Xceptional Leaders with Mai Ling Chan & Martyn Sibley

Our hosts, Mai Ling and James, share some important updates on what is going on in their respective careers before we dive into a discussion with our guest. Sawsan Zakaria chats with Mai Ling about her participation in the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge on multiple occasions. As an actress and model with a neuromuscular disease called spinal muscular atrophy, Sawsan talks about her experiences as an actress with a disability in LA, recounting some of the highs and lows. She also shares her thoughts on how the collective preconceptions about disability are slowly shifting in the industry.

Today, we welcome to the show Vanessa Castañeda Gill, the Co-Founder and CEO of Social Cipher, a game-based, social-emotional learning platform for neurodiverse youth. Social Cipher launched their first game called Ava, and Vanessa shares the story of its development and the impact it’s made on the target audience. She also talks about growing up with ADHD and Autism, how that has affected who she is today, and exactly why she chose a video game as the vehicle to make a difference in the lives of neurodiverse young people.

Just a few years ago, our guest Sandie Roberts, suddenly found herself at the intersection of being a middle-aged woman and a full-time wheelchair user. Unable to find adequate fashion options to suit both her new situation and her personal tastes, Sandie decided to do something about it. Sandie sits down with Mai Ling to talk about these unique experiences that led her to launch Roll With Style, a new venture that aims to assist wheelchair users with stylish and fashionable clothing options. They also discuss Sandie’s biggest growing pains during the process and how important clothing is for one’s perception of self worth, especially those in midlife.

Speech-language pathologist and educator, Sandy Dorsey, is our guest this week on the show. As a global advocate for children with special needs, Sandy talks with James about how disability is viewed in developing countries and what she’s doing to overcome stigmas about disability and educate the public. She’s also the founder of the non-profit organization, Smiles for Speech, which provides access to developmentally appropriate resources to support children with disabilities. So she also shares how the organization got started, the impetus for it, and some of the services she and her team provide.

As we kick off the first episode of the new year, Mai Ling and James share their thoughts on new year’s resolutions. Then Mai Ling sits down with Chanda Hinton, Executive Director of the Chanda Center for Health and Chanda Plan Foundation, to talk about her journey of founding and running the health care center. They also discuss proactive and preventive health care options, the stigma around not-for-profit organizations, how the Chanda Center for Health differs from traditional health care offerings, and a lot more.

For our Xceptional Leaders 2022 finale episode, Mai Ling and James share some thoughts and observations on the new National Disability Institute report, Small Business Ownership by People with Disabilities: Challenges and Opportunities. They also share some highlights from past podcast guests that pertain to some of the points addressed in the NDI report. We think you’ll enjoy this part retrospective, part state-of-the-industry discussion as we cap off the year and look forward to 2023.

Our guest for this episode is Dr. Carlene MacMillan, an expert in mental health and VP of Clinical Innovation at Osmind. Carlene’s area of focus is exploring innovative mental health treatments for anxiety and depression, among other conditions. She talks with James about some of these treatments such as psychedelic assisted therapy and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) therapy. Over the course of the conversation, Carlene helps us to define some of these newer therapies and addresses some of the misconceptions around them.

Today, James and Mai Ling share some updates on their journeys and then Mai Ling brings us an insightful conversation with speaker, writer, and social media influencer, August Rocha. August talks about the value of participating in and even building your own online communities in today’s culture. Intersectionality, advice for starting a TikTok account to build a brand, and life with Behçet’s disease are just a few of the other topics covered in this upbeat interview.

We’re excited to bring this week’s guest to you today. Rachel Madel joins James for an insightful discussion from her wealth of experience. Rachel is a speech-language pathologist, AAC specialist, podcast host, and international presenter who shares about the value of networking and building relationships, her mantra “inspire don’t require”, some of her approaches to speech therapy, thoughts on Gestalt Language Processing, and her experiences as an entrepreneur in this engaging conversation. Tune in and get your notepad ready!

Our guest this week is futurist and thought leader, Giselle Mota, who focuses on enabling inclusion as it relates to product design, the future of work, and all things emerging tech including web3 and metaverse. She joins Mai Ling to talk about her work as the creator of NFTY Collective, which aims to ensure that people of diverse representation are included, represented, and able to access web3 and metaverse by creating avatars that represent people with both seen and unseen disabilities for use in games, websites, and other applications. Giselle shares her vision behind NFTY Collective, her perspectives on building a team around a vision, and more.

Clothing designer Chamiah Dewey joins the show today to talk with Mai Ling about her work. She created Chamiah Dewey Fashion, the UK’s first clothing brand for people with Dwarfism/short stature. Chamiah tells about the beginnings of her fashion design career, the impetus for launching her company, and her system for breaking up business-related tasks throughout a week. This conversation not only dives into the creation of a business but also some great time management tips that anyone can implement. 

Bryan Dinner is our guest for this episode of Xceptional Leaders. He is the CEO and founder of Clarifi, the desktop app that assists teens with ADHD and attention challenges with completing online homework. Bryan talks with James about his personal experience with ADHD, what led him to found the company, and his process for developing a minimum viable product (MVP). This discussion is a great case study on building a business around a digital product and doing it the right way.

We’re so happy to bring you this insightful and informative episode today about breakthrough voice technology. James chats with co-founder and VP of Strategy at Voiceitt, Sara Smolley. Voiceitt is a speech recognition app for people with speech disabilities, but to fully understand the capabilities and potential, Sara talks about various use cases and how users benefit. She also shares tips for entrepreneurship in the disability space and even a bit about personal experience with a family member with a speech disability.

Mai Ling and James kick off this episode sharing what they are up to lately. Mai Ling talks about her new approach to Tiktok and James reports on his recent work change. After these updates, Mai Ling shares a conversation she had with speaker and personal development coach, Carson Tueller. Carson talks with Mai Ling about the meaning of ableism, his personal journey of coming to grips with a life-changing spinal cord injury, the intersection of sexuality and disability, and his perspectives on what it truly means to be human.

Today Mai Ling chats with Mike Adams, the CEO of Purple, a disability organization working to bring disabled people and businesses together. Mike talks about his work building a fully accessible online marketplace, why he and his team took the build-from-scratch approach, and what brought him to start a career in the disability sector to begin with. He also shares about the success of the Purple Tuesday initiative and how it’s become a global movement. But before this fantastic conversation, Mai Ling and James bring you up to date with what’s been going on in their lives. This is a packed episode with lots of great information that you don’t want to miss!

Our guest for this episode is Occupational Therapist and Gerontologist, Raheema Hemraj. Mai Ling speaks with her about her work as the co-creator of the Rehab Tech Summit and they dive into how the event started, who it is for, and some of the spin-off events. Rahemma also tackles the question of whether or not one needs to have clinical experience to move into the health tech/product development field. She shares some great insights from her years of experience as a company founder and passionate voice in the health tech space.

Our spotlighted guest for this episode is The Gerontechnologist, Keren Etkin! She is an entrepreneur, author, speaker, and self-described age tech evangelist. Keren is the founder/director of AgeLabIL and she also runs the AgeTech Academy. She sat down with James to discuss some of the technological advances in the very specialized arena of tech for the aging, how this tech fits into the user’s daily life, and where she’d like to see things go in the future. From robotics to voice assistants, they cover it all!

Our guest today is disability advocate Jake Linn, who launched the Disability in Hollywood initiative to bring awareness to the inequities in Hollywood surrounding people in the entertainment industry with disabilities. Jake talks with Mai Ling about how he got started with the project, the issues he and his team are addressing, and some of his personal experiences. He is passionate about raising awareness and changing the culture of Hollywood to one that embraces people with disabilities.

Our guest today is the founder of FreshSLP and host of The Missing Link for SLPs podcast, Mattie Murrey-Tegels. Mattie chats with James about how to reinvent yourself and your career, the value and importance of self-care, and the difference between burnout and just being tired. In addition to this value-packed interview, Mai Ling and James share some updates from their own journeys. This episode is one you don’t want to miss!

We’re excited to share this great conversation with you! Our guest today is Chris Wenger, aka Speech Dude. He is an SLP, social media influencer, and the creator of the Dynamic Assess of Social Emotional Learning, a neurodiversity-affirming assessment to get a holistic view of a child. Chris talks with James about effectively using humor to educate, developing a winning mindset, and how your health plays a part in your individual success. Don’t miss this high-energy, motivating interview!