For a long time I have been concerned about our disconnect from one another as human beings. Our histories in the United States indicates that when we work together, we succeed, yet we continue to dehumanize people and communities. How do we create a more just society? How we can come together as human beings? Join me, Dr. Miguel E. Gallardo, as I address ways in which human beings can better understand “the other,” while learning how to create meaningful change. Listen as I have cultural conversations with both professionals and community members about cultural, social, and political issues and what we can do to create more just outcomes while seeing our human connection to one another.
Dr. Parham discusses the intersection of athletes of color, their lived experiences, and the importance of understanding historical context, both in the lives of athletes, but also in the United States. While the U.S. Flag has taken on new meaning for many, Dr. Parham helps listeners recenter and rethink what it truly means for us and for athletes of color representing the United States on the world stage.
William D. Parham, PH.D., ABPP is a Professor in the Counseling Program and Director of the School of Education Center for Trauma Informed Education at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. He is past President of the LMU Faculty Senate, and former Associate Dean of Faculty in the SOE.
Dr. Parham has devoted his professional career to teaching, training, clinical, administrative, and organizational consultation venues. He is a licensed psychologist, Board Certified in Counseling Psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) and Past-President of the Society of Counseling Psychology of the American Psychological Association where he also is recognized as a Fellow in Divisions 17 (Society of Counseling Psychology), 45 (Society for the Study of Culture, Ethnicity and Race) and 47 (Exercise and Sport Psychology).
In addition, Dr. Parham serves currently as the inaugural Director of the Mental Health and Wellness Program of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA). He is a member of the California Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Mental Wellbeing and a member of the California Science Foundation Science of Sport Advisory Committee. He is a past member of the Mental Health and Wellness Task Force of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC).
Dr. Parham is widely known through his scholarship and conversations with domestic and international audiences for his work on the interplay between sport psychology, diversity, intersectionality, trauma, and health psychology.
For more information about Dr. Parham, please click here
Dr. Solórzano discusses what CRT really means and how it is misinterpreted and misused. Dr. Solórzano talks about his five tenets of CRT and how they can help us frame our discussions of CRT moving forward. His five tenets debunk current social and political agendas that guide an erroneous understanding of CRT. This was an interview that I conducted with Dr. Solórzano in August of 2023.
Dr. Daniel G. Solórzano is a professor in the University of California Los Angeles’ Departments of Education and Chicana/o and Central American Studies. He is also the Director of the Center for Critical Race Studies in Education at UCLA. He is an interdisciplinary scholar with research and teaching interests in critical race theory, racial microaggressions and microaffirmations, and critical race spatial analysis. He is the co-author (with Lindsay Perez Huber) of Racial Microaggressions: Using Critical Race Theory to Respond to Everyday Racism (2020), which examines how People of Color are impacted by and respond to everyday racism in the form of racial microaggressions. He is also co-editor (with Michaela Mares-Tamayo) of the award-winning anthology The Chicana/o Education Pipeline: History, Institutional Critique, and Resistance (2018), which traces 45 years of education scholarship in the oldest Chicana/o Studies journal in the U.S.—Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies.
For the last 50 years, Dr. Solórzano has served in all three segments of California’s public postsecondary education. In 2007, Professor Solorzano received the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award. In 2012, Dr. Solórzano was presented with the American Education Research Association (AERA) Social Justice in Education Award. In 2012, Dr. Solórzano was also awarded the Critical Race Studies in Education Association Derrick A. Bell Legacy Award. In 2013, Dr. Solórzano was given the Mildred Garcia Exemplary Scholarship Award from the Association for Studies in Higher Education (ASHE). In 2014, Dr. Solórzano was elected a Fellow of the American Education Research Association.
For more information about Dr. Solórzano, please click here
Gloria Lucas discusses her work at Nalgona Positivity Pride (NPP) and her work to create an in-community eating disorders and body-positive organization dedicated to increasing visibility and resources for Black, Indigenous, Communities of Color (BICC). Rooted in Xicana indigenous feminism and DIY punx praxis, NPP will be launching a Harm-Reduction Eating Disorders program specifically for BICC, which Gloria discusses with me during this episode.
Gloria specializes in intersectional eating disorders education and resources that transform the lives of BIPOC individuals and expand eating disorders treatment models. She is the founder and CEO of Nalgona Positivity Pride. She raises awareness through digital media, public speaking, and grassroots activism.
For more information about NPP, click here
For information about NPP’s Harm-Reduction Program, click here
Dr. Sara Nasserzadeh and I discuss the current events in Iran and what we need to understand about the communities there, what is changing, and what we can do here in the United States to support Iranian communities. Dr. Nasserzadeh also discusses her personal journey and current work with Iranian communities, both locally and globally.
Dr. Sara Nasserzadeh, PhD, is a social psychologist and global thought leader in the fields of couples counseling, cross-cultural fluency, diversity and inclusion. She has practiced across the world, including in London, New York and Palo Alto, and currently in Beverly Hills, California.
Throughout her work, there are several common threads, the most fundamental of which is her belief in “loving many through one” and therefore the possibility of creating world peace one relationship at a time. She has also been a senior cultural advisor and strategic consultant for governments, international NGOs, United Nation-affiliated agencies, Fortune 500 companies, academic institutions, and professional organizations across 38 countries.
For more information about Dr. Nasserzadeh, please click here
Dr. Nasserzadeh provided the following suggestions.
To Support Iranian communities, please consider the following:
Use The hashtags are: #Mahsa_Amini #WomenLifeFreedom #MahsaAmini
Here are some simple steps to help:
Consider supporting NUFDI is also in the right direction: https://nufdiran.org/
They are a non-partisan, non-profit organization representing the Iranian-American community in pursuit of a US policy toward Iran that ensures America’s national security by promoting human rights and democracy. They are not funded by either the US or Iran’s government.
Recently, the United Nations voted for investigation of the crimes happening in Iran (raping the protesters in jails, killing of the unarmed people specially in the province of Kurdistan): https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran which is all thanks to the news being shared and people not keeping silent. You can make a difference. Every voice matters.
Jessica discusses her new award-winning book, THE END OF BIAS—A Beginning: How We Eliminate Unconscious Bias and Create a More Just World. We discuss her own personal journey to understanding unconscious bias, methods to help individuals begin to address their own biases, and some creative programs that have begun to demonstrate promising practices, including with police forces. Jessica helps readers and listeners unpack how unconscious bias works, why it’s so persistent, and, most importantly, reveals successful stories of bias reduction that have the potential to inspire replication everywhere.
THE END OF BIAS—A Beginning:How We Eliminate Unconscious Bias and Create a More Just World
By Jessica Nordell
Metropolitan Books Trade Paperback
August 16, 2022 | $18.99 | 368 pages| ISBN: 978-1250812087
Named a Best Book of the Year by World Economic Forum, AARP, Inc., and Greater Good
Winner, 2022 Nautilus Award
Finalist: 2022 Columbia/ Nieman J. Anthony Lukas Prize for Excellence in Nonfiction, NYPL Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, Royal Society Science Book Prize
For more information about the book: click here
For more information about Jessica: www.jessicanordell.com
Jessica Nordell is an award-winning author, science writer, and speaker known for blending rigorous science with compassionate humanity. She was a 2022 keynote speaker at SXSW. Her first book, The End of Bias: A Beginning, shortlisted for the 2022 Columbia Journalism/Lukas Prize for Excellence in Nonfiction, the 2022 NYPL Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, and the 2021 Royal Society Science Book Prize, is the culmination of fifteen years of reporting and writing on the subject of bias and discrimination and how to solve it, for publications including the New York Times, The Atlantic, and New Republic. The End of Bias was named a Best Book of the Year by the World Economic Forum, Greater Good, AARP, and Inc. and is currently being used by organizations from newsrooms and startups to universities, healthcare organizations, and faith communities to solve their biggest cultural challenges.
Deeply engaged with connecting across differences to expand and heal the human experience, Jessica’s own early-career experience with workplace bias inspired her passion for tackling discrimination and for seeing others in their full complexity and humanity. With degrees in physics from Harvard and poetry from the University of Wisconsin, Jessica undertakes pioneering collaborations across disciplines; her work with computer scientists to simulate the real-world impact of workplace bias became a 2021 viral NYT story. She is the recipient of a Gracie Award from American Women in Radio and Television and was named a Best New Poet by Tracy K. Smith. Jessica is a direct descendent of the last woman to be tried for witchcraft in the state of Massachusetts and is an amateur rock drummer.
Dr. Maria Espinola discusses how her background in human rights led her into a journey to promote health equity. She spoke with me about her work to reduce health disparities through systemic approaches, her public policy efforts to prevent trauma and support trauma survivors, and her work with diverse organizations to promote employee wellness.
Bio: Maria Espinola, Psy.D. is the CEO of the Institute for Health Equity and Innovation, an organization dedicated to reducing healthcare disparities through innovative strategies, educational initiatives, and organizational support. She has a record of successful collaboration with leaders across universities, Fortune 100 companies, non-profit organizations and the three branches of government. She has been a consultant for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and has served on the Ohio Governor’s Commission on Minority Health’s Medical Expert Panel, the University of Cincinnati President’s Diversity Council and the Health Policy Institute of Ohio’s Board of Directors.
Dr. Espinola has received over 25 awards for leadership, health equity initiatives, innovation and community impact. Dr. Espinola has been featured by a wide range of media outlets, including the U.S. News and World Report, ABC News, TeenVogue, CNN and Reuters Health. She completed her doctorate in clinical psychology at Nova Southeastern University, her pre-doctoral internship at the Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology at Boston University Medical Center and her post-doctoral fellowship at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Espinola was born and raised in Patagonia, Argentina.
Personal website: https://www.drmariaespinola.com/
Company’s website: https://www.healthequityinnovation.com/
I had a conversation in unlearning and relearning what it means to remain unfaithful to eurocentrism in my dialogue with marcela polanco. marcela and I discuss the critical role language plays in our understanding of ourselves, others, the world, and the role it plays in the legacies of colonization. If you want to hear about what it means to decolonize and think meaningfully about how you see yourself, others, and your work, take a listen.
Bio: marcela polanco, Ph.D., LMFT
My ancestry es Muisca, African and South European de Colombia. Como inmigrante en los United States (U.S.), I completed a Ph.D. in Family Therapy at Nova Southeastern University (2011). Mi trabajo de supervisión, teaching, research, and therapy in my immigrant English are informed by the Australasian narrative therapy and U.S. Black feminism. En my Español Colombiano y Spanglish, I am particularly interested in Andean decoloniality, anti-racist feminismos and Chicanx borderland activismo as a response to Eurocentrism. I am a practicing licensed Marriage and Family Therapist en los Estados de California and Texas and AAMFT Supervisor.
Jill Fish, Ph.D. is from the Tuscarora Nation of the Haudenosaunee (Hodeneshony) Confederacy of Western New York, where she was born and raised. She received her BA in Psychology and Philosophy from Niagara University, her MS in Mental Health Counseling from the University at Buffalo, and her PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Minnesota. The focus of her research and clinical practice is transforming social institutions to be more just and equitable for Native American and Indigenous peoples. Towards this end, she strives towards the integration of science, practice, and culture in her work, in which she uses innovative story-based strategies, traditional medicines, and cultural modalities of healing to promote the health and well-being of Native peoples. She has been invited to give a TEDx Talk on her work titled, Honoring Indigenous Cultures and Histories. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Care Delivery and Outcomes Research at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System and the University of Minnesota’s Medical School.
Dr. Fish’s Tedx Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/jill_fish_honoring_indigenous_cultures_and_histories?language=en
OrigiNatives: https://www.jillianfish.com/originatives
Vicky Lomay, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist in Arizona. For more than two decades, she has focused on developing and interweaving culturally appropriate methods into her direct clinical work with different tribal communities of the Southwest. Her clinical work includes assessments, evaluations, and individual psychotherapy. She currently works with a tribal health services department in south-central Arizona. She also has a private consulting practice.
Dr. Lomay’s professional contributions include published works on developing and understanding cultural competency in neuropsychological/neurorehabilitation settings and most recently, co-editing a book on understanding Indigenous perspectives of hallucinations, visions, and dreams. Growing up on the Navajo Nation in Northern Arizona, she continues to maintain strong ties to her home community, tribal traditions, and language. The principles and values of her Dinè identity continue to inform and guide her personally and professionally.
APA Interview with Dr. Vicky Lomay: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2020/11/conversation-lomay
Dr. Lomay’s book: https://titles.cognella.com/understanding-indigenous-perspectives-9781516544356
Dani Solorio (they/them) is a renowned herbalist and the founder of Compton Heath Bar, an holistic wellness space in Compton, California. Driven by their mission to bring health to the hood, Dani helps people reconnect to ancestral healing practices through their all-natural herbal remedies. Since 2012, she has been at the forefront of the wellness movement in Compton, as well as for the Latinx and LGBTQ+ community across the country. Dani and their movement to make holistic health more accessible have been featured in a mini-documentary by BESE, along with dozens of features in PBS, Found/LA, Los Angeles Business Journal, Voyage LA, LatinX, and numerous podcasts. She is also the residential herbalist for Telemundo’s hit show, Acceso Total.
Dani discusses who gets to decide what is legitimate healing and how their own work has a deeply rooted, ancestral history, that is often erased and silenced by Western and mainstream outlets when considering evidenced based methods of restoring health and wellness. Indigenous and ancestral healing methods only become a valid source of evidence when it is culturally appropriated by Western and mainstream cultures. They also discuss the importance of treating the whole person, while not blaming them for the health challenges they are facing.
Compton Health Bar has been gracious to offer Cultural Humility Podcast Listeners a 15% discount on all products that can be shared with family and friends. At checkout, please type the word “humility” as the discount code. For more information about the Compton Health Bar, please visit: https://comptonhealthbar.com/
Haner Hernández, PhD, CPS, CADCII, LADCI
Dr. Hernández is Puerto Rican, bilingual and has worked for over 33 years in the health and human service field developing, implementing, and evaluating culturally and linguistically intelligent youth and adult health prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery support programs. He is a master trainer and facilitator and provides individualized technical assistance and support to organizations that provide Substance Use Disorder, Mental Health, and gambling prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery supports. Also, Dr. Hernández has over 30 years of experience in delivering mental health services, addiction counseling and clinical supervision to professionals in the field.
Haner talks with me about Puerto Rican history, the legacies of colonization, and the current relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States. Most importantly, we talk about resilience and resistance, and how Puerto Rican communities continue to survive and thrive in the face of continued oppressions within the context of being a “Territory” of the United States.
https://attcnetwork.org/centers/national-hispanic-and-latino-attc/home