Women & Politics presents:

Women & Politics: Birth in Color

This week we share our platform with Kenda Sutton-El and the podcast she is launching:

Kenda Sutton-El

Kenda’s greatest pleasure as a reproductive healthcare worker has been watching women become confident and excited about the birth and early parenting of their children. She firmly believes in the power of redirecting your fears and anxieties into finding new, empowering ways to experience birth and parenting.

Kenda is the Founding Director of Birth In Color RVA. Kenda holds a Bachelor’s in Health Science and is also a Doula Trainer, Diversity Equity Inclusion Consultant, Policy Analyst, CPR Instructor, Holistic Nutritionist, Lamaze Childbirth Educator, Certified Breastfeeding Specialist, Hypnobirthing Educator.

Kenda serves as the Chair of Virginia Doula Taskforce Chair, Chair of Greater Richmond Regional Maternal Child Health Taskforce, member of the Virginia Maternal and Data outcomes Taskforce, Pregnancy Services for Incarceration Workgroup.

In 2019, Kenda Sutton-EL helped establish “Black Maternal Health Week”  and also led the campaign for Doula Medicaid Reimbursement for the state of Virginia. Her passion for reproductive justice has led her to relentlessly pursue methods of improving maternal health for women of color. She firmly believes that until every woman is safe before, during, and after childbirth, we have not done our job as a society.

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Follow our show on our social media on twitter, facebook, and our blog – look for  womenpoliticsva

Follow our host and producer at @sherishannon27  and @carololson

Carol Olson    Women & Politics    July 28th, 2022

Posted In: Music, Music Shows, News

Women & Politics presents:

Women & Politics: Women & Community Leadership

On Today’s show we invite in two community leaders making waves in their cause areas:

Kenda Sutton-El

Kenda’s greatest pleasure as a reproductive healthcare worker has been watching women become confident and excited about the birth and early parenting of their children. She firmly believes in the power of redirecting your fears and anxieties into finding new, empowering ways to experience birth and parenting.

Kenda is the Founding Director of Birth In Color RVA. Kenda holds a Bachelor’s in Health Science and is also a Doula Trainer, Diversity Equity Inclusion Consultant, Policy Analyst, CPR Instructor, Holistic Nutritionist, Lamaze Childbirth Educator, Certified Breastfeeding Specialist, Hypnobirthing Educator.

Kenda serves as the Chair of Virginia Doula Taskforce Chair, Chair of Greater Richmond Regional Maternal Child Health Taskforce, member of the Virginia Maternal and Data outcomes Taskforce, Pregnancy Services for Incarceration Workgroup.

In 2019, Kenda Sutton-EL helped establish “Black Maternal Health Week”  and also led the campaign for Doula Medicaid Reimbursement for the state of Virginia. Her passion for reproductive justice has led her to relentlessly pursue methods of improving maternal health for women of color. She firmly believes that until every woman is safe before, during, and after childbirth, we have not done our job as a society.

Honesty Liller – CEO McShin Foundation  

Honesty Liller is a woman in long-term recovery from a Substance Use Disorder since May 27, 2007 and a Certified Peer Recovery Specialist in VA.  Honesty is the best-selling author of “Scattered Pink”and is the Chief Executive Officer of The McShin Foundation, a non-profit authentic peer-to-peer Recovery Community Organization (RCO), that serves individuals and families with Substance Use Disorders.  She is the recipient of the Vernon Johnson Award given by Faces and Voices of Recovery in 2015.  Honesty was also featured on “Face The Nation”, FOX News, and PBS discussing addiction & recovery in America.  In addition, she completed Stanford University’s Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders.  In 2019 she was honored with the Jean C. Harris Community Service Board Award from Hanover County. WRIC – Channel 8 News did a feature about Honesty for the “Richmond’s Remarkable Women” special in 2020.  She has been a field reviewer for SAMHSA, Faces & Voices of Recovery, and CAPRSS.  As a female entrepreneur she co-founded CARE Talks, LLC.  She is a board member of VSIAS and LAPPA.  Honesty is able to be a voice for those with addiction and their families through countless news articles, magazine stories, and TV interviews.  To spend time with her husband, two children, and her two dogs is a gift that keeps giving!

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Follow our show on our social media on twitter, facebook, and our blog – look for  womenpoliticsva

Follow our host and producer at @sherishannon27  and @carololson

Carol Olson    Women & Politics    July 21st, 2022

Posted In: Music, Music Shows, News

Women & Politics presents:

Women & Politics: Ukraine, Foreign Policy, and Community Activism

On Today’s show we start global and end local talking about what happening in Ukraine.

Elizabeth Shackelford

Elizabeth Shackelford joined the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in January 2021 as senior fellow on US foreign policy. Her analysis, writing, and outreach focus on building awareness and understanding of a “restraint” approach to foreign policy, which seeks to limit the use of military force to the defense of core US national security interests and favors robust diplomatic engagement.

Shackelford was a career diplomat with the US Department of State until December 2017, when she resigned in protest of the Trump administration. Her resignation letter was the first to draw widespread attention to the declining state of diplomacy under Donald Trump. She is the author of The Dissent Channel: American Diplomacy in a Dishonest Age, winner of the 2020 Douglas Dillon Book Award. Using both firsthand and historical observations, The Dissent Channel demonstrates that the crisis in US foreign policy predated recent efforts to sideline the diplomatic corps.

As a Foreign Service Officer, Shackelford served in Somalia, Kenya, South Sudan, Poland, and Washington, D.C., tracking political and conflict developments, advising Mission and Washington leadership, and advocating for US interests with foreign counterparts. For her work in South Sudan during the outbreak of civil war in 2013, Shackelford received the Barbara Watson Award for Consular Excellence, the Department’s highest honor for consular work.

As a non-resident fellow with the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in 2020, Shackelford conducted research, analysis, and commentary on the costs of a militarized approach to foreign policy and the need for greater accountability in US actions abroad. Prior to joining the State Department, Shackelford was an associate with Booz Allen Hamilton where she led USAID projects to assess business environments in developing countries. Shackelford was also an associate with the law firm Covington & Burling, where she focused on international trade law.

Carmen Foster, Emergency Medicine

Carmen Foster, MD – Assistant Professor, VCU Health  

Carmen Foster grew up in Romania while it was still under communist rule. After the communist regime fell in 1989, she spent four years serving as a translator for many foreign charity organizations and faith-based mission groups that came into the country to serve orphanages that were in deplorable conditions and to provision hospitals that were chronically undersupplied. She came to the United States for undergraduate studies and continued her medical education at Rush Medical College in Chicago. She spent her residency at Mayo Clinic and completed her Emergency Medicine residency at the University of Michigan. She has served as an Assistant Professor at VCU since 2013. In addition to her clinical duties, she helps train residents as well as medical students. In my free time,

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Follow our show on our social media on twitter, facebook, and our blog – look for  womenpoliticsva

Follow our host and producer at @sherishannon27  and @carololson

Carol Olson    Women & Politics    July 14th, 2022

Posted In: Music, Music Shows, News

Women & Politics presents:

Women & Politics: Leading Reproduction Rights in Virginia

Today we have two powerhouse women leading the work for Reproductive Rights in Virginia.

© 2017 Adrienne Battistella Photography

Tarina Keene took the helm of REPRO Rising Virginia in January 2008 as the organization’s executive director. She also serves as the organization’s lobbyist at the Virginia General Assembly. She is committed through RRVAs work to ensure that all Virginians have access to the full range of reproductive healthcare options despite their geographic location in the state or their socioeconomic status.

Tarina led the charge on the now infamous mandatory ultrasound bill passed by the Virginia General Assembly in February 2012. Despite the legislation passing, Tarina was responsible for introducing the legislature to the “transvaginal” ultrasound that gained international media scrutiny and galvanized thousands of Virginians to protest against the bill in Richmond during the legislative session. Tarina was quoted more than 100 times in the media including the New York Times, The Week Magazine, L.A. Times, Chicago Tribune, The Guardian (UK), and the Washington Post.

Tarina is also the founder and chair of the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health which came together in March 2011 after the General Assembly passed a law regulating abortion providers as hospitals. She successfully recruited more than a dozen state and national organizations and abortion providers to work together to mitigate the regulations. Tarina also appeared live twice on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show to discuss the impact on access to reproductive healthcare if a majority of the state’s reproductive healthcare providers are forced to cease offering services especially in rural and low-income areas.

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Follow our show on our social media on twitter, facebook, and our blog – look for  womenpoliticsva

Follow our host and producer at @sherishannon27  and @carololson

Carol Olson    Women & Politics    July 7th, 2022

Posted In: Music, Music Shows, News

Women & Politics presents:

Women & Politics: Taking the Lead in Community Change

Today we have two local advocates making change for folks directly in the community.

Zakia (Jemaceye’) McKensey, a native of Richmond, VA has worked tirelessly to advocate for the Transgender community and those affected or effected by HIV/AIDS. Zakia started her career in HIV prevention in 2001 with Fan Free Clinic as the MSM (Men who Sleep with Men) coordinator. She worked there for almost ten years. During her time at Fan Free she was one of the founding pioneers for the TG clinic that serves local transgender clients and assist them with hormone replacement therapy and overall health and wellness. After leaving Fan Free Clinic, she went on to Richmond City Health District. The 1st Transgender Women of Color to work for the cities health district, she served for 6 years as a Disease Intervention Specialist. Helping to locate and diagnose and treat individuals who were exposed or at risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections.
After leaving Richmond City Zakia founded and directs Nationz Foundation. Nationz Foundation is a nonprofit 501c3 organization founded in October of 2015. Nationz provides free HIV testing as well as linkage to care services and a food pantry to assist those clients in need or who are experiencing hardships in life. Nationz Foundation provides emergency housing assistance as well as transportation to and from medical appointments and support services. Nationz Foundation has 2 mobile testing units to provide services in the community to those who don’t have access to their office or services.
Zakia has been Named “Outstanding Virginian 2018” by Equality Virginia and she has been honored with The 2018 “Firework Award” from Virginia Pride, the 2018 1st Annual ”Global Award” winner from the Heart of the Community Awards and the 2019 Zodiacx Iman Award. She believes in an “Aim to Inspire” attitude. Hoping community members will aspire to be their best selves and take responsibility for their health and wellness and unite and stand in solidarity as a community.

Debi Blackburn is the Founder and President of Managing Mental Health LLC and a passionate Advocate, Educator, Facilitator and Professional in the field of Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders  (SUD). She began her journey in 1978,  while battling the demons of a severe mental illness;  she found her voice and recovery where she has continued her journey. The overwhelming stigma, shame, secrets and silence, shattered her soul as a young person lost in the abyss of the system . Debi’s journey is filled with heartache, loss, grief and fear, yet being in recovery has lead to passion, hope and overwhelming Love and Belief for her beloved population.

Debi has spent over 40 years advocating, teaching and working with both Acute and Chronic Mental Health and SUD issues in both personal and professional levels. She has spearheaded countless  groups, taught family education, spoken on the National, Medical and University levels as well as provided care in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Her vast experiences as a survivor, a person in long term recovery and as a professional make her compassion and knowledge shine. Her passion is her purpose and her favorite mission statement is “ Where there is breath, there is life , where there is life , there is hope and where there is hope, recovery is possible.” #mentalhealthmatters

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Follow our show on our social media on twitter, facebook, and our blog – look for  womenpoliticsva

Follow our host and producer at @sherishannon27  and @carololson

Carol Olson    Women & Politics    June 29th, 2022

Posted In: Music, Music Shows, News