Birth2Work Radio Show show

Birth2Work Radio Show

Summary: Birth2Work Radio Show Podcast. Rick Stephens and Elane V. Scott co-host Birth2Work radio, bringing insightful commentary and perceptive questions to a panel of leading thinkers.

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Podcasts:

 Brian Dyak on B2W Radio | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 43:46

Who is accountable for the accuracy of stories told in a world where the voices delivering them are most likely from people we have never met, who are financially motivated to encourage us to think and believe certain things? Who will face the consequences if information about life experiences gathered in this way turns out to be wrong? When do we know what is said is true, and what we can apply to the way we live? The people we call Stakeholder Leaders, at Birth2Work, walk this line every day. They are the new community leaders who cherish wisdom and tradition, but recognize that new stories are needed to push ourselves forward into the future. Today’s interview with Brian Dyak, President, CEO and Co-Founder of the Entertainment Industries Council (EIC), confronted these exact questions with the way mental health and addiction issues were being portrayed in the public media more than 25 years ago as a community health worker. Out of his caring and his passion for truth, he formed the EIC, to do something proactive about the volumes of misinformation being fed to the public, making his job a lot harder. He slowly began to garner the trust of writers, directors, and producers in the established entertainment industry, who began turning to the EIC for access to technical medical and social services professionals who were specially selected and readily available to provide specialized technical information on social and health issues such as mental health, drug addiction, and gun violence to entertainment writers and professionals. “Accuracy in depiction,” as it is called in EIC shorthand, has become more and more important because a growing audience doesn’t necessarily mean a growing media literate audience that’s able to tell if the “fictional” stories they are watching are based on facts they can trust and rely on in their personal lives. No one ever told audiences that they should be able to rely on the stories from TV and in movies for truth and accuracy, but they do. You don’t think so? I am not just talking about the rise in (self-diagnosed) diseases by viewers of daytime soap operas. Consider the study that was just completed by Dr. Peter Brindley, a critical-care specialist at the University of Alberta Hospital, and his colleague Dr. Craig Needham. The two decided to investigate the question of how Emmy-winning medical dramas, such as “ER”, have been giving medical students the wrong ideas of what life is really like in the emergency room while they looking for the best ways to teach resuscitation methods to students. From the Canadian Television report on the study- “Knowing that pre-conceived ideas about medicine can influence students even after they get accepted into med school, the pair decided to survey 80 medical students and residents about their attitudes. They were particularly interested in knowing how the students had learned to intubate patients, which involves carefully inserting a tube down the windpipe. What started out as a somewhat trivial exploration into the minds of students uncovered some surprises. ‘We asked medical students 'Where did you get some of your ideas before you even came into the medical profession?' And interestingly enough, 'ER’ came up as the number one influence,’ Brindley told Canada AM.” “It is harder to unlearn than it is to learn.” –Glen Doman, the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential Clearly we are not talking about the “uneducated,” or children, or any of the other stereotypes of human subcategories that “educated” people claim they are smarter than. No, we’re talking about the medical students who are now in school, learning to save our lives and care for us in our most vulnerable states… and they have all been watching “ER” and shows like it since they were those afore mentioned, easily impressionable children. An entire generation has learned to take care of the rest of us by watching TV. Consider

 Dee LaDuke on B2W Radio | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 41:32

TV Writer, Producer, and Author Dee LaDuke is committed to using what she has learned about writing stories for TV to influence new writers coming into the field. She has written two books on the topic, Making Great Television: Four Essential Ingredients, and Gardner's Guide to Writing and Producing for Television, and of late has been developing seminars to support the development of new writers for television. Sounds like a committed and engaged media stakeholder to me. How about you? Our conversation for this program was especially wonderful for me because she wasn't stuck on just talking about her own work. We realized early that our respective businesses demand that all the “players” be at the table when planning decisions are being made. Without everyone physically present to engage and collaborate in establishing a shared vision, that vision has no hope of being realized. This led me to ask if her desire to mentor new writers was focused exclusively on writers in Hollywood. What about the “writers” for communities across the United States who are trying everyday to write a new vision for their home towns? At first I thought she might perceive that as a flip question, but on the contrary, she went with it. And from this began Dee’s incredible engagement with Birth2Work. Birth2Work Co-founder Rick Stephens and I have been working with leaders of Vermilion County, IL in an ongoing effort to advance the County’s own 10 years worth of transformation initiatives. You can hear our radio interview with Vicki Haugen, CEO of the Vermilion Advantage, for more information on the scope of the effort (http://www.birth2work.org/radioshow.php?id=103 ). It’s relevant here in that the interview with Dee occurred as Rick, the Birth2Work team, and I were in the planning stages of the first Vermilion County Lyceum, and it became startlingly clear that Dee had the opportunity to play a valuable role. Utilizing the agreed upon values and integrated vision of the stakeholders from day one of the Lyceum, lead byBirth2Work, Dee employed the principle tenants of writing for episodic television on day two, entitled “Telling Your Story.” Her involvement took stakeholders through the process of literally plotting their future personal, community, and county “story lines”. In a unique twist on the “Does TV reflect life? Or does life reflect TV” debate, participants used story planning strategies, popular with TV show writers, to share ideas, give new perspectives, and possible actions that could be associated with their own imaginary roles in the area’s future society. The opportunity for participants to map their futures in this way offered an incomparable opportunity to apply uninhibited, broad future planning on their present day actions. The results of the Lyceum were astounding and we have much more to do with the community. I look forward to sharing about it with you more. But today I hope you will join me for this dynamic conversation that sparked the opportunity. - Elane V. Scott www.Birth2Work.org

 Sgt. Mike Neu on B2W Radio | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 56:36

In any conversation about the recent US military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is bound to be a certain amount of political tension infused in the conversation. The strategic questions related to the handling of the politics before and after the wars are never ending and hotly debated. The broader social questions, though, related to community building, infrastructure, and trust are rarely acknowledged. In this Birth2Work program, co-host and US Marine Corps veteran Rick Stephens and I, sit down with Texas Army National Guardsman Mike Neu. Deployed for a one year tour in Iraq, he returned this summer a changed young man. Having grown up in a loving family in his Texas town, Mike had a certain base appreciation for the “American Way of Life” before leaving for Iraq. But nothing could have prepared him for his unique experience once arriving there. The basics of military life – thousands of people moving in and moving out constantly – meant order and rules had to be followed exactly in order for progress to be made. (Consider what happens in your own workplace when a new employee starts. Now consider that lives hinge on if that person is up to speed from minute one, day one. Changes your thinking a bit, right?). It also floored Mike to realize how unrelentingly behind the very basics of societal infrastructure were there. Pipelines for sewage, roads, schools, any kind of public greenery had been impacted by the war. And to a certain degree, the Iraqis, learning how to implement these things from the Americans, had nothing to go on but trust. One society to another was/is attempting to teach the fundamentals of infrastructure that help keep people healthier, safer, and ultimately happier in the long run, but they had no way to do this except to be there working together side by side. Mike makes important note of how many times he saw his American cohorts come over from the States and go a bit nuts without the ability to communicate through cell phones, texts, and social media outlets the way they were used to at home. It was almost as if they had to re-learn how to communicate with people face to face – both Americans and Iraqis. And yet it was through this sharing of humanity that the Iraqis Mike worked with came to trust him. Is there any way Mike sending his group of Iraqi workers a text about how to set up a sewage pipeline would have been affective? Of course not. Societies are made up of human engagement, trust, and actions. That many Americans today believe that they don’t need people and can handle everything in their lives on-line is a lie. In fact it’s a degradation of the societal and business constructs that brought digital technologies to life. And it’s not to say, of course, that digital media doesn’t have its place in civilian life or in the military. It does. But it’s the face to face contact and combined physical and mental laboring of peers that sets up any community, new or existing, for sustained success. The tools of the military have changed a thousand percent from the days of cannons and bayonets of the Civil War. And yet successful outcomes are still determined by the same things – buy-in of the local people and shared measures of success. We invite you to reconfirm, through the eyes of a young soldier, what it takes to build community. - Elane V. Scott

 David and Debbie Shoenfeld on B2W Radio | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 55:10

Consider this contemporary community leadership issue: In today's urban environments—where most of us live—seemingly ordinary health care issues are more complicated to manage than ever. Environmental concerns, including food production, water and climate change, have businesses and community leaders reeling from the cost, paperwork, and requirements for implementation of controls. Further, no one is absolutely certain said requirements will make a difference anyway. How, then, do community leaders establish priorities for services that will ensure healthy food, water, and air for their citizens? Especially when today's health problems are growing at exponential rates for families that are both caring for children and senior citizens, both of whom may be dealing with illnesses related to the mind and brain? What if the problem you need to solve is not currently solvable? Solution: Take a cue from one of the most incredible salesman I've ever met, Patrick McCluskey. "I know …. As a sales guy, when I ask a question and cannot get an answer, I need to ask a different question." When David and Debbie Shoenfeld heard the doctor's announcement that their son had autism, 17 years ago, they didn't know what it meant. They didn't know anything about it. They had thousands more questions than doctors had answers. The problem was not solvable. On the surface, the possibility that their son could get the help he needed from existing medical professionals, resources and facilities, seemed unlikely, if not impossible. In fact, the problem facing them was so obscure and little understood that they weren't even certain what the exact problem was that they were going to try and solve to get him well. Remember, this was 17 years ago… when the diagnosis of autism was still fairly small in numbers. This fact also meant that there was much less organized information and support, much less understanding of the disorder called autism. In fact, when I queried Debbie Shoenfeld about the first time she heard her son's diagnosis, I asked if she was told whether her son had a "mental illness" or a "brain injury". She said the doctors never said. Today, autism may be talked about as still a third kind of issue: "a developmental disorder". So, which is it? How did they even know that the diagnosis was accurate? With such skimpy diagnostic information to go on, what could they do next? In this warm and intimate Birth2Work Radio interview, David and Debbie share their story about bringing up their son, Blake, side by side with his sister and with a small community of families dealing with like issues. The families shared knowledge, wisdom, successes and insights as they walked together, helping each other with practical advice and hugs as they lived their own stories along the road to success. David, no stranger to complex problem solving in his demanding business positions, focused with his wife on one motivational thought every day: "Fix the problem before you fix the blame." Like so many parents given this diagnosis today, they will likely never know what caused their son's developmental delay in the first place. What the Shoenfelds did know was that they were capable of adapting to a multitude of small day-to-day changes in their lives that would surround Blake with the reinforcement he needed to gradually become the very capable young man he is today. Their story is for us, at Birth2Work, one of the most exciting metaphors for today's community environment where problems are complex and without a single, silver bullet solution. They never quit. While they never have been able to pinpoint precisely the problem they were trying to solve, they stayed focused on answering the right question every day with actions: What do we need to do every day to be certain that Blake has the best opportunity to grow and become a capable citizen and a productive man? Take note America. Many in the business world are keenly aware that the majority

 Michael Harrah on B2W Radio | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 42:49

For many parents who think their child is a candidate for stardom because he or she can strike a pose or sing a song in a school play, there is seldom an easy way to test that theory. So, when my own daughter’s dance teacher recommended she audition for a local production of the Broadway musical "George M!", I had no concept of how it, and the subsequent role our 4 year old was awarded, would change our family’s life forever. An activity that started as a hobby became the center of our family life for years to follow. For any of you who put your child in some sport and discovered they played a little harder or performed a little better than most of the other players, or found your child could draw or build things with ease that others struggled for, you know how the discovery of that talent can feel like both a curse and blessing. What’s a parent to do? In my time as a mother of a young talent, information about how to take advantage of opportunities to develop it was fraught with myths and half-true anecdotes about how putting her into the entertainment industry would “destroy her self-esteem” if she didn’t get the parts she sought, or turn her into a self-indulged egotist if she did. There was no in between perspective, until I met today’s guest, Michael Harrah. A long time industry professional as a performer, teacher, director, and leader of political issues significant to children who work, Michael stands out as the most knowledgeable person I have ever met on the topic of children and work. Michael was my daughter’s talent manager in the entertainment business for nearly 14 years. In that time, under his mentorship, she developed a broad range of skills including her abilities to perform, act, sing, speak, and behave as a professional, while never ever forgetting that she was still a kid. She worked in live theater, did national commercials, and handled parts on several weekly TV shows, all while managing her normal school schedule. And while she never reached a point of national recognition, she didn’t exit the professional entertainment industry the least bit scarred. She was, in fact, more fit for living outside of it. Her self esteem soared with a rich enthusiasm for trying anything new. After all, as Michael would say, “it doesn’t mean much if you don’t get the part, sometimes you just don’t fit their costume.” The lessons garnered from that time in her life created an adaptable, quick thinking, self-starter who is highly praised by employers to this day for the unique skill set she offers. In generations past, kids often worked in addition to going to school. They worked on farms, they worked in family businesses. Kids were left alone to figure things out and they got hurt and they earned their keep. All invaluable lessons! But somewhere in the post-agricultural area we stopped needing them to work and instead, in an effort to protect them and ease their lives, adults began to ask less and less of their children. By working professionally at a young age, of her own volition, my daughter learned responsibility, how to overcome obstacles, and yes she even dealt with some heart ache. As the parent, of course it hurt me to see her hurt, but the reality is that’s life. By putting bumper rails along our children’s life paths we have not only gotten less out of them, but, in fact, handicapped them physically and mentally. Are we protecting them to death these days? Look at the media articles featured with this newsletter and consider it for yourself. Then hit play on this conversation with Michael and my daughter who speak from both sides of the table on the importance and value of asking more. Elane V. Scott www.Birth2Work.org

 Ken Starr on Birth2Work Radio | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 31:26

Once quite visible on the national political stage, our guest, Ken Starr, impressed us as a soft-spoken, values-driven public servant; one with a passion for preparing students for the future by instilling a sense of community engagement complimented by rigorous academics. With a long and distinguished career in academia, the law, and public service, we are pleased to welcome Mr. Starr, now serving as the President of Baylor University. Just completing his first year in the position, we spoke with President Starr at KWBU, Waco's NPR affiliate, on the Baylor University campus. Rick Stephens and I were in Waco as keynote speakers at the 3rd Greater Waco Community Education Summit, which took place at the Waco Convention Center. When the opportunity to speak with Starr was offered to us, we were excited at the prospect of speaking with a new leader who, on his first day at work, called then Mayor Virginia DuPuy looking for his first assignment to be of service to the community. Within a few hours, he was reading to youngsters at a local Waco elementary school. In the hallowed halls of academia, where researchers, Nobel laureates and aspiring graduates roam, keeping a sharp focus on student performance in the classroom is paramount to a university president. At times, this places higher educational institutions in the middle of community, but does not necessarily connect the two. But the Waco- Baylor relationship is different. Over 500 local community leaders, representing 12 stakeholder groups from throughout the community, have come together for the past three years to fulfill the mission of the Greater Waco Community Education Alliance: to "develop an understanding that the entire community shares responsibility for educating every citizen." The specific goals are: 1) To send children/youth to school ready to learn; 2) Ensure they graduate fully prepared; 3) Ensure post high school success. The strategies the Alliance uses are: 1) Engage and mobilize the community to reach the goals and 2) Use research and data to inform strategy and measure success. President Starr is in complete agreement with this view. He supports the belief that the next generation of Baylor undergraduates and Waco citizens will emerge as ready and enthusiastic as ever by modeling community collaborative leadership himself. That's where we found the symbiotic Waco-Baylor relationship to be inspiring. Waco's partnership with Baylor University is synergistic, maximizing the potential of the town's young people, the enthusiasm of the college undergrads, and capitalizing on the opportunities of what the young minds of the students can give back to the town that supports them. Often when we engage in discussions about the current state of education and how it impacts local communities and the future workforce, we confront challenging ideas about what's missing from a systemic point of view. This Birth2Work Radio program illuminates the interconnected web of hidden infrastructure that exists between Waco's stakeholder leaders, Baylor University, and the community of Waco itself. As Mr. Starr says in the interview, supporting the University is second nature to the economic stakeholders and citizens of Waco. Baylor University identifies itself as a citizen of the Waco community. It is because of this already entrenched, historical relationship that Mr. Starr feels confident about harnessing the power of leadership that his office can bring for the future. In his role as University President, Mr. Starr takes great pride in giving back to Waco, and Waco community leaders can be proud of the groundwork they have laid to make such a successful aligned, and integrated partnership possible. In this Birth2Work Radio program, listen to an inspiring story of one leader and his excitement about the value of building community relationships that will shape the future. - Elane V. Scott www.Birth2Work.org

 Suzanne Arms on B2W Radio | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 57:13

Every year, many millions of people honor the birth Jesus Christ on December 25th. Whether or not you are religiously affiliated, everyone can likely agree that the birth and immediate care of that baby (as the story goes) was something remarkable. One woman had a baby all by herself, in a stable, wrapped it in rags, and put it in a crib made of hay. How did she know how to deliver that baby? Or what to do afterwards? We are left to speculate, but we are assured that medical intervention was far away. From the moment a mother finds out she is pregnant, in the United States today, she is lead to believe that she is not knowledgeable enough to have a child on her own. She must seek out experts to tell her how, and intervene at every step along the way. This is a phenomenon of the system we rely on as a culture when we learn to trust technology first, instead of ourselves. If we had a better birth rate than in countries where they do less intervention, this might make sense, but we don't. The United States has the second worst newborn death rate in the developed world. As reported by CNN, May 10, 2006: "The United States has more neonatologists and neonatal intensive care beds per person than Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, but its newborn death rate is higher than any of those countries," said the annual State of the World's Mothers report. The report, which analyzed data from governments, research institutions and international agencies, found higher newborn death rates among U.S. minorities and disadvantaged groups. For African-Americans, the mortality rate is nearly double that of the United States as a whole, with 9.3 deaths per 1,000 births. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the worst place in the world to be a mother or child, with Scandinavian nations again taking the top spots in the rankings by the Connecticut-based humanitarian group. Why does it matter for all economic stakeholder groups to know more about this issue? With health care costs going up at nearly astronomic rates, can we go beyond seeing every birth only as a pathological, medical/health issue or are there other hidden issues that drive millions of people to agree on a single best path to birthing? For example does the quickness with which many seek to find blame through the legal system when there is a problem, leave millions of mothers with no choice to birth within the system, or be accused of negligence? Can we do better in our communities? For thousands of years women have birthed, alone sometimes, but mostly with the help of other women and without any interventions by medical science. Mother Nature figured it out! But women (and men, in fact) have been taught over the last 100 years that every pregnancy and birth situation is potentially a catastrophic illness rather than a natural life process, and they are afraid to the point that over 98% of our births are done in hospitals with multiple interventions. And yes, medical miracles have saved lives of those that in the past would have died. No one is negating the miracle of modern medicine to help in emergencies. But the true necessity of intervention to save the lives of mother and/or child, are still very rare compared to the number of live births. The truth is, having a child in a hospital, with I.V. drips, drugs, etc. is not “normal.” Our radio show guest, Suzanne Arms, has been an inspiration behind the natural birth movement since 1975. She is an author, filmmaker, speaker, and consultant who, I hope, you will find as inspirational as I do. From Suzanne: "My purpose is to help shift the paradigm that drives the loneliness, anxiety, addiction, greed, and aggression so prominent in post-modern societies to one that promotes joy, wellbeing and peace. I work at the beginning of life, where the patterns are set. We must transform how we bring human beings into the world and care for each childbearing woman and mother-baby pair from conception to the first birthday, when

 Mayor Hal Malkin on B2W Radio | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 46:24

Mayor of La Mirada, California, Hal Malkin, has been a close friend for nearly 25 years. As a local businessman, running a popular drug store in La Mirada for many years, he didn’t just sell prescriptions and personal care items. Hal took care of people like me, by sharing old stories and listening closely to new ones from those who came in to his store every day. Many folks would linger and pick up on a local story as they shopped for school supplies or a new health care item. When he was ready to retire, Hal wasn’t ready to stop. He just kept going in a new direction. Instead of putting aside the best he had learned in his years as a successful businessman, he began to share what he had learned about how to serve people in the health care field through teaching and taking on more civic responsibility through his work in city leadership. Today, Hal has helped create one of the most successful pharmacy tech programs in the country at Cerritos Community College in Cerritos , California , where he began working part-time. In his civic role as an active leader in La Mirada , he works with a conscious goal of bridging the communication gaps that can come up between city services, citizens, and neighboring city governments. He especially loves to talk about the city's visionary leadership program aimed at identifying and involving younger leaders in the City Council to ensure that La Mirada has several generations of leaders in the pipeline. But what makes him the ultimate community stakeholder leader is not the title of City Councilman or Mayor. It is the unabashed enthusiasm he has as a connector of people. He gets things done between and across sectors because he listens well, and he shares success stories as he moves in and among leaders of government, business, health, education, media, and community organizations -- just as he once did as a successful local businessman. Like Hal, each of us has the opportunity to bridge the gaps we see and/or experience in our communities through more powerful communication and a well-aligned vision. Good leadership is about taking people where they want to go. Hal is a great leader because he knows how to take people where they need to go. La Mirada , California is the second safest city in California and in line to be designated as one of the most business friendly in Los Angeles County. Somehow, it’s leadership seems to keep a lot of folks happy. Perhaps, after listening to Hal’s story, you’ll be inspired to try your own hand at public office. - Elane V. Scott www.Birth2Work.org

 Pastor Donald Barnhouse on B2W Radio | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 57:09

Pastor Donald Grey Barnhouse Jr., the beloved leader of Bridgeport Presbyterian Church near Philadelphia, PA is something of a modern day Renaissance man. He graduated from Harvard University a month before his 18th birthday, studied nuclear physics at the University of Pennsylvania, speaks several languages, has done serious study in film making and music, and taught college courses in journalism, creative writing, government, political philosophy, and international relations. In his continuing pursuit of education, he is even working toward his Master’s degree in Education at this point in life. His academic credentials are among the most elite of our nation, but it was a calling to follow his father—the pastor, author, and radio Bible teacher, Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, Sr.—into the ministry that would open the door to his life’s work as a community stakeholder leader. We discuss more about Donald’s life and work, his home education, and his thoughts about how pastors can do more for parents in the radio interview. But, leading up to our conversation with this inspirational man, I want to share a story with you about a young man who found his own religious calling in the last few years without first committing to any particular religion at all. Young Kevin Roose didn’t go to church growing up and certainly didn’t know any pastors. In fact, his parents were rather indifferent to the idea of religion all together. So, as a sophomore at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, his decision to spend his “semester abroad” at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia was startling, to say the least. Kevin decided that when his time came to take his semester break from spending his days drinking fair-trade coffee, singing in an a cappella group, and fitting in with Brown's free-spirited, ultra-liberal student body, he would do something radically different. He got permission for a semester’s exchange between his school and Liberty University, the late Reverend Jerry Falwell's "Bible Boot Camp" for young evangelicals. His reasoning was that if he was to go into any kind of political field, as he planned to, he really should know more about them. Off he went, with stereotypes galore of the next generation of America’s religious right dancing in his head. When I watched Kevin in an interview on Book TV not long ago, I didn’t get the impression from the way he spoke about his experience that he had any idea how deeply he would be moved by the students and the faculty at Liberty. It was evident that he hadn’t dispensed with his preference for the liberal ways of the world, but he had gained immense respect for the religious practices of the students he met, come to better understand their beliefs, and admired many of the ways in which they chose to live. One example he thought relevant to talk about was dating. He said it was really fun to just be able to talk with a girl on a date and not have to think about whether or not they would sleep together. He chronicled his semester at Liberty University in his book, The Unlikely Disciple. “When I was faced with the option to pick a place to go for my junior year abroad, where I might encounter complete strangers with foreign ways of thinking and acting, compared to way I lived, I thought about a place not very far away from Brown, Liberty University. It might as well have been over seas. I knew next to nothing about the kind of students who would attend a school where obedience was not optional. While there, I found myself directly immersed in America’s culture war and was determined to experience it from every angle possible.” And so he did. At Liberty, 10,000 undergraduates take courses like Evangelism 101, hear from guest speakers like Sean Hannity and Karl Rove, and follow a 46 page code of conduct that regulates every aspect of their social lives. Roose’s decision to enroll at Liberty catapulted him across the God Divid

 Pam Pimentel on B2W Radio | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 44:42

This interview with Pam Pimentel, RN, the CEO of MOMS Orange County, was recorded during the holiday season, when a mother and the birth of her baby are celebrated, sung about, and revered. Pam has spent her life empowering mothers with knowledge about caring for their new babies and caring for themselves, before and during pregnancy and in the first year after the birth of the baby. Her insights and knowledge will open your heart and your mind to a new way to think about the importance of how much can be accomplished with babies and children in their earliest years. Pam is responsible for the organizational, clinical, operational, strategic planning and fundraising needs of the community based, not-for-profit health care agency MOMS Orange County, which serves 5,000 low-income pregnant and parenting women each year in Orange County, California. Under registered nurse supervision, the staff provides access to prenatal care, health screenings, infant developmental screenings, health education and referral services through monthly home visits and group classes. Mothers and their babies receive one-on-one education and support during pregnancy and through the baby’s first birthday. Through community support and education, MOMS Orange County has been able to produce astonishing, measureable gains in the lives of those whom it has been able to affect. As Pam explains in segment two of this interview, one out of every ten babies born in Orange County ends up in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) after birth. That’s 10% of all babies. A staggeringly high number! The average stay in the ICU is ten days. The average cost per day is $12,000. That’s an average of $120,000 to care for a single sick baby in only the first 10 days of life. In stark contrast, just 4% of babies born of the mothers that MOM’s Orange County has worked with end up in the ICU. And it only costs $1800 to educate and work with each mom for the entire year. The minimal financial investment and less measurable investments of time and education, and being a trusted community resource to ask questions and get information, has made an extraordinary statistical difference to Orange County’s overall health costs relative to newborns and babies. Pam and MOMS Orange County have designed a low-cost, high impact alternative to traditional case management and health education for new mothers in need. It’s a stakeholder model in the health sector applicable everywhere. All babies offer us the opportunity for a fresh start and the creation of a whole new world. For Pam Pimentel, teaching women the practical knowledge needed to nurture and raise a child, not just deliver one, is a gift to all of us. Each child whose life she and the MOMS Orange County team touches has a fresh start in a new world, created by a joyous mother who understands the path to healthy growth and development from the very beginning. - Elane V. Scott www.Birth2Work.org

 Dr. Alberto Gedissman on Birth2Work Radio | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 47:37

Dr. Alberto Gedissman and I first met when I attended a public presentation he was sponsoring at the hospital where he was Director of Pediatric Services in Orange County, CA. The topic of the public presentation was Violence and the Media, which I was attracted to because of my studies in media literacy and because it was so unexpected, in my experience, as a mother of two children, to have a presentation of this type sponsored by someone in the medical community. Since that first meeting with Dr. Gedissman, I have learned to always expect the unexpected from him. A man of passion, who truly loves serving children and their families, he eventually felt some despair with the growing numbers of ailments he saw in his day to day practice related to childhood obesity. Over time, as a healthcare stakeholder in his community, he knew he had to take professional action. He had to take a risk and move away from the the comfort and familiarity of his long time medical practice and move in a new direction. His first step was to take his own practice in a new direction, preventative care. He designed an approach to health care for children that was centered on teaching parents about a step by step process to help their children have better health early, and stave off the catastrophic results for the children, families, and the community as a whole, if they don’t. His program is called Wellness Center, self-described as “A pediatrician directed health, nutrition and fitness program to manage weight and to promote healthy, lean and active youth.” The most formidable part of making the program available to the community was establishing the health center, where this new program is implemented. Finding funding was tough. With a focus on prevention, his new model for pediatric care forced Dr. Gedissman to put on his healthcare stakeholder leader hat and bring financial and insurance services into alignment with his ideas by convincing their representatives that investing in prevention early would save their companies money down the line. But he didn’t stop with aligning medical stakeholders. To truly combat the epidemic of obesity, he had to invite community stakeholders leaders from throughout the neighborhoods he wanted to serve, including school leaders, city government leaders, and business leaders. He knows it will take all of them to set a new standard and a new, consistent example for healthy living in the community. Dr. Gedissman understands he has a much larger role than a giver of medical care in the lives of patients and their families, and it was this keen understanding of his unique role, not taught in medical school, but learned out of experience, that helped him grow into the parent educator and community stakeholder of today. Parents generally rely on pediatricians for education and guidance related to physical and mental care for many years beyond the first two or three. In addition, parents look to them for advice on general topics like media diets and answers to questions like how much time to spend with technology, all issues directly related to childhood obesity. But changing children’s behavior meant changing the parents’ behaviors, which meant influencing the values of the community to prioritize healthy living. Like Dr. Gedissman, who actively advocates for companies to invest their philanthropy dollars in early education (ages 0-6), Birth2Work is bringing together community sectors to inspire self-initiated change. Our workforce, indeed the entire promise of our country’s future prosperity and growth, is rooted in the lessons each new baby learns starting at day 1. As communities we are responsible for prioritizing healthy living through how we behave everyday, how we use our dollars to support products and services that represent our values, and how we encourage and validate one another at the most fundamental level to work with us in creating a better tomorrow. - Elane V. Scott www.Bir

 Dr. Sonya Whitaker on B2W Radio | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 45:03

Based on a generations old formula, our current educational model uses factory-like bells to signal “shift changes” during the day with a June-September break that used to allow kids time to harvest summer crops with their families. This model was built around our agriculturally rooted society. Book learning complemented skills and knowledge kids learned first hand on the farm, enabling many with enough new information to go on to higher education and select occupations that were otherwise not open to them. The overall measure of success of the school, though, was not measured in isolation of the broader success of its community. A t what point, then, did “fixing education” become the curative for fixing society’s larger woes, as well as the only prism through which we engage with helping young people become capable citizens? In truth, it isn’t education that has somehow failed society, but society that has failed the education system. Calls for more money, making schools “perform higher,” and getting “better teachers” in the classroom are all critically important aspects of the education conversation, yet really just the tip of the iceberg. Take a look at the July 14 Charlie Rose program, linked to in this newsletter, with the District of Columbia Chancellor of Public Schools, and the related links on his site with the teacher’s union president, National Teacher of the Year winners in a panel discussion, and others. I am grateful to Mr. Rose for working to facilitate this national conversation, but frankly, it is still years behind where it should be. Leader’s in the trenches, like today’s guest, Dr. Sonya Whitaker, know that schools can not succeed in isolation. They never have. Marked gains are a result of widespread community support expressed in values and language that nurture young people and families in all the out-of-school hours, weekends, holidays, and summer vacations. Kids do not grow up in a school classroom. They spend less than 15% of their time there. They grow up in communities. One of Birth2Work’s fundamental objectives is to bring together sector leaders, just like Dr. Whitaker, from throughout a community, establish a shared vision and align language in order to make sustainable change. We’ve seen this process succeed in whole communities such as Vermillion County, in Illinois, and Huntsville, Alabama, where the Birth2Work model has been employed over 2 years. Over the course of many years now, our nation’s schools, along with thousands of regional and national organizations, have spent millions of dollars on action plans that aren’t integrated or aligned together to produce lasting results. Our current workforce and skills crisis has not improved, measurably, for more than 30 years, meaninng that as a society we’re not focusing on the right issues related to declining performance by our youngsters . In one example, Birth2Work is committed to finding common language among stakeholders by calling attention to the discrepancies between “business math” and “education math,” related to drop-out rates and other statistical measurements related to education. The value of correct data is immeasurable. It is, after all, what drives policy and change. Now, read the Associated Press article noted here in our media links. The article, which recently made front page news throughout the state of California, announced a “new” education crisis that Birth2Work pointed to ten years ago , the high school drop out rate. The only difference is now that the state has refined its data collection methods, it has a clear picture of what’s been going on. This example highlights the desperate need for aligned language across stakeholders groups. The 24% dropout rate is now clearly defined and, therefore, an action plan can be put together for change. Problems with accommodating the rising number of children diagnosed with autism are another example where common language is

 Jeff Finkle on Birth2Work Radio | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 55:59

In difficult economic times, as our country and much of the world has undergone in the last several years, it’s tempting for leaders to want to bail their public out of distress as quickly as possible - even if it means turning a blind eye to long term ramifications of those actions. There is an urgency that leaders at the top feel to facilitate growth and recovery through new programs, incentives, and initiatives. The clear and continuous problem with this, however, is that these new initiatives cease with each new incumbent and the subsequent regime change in staff and policies. And the result is a constant reinvention of programs and policies telling people, in a trickle down fashion, what to go do to fix their communities, education systems, healthcare systems, etc, etc, etc. What we at Birth2Work know, however, is that the real future for sustainable economic growth in every community is going to be how they reconnect with their own local leadership and not look to the state or national level to tell them what to go do. Birth2Work is about facilitating and aligning community stakeholder leaders from the six sectors of the economy – business, government, media, education, health and non-profit - to go create places where people not only want to live and work, but continue to learn, and create healthy families. Our Birth2Work Radio guest on this program is Jeff Finkle, a recognized leader and international authority on economic development. As President and CEO of the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), the world’s largest economic development membership organization, he contributes his expertise on community revitalization, business development and job creation to projects nationwide. Of the many things we cover in this program, one of the primary issues is a sea change in perspective from community economic developers across the country. The shift is marked and significant, in that developers have shifted their goals from years past, when the thinking was that bringing in large manufacturers was the basis for sustainable economic growth, to looking inward and supporting entrepreneurial vision at the local level. Whereas manufacturing jobs have, in the last several generations, created enormous swaths of dying towns in the “Rust Belt” of our country due to international outsourcing, local entrepreneurs tend to work smaller and hire locally. And although as citizens we inherently recognize this as a positive thing, local leadership has done a poor job in the recent past of reinforcing the necessity of buying locally and supporting local businesses. It’s true, too, though, that local manufacturers and businesses have to be supported by the entire community in which they set up. They need community infrastructure that supports them not only through local government and business incentives for operation, but with the promise of a workforce that is well educated and a community where those entrepreneurs want to live and raise their families. And therein lies the jaw dropping question of the decade, how do currently suffering communities recover to become the successful and sustainable communities of the future? Birth2Work has the process. Our six step process of facilitation, aligning community stakeholder leaders to identify a common vision, common language, and measures of success enables whole communities to write their own success stories. In the end, community economic development requires a national perspective, but local decision making. For no matter the number of “friends” you have in cyberspace, it’s your immediate neighbors you’ll rely on to pull you out of the rubbish in an emergency. From car repair to health care, it’s the local community that organically supports each of us to live healthy, happy, sustainable lives - Elane V. Scott www.Birth2Work.org

 David Valladolid on Birth2Work Radio | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 44:34

As the President and CEO of the Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE), David Valladolid carries forward the legacy of Rev. Vahac Mardirosian and Dr. Alberto Ochoa, two gentleman who confounded the education community when they founded PIQE in San Diego, California 22 years ago. Since its inception, PIQE has inspired and taught more than 375,000 underserved and often non-English speaking people to make a difference with their children’s education by teaching a simple idea: Your child’s success is in your hands. Here is how to make it happen. Today, in his role as President, David continues the work of PIQE’s founders. The program has expanded beyond San Diego, now flourishing nationally, and offering the rest of us insights into an organization built on solid principles, rather than just the personalities of two men. Hype often stems from personality-driven programs in which one figurehead is the driving force of the institution. But PIQE was built on principles that could be learned, lived, and passed on to others. I note this point because in the more than 25 years I have been consulting with people, organizations, communities, businesses, and groups to make a difference and assure their future, one action stands out. Current leadership is always looking around for others who can be brought into the organization and trained to be future leaders. It was this leadership development aspect of the work of the Parent Institute for Quality Education that captured my interest in supporting their work. Deeply embedded in the heart of every training class is the intent to prepare parents to be education leaders and advocates for their children throughout their entire lives. While many of the parents who first participated in the PIQE program were not proficient in English and may not have had many years of formal education, they had a desire and they had leaders who planned a program around what those parents needed to learn about the education system. The parents didn’t know, after all, what they were missing. Take a moment to read more about PIQE on its website, look at their video presentation highlighted below in our Media Links, and listen to today’s lively, exciting and deeply motivational conversation with David Valladolid. For us at Birth2Work, his message is a perfect echo of our view that no matter what stakeholder role you have, you can see what needs to be done and respond. Rev. Mardirosian didn’t start out to be an education visionary. He was a successful pastor. But the need that so many members of his church called out for was a strong voice that could help them help their own children do better in an education system they knew little about. Rev. Mardirosian spoke up and helped build a powerful set of tools for local schools, communities and families who were just starting out in a new education system, to help guide their children’s education for a life time. David Valladolid continues that work today with wisdom and passion for the future of PIQE throughout the United States. Come and browse our website. Meet other stakeholder leaders like David Valladolid and Rev. Vahac Mardirosian on the radio and be inspired. Every day people are making a difference. Join us! -Elane V. Scott www.Birth2Work.org

 Stefanie Scott-Small on B2W Radio | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 43:53

We routinely refer to the actions and thoughts of people from the six economic sectors of society: government, education, business, health, media, and the non-profit sector. A functioning society depends on these sectors to operate, but what about the nucleus around which all these sectors revolve? Families. In today’s show, my daughter and I put the process for determining mom's value to the test, I wanted to share some of my personal thoughts about the role of mothers who (like the six sectors) we are all dependent upon to make life work. Every year in the time surrounding Mother’s Day in the United States, stories pop up all over the news letting us know that the ten or more functions a mother performs in her every day are now worth X amount of dollars. According to Salary.com, in 2009 "the job titles that best matched a mom's definition of her work are (in order of hours spent per week): housekeeper, day care center teacher, cook, computer operator, facilities manager, van driver, psychologist, laundry machine operator, janitor, and chief executive officer." And for her efforts, her annual salary would equate to $122,732 for a stay-at-home mom. Working moms 'at-home' salary is $76,184. Is that all? My first daughter, Stefanie, and I developed a unique dynamic starting from when she was born at home and began with Suzuki violin and dance lessons at two years old. A veteran performer by four years old, she auditioned for a regional production of the musical “George M!”, was cast, given a solo, and sang to the 1300 people in the theatre five days a week for a month. Turns out, she loved it. And from that point on, my kid became a working professional. Dozens more shows, commercials, and television followed. We were in the greater Los Angeles area after all, so it wasn’t too unusual an after-school activity for kids her age. What I was clear about from the beginning, was that after food, clothing, and shelter, my job was to consistently keep her wins and losses in perspective so that she learned early about how to take no for an answer and keep moving. I was told often by others, though, that she would be scarred for life because of the numbers of rejections she would have to endure. It was, in fact, the opposite that happened. She became mature and self-confident knowing she wasn't being personally rejected, but that sometimes she just wasn’t what they needed for the part, and that was true about life. Learning to win, to lose, and to take direction shaped her for the better. As the CEO and CCO (Chief Connectivity Officer) of the family, I multiplied the value of family resources by focusing on providing experiences for Stefanie and her sister instead of buying stuff. Yes, my husband worked hard to provide us with every basic thing we needed, but he was a teacher, not an oil baron. I felt that I was the best person to hold an integrated, comprehensive, view of who they were and wanted to become, and keep a stable, safe environment around them so they could learn and grow. As the most heralded leaders are lauded for, I executed my long-term plan efficiently, on budget, exceeded expectations and no one got sued in the end! (What’s with so many child actors and their parents?) The idea is that my job at the micro level, of being part of a team that raised two kids, was never the beginning or end of my life cycle, but a huge part of the middle. Further I knew it would be the primary way in which I could contribute greater value to marketplace over the long term—leaving two thoughtful, articulate, capable thinkers to make their mark. Their education, in and out of the classroom, was not left to chance. What responsible CEO would leave employee training up in the air? Their skill sets were constantly being reinforced and grown, with the knowledge that it is exceedingly more difficult to unlearn and relearn something than it is to learn it right the first time. So some things took more time to achieve. Do

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