In this episode, we sit down with Arlene Mendoza, a dynamic leader in our community with 14 years experience in the tech space, who recently pivoted to Software Product Strategy/Management, and sits on the Board of Moran Consulting and Pacific School of Religion. She was invited to be a guest speaker in our Certificate in Wisdom-Based Leadership program, talking about creative communication, because of her success around transformational leadership and her passions at the intersection of spirituality, technology and innovation.

Arlene talks with us about her journey as a Latina in tech and her appreciation for the duality of culturalism.  She sheds light on integrating her commitments to justice, spirituality, and creativity and offers wisdom and inspiration for emerging leaders who may be feeling stuck in this moment. We also learn about the Oaxacan concept of ‘tequio’ in relation to the collective.

“With tequio, I didn’t realize it was a philosophy of my grandparents. I just thought it was a way of life. Every culture, every ancestral wisdom, has those nuggets of what some of our ancestors did that contributed, in some way, to improve the collective.”

On this episode, we drop in with Grace Martino-Suprice, a young leader with a heart for community development and desires to help the Church create bridges of love with the world around it. Since an early age, Grace has served with various congregational and parachurch ministries including UrbanPromise in Wilmington, DE and Because Justice Matters in San Francisco, CA.  She is currently the Outreach and Growth Specialist at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship,  where she seeks to cultivate engagement and partnerships with individuals, organizations and churches. Supporting Familia, CBF’s Latino Network and the Pan-African Koinonia Network, she ensures the growth, participation, and true belonging of people of color within the Fellowship.  She’s also on the Together for Hope team that works alongside organizations in the 301 poorest counties in the U.S. through an asset based community development model. Grace is a Puerto Rico native and currently resides in New London, Connecticut.

We learn some of the shaping moments on her own leadership journey and why she still chooses to serve in her local church and the community she came from. She talks about the impostor syndrome phenomenon that affects emerging and established leaders alike and how we can change the narrative inside our own heads to move past that, for ourselves and the communities we serve. Grace also shares her hopes and dreams for the future and offers some practical advice for leaders navigating these times.

On this episode we have a conversation with Dr. @michelleamireyes about the vital connection between our faith and our cultural identity. Michelle is an Indian American author, speaker, church planter, and activist who is deeply engaged with anti-racist work. As the co-founder of a non profit called @madeforpax, she inspires and equips the next generation of like-minded communities of color, to pursue peace, justice, and wholeness in the world. We hear about some of the challenges and victories getting her non-profit going and insights for emerging leaders wanting to take on such a movement. Michelle takes on the big issues of cultural difference, stereotyping, appropriation, and racism, and talks about what it takes to build cross-cultural relationships that lead to healing. We also learn what inspired her to write her new book, Becoming All Things: How Small Changes Lead to Lasting Connections Across Cultures, and what she hopes readers will take away from it.

On this episode, we sit down with Andrew Kim, the Teaching and Small Groups Pastor at Kensington Church in the metro Detroit area. Originally from Vancouver, Canada, Andrew has traveled widely, throughout Asia, Europe, Central America and Africa. One of his greatest passions is to see Asian Americans live more fully into their God given identity. He shares an epiphany he had at the beginning of the pandemic and how that has fueled his leadership journey. We learn how Asian American identity is minimized, and why it’s not an obstacle to overcome, but rather a gift to be embraced. Andrew also offers up some critical wisdom for young + established leaders about continuing moving forward in this time.

In this Episode we have a heart to heart conversation with Renjy Abraham, the Dean of Spiritual Life and Cultural Integration at Multnomah University. Serving in the Diversity and Inclusive Development Department, Renjy is passionate about walking with BIPOC leaders as they discover their true selves. As an Indian American, born and raised in the Pacific NW, Renjy brings a unique skill set and view of collaboration with his 17-year career in multicultural leadership in Oregon. He talks with us about how he encourages young emerging leaders to be agents of change right where they are in Portland, and expanding that out to the world. We learn about the connection between spiritual formation and cultural identity and the dangers in keeping these two areas of development separate from one another. He also offers encouragement to our community who are committed to spirituality, justice, and wisdom in their leadership. Resource Mentioned: Mixed Feelings, Poems and Stories

On this episode we have a conversation with Dr. Martha Hernández, an incredible young leader with extensive clinical and research experience working with underserved populations in schools, universities, community mental health clinics, and hospitals. As Director of the Spanish Training Track and Associate Director of Family Support Services of Ronald McDonald House, her service work includes advocacy on behalf of the children, adolescents, and couples there, as well as families residing there with a critically ill child. Her immigration work includes working with attorneys so that immigrants are not re-traumatized on their journey. Dr. Hernández is a recipient of the American Psychological Association Henry Tomes Award for the Advancement of Ethnic Minority Psychology, an award given once every 8 years to an emerging Latinx psychologist who has made many significant contributions toward the empowerment of ethnic minority individuals and communities. She talks with us about growing up in the Central Valley of California, fighting for her rights and for those around her, and how being a Latinx female, born to Mexican immigrant parents, and a farm worker with her parents, has shaped her life and leadership journey. She sheds light on the importance of creating educational opportunities where there is almost no emphasis on higher education for Latinx communities, the critical need to use our voices when so much is at stake in these times, and how finding resource in a collective can be helpful.

In our Season 2 Intro Episode, members of the Ignite team share our hopes for this new season and talk about the Wisdom-Based Leadership framework of courageous collaboration, contemplative care, and creative communication. They explore what means to enact social transformation, together as a collective, and question what we have to unlearn about our own leadership journey so we can be part of a world where everyone thrives.

“Leadership doesn’t always look the same or feel the same. There are unique textures and ways that it gets enacted and embodied, based on our own genius and culture and tradition. Imagine ways in which we can come together, cherish our differences, and be able to dream and enact a new world together.” -Rev. Aizaiah Yong, PhD

In this episode, we sit down with Monica Rae Cortez, first generation Filipina American, certified yoga teacher in the Bay Area, Mindfulness Teacher for Elementary Education, and founding member of the Kapwa Yoga Circle, a collective that makes yoga and holistic healing more accessible to the Filipinx community. With thoughtful intention, Monica creates and holds safe spaces to foster community and connection. She inspires us, in this conversation, with stories of how she finds resilience and passion through her own practice of one of the aspects of Wisdom-Based leadership, called contemplative care. She shares how it’s about connecting to her body and helping others connect to theirs, and she invites us into practices that allow us to fully integrate all the wisdom we carry. Monica reminds our growing community that the kind of leadership needed for our current moment is one that embodies compassion and deep empathy for the self and others.

Links to Monica’s work:

https://www.yogaalliance.org/TeacherPublicProfile?tid=269702

https://www.instagram.com/kapwayogacircle/

https://www.instagram.com/sacredmoonyoga/

https://tiani.site/qtof/monica

In this episode we drop in with Victoria Rosales, holistic health coach, retreat leader, and community organizer. Founder of SHARED, a popup retreat and workshop space that exists to cultivate and support a conscious and wakeful community, her contemplative approach embraces ancient wisdom traditions and modern psychology to invite individuals into a life of wholeness. She’s also a consultant who partners with and trains organizations in contemplative spirituality and incorporating postures of silence and stillness toward individual and community wellness goals. In this episode she shares how she provides sustained support to the community, and offers practical invitations for the human spirit to be awakened to its true nature…one of wholeness, fortitude, and purpose.

You’ll be moved and inspired by her insights into self inquiry and interpersonal contemplative spirituality, which she shares is like an ancient technology that plays a key role in developing an inner witness, that allows us to see with clear eyes and clear perspective what needs to change.

Website: sharedsacredspace.com

Instagram: victoria_rosales