Making Waves Conversations
Social Justice
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Tim Goldstein – Diversity from a Neurodistinct Perspective
While diversity in the workplace is a common idea particularly in the tech industry, Tim will relate his personal autistic discrimination experience in the tech workplace including being fired multiple times for being different.
Jan Campbell – Finding a Vaccine for Violence
Jan has been working diligently to get in front of the crisis of domestic violence here in Santa Barbara, and working at the state level to understand and learn from the best practices of others....
Reggie Smith III, Ph.D. – The Transformational Power of Distance Learning
Distance learning brings education and training to where students or trainees are connecting their world to worldwide learning communities. This presentation will cover how all of these technologies can transform the world and foster a...
Cooper Bates – Redefining the relationship between Performance, Art, and the Audience in a Sequestered Society.
Cooper Bates produced a one-man show and since sheltering-in-place has had to figure out how to be an actor in a virtual world. We’ll talk about the role of the audience in art and the...
Andreas Forsland, Tim Jin – What Did the Nonverbal Person Say to the Verbal Person?
Cognixion’s goal is to unlock speech for hundreds of millions of people worldwide affected by communication disabilities. We’ll talk with Founder and CEO Andreas Forsland and Tim Jin, a Cognixion Brainiac Council Member, exploring the...
Dr. Keith Witt – Are we at the beginning of something extraordinary?
Dr. Keith has a unique point of view of our culture. He believes that our collective worldview is fraying at the edges, and the process of change we are all experiencing is existentially scary and...
Scott Mann – It’s time to bridge trust and restore social capital.
Scott believes if we’re going to hand this country off to our children better than we found it, we will have to overcome the distrust and disengagement in this country by bridging beyond our groups....
Kerri Murray – Rethinking the Role of Shelter
All of our lives are being affected by Coronavirus in some way, but those living in refugee camps or in makeshift settlements are particularly vulnerable. Shelter is a critical need for people who are simply...
Donna Weng Friedman – Pandemic Empowerment: Finding Resilience in Music and Stories
In collaboration with WQXR, Donna Weng Friedman created Heritage and Harmony, a virtual concert that is both a recognition of the tremendous contributions to the musical canon by classical musicians of Asian descent and a...
Kyra Gaunt, Ph.D – Agree to be offended, then stay connected.
In 1903, W.E.B. Du Bois asked the question, “How does it feel to be a problem?” Day-to-day many of us witness and tolerate marginalization. In this critical juncture in our history, Dr. Gaunt shares lessons...
Lisa Biggs – Empowerment through Education
Lisa Biggs’ day job has her helping educators around the globe understand how maps tell stories about culture, history, and current events. Her passion project is taking storytelling skills and using them to help children.
Shannon Kenny – Humanizing Technology: Feminine Native Traditions and Startup Ideologies
Prontopia is putting the people back in the equation because human services are tragically hard to come by in the digital age. We cannot dismiss the complexities and interdependencies of people, and the earth, as...
Lisa Jones – COVID-19 and Race: Double Emergencies for Women of Color
Women of color face unique health challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. This disproportionate impact on women of color should not be dealt with by women and their families alone.
Than Baardson – Accelerating the Fight Against Human Trafficking and its Root Causes
Human trafficking occurs when a person is forced into service against their will—usually forced work or prostitution. Often one person controls another by exploiting a vulnerability. Than’s organization, UNSEEN, is working through collaboration across a...
Simone Akila Ruskamp, Krystle Farmer Sieghart – Healing Justice
Formed in response to the destabilizing impacts of racism and anti-blackness, we aspire to build resilient communities for the African diaspora and other marginalized people along the Central Coast.
Dr. Harry Grammer – Breaking Down Privilege
Harry was on the 2018 TEDxSantaBarbara stage and returns to talk about the confluence of COVID and Social Justice. We’ll discuss understanding the transformation that needs to happen as we come to grips with the...
Dr. Wizdom Powell, Ph.D., MPH – It’s time for radical healing
Dr. Powell will discuss how the combined impact of COVID-19 and racism is brewing a lethal force of mental health syndemics — or the social patterning of co-occurring disease conditions. COVID-19 has all the ingredients...
Dr. Yonette Thomas – Is racism a public health crisis?
Health encompasses mental, social, economic, and educational success and stability – all of which are eroded by structural racism. If US institutions want to combat racism like the public health issue it is, they need...
Garrett TeSlaa – Rethinking Public Safety
Rethinking Public Safety Peace isn’t the absence of crime, it’s the absence of pain. Garrett addressed many issues related to public safety in this 30-minute conversation. We began with misconceptions the general public has about...
James Joyce III – COFFEE WITH A BLACK GUY
James says we’ve been having conversations about race in Santa Barbara for four years, starting with his Coffee with a Black Guy series. James joins us to talk about the community reaction to the senseless...
