Analiza: Welcome to the Women of Color Rise podcast. I'm Analiza Quiroz Wolf, proud Filipino-American executive leadership coach and former CEO of a nonprofit and Captain in the U.S. Air Force. I'm also the author of The Myth of Success: A Woman of Color's Guide to Leadership. It's based on the lessons learned by many women of color leaders, including those on this podcast. We talk with successful CEOs and C-suite women leaders of color and learn about their leadership journeys. I'm on a mission to support having more diverse leaders at the table. If you're a woman or a woman of color who wants to sit at that table, you're in the right place. Now let's get into today's show.

I'm so excited to be with Gloria Lee today. Gloria is a serial social entrepreneur. She's actually working on her new venture now to strengthen communities. It's starting with helping elders to thrive while aging in place. She also teaches graduate students at Stanford and UC, Berkeley. And she's produced films.She's published case studies on international solutions in K 12 education and entrepreneurship. Before she led Educate 78, it's a community organization, K 12 and Cali Oakland. She has worked at new schools of Venture Fund. She's worked at teaching channel, a teaching teacher training platform, and Uming Charter School as well as Aspire.So really senior roles founder roles at these different organizations, and she started her career back at McKinsey, alum of Cornell and Stanford. Thank you so much, Gloria, for being here. Thanks for having me. So Gloria, I'd love to hear how you identify and how has that identity shaped this career path that you have taken?

Gloria: Well, I would say that, given all the news right now about immigration, I definitely identify as a child of immigrants. And I think it's actually really important to call that out because I feel like our nation has really benefited from immigration and immigrants and the children of immigrants.And I think it's been a big part of my own personal journey and in many ways actually contributed to my choices to be an entrepreneur and particularly to be a social entrepreneur.

Analiza: So, Gloria, I wanna talk about your path because I have heard about you since I started in education. Gloria Lee, she's also a Stanford graduate. She's done, business and venture and entrepreneurship and is just a big thinker. And so I've always looked to you as someone who's. Cutting at the cutting edge of what's possible, and you're still doing that even now as you build your new venture with the elderly. One of the things that I recently found out about you is not only have you done all of these amazing ventures, but you've also taken the big step of an entire year spent abroad.So in this bio, you won't see this, but if you look on LinkedIn, you'll actually. Have a year, and I have it pulled up here. Familia Lee Breeden from July, 2021 to August, 2022. Student, traveler, mom, educator, volunteer a whole year understanding other cultures. Attaining proficiency in Spanish serving communities as volunteers. Delicious recipes. I mean, I just want to name this because it's not the typical path, not that you have had a typical path as a social entrepreneur taking a full year off. I mean, it's amazing. So just give us more color on what this gap year was like, or even we called it a gap year.

Gloria: I mean, our family gap year in the 2122 school year is definitely one of the highlights of my life and was a real gift for me and for my husband to take that time with our kids for a whole year.It was a really incredible adventure for us, and literally every day I'm grateful every day.

Analiza: I mean, people could argue, Gloria, you are having so much impact. You have continued to, I mean, I'll call it climb because in terms of impact, you have done that through your career. But to take a year from a social entrepreneur perspective, Gloria, how could you possibly take a year when there's more you can do, there's more impact you can have, there's more ideas you can put into place. You can do that later. Why not wait to continue to build this momentum?

Gloria: I mean, I think you're right and certainly, my husband and I had always talked about this idea of traveling with our, with our kids, right? Because we had done when we were young and single, we had independently done the Euro rail backpacking thing and had when we got married and had kids, wouldn't it be amazing if someday we traveled with our kids And my career was always the reason why we didn't because I always had these amazing opportunities to have an impact and serve communities and I felt like I had something important to do and our kids got older and older every year. And before long we were gonna miss the opportunity to travel with our kids. So. When my younger son finished eighth grade and would've gone into high school, we felt like he didn't have, he wasn't ready for high school.He didn't have the socioemotional maturity for high school. And at the same time, the organization that I had founded and I had been leading Educate 78, which you had mentioned earlier, strategically the right thing to do for the organization was actually to narrow its focus and to shrink the organization and my colleague was the right person to lead the new reshaped organization. So basically I like to lay myself off. I had to decide what I was gonna do next. So the timing worked out really well that I was then able to, I was essentially a free agent, and we felt like if we didn't take this opportunity now and it was the right time for Asher, we would never do it.So we. Basically made the decision and then all the other decisions kind of were like, okay, then how are we gonna, what are we gonna do about our house? What are we gonna do about our kids' school? How are we gonna handle this financially? Then it was basically figuring out how to do it, not if we were going to do it.

Analiza: So Gloria, there is this moment where you buy a gift from this organization, which you had been, and you founded and educate. 78, you have an opening and I imagine being a free agent. Knowing who you are, there were other possible offers on the table or possibilities of people who had talked to you, et cetera.

Were you, were there competing like, if not this trap, then I would, if not this trip, then I would go into this new venture, or was there just like no one could talk to you yet because you'd already decided?

Gloria: Yeah mean, I guess I feel like at the time I was basically focused on making sure that the way we handled the transitions at Educate 78 were done. As well as possible for the purpose of the mission of the organization and the possibility for impact. And once we made a decision, once my husband and I made a decision that we were gonna do this, then it was just all focused on how we do it.

Analiza: Sounds like you and your partner were pretty committed to the dream even before. Right? It helped. Lovely. The foundation, you said that you had gone through, okay, what, here's the difference. Considerations. Could you map us through when you and your partner were sitting down saying, okay, should we do it? Should we not? What were you considering?

Gloria: Well, we really wanted to make sure that our kids got exposed to the big world out there.I mean, we live in a bubble. Yeah. Let's be honest, right? Our kids are living, in the California Bay Area, in a nice house, very comfortably, and we really wanted to make sure that they understood that what we have here is not the way it is in the rest of the world, and we wanted them to have that broader perspective.So we were really committed to the idea that our kids were gonna have more perspective and gratitude, for what they have. And of course, we love to travel, so there absolutely was that. We wanted to have that opportunity. The hard things are of course, job mine, we already talked about that income, right? So not having an income for a year is obviously challenging. We live really frugally on a regular basis. So we had accumulated some savings that we were able to use. And we were able to rent our house that allowed us to offset the cost of our trip. So that was helpful. And the biggest thing that I was worried about when we traveled was my parents are older and we're in declining health, and so I was actually worried about that. But fortunately my sister was really close to my parents and they had an excellent caregiver who was supporting them.So, that kind of put my mind a little bit at ease. But, and in the end once we talked about it, it was kind of a no brainer. It was the right time for our family. So, why not?

Analiza: So you walked through financially, you walked through caregiving, you walked through your job situation.Let's talk about the kids. So how old was Asher? How, I know you have another son and how were their ages. Play into that. How did their activities play into that? How was their schooling? You said, Asha wasn't quite ready for high school, but I will like, how did you consider the kids in this decision?

Gloria: Well, so our kids were, 14 and 16 okay. During our gap year. And so Corbin had just finished his 10th grade year. Asra, as I mentioned, had just finished eighth grade, and I think we were lucky because they are both introverted boys who are not in organized sports.So the many, the typical kind of concerns about taking teenage kids, out of their context, out of their social context for a year were less, was less of an issue. Not that they didn't have concerns, but I think there was less pushback from them than I think other teenagers I know would have had.Also, Asher, both the kids had gone to main Charter school, which was a man immersion charter school that I had co-founded with Abu Bunch of other families. An amazing school, and it's a countywide benefit charter, which basically means that the kids come from all over and when they leave eighth grade, they go to high schools all over] the place, which basically meant that for Asher, there wasn't this like, oh, I have to stay with my friends. 'Cause his friends from school, from elementary school and middle school were kind of going all over the place. He wasn't gonna be in a high school with all his classmates anyway. Corbin had made the decision after eighth grade to go to Stanford Online high school, which was a hundred percent online high school. He did that because he wanted that academic rigor. He was comfortable with an online environment. Now this, mind you, he made this decision in summer of 2019. So his freshman year was 1920. Before COVID, normalized online school, right? So in many ways he was prescient, right? And of course, in the freshman year, his school didn't miss a beat because they were already configured to do online. The other thing that's characteristic of the school is that classes are typically multi-grade anyway, because they're mastery based and so he also didn't have this feeling like, oh, I have to stay with my class of whatever, 2025, like it was okay for him to graduate at a different time.And like I said, they were not in organized sports which I think is another big factor for many American teenagers that affects their willingness to be flexible and stuff like that. So both my boys were like, okay, okay. Asher basically said, well, if I don't have to go to school, then I'm, then that's then, then I'll go basically. And Corbin was kind of excited about the idea. And then of course the decision was about how we handle schooling. And in the end, what we decided to do was to basically have our kids pick up where they left off when they came back. So, Asher had finished eighth grade before we left. When we came back, he started ninth grade.Asher Corbin had finished 10th grade. When we came back, he started 11th grade. We did not try to cover 11th grade. Chemistry standards while we were traveling. And even though Corbin technically could have, because he was in an online school, we wanted the focus to be on seeing the world and experiencing what there was to experience out in the world and talking to people there.And, we didn't wanna. Be in a situation where we'd be like, oh, we're, we're going to the Taj Mahal and you have an English final, or whatever. So, we basically just pulled the kids outta school. Then we actually technically, I filled out paperwork for the Libre School of the World, or registered California homeschool, in case we needed to kind of have paperwork about the kids being in school. In the end it didn't, it didn't really, we world schooled them essentially for that year. And there actually is a whole community of, of families that do this.They feel like they learned a ton.

Analiza: Gloria, I'm so happy that you brought in the kids, your mother. I know you care a lot about your children, so you plan this trip and you're thinking about it. I want our kids to actually experience more of the real world and want them to have a sense of gratitude.So then how do you go about planning the trip? Is it. One month here, this objective there. I know you care about Spanish immersion, like how do you set objectives when you're like, I want gratitude and I want them to see a more broad perspective and talk to people. Was there an objective? And how do you plan therefore, based on those objectives, if any?

Gloria: So well there are a couple things that are important here. So, the year that we travel is the 21-22 school year. So it was basically that second year of COVID, when a lot before vaccines came out, right? So there were lots of travel restrictions. Lots of places were closed. Health considerations were real. Very few people were traveling. So it was actually a really different time to be traveling. But in terms of our goals, we decided, for example, that we were gonna travel mostly in the global south. And again, that's to really give our kids that kind of perspective.And also because frankly, Budget. We didn't wanna be spending a lot of money because we were living. We didn't wanna be traveling in very high cost areas. We were spending a year, we wanted to travel in some of the lower cost areas. So we really focused on the global south. We spent the first four months in Costa Rica. Originally we were gonna go to rural Ecuador or something like that. We decided we wanted to go to a Spanish speaking country, do Spanish immersion. Our kids were at Umming, so they were getting Mandarin immersion, but we feel like Spanish is also a really important language.So,a Spanish speaking country. Because it was still COVID times the health infrastructure. The public health infrastructure in Costa Rica is much more robust than in Ecuador. So we felt like it'd be safer to go there. So we had a wonderful time there. We spent the first month, living with a host family and taking immersion classes and it's a host family that normally hosts college students. So, my host mom is my age. and actually next week I'm actually gonna go back to Costa Rica and do another week of spanish immersion and live with them again. So. But, so that's an example. And we spent the first, so when we spent the first time in Costa Rica as kind of a, just a different environment, we spent a long time there so we could actually get kind of used to living not in our home. And then we basically went to Central and South America. We all had a big backpack and a little backpack. And then after that we went to south Asia, a little bit of MENA and a little bit of Europe. So that was kind of our itinerary. But in terms of the goals around kind of seeing different things, like I said, we deliberately, we were doing more independent travel. We were figuring stuff out more on the fly. We were not doing packaged tours for the most part. We were staying in more low budget places. We were trying to meet people where we visited instead of staying isolated in tourist areas and. We did a couple of service projects, one on a, kind of in a turtle sanctuary in Costa Rica and one in an elephant sanctuary in Cambodia. We would've done more, I think service projects had it not been COVID times. But, we really were trying to get our kids exposed to all these different things.

Analiza: I mean, it sounds incredible. And I'm curious because when you say we wanted to talk to people, and I understand with COVID, there's all sorts of weirdness happening and restrictions happening.

What does that look like? So are you at a restaurant and you are. Or are you at the street market? Like how do you talk to people? What does that even mean?

Gloria: Yeah, so this is where my husband, who is super bold and also charming, really, was helpful. He had this routine where he would just chit chat with people and then he would ask them about their favorite foods.

And this was typical, for example, In Latin America, he would then say something like, oh, my favorite is chicharone. Basically, fried pork. And he would say, oh, do you make great? Do you make good chicharone? Or does your wife, or does your mom make great chiros?Depending on the demographics of the person. And of course they'd be like, yes, my wife makes great Chi Rose. And then he would say, great, what time is dinner? And some portion of the time, surprisingly high proportion of the time, the person would be like, oh. Actually, yeah, let's find time for you to come over for dinner. So we were actually able to actually dine in people's homes occasionally in places and get to know people better. And it was lovely.

Analiza: That's such a good story. What a charming person your partner is. I'm also imagining that in these service projects, you got to build community too.I mean, these are amazing, the turtles and the elephants. Could you talk about those types of experiences and what they meant for the community or what they meant for perspective?

Gloria: Yeah, I mean, so, well, interestingly, both my kids seem like they're headed towards, they have interest in conservation. And it could be because during our travels we did that kind of work and realized how precious, how beautiful, how incredible and how precious nature is. So my older son is now majoring in sustainability in the environment and my younger son now wants to be a marine biologist and do conservation. So, I do feel like that it might have something to do with that. That's beautiful.

Analiza: So I wanna go through this, this plan. So did that this was gonna be Costa Rica, central, south, Southeast Asia?Like it was, had this been mapped and you bought all the plane tickets? Like did you buy that round the world? I think there's like a package that you can buy, or was it, let's go to this next place and then we'll figure it out. How did this evolve? And I get it's COVID, so it's also that kind of restriction.You're also having to navigate.

Gloria: Well, so that's the thing is that, because it was COVID times, we were forced to travel much more spontaneously than I normally would've. Like I'm totally a planner. My husband was very comfortable being spontaneous, but I am totally a planner. If it had been me and it had been normal times, we would've had that round the world.I would've had the entire itinerary mapped. I would've been all planned out. Actually, because it was COVID, we didn't actually know which places wouldn't be open and when. And so basically after the Costa Rica segment, we were literally going country by country. We were like, okay, we're starting out in Ecuador. And then, from there we'll figure it out. Right? We had a couple of things that we started booking. So like we booked Machu Picchu, 'cause you have to book that in advance. Although it turns out you didn't really, because nobody else was traveling at that time but, we landed in Cambodia.We didn't know we were gonna be next because that was during the Omicron surge in early 2022. And literally every other country in that whole region was completely closed. So we just didn't know where we were gonna go next. So we kind of waited and we traveled around and we saw, and then, Thailand basically said that they were reducing the quarantine restriction from one week down to a day if you pass it, if you pass the COVID test. And so we're like, okay, let's take a risk. We'll go, we'll go to Thailand next, right? So again, it is not at all how I would normally travel.

Analiza: Well, if you were to do it, say two years from now, we're gonna plan a trip, you're gonna rip the cord and go again, would you be as spontaneous or would you say, okay, look, there's a more efficient way to do this. I would do this differently.

Gloria: I think it was amazing that we could travel spontaneously. I know that the reality is that for some. Things that you would want to see in any particular country. Sometimes you do have to plan ahead. Mm-hmm. Right. Like Machu Picchu is an example where in normal times that, they only have a certain number of passes. And if you don't book well enough in advance, you're not gonna be able to go. So, there are things like that, that you would have to book in advance. But I have to say there were huge advantages to traveling spontaneously, including being able to flex our schedule like we were. So we did, we were doing a tour of the Great Pyramids in Egypt and we met these guys from Lebanon, who were wonderful and they're like, Hey, come to Lebanon. Come hang out with us in Lebanon. And Lebanon was not on our original plan or itinerary. It wasn't on our wishlist of countries to visit, but we Said, sure. And we shifted our schedule and we went to visit them in Lebanon and they took us, showed us around, and it's a beautiful country with lovely people and great food and we had a wonderful time and we would not have done that had we had a rigid schedule, so, so I'm actually really grateful in a way that COVID kind of forced us to travel much more spontaneously.

Analiza: Gloria, when you think you said this earlier every day, I'm really grateful that we took the trip. It's like an everyday reflection. Can you talk about impact on your career, impact on your family, impact on your boys, generally speaking, what was the impact?

Gloria: It was amazing for us, all of us as individuals and all of us in our relationships with each other. I mean, it strengthened my marriage, it strengthened my relationships with my two boys. It strengthened us as a family unit. The time for our kids to mature and the experiences that gave them an opportunity to mature.To encounter kind of light hardships, but that they persevered through, like that happens when you're traveling. Right. The shared memories of both the adventures and the misadventures that happened, like, the impact for us as a family was completely positive.Which is amazing when you think about it because we literally spent an entire year, like the four of us together the entire year, 24 7. So the fact that we all really like each other as much, if not more, is actually, it says something. So,that's great. And then in terms of my career. I mean, I don't, I don't have a counterfactual, right?So I don't know whether it has negatively or positively affected my career. Certainly a sabbatical of any type. Time away gives you some perspective. I came back and I wanted to do a little bit more work on international education and I did a project for the Center on Reinventing Public Education, looking at International Solutions in K 12. And that was really wonderful and really an opportunity for me to kind of continue to think, in terms of global solutions. So I probably wouldn't have done that. Had it not been for the gap year. Now that I'm teaching, I'm actually making a really much more deliberate effort to integrate international cases into my curriculum and to bring in a more global perspective, for the students.And I think that is helpful that I had that experience. I do think it has changed me. I don't know if it's changed the arc of my career.I guess it is because I wouldn't be doing the kinds of things that I'm doing if I hadn't had the sabbatical time.

Analiza: So Gloria, people listening, including myself, are very inspired and want to do this. Also, you have had many big jobs and care a lot about impact. What advice would you give? What advice would you give for those of us who look to you and say, I wanna do a trip like this? Something bold. What? Wait. What pieces of advice would you give us?

Gloria: I would just say like, yes, do it. I would just give encouragement, right? Because I actually do feel like that in our society there are certain expectations and there are people like me. It's easy to find the reasons why you shouldn't do it. So yeah, I would just really encourage you and whoever else is interested too. To basically find the reasons to do it and to figure out the how.

Analiza: If I were to ask you the nitty gritty, you don't have to gimme specific dollar amounts, but look, it costs a lot of money, right? And maybe we can rent our house and maybe we can handle a year without income, but any, any budget considerations or any ways that that could be not daunting, like. This is absolutely not possible. Any thoughts here on budget?

Gloria: Well, I would tell you that, so we live in the San Francisco Bay area, which is one of the most expensive parts of this country to live in. We were able to rent our house for a kind of break even, basically. So it covered the mortgage and then all the other costs.We actually spent less traveling because in part because we're traveling in the global south than we would have had we been living here. Which seems crazy to think about, right? But we live in the Bay Area. What can I say? Stuff is expensive here.

Analiza: Gloria, I have to say that again. So you spent less than you would have had you stayed. Like, is that really true? You saved, I mean, that's crazy. Yeah. That's amazing.

Gloria: Yeah. I mean, we'll think about it, right? We would say in Airbnbs that were $30 a night as an example, and occupancy rate, given our mortgage here is higher than that. So, just on housing alone, you can kind of see how there would be that difference.

Analiza: Mm-hmm. Right.

Gloria: Mm-hmm. That's wonderful. Yeah.

Analiza: And I wanna ask this question because there's many things I've asked you how to actualize your takeaways were, can you share a highlight, just one of the highlights on this trip that you're like, you fondly look back at, oh my God, there's so many highlights.

Gloria: Oh my God, it's hard to pick one. We went scuba diving in the Red Sea, and we saw two octopi mating. Wow. Outside. And it's really, and it's really hard to see Octopi so amazing. And, they're also camouflage. So we kind of swam up the dive person was just like, look there and you couldn't quite tell, 'cause we had just approached and they had like camouflaged themselves, but then we kind of stayed there and then you could kind of see them morph into a different color and texture and shape.And then you saw the one octopus kind of go like this. And like to put its tentacle around the other.It was amazing.

Analiza: It was really amazing. I'm a scuba diver, but you're so lucky you saw that they're so hard to see and let alone who let alone mating, so Wow. Yeah.

Gloria: It was really, yeah. It was amazing. But, actually a lot of our highlights were like incredible vistas in nature. Right. The Andes, the Himalayas, the glaciers in Patagonia. A lot of 'em were, had to do with wildlife.Penguins, elephants, leopards in Rajasthan, creepy crawly critters at night, walks in Costa Rica. Like, so just, super amazing stuff. And, some of the highlights were, for me personally, just the time with my kids. And, those little times where they're sweet with each other or they're cracking each other up or those are the times that it warms your mom, the mom's heart, right? When you like, see your kids actually being sweet with each other or getting along or just having fun together.

Analiza: Beautiful. All right. I've asked you so many questions. We're gonna have lightning round, chocolate or vanilla?

Gloria: Chocolate.

Analiza: Cooking or takeout?

Gloria: I love to cook, so I always cook.

Analiza: Climb a mountain or jump from a plane?

Gloria: Mountains. We did a lot of that, and the views are beautiful.

Analiza: How would you rate karaoke skills on a scale of one to 10, 10 being Mariah Carey.

Gloria: So I took singing lessons with my son several years ago. So I have a couple of songs that I can sing, so maybe five or six.

Analiza: What's a recent book you read?

Gloria: The last novel that I read for fun was Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Uh, 'cause we had a wedding to go to in Columbia during our trip and read books that were set in or written by authors from that country. So I continued that.

Analiza: What's a good professional development you've done?

Gloria: So honestly, I think that anytime that you learn, anytime I learn something new is great professional development. So, I really try to kind of sprinkle. Interesting little classes here and there. In my life, like this last year, we took a wood lathing class and a blacksmithing class. Like I said, I'm taking Spanish again next week with a few surfing lessons thrown in there.I feel like any, any time you're learning is mind expanding, produces interesting, allegories for leadership and teaching and learning, and. Sparks creativity. What is your definition of a boss mama? I think a boss mama is somebody who helps other people reach their potential through nurturing and support and pushing in the right combination.

Analiza: What advice would you give your younger self?

Gloria: So when I was younger, I was very task oriented. And I was very productive. And I think that I would encourage my younger self to maybe balance out a little bit more with less emphasis on tasks and a little bit more emphasis on people.

Analiza: Hmm. And then where can we find you? Like LinkedIn, anywhere else?

Gloria: I think I'm not very good with social media. I should just say. So I have an Instagram account that I use when we are traveling, but I really haven't posted anything since. So it's not very helpful.

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

Gloria: No, I think you've asked all the good questions.

Analiza: Oh my gosh, Gloria, what a conversation. Thank you so much for the detail and inspiration. I want to do this. I'm saying that out loud in public, like I wanna Yeah. Hokey do. So I so appreciate you modeling this for us and making it seem like it's doable.

Gloria: Thank you. Thank you, thank you. It's totally doable. I really hope you do it.

Analiza: Thank you so much for carving out time to hear today's podcast. 3 things before you go. First, if you found it helpful, please leave a five star review. Second, you can get a free chapter of my book, The Myth of Success: A Woman of Color's Guide to Leadership at analizawolf.com/freechapter. And lastly, if you're interested in executive coaching, please reach out to me at analiza@analizawolf.com. Thank you so very much