In this episode, LISC's Interim CEO & President, Lisa L. Glover, interviews LISC board member, Michelle de la Uz who is also the Executive Director of the Fifth Avenue Committee in Brooklyn, NY. The conversation highlights the work of the Fifth Avenue Committee around COVID, environmental initiatives and climate change, community advocacy, and affordable housing. It’s a great conversation that celebrates the importance of community partnerships in an ever-changing urban landscape.

For our latest Community Wise podcast, LISC COO Annie Donovan caught up with Gregory B. Fairchild, the Isidore Horween Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business and a member of LISC's national board of directors. Fairchild also recently published “Emerging Domestic Markets: How Financial Entrepreneurs Reach Underserved Communities in the United States.”

In our most recent podcast, which honors two of the most oft-invoked figures of African American history, Maurice A. Jones speaks with Kenneth B. Morris, Jr., the great-great-great-grandson of Frederick Douglass, and the great-great-grandson of Booker T. Washington. Morris co-founded the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives (FDFI), an anti-racist and abolitionist education organization whose mission is to build strong children and end systems of exploitation and oppression. Erica Mock, the group’s VP of strategic partnerships, joins this fascinating and personal conversation about the origins and work of FDFI and the future of social justice work in America.

This month, Maurice is joined by Connie Lewin, Director of Individual Philanthropy, to discuss the launch of Project 10X, LISC’s initiative to upend the racial health, wealth and opportunity gaps that keep tens of millions of Americans from sharing in our country’s prosperity and realizing their personal potential.

In this episode, Maurice interviews Paul Taylor, director of the RVA League for Safer Streets in Richmond, Virginia. The League was founded in 2017 by Paul, and the late Jawad Abdu, both returning citizens, to address issues of gang violence in their communities. Before stepping foot on a court, participants attend workshops on problem solving, critical thinking and conflict resolution.

In the first episode of 2020, Maurice speaks with LISC COO Annie Donovan about her journey before coming to LISC, lessons learned from community development finance and the continuous success of the CDFI model.

Following the discussion of Play Ball Again, Maurice reflects on 2019, the year ahead and the goal we are all tasked with…to make the impossible possible. Thanks for another great year and we hope you will tune in in January!

In this episode, Maurice is joined by Esther Udehi, a member of LISC’s Emerging Leaders Council and a PhD candidate at the Wharton School. Esther and Maurice discuss how language choices affect our interactions with people and the communities where we work. By putting personhood before circumstance and choosing words that do not further stigmatize, we can bring about real change and support greater inclusion.