EP 02 Brendon Jobs

Brendon promotes equity and inclusion as Director of Diversity & Inclusion at the Haverford School for Boys. A veteran educator of the Philadelphia School District, Brendon has taught for over 13 years. The first six with scholars at The Philadelphia High School for Girls (Girls' High) before three with the musician scholars at the Girard Academic Music Program (GAMP). He now teaches Modern World History and Modern Black Lives as a member of the Upper School Faculty. His development as an educator has been largely self-directed, but indelibly shaped by experiences as a James Madison Fellow, Lehrman Fellow, a National Constitution Center Annenberg Fellow, an Education Pioneer with the SEED Foundation in Washington D.C., and an active member of Philadelphia’s teacher leader community via work with Teacher Action Group (TAG). In Depth training with Penn GSE's Racial Empowerment Collaborative and the Race Institute informs his approach to building inclusive communities. Brendon also adjuncts history methods at Penn GSE with the Independent School Residency Program. He believes in the power of mentorship and the urgent need for diversification of America's Teacher Workforce. As an on-site consultant for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, he wrote "Diversity in the Teacher Workforce: The Demographic Imperative & Talking about Race in Schools." In 2014, he published the chapter "Productive Mistakes: Teacher Mentorship & Teach for America" in the book Teach For America Counter-Narratives: Alumni Speak Up and Speak Out. Brendon holds a B.A. in Political Science from Columbia University and M.S.Ed. in Teaching, Learning & Curriculum from the University of Pennsylvania.

Resources Mentioned in Episode:

• Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity - https://nationalseedproject.org/

• The White Privilege Knapsack - https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/mcintosh.pdf

• Imani Perry - https://aas.princeton.edu/people/imani-perry

• Mark Bracket - https://www.marcbrackett.com/

• Calendly - https://calendly.com/ (18:20) The Pandemic is A Portal - https://www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca

• George Floyd's Murder in Minneapolis - https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.html

• Birder in Central Park - https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/nyregion/amy-cooper-christian-central-park-video.html

• Building Anti-Racist White Educators - https://barwe215.weebly.com/

• Stamped from the Beginning - https://www.amazon.com/Stamped-Beginning-Definitive-History-National/dp/1568585985

• America's Racial Contract is Showing, The Atlantic - https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/americas-racial-contract-showing/611389/

• Stamped from the Beginning - https://www.amazon.com/Stamped-Beginning-Definitive-History-National/dp/1568585985

• Building Anti-Racist White Educators - https://barwe215.weebly.com/

EP 01 Kobena-Marcus Collins

Featured Guest Bio:

Kobena-Marcus J. Collins is a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

He holds a B.A. in Secondary Education and History from Lake Forest College, and earned a Master of Education in Cultural Foundations of Education from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Kobena's journey to his current role as the Diversity & Inclusion Advisor for Kohl’s and Diversity Recruitment and Strategy Consultant with Bridge Builder Professional Staffing has been a natural and organic one. Kobena is and has always been a leader – a servant leader, leading by example, as has been demonstrated in successfully throughout his professional career, including his leading the recruitment efforts for the start-up and legacy of City Year Milwaukee, a local branch of a leader in the national education space.

In his role as the Recruitment Director, he led with a sense of urgency and a “make it happen” work ethic that was definitely needed in the Start-up phase, and somewhat less so needed in subsequent years, at which time he built stronger systems that could help to sustain the inflow of high quality diverse applications to the site and to the network. Even in this effort, his leadership helped to shape the national network and was recognized to participate in the Executive Training program.

Because he is a servant-leader, he has always been the ‘utility player’, doing whatever needed to be done. As his career in the recruitment space blossomed, he became a leader in the Diversity Recruitment space and was promoted to regional and national positions, managing up to 15 national relationships and another 10 universities in his portfolio. It was here that Kobena began to build his own national brand as a strong relationship developer and manager. It was around this same time that Kobena was introduced to staffing agencies and the work that they do. Reaching back to his roots in service and his experience in local and national diversity. In 2016, Kobena joined the team of recruitment/ talent acquisition professionals at Bridge Builder Professional Staffing, where he was brought on as the Senior Director of Recruitment and Strategy, responsible for talent acquisition/ management and overall strategy for the organization. As he learned and grew within Bridge Builder, his aspirations to do more long term strategy nationally in the diversity recruitment space also grew.

Kobena has held numerous positions in numerous organizations over the past decade, most notably as the National Director for Diversity Recruitment, the Recruitment Director for City Year Milwaukee, Diversity Recruiter for the City of Milwaukee, and most recently Diversity & Inclusion Advisor for Kohl’s Corporate Office. Kobena is also a community speaker/ advocate and a proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. - the first of the collegiate fraternities created for African-American men. “I try to learn as much as I can because I know nothing compared to what I need to know.” - Muhammad Al