financed millions of businesses, college educations, replaced water pipers in Flint, Michigan and more. His book bring policy to life by following his own trajectory as an infant raised by El

When Darryl Maxwell explains, on this episode of Power Station, that I in 7 Washingtonians are lawyers, I am taken aback. Yes, the federal government is our largest employer and many law firms are headquartered here but the abundance of expertise does not make access to justice equitable for all. The DC Bar Pro Bono Center exists to galvanize the legal community, from law firms to the Department of Justice, as volunteers, providing civil legal services to low-income people facing eviction, immigration challenges, child custody disputes, and denials of public benefits. It does the same for nonprofit organizations, a critical sector here, and small businesses striving to operate with limited resources in a regulated marketplace. As Director of Nonprofit and Small Business Legal Assistance, Darryl was my lifeline while establishing Power Station as an LLC. As he points out, supporting the legal needs of nonprofits that advocate for DC residents is another access to justice touchpoint. The same is true for small

Every person has a story to tell and the same is true for organizations founded by local leaders to tackle inequities in their communities. In Power Station’s first episode of 2024, the remarkable Lynn French shares both her own origin story and that of Hope and a Home, the changemaking nonprofit she leads. Her personal journey started in segregated Washington, DC where she grew up in a family of educators and civil rights activists who embraced the ethos of standing up for what is right. During her tenure in city government, Lynn pushed bureaucratic boundaries to bring equitable community development to Washington DC. She drafted the Homestead Preservation Act, allowing nonprofits to reclaim abandoned homes for families locked out of the housing market. When she retired from government, she was asked to lead Home and a Home, a nonprofit that emerged from the closure of Junior Village, an orphanage that systemically abused vulnerable children and families. Now Lynn French strengthens families by providing sta

On this 300th episode of Power Station, I am joined by my friend and colleague John Holdsclaw. Over the twenty plus years I have known John he has excelled as an organizer, public policy advocate, and leader in financial services that deepen racial and economic equity in under-resourced Black, Latino, Indigenous and AAPI communities. John launched Rochdale Capital, an emerging CDFI, with its strategic partner, National Cooperative Bank, to provide capital to enterprises, from affordable housing to health centers and grocery stores, structured as cooperatives and other forms of shared ownership. He views CDFIs not as an industry but as a movement that uplifts communities traditional banks have failed to serve. Take Rochdale’s investment in a line of credit for All-In Groceries, a store that was 58 years in the making in Waterloo, Iowa’s East Side, a neighborhood marginalized by decades of redlining and racism. This is the community and life-changing work that motivates Rochdale Capital’s fully engaged staff an

At a time when even faith is politicized it is essential to our nation that the national nonprofit Faith in Public Life persists. It is a safe space for leaders from diverse faith traditions to find common ground and speak out in support of a more just democracy. For almost 20 years FIPL has spoken up for equity and inclusion as champions of LGBTQ equality, immigration rights and strategies for reducing gun violence. Its focus now is on safeguarding voters and election administrators and all who participate in civil life from political violence. And it is supporting the right of all people to comprehensive reproductive healthcare. In this episode of Power Station, Faith in Public Life CEO Jeanné Lewis shares how she is driven by her own faith and a passion for empowering those who have not experienced the confidence and agency needed to act and lead. She further lives her values as a member-owner of Community Grocery Cooperative, a new economic model for bringing groceries to Washington DC’s under-resourced W

If you were to construct an organization with the capability to move bold public policy forward it would have to look like the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC). It starts with a critical mission, to ensure decent and affordable housing for lowest income renters. The fact that 7.3 million Americans experience extremely low incomes, or put another way, that this nation has available and affordable housing for only 33 of every 100 extremely low income households has challenged NLIHC to create an infrastructure that optimizes its reach and impact. Opportunity Starts at Home (OSAH) is one such initiative, launched in 2018 to make affordable housing champions out of leaders from the civil rights, education,’ and health sectors. On this episode of Power Station, Chantelle Wilkinson, OSAH’s exceptional National Campaign Director, tells a powerful story about the national partners, from the NAACP to UnidosUS and the National Education Association that are embracing housing advocacy and elevating affordabl

A conversation with Steve Storkan is an education in the potential of employee ownership to build community, family, and intergenerational wealth. His passion for building a better future for workers was shaped by seeing his own father work multiple jobs to cover a mortgage. He knew that a strong work ethic is not a substitute for the assets needed to ensure a secure life and a viable retirement. When Steve became a certified financial planner, he introduced business owners whose families were not prepared to continue their legacy to the Employee Stock Ownership Plan, a retirement plan that allows employees to purchase a company from the selling shareholders. As founder and Executive Director of the Employee Ownership Expansion Network, Steve advances the mission of worker ownership through the creation of state-based centers. They are a resource for business owners to learn about this formula for wealth transfer and for new businesses to begin their journey as worker owned cooperatives. This episode of Power

There’s more to Capitol Hill than elbow jabs between elected officials and performative press conferences. Every day, members of Congress who take public service seriously take on our most consequential social and economic challenges. Pull the curtain back further and you will see nonprofit leaders who bring shared values, expertise, policy solutions to these decision makers. On this episode of Power Station, Eric Mitchell, President of the Alliance to End Hunger, shares his organizational strategies for tackling hunger at home and across the globe. It starts with building a powerful coalition of leaders from the corporate, faith-based, NGO, agricultural and academic sectors who are unified in their support for anti-hunger and anti-poverty policies and investments. Their work is vital to the futures of the 44 million Americans and 780 million people globally who experience hunger. Right now, the Alliance is laser-focused on modernizing the Special Supplemental Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), a

We are in a moment of conflicting expectations about the workplace. Blurred lines between work and personal time, toxic behaviors, including discrimination have long been pervasive in the workplace. The pandemic made working from home possible for a segment of the population and many are resisting a return to the physical workplace. The question of what makes a workplace desirable, however, goes far deeper than the work from home debate. In this episode of Power Station, Mo Edjlali shares his journey from tech entrepreneur to nonprofit leader with a mindfulness mission. Mo relates what happened when his company imploded, and he confronted his role in its ending. The hyper aggressive approach that he equated with success had in fact hurt others and fostered an unhealthy environment. He stumbled upon and then dove into the practice of meditation and learned, despite his skepticism, that focusing on his breath could change the way he perceived reality. He created Mindful Leader to enable people to foster mindful

It takes exceptional people and organizations to solve our nation’s purportedly intractable problems. In this episode of Power Station, Marta Urquilla, who has led social justice initiatives in community groups and the White House, shares how the pioneering organization she leads, the Centri Tech Foundation takes a housing centered approach to bridging our nation’s digital divide, the deep gulf between those with access to the internet and those without. The need for digital access spans from urban centers to rural regions, and Indian Country, where infrastructure cannot deliver water or electricity, let alone broadband service. This reality sidelined millions of children from participation in online schooling and their parents from accessing vital information during the pandemic. Centri Tech Foundation partners with nonprofit affordable housing developers to embed connectivity to residents’ homes and guide them along a pathway to economic opportunity. It measures the state of digital access and provides a bl

This may sound unconvincing coming from someone who speaks into a microphone every week, but I don’t love talking about myself. What I do love is speaking with and amplifying the voices of those who confront and generate solutions to injustice in America. They are leaders of nonprofit organizations who use their values, know-how and expertise to bring capital to under-resourced communities, compel Congress to fund housing for lowest-income renters, educate the children of farmworkers; the list of accomplishments goes on. In this episode of Power Station, my friend and producer Robb Spewak asks about the illegal eviction that displaced me from a gentrifying block in Brooklyn and propelled me into a lifetime of organizing, policy advocacy and nonprofit leadership. We talk about how the best (in my opinion) nonprofits are those that build community power and press state legislatures and Congress to enact legislation rooted in racial equity. And I share my personal run-ins with sexism in nonprofits, which, along

When Liz O’Donnell, a first-grade teacher in Washington DC, arrived at the hospital to give birth she could not have imagined that she would leave without baby Aaliyah or the resources she needed to recover. She had experienced a change in fetal movements a few weeks before and did not realize, after an easy pregnancy, the urgency of her situation. The nurse could not detect a fetal heartbeat and Liz delivered her daughter, a stillbirth. In this episode of Power Station, Liz shares how she founded Aaliyah in Action to help families impacted by perinatal and neonatal loss grieve and to advocate for the recognition of stillbirths as a public health imperative. She partners with over 40 hospitals to provide care packages to women at their most vulnerable time. And when her employer, the DC Public School system, denied her paid leave she pushed back and won the inclusion of stillbirth in the District’s Paid Family Leave and Family Bereavement Acts. Liz is deepening her engagement in the public health sphere, expl

Rajiv Vinnakota, president of the Institute for Citizens and Scholars, is testing a hypothesis. He wants to know whether the right interventions, from mentorship to education and opportunities for putting ideas into action will yield effective citizens, young people with the will and capacity to strengthen our embattled democracy. The Institute’s recent survey of 18-24 year old’s reveals an alarming lack of understanding about civics and also that they are not particularly ideologically driven or party aligned. They care about the state of their communities and the world, are open to people with different points of view and are looking for people and institutions that are ready to get the work done. Building great citizens is a shift for what was founded in 1945 as the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. Its mission, to build a pipeline of college professors to educate returning G.I.’s, grew into what is now a remarkable fellowship of 27,000 scholars, innovators, and artists. Now rebranded as the I

  Small community based nonprofits are some of the most powerful change agents in America. They solve for inequities in education, childcare, mental health, and other needs in communities that have been marginalized by racism, discrimination, and poverty. These nonprofits are underestimated by national foundations and their accomplishments are underreported by the media. In this episode of Power Station, Gretchen Van der Veer explains how Fair Chance, the organization she leads, partners with small community based nonprofits in Washington DC, whose budgets are often less than $500,000, to strengthen their sustainability and impact. It has flipped the conventional model of capacity building, which imposes fixes to perceived deficiencies and instead partners with groups to create a plan for reinforcing their organizational systems, from fundraising to board development and financial management. These interventions, once assessed, validate the theory that a robust infrastructure produces greater benefits for the

This is a story about civic engagement and political power that should be headline news. In 2020, EMGAGE, a national nonprofit, was instrumental in motivating over one million registered Muslim American voters to cast a ballot in one of our nation’s most consequential elections. This milestone is particularly meaningful because Muslim Americans have been marginalized, underrepresented and subject to hate crimes and government persecution since the shared national tragedy of 9-11. EMGAGE energizes the Muslim American electorate by investing in state-based organizing that builds networks among diverse populations, including Black Muslim Americans, who share a strong desire to preserve our embattled pluralistic democracy. In this episode of Power Station, Wa’el Alzayat, shares how his whose lived experience as a Syrian immigrant, Middle East expert, and American diplomat, informs his leadership of EMERGE. He listens to and champions public policy priorities, from tackling gun violence to expanding economic oppor

Sometimes numbers speak louder than words. In Washington DC, a single grocery store serves the 85,000 residents of Wards 7 and 8, the historically disenfranchised neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River. Zooming further out, 35% of people living in our nation’s capital are designated as food insecure, lacking an adequate amount of food for a healthy life. Again, the data tells the story. The legacy of racism in public policymaking is borne by people of color, from food to housing and healthcare. In this episode of Power Station, Tiffany FitzGerald explains how DC Greens, the nonprofit she leads, created The Well at Oxon Run, an acre of land in Ward 8 dedicated to growing produce and providing communal green space for all Washingtonians. DC Greens also runs Produce Rx, a program that enables doctors to prescribe healthy food as a medical intervention and provides a food allowance to make access possible. All of DC Greens strategies, including their policy advocacy, is informed, and driven by the community. A

In 1996, a group of Asian/Pacific Islander women came together to confront gender-based violence in their communities. As survivors themselves they knew that mainstream social service organizations lacked the linguistic and cultural knowledge needed to meet their diverse needs. They persevered, eventually launching the Asian/Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Resource Project, which remains the sole Pan Asian provider of trauma-informed and survivor centered services in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia. The team includes social workers, trainers, and a mental health professional and their collective language capacities include Japanese, Hindi, Thai, Mongolian and Mandarin. DVRP is an essential resource for women, and sometimes men, experiencing gender-based violence, including abuse by intimate partners, in-laws, and employers emboldened to exploit workers whose immigration status is precarious. In this episode of Power Station, I am joined by Krittika Ghosh, executive director of DVRP and a globally re

If we have learned anything since 2016 it is that elections have consequences. Donald Trump was not the first politician whose worldview is steeped in racism, misogyny, and anti-immigrant ideology. But he is an outlier in using his platform to undermine our democratic systems and encourage violence. In this episode of Power Station, Daria Dawson, Deputy Executive Director, and National Political Director of America Votes, recalls her path to her current role, including her parent’s commitment to voting and civic engagement and her life as an on-the-road political campaign warrior. America Votes, the coordination hub for progressive organizations whose missions include protecting and expanding the right of all Americans to vote, sees itself as a behind-the-scenes player. It makes sense when you understand that it was founded by and continues to grow a powerful cohort of progressive local and national organizations, from labor unions to Black, Latino and AAPI civil rights groups, trusted messengers for their co