CommsCast – Details, episodes & analysis

Jonah Berger is a Wharton School professor and internationally bestselling author of Magic Words, Contagious, Invisible Influence, and The Catalyst. He shares the power of language to influence and engage, the brain science behind understanding, and how communications and network building can help you achieve durable change.

Ebony Reed is the Chief Strategy Officer of The Marshall Project, and coauthor of Fifteen Cents on the Dollar: How Americans Made the Black-White Wealth Gap. She joins us to explore the power of unexpected connections, generosity, and gratitude. Lightning Leadership Speakers: Anusha Alikhan, Wikimedia Foundation Daphne Moore, Walton Family Foundation Latia Henderson, RootED Denver Eric Brown, Brownbridge Strategies NaTika Rowles, Black Community Fund

Join leading social sector CEOs as they discuss the evolving role of their work as “communicator in chief” of their organizations. They'll reflect on lessons from the last two years of disruption and the power and need for effective communications. Panelists: William C. Bell of Casey Family Programs, Carmen Rojas of the Marguerite Casey Foundation, and Caryl Stern of The Walton Family Foundation. Moderated by and produced in partnership with Stacy Palmer of The Chronicle Philanthropy.

Homelessness and lack of affordable housing are the biggest issues facing Seattle. Homelessness is a symptom of cracks in our housing, health, and economic policies, and changing the narrative to focus on systems instead of on individuals continues to be a challenge. Join prominent local government and nonprofit leaders for a dynamic conversation on the current state of homelessness, root causes, and what other cities across the country can learn from Seattle. Panelists: Marc Dones of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, Felicia Salcedo of We Are In, and Derrick Belgarde of Chief Seattle Club. Moderated by Scott Greenstone, reporter at KNKX FM.

We are thrilled to announce our Jones Award judging panel has selected Innocence Project as the 2022 The Clarence B. Jones Impact Award winner. For thirty years, the Innocence Project has worked to restore the freedom of the staggering number of people who have been wrongfully convicted and to transform the systems that allow injustice to occur. In that time, the Innocence Project has freed or exonerated 237 people who collectively have spent more than 3,000 years in prison. Innocence deployed a strategic digital campaign to build a diverse coalition of millions supporters that ultimately won the removal of Pervis Payne from death row. Learn more about Pervis’s case here.

Wednesday, October 6 at 12pm EST Bruna Sollod, Communications Director, United We Dream Bruna moved from Brazil to the United States when she was eight years old. She received her DACA protections while studying at the University of Florida. Now, Bruna serves as the Communications Director at United We Dream, where she has been a strategist for multiple immigration campaigns including Clean Dream Act Now and the Home is Here campaign, which led to immigrant youth's victory at the Supreme Court on the DACA litigation. Bruna is a growing voice in the progressive movement, and has been featured most recently in CNN, The New York Times, the Guardian and NBC Latino. "Our work is not just about politics and policy, but about empowering young, undocumented people." José Muñoz, National Communications Manager, United We Dream José Muñoz is a DACA recipient who came to the U.S. from Mexico when he was a few months old, and grew up queer and undocumented in Minneapolis. José ensures that the voice and strategy of immigrant youth and families are heard across the country through engaging the media, shaping news stories, developing narrative and message as well as training directly impacted people to express themselves through the media. He’s been a featured voice in publications such as, The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Buzzfeed, Newsweek, TeenVogue, MTV News, and on Spanish language programming on both Univision and Telemundo. “Our power is our stories.” #HomeisHere Daca Video Series - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTahl_sx9fes99SC7RWKV0DsKRDoCBs7N

Wednesday, October 6 at 2pm EST Stefanie Lyn Kaufman-Mthimkhulu (she/they), Founding Director, Project LETS Stefanie is a Disability Justice cultural worker, educator, organizer, parent, somatic and ancestral healing practitioner, consultant, writer, and the Executive Director of Project LETS. Their work specializes in building peer support collectives and community mental health care structures outside of the state. “Access is a practice.” About Stefanie Lyn Kaufman-Mthimkhulu - https://www.stefaniekaufman.com/about

Friday, October 8 at 12pm EST john a. powell In Conversation with Carmen Rojas: Building Bridges and Belonging Through Comms Dr. john a. powell is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of civil rights and civil liberties and a wide range of issues including race, structural racism, ethnicity, housing, poverty, and democracy. He is the Director of the Othering & Belonging Institute (formerly Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society), which supports research to generate specific prescriptions for changes in policy and practice that address disparities related to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and socioeconomics in California and nationwide. “Bridging is the key to healing.” Racing to Justice: Transforming Our Conceptions of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society - https://iupress.org/9780253017710/rac... Dr. Carmen Rojas, President & CEO, Marguerite Casey Foundation Dr. Carmen Rojas (she/her) is the president and CEO of the Marguerite Casey Foundation. For more than 20 years, Carmen has worked with foundations, financial institutions, and nonprofits to improve the lives of working people across the United States. “Funders should be the nurturing soil for social change efforts to take roots.” The Problems With Philanthropy, and What We Can Do to Fix Them - https://zora.medium.com/the-problems-with-philanthropy-and-what-we-can-do-to-fix-them-c7315aaf04cd

Friday, October 8 at 2pm EST Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, Climate Scientist and Chief Scientist, The Nature Conservancy Katharine is an atmospheric scientist. She studies climate change, one of the most pressing issues we face today. “We need to make climate change personal.” Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World - https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Saving-Us/Katharine-Hayhoe/9781982143831

How do you develop your moral leadership? Dr. Carmen Rojas, President & CEO of the Marguerite Casey Foundation, and Rickke Mananzala, Executive Director of New York Foundation, will share how they’ve developed their voice and moral leadership, the evolving public role of philanthropy and nonprofit organizations in civic life, as well as how each of us can ultimately challenge ourselves to do more and do better.