Analiza: Welcome to the Women of Color Rise Podcast. I'm Analiza Quiroz Wolf, proud Filipina American, mom of two, and former CEO of a nonprofit and Captain in the US Air Force. I'm on a mission to support having more diverse leaders at the table. We'll be talking with successful CEOs and C suite women leaders of color and learning about their leadership journeys. If you're a woman or woman of color, who wants a seat at the table, you're in the right place. Now let's get into today's show.

I'm thrilled to be talking today with Leah Gordon. She is an Associate Dean at Boston College where she focuses on inclusive excellence, diversity and belonging. She's also an Associate Professor of the Practice. So what that means is she spends time not just at Boston College, but also spends one day a week in nursing, particularly in oncology. She was before this a diversity director for nursing and patient care at Mass General Hospital. And she has many degrees, which we’ll probably go into today. But with a Bachelor's and Master's science, a family nurse practitioner degrees in nursing from Regis College, and she also got her Doctorate of Nursing Practice, also from Regis College. I'm so thrilled to have you here. Leah, thank you so much for joining us.

Leah: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate the time.

Analiza: Leah, let's talk about your identity, how you identify and how did your upbringing guide you to this career?

Leah: Yeah, so I actually identify on paper, anything that I have to apply for as Black, but I ethnically identify as Afro Latina. My father is a Black American man, my mother is a woman who came from Panama. Unfortunately, I don't speak Spanish. Because when I was growing up in the 70s, my father was of the mindset that if my brother and I were bilingual, it would actually slow us down and education. And now we know that quite the opposite. And it's unfortunate that happened. But I do feel very close to my Panamanian culture, my mother is one of 18 children. So I have lots of aunts, uncles and cousins. And really, actually, my aspiration is to be living within the United States and Panama at some point in my lifetime, I do feel very connected to my black heritage as well.

I know that when people see me, that's what they see first, and I am a very proud, black woman, a very proud Afro Latina woman, and I use the she series as my pronouns. And, you know, my dedication towards diversity, equity and inclusion work as well as healthcare really does come from my parents, my father and my mother met at a community health center here in Boston.

My father, at one point ran the soldier's home, which is a Veterans Hospital in Chelsea, Massachusetts. He himself was a veteran of Vietnam, that and so between my mother and my father, and their commitment to marginalized communities, disenfranchised communities, and always showing ways to elevate their voices that really resonated with me, I did not know that this would turn into a nursing career. There's a whole another story about that, hopefully, we'll have time to talk about but I knew that my truth and my upbringing was to make sure that marginalized voices, women, people of color, socio economically disenfranchised veterans at that time was going to be really a focus for me and my life, obviously, that has expanded to include ableism LGBTQ plus community. So it's expanded, my commitment to this work has expanded as more people, unfortunately have become marginalized in this country.

Analiza: Leah, I want to go to your upbringing and how your parents met. It really fueled this passion of giving voice to marginalized communities. And you started your career in getting an associate's degree, actually from a community college. And I didn't read that. But there were like six other degrees that you got. You’re committed to education, and I'm sure that your parents drove that. But why so many? My mom is a nurse, and I think she got two today. Like why did you have to get so many? What was that about?

Leah: Yeah, so I have four degrees and all of the degrees are in nursing and my proudest degree and I've always said this, and I'm committed to saying this is my associate degree from a community college here in Massachusetts. I do feel like I was given such a wonderful education, a very strong foundation of how to be a very good bedside nurse and truly that's where I I saw myself as an accomplishment and I was totally fine staying there.

A few things before I get into the degrees is I actually became a mother when I was 19 years old, and was not taking my college education at that time very seriously. So to lose education to lose that opportunity for education, in place of being a mother actually helped me value education a lot more than I did. Initially, I wasn't able to go back to school to get that associate's degree because my daughter was four or five years old, and then didn't complete that degree till she was about six or seven.

And the reason why I really push through to get all these degrees, as you know, I would say that nursing is a marginalized profession. It's a mostly female, dominant profession. A lot of times nurses are handmaid's in many ways to our physician colleagues. I am fortunate because I've actually worked among physicians who actually value my role and see the importance of nursing. But I would say not every nurse has had that experience. So I feel very fortunate that I have, but the nursing profession as a marginalized profession, as a marginalized person in the profession, sort of has always told me that I've just, you know, having a degree, the degrees that I've had has not been enough.

So I got my associate degree and decided that it was important for me to go on and get my bachelor's and my master's degree and got into a program that actually had this upward mobility, where they took nurses who had associate's degree and help them beat, get get their bachelor's and then get their masters. So that was really great. And then when I got my master's, I thought I was done. I got my master's degree, and I was a nurse practitioner with that, and I was very excited about becoming an advanced clinician though I would be able to teach at that point. And then the professor said, No, that's not enough. We have, you know, a terminal degree and I never wanted to get my PhD. But there's this new, it's newer, I shouldn't say it's new. I mean, it's been around since I got my Doctorate of Nursing Practice in 2017. But it's been around even a little bit before that.

But because the profession told me no, you're not enough in the profession to teach with a master's degree. You got to go one more step. And, you know, I reluctantly took that step. I'm glad that I did now, but I took that step, because I just was like, Look, I need to get to a place as a woman of color in this marginalized profession where people have to stop telling me no, no, you can't, because you don't have the degree, you know. So as a Doctor of Nursing Practice with a focus on cultural competence in nursing education, that journey in itself was hugely laced with issues that, in my opinion, had to do with a lot of racism. But I did achieve that degree in 2017.

And now I have a terminal degree and people can't tell me no, and then I get eligible for Associate Dean positions, because I have a terminal degree. And that's pretty cool, right? Because they would have told me now, when I have my masters, right, so the terminal degree has opened up a lot for me. And it's all of the journey, the associate, the bachelor, the Masters, and even the doctorate degree has completely enhanced my nursing practice, as well as my commitment towards DNI work in nursing education, as well as overall nursing education.

Analiza: It's so interesting, this idea of not being enough, not having enough, not getting enough degrees, I have a lot of degrees too. So in sisterhood of saying like, did we need all those degrees? It's nice, yes, we have opportunities because of these degrees. But there's a difference between, hey, if you get this degree, it does qualify you for other roles, versus you're not enough. And you don't know we don't trust you walking in the door, seeing your face, you've got to prove it. So I'd like to talk about that. Because as women of color that is unique. We are both women of color and that can really hold us back. And I'm curious for you, Leah, what, myths, what beliefs and ideas, did you believe or were told to you that now you realize, actually, you know what, that's bunk. What comes to mind for you?

Leah: So I think that's an excellent question. So there's two big things that come to mind. For me one is the idea of not being enough and my own leanness in this profession, a lot of times, at least in this part of the world that I live in. There are a lot of wonderful nursing programs. And there are a lot of wonderful nurses out in the field, but they're not a lot of whip nurses of color. So I've been only in many in all of the spaces that I exist in. Even for example in my current department, and I'm not including residents or trainees but I'm the only black clinician in our department. We're at the hospital I work in now. I don't think that my department wants it that way. But it also speaks to how we get more people into the profession and that's a whole nother story in itself. So I think about this all Salinas that I've experienced, especially as a black nurse in Oncology Settings, I've been one of only a lot, and there's definitely this voice, you put somebody in the corner, you're basically telling them, you're not enough. And the only way you're going to really be enough to work here is to get that bachelor's degree to meet this designation that the hospital has. So it's this quandary that you get caught in between like your personal values and your personal desires and what you want to do, and then what a system is bearing down upon you to do.

And the other thing I think about is, you know, as I mentioned, when I got my doctoral degree, I was told by the faculty in that program back in 2017, that they thought my work was important, but they had no idea. Basically, they said, We think your work is important, but we don't know who's going to prioritize this. So it's like, we let you do a project about something that we think is important, but we don't know if it's going to actually ever take you anywhere in your career. Well, turns out that I was an assistant director at one school for multicultural programming, I was a director for diversity at a major hospital. And now when I'm Associate Dean for, you know, inclusive excellence, diversity and belongings, there have been voices that have told me you can accomplish this, you can achieve this and rise above that. And I think, like you said, we are women of color. And so there's a very intense narrative in these systems of space that can really deter people. And so examples like myself, and you have, look, we can play chess, and not checkers, and really get on the other side of this and really be in positions where not only we can make sure that other people know that this is attainable, but make sure that their experiences are not laced with those voices in the background.

Analiza: It's so powerful, isn't it, to have these voices, and so much so that we then internalize it. And so we're walking around, like, I guess I must not be enough, because people keep telling me these things that I don't, I can't do it, or that it's not important or that my career isn't going to my dreams are not going to happen. So I want to name that because we see I see you with this like very prestigious title, it's very hard to get a position on this level. And to know that we're not alone, that we hear this message from systems that are very powerful, and even think that as a nursing profession, women dominated. Maybe it would be kinder, right kinder to us, but actually, it's baked into the system, to be like a handmaiden. And so unfortunate, because there's so much knowledge there yet to be less.

Leah: Yeah. And then I also think just that added layer of being a young mother, and the system that I was in, you know, because I was in the welfare system. And I remember telling them, like the caseworker who was working with me, like I'm using this appropriately, I've had a job since I was 14, I'm having hard times. I need to take care of this child, and, like, keep us afloat. And this is I'm doing the right thing. And this person, like rolling their eyes at me. And then when I got my first job at Dana Farber Cancer Institute as a film runner, and I'm dating myself, because we don't use throw up films anymore on the light boxes, we actually look at them on the computer. But as a filmer that I remember when I went in, told her, I don't need to be on welfare anymore, I have a full time job. Her this person's jaw dropped, because even that system didn't ever the voices of yeah, you're just another young mom taking advantage of the system. And so even that voice from that early on, and then to think about, you know, how far this journey has been, and how not easy it's been, but also that commitment to make sure that other people know that this is attainable. It's not fair, what we have to go through.

But you know, there's a level of persistence, that is really important to have, and I don't want to highlight like resilience and perseverance because sometimes those things are tethered to us as women of color, like we should just instinctively know that we need to have these things. One thing that I've adopted recently from the ministry I follow them on Instagram is at rest is a form of resistance. So that self care that I never allowed myself on that journey because I was busy taking care of a child at one point, busy being a wife, busy taking care of patients that I never actually afforded or counted myself, the rest that I deserved, along that very difficult journey.

Analiza: It is quite a renegade thought, isn't it? Especially back in the 90s or when we were starting our careers, if we were to rest, what kind of nerve, what kind of educator are you? And how dare you prioritize yourself over your daughter? Who do you think you are especially on welfare and what do you think about rest? How dare you? And yet it is a form of resistance dammit, like we're white women were people of color out and enjoying ourselves? How mad would people be? Right? Just right, that we're actually free, that we're experiencing freedom and self worth from ourselves, not from others having to tell us that we're absolutely so powerful. I wish I'd heard that.

Leah: I know, I wish somebody would have told me that years and years and years ago, right, you know, because that narrative of like, needing to be resilient is, you know, such a strong narrative, and certainly dominated a lot of my story. But I like to highlight it as you know, yes, I was resilient. And I didn't like people to say all the time, like, Oh, my God, I can't believe how far you've come and how, Oh, my God this year, like what a difficult journey. And I like to remind people in some ways, that's a microaggression, that you know, that my journey as a woman of color as a teenage mother, as somebody who had an associate's degree and was told that wasn't enough, like the fact that you're highlighting, like, Oh, my God, I can't believe how far you have made it. Maybe you need to reframe that and say, as difficult as the systems have made it for you, it's amazing to see where you landed where you are. Because I know that perseverance was there, because systems were bearing down on you. That kind of a nod acknowledgement is a lot kinder, in my opinion, than somebody who's like, Wow, I can't believe how far you've made it. You know?

Analiza: It's interesting, because along this journey, yeah, not only did you have perseverance, obvious work ethic and obvious resource pooling, and it's almost like having to push glide right to overcome the system. Were there any other experiences, advice, mentors, anything that you pulled along the way that you're just like, gosh, this was really helpful in addition to my gifts. In addition to all of that, I'm curious if you could pull one or two examples that you want to share with us,

Leah: especially for nurses of colored like, we're so few and far between, in many spaces, that we have to realize that our mentorship doesn't always necessarily look like us, even though we would like it to and so my very first mentor is a woman I shouldn't say was, she's still here with us and I love her to death and is a woman named Kim Noonan. She is the lead nurse, one of the lead or is the lead nurse practitioner. At Dana Farber. I started working at Dana Farber, when I was 20. Not long after I had my daughter six months after I had my daughter, and I worked in, like I said, as a film runner, and then I worked my way up the ranks and multiple roles, but mostly supporting nurses and physicians and patients and coordinating visits.

And one day, Kim came by my office and asked me what I was doing. And I thought she'd been prying. And I'm like, what do you think I'm doing? I'm working? And she said, No, no, like, what are you doing with your life? And then I was kind of like, taken aback like, what is she talking about? And she said, I see qualities in you where you could be a nurse. And here's how you do it. And she told me to get my associate's degree first. And the reason why she told me that is, she got her associate's degree first in a totally different field, but got her associate's degree first, and then was able to build off that similar to what I did. So in my mind, I initially thought, you know, and Kim said to me, get your associate's degree, and then you'll work as a nurse and then go back to school part time and get your bachelor's and then you'll continue to work. And then you'll go back to school part time and get your Masters. I thought I was just following her recipe, right? I mean, that wonderful guidance of somebody who saw qualities in me where I could be a nurse where I didn't really even see that. And so I'm just thinking, I'm following her recipe and not knowing that I was going to hit all this like adversity along the way.

And then when I really felt like I had to get this doctoral degree, I called her and I said to her, you're not going to believe this. Cuz she was with me the whole journey and knew how challenging it was. So you're not gonna believe this. I'm getting my DNP. And she was like, Oh, aren't you a glutton for punishment? And I was like, Yeah, I guess so. But, you know, again, I explained to her, you know, why I had to do that. And she respected that. A year later, she called me and she said, Hey, you're never gonna believe this. I'm getting my DNP and I said to her, wow, look at this as had looked at the grasshopper has become the teacher and she said, Leah, that's mentorship I learned from you, and you learn from me. And that has always been my relationship with Kim along the journey. It is this like very reciprocal relationship of us learning from one another, and Kim looks nothing like me. She is a white woman, blond hair, three children married, you know, very established in her community outside of nursing. And, you know, we have like, on paper, you would think that we have nothing in common, but she is really one of like, my biggest cheerleaders and supporters for many, many years now.

And then I have another mentor who does look like me, a woman of color who was on my TMP curriculum committee, along with with others who really championed me as well, but this particular person, right ans, our educational services and our research services for nursing over at Mass General Hospital, her name is Cordelia. And to see her in action, doing the work that she does, really was a motivation for me. Like, if she could do this, I can do this, I've been very rough around the edges, I'm still rough around the edges, I'm a little more refined. But I was very rough around the edges when I met Cordelia, and she has really taught me the importance of appropriate restraint. She's never told me to stifle myself or change myself or silence myself. But she has taught me that, again, that chess move on the board is really about patience and time and being thoughtful and methodical about when you take that piece and jump another piece, you know, and that can be done in a way that can generate inclusivity and belonging.

And so I do really feel like, you know, two very different mentors, both of whom have taken this young, scruffy, you know, sort of anti system person, but going along with the system, because I knew it would make a better life for myself and for my child and all these things, but have really helped me see that I can stay rough around the edges, but with some refinement. And so I feel very fortunate. And these are just two mentors, I've had the opportunity to have dozens of mentors along the way. And several of them don't look a single thing like me, don't know what it's like to be a single black mother, you know, as a teenager, but have really rallied around me and supported me as the human and the individual that I am because they've gotten to know me, and they've gotten to know my story, and why my story is so important, and how it can actually translate into nursing and academic profession. So I'm very grateful for not only these two mentors, but many of the mentors that I've had along the way.

Analiza: When I listen to your story, Leah, one thing that comes to mind is that these mentors did not take the work from you, right? Like, I'm going to be the one I'm going to have you do the work and then I'll be the face. I'll help you fix your problem. But actually, in this example of Kim, she saw gifts. And hey, Leah, actually, did you know that you have all these gifts and qualities? Just to make sure you knew because there's so much out there? And what do you want? what do you want with your life? And I love that she did that. Right? You can come in and solve it. Sometimes in our systems, we think we know right? Let me tell you, I've got a plan for you. You just follow it, follow my lead, do it be a doer. But in fact, she she turned it around and said, Hey, what do you want? How can I help you? And let me name that you're already. So a gift.

Leah: Yeah, they both and again, many of my other mentors have amplified me, and amplified my voice. And when I say refinement, like I said, nobody's ever told me to not be my full authentic self. But they have reminded me at times, like, Okay, you could go about it. That way, it might not move the dial the way that you want it, you know, let's take a step back and think and reflect rather than, you know, or I've said, I appreciate your advice, but I'm going to bulldoze through it the way that I want to, and they're still there at the end of the day supporting me, you know, so never, like you said, taking the work, but by helping me find ways to amplify the work and the purpose of the work and the why of the work to make sure that it actually is not only beneficial to me and heart nourishing to me, but also is something that's going to perpetuate and affect the community around me whether it's in the academic setting, or the healthcare setting.

Analiza: Leah, you gave this really pointed example with your second mentor that you would describe Cordia. And you mentioned that she helped you learn what it means to act with appropriate restraint. I just just get into that. what do you mean, I mean, you're a black woman, let's just name that there's all sorts of stereotypes that go along with it. And you've also mentioned that you are rough around the edges. And that's just awesome as someone who is also rougher than edges, and limit being authentic, but yet, we want to be impactful. And that does require some restraint. So can you give me a specific example? Where were you trying to figure out like I really want to act? Baby, you talked with a mentor, you took a step back and actually what does it mean to have impact on you in a way that's more perhaps with more strict restraint, perhaps was more thought?

Leah: Yeah. So I think, you know, I'll piggyback on what you just said about Cordelia because she was part of my curriculum committee when I was going through my doctoral work program and they had two other individuals plus the chair. And the three people who are on like committee all have PhDs. So again, like this idea of a DNP, which was somewhat new was also sort of new to them as well, because they're a PhD. So they have like, you know, original thought and idea and the, you know, put it out there. And then the beautiful thing about the DMP is like, I can catch that thought and that idea and bring it into a clinical setting or an academic setting and like test it to see if it actually works. So there's a lot of wonderful collaboration that can happen between the PhD and the DMP. But during my journey, getting my doctoral degree, ethically, in my opinion, there were some concerns that were happening. And it was very helpful that Cordelia and the other two people on my committee also saw these ethical concerns that my school was putting me in, I don't want to say they were putting me in, there was one school that was sort of putting me in a predicament, and then my school had to respond appropriately, because systems, you know, and how they engage with each other.

But there were times where I literally wanted to just call up the program, call out the issues for what they exactly were. And I recall, Cordelia as well as my other committee members saying, like, do you want this degree? And I'm like, you know, I've been doing this work. I was doing it as a thesis and my master's and then I got told you could carry that thesis into your doctoral program, because we now have, so I'd been doing this work for a while, they were like, do you want to finish this program? And I said, Yes. And they were like, okay, rather than calling out the issues that you're seeing, we're going to acknowledge to you that we see these issues as well. So you're not No, you're not crazy, maybe the the system is trying to make you feel like you're crazy. But you're not crazy, we see this. So that was really good, like the validation that like, that was probably the best time where I didn't feel siloed and alone, like I had people who are accomplished and have PhDs who see what I see.

And then like, let's do what we have to do to get you through this program. And then if you feel at the end of this program, you need to call up the stuff, the way that you feel like you need to call it up, we will support you in that. But let's get you through this program. I will say, even to this day, I'm probably talking about this more than I have in this space. And so maybe some people might not be happy about it. But I'm happy to fully acknowledge that these things, there were some things that happened in my program, for me getting my degree as a DNP, that were not ethical. But at the end of the day, and I thought, oh, yeah, we'll get to the finish line. And we're going to call all this out, we're going to bring all this up. At the end of the day, I achieved the degree even from people who said, Hey, we have no idea how you're going to use this degree.

And like I said, Now, three positions later, I definitely use this degree that sometimes karma is like a beautiful thing in the sense that like, you don't have to like stomp and scream and yell, to get that sweet piece of victory. Sometimes, that sweet piece of victory does manifest in like all these wonderful accomplishments that I have. And I think it was really good to hear the voice of those mentors say, we see what is happening here, we think it is wrong. But we know that the why of this is to get you over the finish line, and we want to help get you over the finish line. And if after this is done, you want to rah rah about it, we will be right there with you. And maybe you'll think differently when you get over the finish line. And I think for me, I did think differently when I got over the finish line. But it was just that acknowledgement that I had from Gordian and the other two people who are on my committee to like, not feel alone, to feel supported. And to then use the I could have weaponized this and, you know, made it like made a real ugly scene about it and all that I now tell people this story as a way to show my faculty colleagues here in the academic setting, as well as my clinical colleagues that these hoops of fire that you put people of color through exist, and they're many times unnecessary, and that we will get through them. And it doesn't make it fair that these exist. So what are we going to do after hearing a story like Leah's story to make sure that we don't do this to anybody else? And I think that's more of a sweeter victory. And I think that's what Gordie Howe wanted me to see. I think that's what my other two colleagues who were on my committee wanted me to see. yeah, this is a horrible injustice to you. When you get to the other side, you're gonna make sure that this doesn't happen to anybody else.

Analiza: I resonate with that so much, because there's so much temptation when something bad happens, especially when it impacts us. You want to just call it out and burn it all down, right? Like let's just speak our truth and we talked about it Speaker, we're about justice, you'd be speaking your truth. And yeah, there's a lot to speaking our truth. And there's, and we should. And at the same time, there is real impact on us. That not just impacts us, but also perhaps could impact others. And so I'm not saying that we shouldn't speak out, all I'm saying is we need to consider both sides, and to have the community to be with you, to support you to validate you and to back you that if you decided later to speak up, to have their backing, I think that's so powerful. And I mean, yeah, just like, it's often we don't talk about the community that support you, they can't go it alone, right?

Leah: That's right. And I think the way I speak my truth is shit, like, you know, we talk a lot about evidence based practice in our work and a lived experience in our work. And I think that when I can tell this story in a calm way, but still exemplify the hurt that it caused, that is speaking my truth. And I think when my colleagues, whether they're faculty or clinician colleagues, when other students hear this, I think that truth ends up being a mark of a reminder of what not to do, how not to do it, and then how we should rise to the occasion and do better. And so I ended up getting to weaponize that truth in a way to make sure that, you know, hey, if your student says that they feel like they're being other than the classroom, maybe take the opportunity to believe them. Because if you are an only person of color, in a mostly white organization, and the only people you can go to our white people that tell YOUR story to them takes a lot of bravery in that. encouraging that. And rather than saying, Are you sure it's you sure, it's not you? And you know, maybe you're just interpreting this the wrong way, but actually saying, Hey, we see this and we acknowledge this too. We're going to help you get through this. It's a totally different way to maneuver the system than you know, making a scene and sometimes you can make a scene. Sometimes you have to, sometimes I will.

Analiza: It's interesting, because you went from being anti system to how do you work in the system.

Leah: Yeah, I'm a covert agent. I'm a covert agent in all these.

Analiza: Leah, I want to go into your DEI work. And I'm curious, back when they said, How are you actually going to get paid, promoted? This is not gonna help your career. And it has been an important topic. I'm glad that you're the Associate Dean at Boston College, focusing on this. How do you think we're doing on DEI, is this working? We have people who, for the past years really backing this is important to us Black Lives Matter? Let's start to form a committee. Let's have a DEI statement, let's, you know, have a higher that's the chief DEI officer. So let's assume that that's happened, right? Like, hopefully organizations have moved to that and maybe change some of their policies. Do you feel like it's working? And specifically, what is missing? If you could go into organizations and waving a magic wand and say this could really transform? Of course, obviously, we need a whole boatload of changes. But if you could say, really, from my research from my own practitioner experience, if organizations could do one or maybe two things, here's where you would really lean in.

Leah: Yeah, so I think it's both and kind of thing, right? So we know, you know, we were all stationary watching George Floyd be murdered that moved a lot of people to prioritize the DEI. We also know that there are a lot of places that did prioritize DEI and they no longer have that DEI person who's leading a lot of that in the corporate world. We also know that right now, present day DEI is completely under attack. We know if you're in a certain state, you can't even talk about diversity, equity and inclusion. You can't use those words. We know books are being pulled off of shelves, because of this concern about critical race theory and making people feel bad about who they are rather than confronting the realities of our history. Right.

For me, DE and I in nursing is absolutely imperative. It's always been imperative. One of the things that I said when I was getting my doctoral degree is this still rings true? And I think I should also preface this by saying a lot of the things that I'm saying with my doctoral degree were things that I was saying when I had my associates degree, people just put more weight to it because I have more alphabet soup behind my name. That's fine. And also that's not cool, but that's a whole another thing. When I was originally doing my DNP work on cultural competence in nursing education I was and I still remain very focused on the fact that mostly white nurses are educated. And we have to make sure that they know what they're doing and what they're not doing when they're taking care of diverse population. Because that can be the difference between somebody's health, and somebody being very unhealthy. And that's horrible. That's scary.

And if we can get our white nurses to rise to the occasion and prioritize DEI just like preventing falls, just like managing pain. I think nursing really does have, you know, this in the side pocket in terms of really putting Health Equity at the forefront, because that's what our charge is to do. Anyway, that's always been our Code of Ethics through our American Nursing Association, you know, is caring for everybody equally and equitably. And so for me in nursing and my approach to DNI in nursing is that we now have multiple bodies that govern what we do in nursing education as well as clinical care that are on board with DEI. So for example, the National League of nursing, which helps govern nursing education has a DEI toolkit that we can use in academia to make sure that we're addressing this in our coursework, the American Nurses Association is on a racial reckoning journey.

And they actually I was actually at the conference, the National Black Nurses, National Black Nurses Association Conference last May, May 2021, where the AMA came and talked about that racial reckoning statement. And there were nurses that were there who said, hey, it's about time. There were nurses that were there who said, and these are black nurses, they were black nurses, who said, what can we do to make sure that this is amplified, and then there were some black nurses who were like, you can take your statement and shove it up your butt. It's long overdue. But the beautiful thing about nursing and nursing education is that we have governing bodies that really are highlighting their commitment and their concern, and the need to address this in both the academic setting in the clinical setting. So I'm golden.

Because when people say, hey, we don't really know if we can talk about racialized medicine really? Well, the AMA says we can NLN says we can and other organizations ACN says we can and not only do they say we can but they're saying we have to write there was a document written a very lofty document and important document written by the National Medical Association, in 2021, called The Future of Nursing charting a path to health equity. So this group is basically saying nurses have the capacity to chart a path for health equity. So for me, I'm like this is I'm golden like to be in this kind of an inaugural position in a school of nursing with all of this support from mothership organizations. This makes sense in this space.

Are we winning in terms of or are we gaining ground in terms of like the larger landscape, I would say, in some spaces now, because again, you like, you know, many corporations hire DEI people. And then those DEI people are very tethered by what the board wants or what even higher leadership wants. And so, if it's not in alignment, they can only go so far. And if they don't have governing body documents, like I do in nursing, you know, maybe they can't go even as far as they'd like to, I think what the tone of this world right now, we cannot stop the momentum. And it bothers me that it feels like we need to have another nine minutes of stasis, to watch a black body be disrespected to and lose life to then find momentum in this when the momentum was in this. When we came here as slaves in this country. The momentum was in this when we came here, when we were brought here against our will and treated as poorly as we'd been in that has consistently threaded through our existence on this land that we came to this land and took this land from indigenous individuals who suffer greatly and healthcare horribly and when it comes to like, basic care around diabetes and Renal Care and maternal health, so for me, this is like a no brainer, it kind of stinks that everybody's sort of getting with the program now.

But better late than never and thank you for giving me foundational documents that support the work that I'm going to do rather than it just being my lived experience that you know like I said, I tell people I'm a walking living breathing healthcare disparity young mother hypertension father who died of a heart attack mother who had a stroke who think God is better but all of these things realities that that people read and documents I have experienced in my own life. So I'm grateful that I can lead with the personal stories.

But I'm also really glad that at least in my profession, I have foundational mothership organizations that are basically also saying that nursing needs to rise to the occasion. So in my world, I think, yes, this is attainable, it's important. And it's something we have to do in other spaces, I do worry, some of that checkbox mentality is happening. And like, oh, we went to a training and yay, and then you move on with your thing with your life. And it doesn't it's not as impactful as it was on the day that you heard the information, I get the opportunity to find ways to thread this curriculum and to make this a priority. So that my dream is not only nurses of color, but that white nurses will go out and say, I learned something completely different at Boston College. And that is not happening here in this hospital that I'm working in. And I want to be part of creating that change. Or I might have to find a different place to work because it doesn't align with the nursing education that we got at Boston College, and I hope to contribute to that mindset that our students have.

Analiza: I love that your reasoning system change makers, just like you, who was anti system going into systems, how do we then have the motherships also embrace what we want, so that we can be the change? So it's so wonderful. Yeah. Let's move on to lightning round questions. Are you ready?

Leah: Sure.

Analiza: Chocolate or vanilla?

Leah: Vanilla. I like vanilla. Like tea in my tea. I don't eat ice cream because I'm lactose intolerant. But vanilla. Yeah.

Analiza: Cooking or takeout?

Leah: Cooking.

Analiza: Climb a mountain or jump from a plane?

Leah: Climb a mountain.

Analiza: Have you ever worn socks with sandals?

Leah: No, no, it's a fashion faux paus to me.

Analiza: Karaoke skills on a scale of one to 10, 10 being Mariah Carey.

Leah: Nobody would ever want to hear me sing. So my karaoke skills are limited to rap, hip hop, and doing a hip hop track. I would gladly do that because I was actually a hip hop journalist and freelance Hip Hop journalist in a previous life.

Analiza: What's a recent book you read?

Leah: I am currently reading My Grandmother's Hands. And it is a very powerful book. I'm reading it in a book club, I'm a little ahead of my colleagues, because it is such a great book.

Analiza: What's your favorite way to practice self care?

Leah: So sleeping, sleeping and dancing. Two totally different things. But I love dancing and listening or attending live music. And I recently unfortunately, was diagnosed with lung COVID. And fatigue is my unfortunate manifestation of that. So sleeping is very helpful for me.

Analiza: What's really good professional development programming.

Leah: Well, I'm part of this, you know, culture, this COHLI program. And so we just had our big conference. I'm trying to look for an agenda. I don't think it's not on my desk. But that was a very transformative experience to hear from the other cohorts, as well as the other groups underneath the umbrella of that organization and what they're doing with data and what they're doing in terms of like, bringing holes of into colleges and whatnot. So that was really impactful. While we were there, we went to the National African American History Museum, and a bunch of us got to bump into Angela Davis. And that just was like, sign upon sign upon sign of, you're going in the right direction, Leah.

Analiza: What's your definition of a Boss Mama?

Leah: my daughter and I are, you know, we're 19 years apart. And we're very similar in ways and also very different in ways she's been able to experience her youth in ways that I haven't. And just seeing her take, you know, skills from myself and my ex husband and her grandmother and her uncle, and just really creating the human that she is and like supporting that is to me like a boss mom move and to finally get to a place where she and I are really feeling connected with each other because we've led very different lives, you know, but now she's getting older and feeling very connected with each other and looking at her pearls of wisdom. And knowing that some of that came from me, is I think that's Boss Mama.

Analiza: What advice would you give your younger self?

Leah: I think the biggest piece of advice I would give my younger self is like don't listen to those voices in the background. You know, even in my younger years, and as I mentioned, my father passed away and he passed away when I was really young. There were a lot of voices. I grew up in the suburbs as a black person in the suburbs. It was kind of challenging. So a lot of like you're not enough voices, and then just reminding my young self that you are always enough.

Analiza: Where can we find you? LinkedIn anywhere else?

Leah: Yeah, you can find me on LinkedIn, that's probably the best place to find me for my professional stuff. I'm also on Facebook under my name.

Analiza: And last question, do you have a final ask recommendation or any parting thoughts to share?

Leah: Yeah, I think the biggest parting thought I have is, don't feel like, you know, try to find a way to be your own covert agent inside the system, there are ways that we can work with systems for sure. And then there are ways whereas people of color the system, it just feels like we know it's set up to not necessarily work for us. But that doesn't mean that we can't find ways to do that. And then, however, you find the ways to get system to cooperate with you share that wisdom with the person, next to you, beside you, who's coming up behind you, whatever it is, share that wisdom with them so that they don't have to experience the same level of trauma that you've experienced. And if you know that they're experiencing trauma, be there to support them to be a cheerleader and let them know like, Yeah, this is I see what you're seeing. Totally happening. How are we going to get you through this? I want to be there to help you get through this. So being that sort of 10 fingers where you're boosting somebody up.

Analiza: Fantastic. Thank you so much for the stories, Leah, great advice. Thank you.

Leah: Thank you so much for having me. This has been awesome. I really appreciate the time.

Analiza: Thank you so much for carving out time today to hear today's podcast. Three things before you go. First, if you found it helpful, please leave a five star review. Second, please share with someone else you can share the link and posts on Facebook and say check it out. Lastly, I want to thank you for being a listener and you can go to get a free self care bonus called juice your joy at analizawolf.com/freeBonus. Thank you so much.