We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!
Dr. Tanisha Williams is a plant ecologist and botanist, as well as founder of #BlackBotanistsWeek, an online initiative to “promote, highlight, and create a safe place for Black people who love plants.”
Nature talked with the Washington, D.C. native about her inspirations, her hopes for the future and what’s next for #BlackBotanistsWeek.
Q: Tell us a little bit about your background and what sparked your love of nature and plants. Was your family particularly interested in nature?
Tanisha Williams (TW): I was born and raised in Washington, D.C. I have always had a love for nature. My family nurtured that love through hiking and camping trips throughout D.C., Maryland and Virginia. I was also exposed to nature through my local Girl Scout organization. My troop leader took us on a number of camping trips that all included epic hikes to beautiful overlooks and waterfalls. I attribute my love for plants to my great grandmother. She kept beautiful plants all throughout our home. My favorite plant memory is of touching the fuzzy leaves of the African violets!
Q: How long have you been interested in plant ecology? Tell us a bit about your work.
TW: My plant ecology interests really took off during my PhD at the University of Connecticut. I am passionate about conserving biodiversity, which includes how plants will respond to the great impacts they are currently experiencing and projected impacts due to human-caused climate change. One way to assess plant responses to climate change is to use herbarium records, dried plant collections. I have used such records to study how flowering has changed over the past century in a native South African plant genus called Pelargonium. Temperatures during this time period have increased by almost 3 oC and plants have responded by flowering a week early.
Q: How did Black Botanists Week start? Was it part of the #BlackBirdersWeek momentum and/or #BlackAFinSTEM to ensure representation in these fields of study and recreation?
TW: Yes, Black Botanists Week stemmed from Black Birders Week/BlackAFinSTEM, and the events leading up to this week. I participated in Black Birders Week and felt a sense of joy. It was nice seeing so many Black people enjoy nature, hiking, and birding. I wanted to bring that joy and representation to the botanical fields.
Q: What was going through your mind during the Christian Cooper birdwatching in Central Park aftermath? Have you had incidents or experiences like that?
TW: It was the same thing that always goes through my mind when these traumas happen: 1. I hope they make it out of this situation alive, and 2. How many more Black people have to be traumatized and/or killed before enough is enough?
Thankfully, I have not had someone falsely call the cops on me while in an outdoor space.
Q: Tell us more about Black Botanists week: is there a team behind it? What has the response been? What sort of events do you organize?
TW: I couldn’t have done this without the help from the Black Botanists Week committee members. There are twelve committee members from the United States, United Kingdom and South Africa. We pride ourselves in having a committee as diverse as the plants we love. We have members from within and outside of academia, and at many different career stages.
We have received nothing but positive praise and support from individual people and organizations. We know there is a need for representation and are making Black Botanists Week an annual event to celebrate Black people who love plants. We have also partnered with Holden Forests and Gardens to put on a lecture series, titled “Growing Black Roots: The Black Botanical Legacy.” This series is held online every second Wednesday of the month at 7 pm EST.
Q: More about your hopes for the field: What advice do you have for people looking to get into natural history fields of study or who aren’t sure how to explore their love of nature? What would you like to see happen with regards to making the outdoor industry and environmental space more diverse?
TW: I hope people will connect with us and other groups that are promoting diversity in botany and other environmental fields. Our group is active on Twitter @BlkBotanistsWk. I also encourage people to look locally. There are often clubs at a nearby botanical garden, museum, etc. that you can reach out to. Find out what their members are doing and how you can get involved.
I hope the outdoor and environmental industries want to make a change and see the value in having diverse representation. I hope that representation is seen not only on a brochure but also at every level throughout the organization. In this great age of information, organizations have access to many diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) trainings and tools to help erase biased practices and create an antiracist environment. Lastly, I hope initiatives, like Black Botanists Week, continue to highlight the wonderful contributions diverse groups add to the outdoor industry and environmental space.
Q: What do you want everybody to know about your passion?
TW: Plants are amazing organisms! People forget that every aspect of our lives is dependent upon plants: air, food, water, medicine, etc. etc. etc.!!
We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!
Pennsylvania House Democratic Leader Joanna McClinton was first elected in 2015 to serve communities in west and southwest Philadelphia, as well as Yeadon and Darby in Delaware County.
As a state lawmaker she has made history twice! First in 2018 when she became the first woman and first African American to be elected as House Democratic Caucus Chair, and again in 2020, when she was the first woman elected House Democratic Leader in the institution’s 244-year history.
A lifelong resident of southwest Philadelphia and graduate of Grace Temple Christian Academy, she became active in her community while completing an internship with radio station WDAS. Later, she studied Political Science and Leadership in Global Understanding at La Salle University. After earning her degree, she enrolled at Villanova University School of Law, interning at Regional Housing Legal Services, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office and the Defender Association of Philadelphia.
She was an assistant public defender for seven years and became assistant chief of the East Zone during her last year, helping attorneys with case preparation.
In 2013, Leader McClinton combined her passion for public service and law by becoming chief counsel to state Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, where she worked behind the scenes to develop policy and legislation; organize expungement fairs and public policy forums; and assist constituents.
Leader McClinton has earned several distinctions for her commitment to public service including City and State PA’s 40 Under 40, Power of Diversity: Black 100, and Above & Beyond lists, the Barristers’ Association of Philadelphia’s Outstanding Young Lawyer of the Year award, Fun Time Magazine’s Women of Influence Award, the PRE-K for PA Champion award, the Lucien E. Blackwell Guiding Light Community award, the Black Gala Women of Excellence; and Politico Recast’s Power List 2022.
We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!
Black Voices in Landscaping–an interview with a landscaping business owner.
DEP recently had the pleasure of interviewing Al M Britt, II, founder and president of Britt Landscaping, a black owned, local small business in Montgomery County, Maryland. We were interested to learn about his journey, as black landscapers are under-represented in the industry.
Al M Britt, II, President of Britt Landscaping
Please tell us a little bit about your company and your journey in the landscaping industry.
My brother and I started mowing our neighbor’s yards in Silver Spring, Maryland to make a little money for ourselves, but after a couple of years he grew tired of it and stopped. I enjoyed working outside and making people’s lawns in the neighborhood look beautiful so I kept going. My siblings and I are artistic at heart. I express myself through nature, so it was natural for me to learn how to design the yards that people wanted and install the appropriate flowers for them. My sister is an amazing illustrative artist and she designed my first logo. She also helped me with the administration of my business. After a few years of this, around 1989, my mother saw that I was serious about my work, so she helped me incorporate into a company and do everything I needed to do to set up a business. Thus, Britt Landscaping was born as a family-based business. When I graduated from BCC, I went to Montgomery College where I majored in Landscaping. By 1990, people loved the work that we did so much that my clientele grew by word-of-mouth up to 200 customers made up primarily of single-family homes. By 2000, I added Homeowner Associations and some commercial properties.
In 2012, Britt Enterprises LLC was formed with a Doing Business As (DBA) Britt Landscaping and a DBA Work Environment Specialists, and our clientele expanded to local and federal government-owned lands. The business obtained its 8(a) certification and is certified as a MBE/DBE/SBE in the state of Maryland. It is also registered in the Maryland Local Small Business Reserve Program (“LSBRP”).
Today our services include: lawn health & care maintenance, landscape design and installation, bio-retention site maintenance, erosion control, fertilizing, lawn restoration, Spring & Fall clean-up, pruning, trimming, mulching, gutter cleaning, hedge trimming, hauling, snow & ice management and removal, building small hardscapes and medium to small ponds, pesticide application, and more. We are always looking to expand our services too, with the right people on board.
Britt Landscaping started as a small family business rooted in family values that include, but are not limited to, excellent work-ethic, respect, trust, care and support. As we expand, we endeavor to maintain these values by taking care of our employees so that they and their families are healthy, happy and thriving. This allows our employees to bring their very best to work, taking care of our customers by not only meeting but surpassing customer expectations.
What commitments do you make in your hiring decisions?
When I am hiring people, I am committed to training them to succeed with us as leaders and within in this industry. Everyone should have a skill that they can depend on to survive and make a living. We do beautiful work and we have to train new employees (no matter what they say their experience level is) to get them up to our standards so that we can maintain and improve our standards as well as grow our customer base.
I am also committed to creating a diverse and supportive work environment where employees and their families can thrive. Happy and secure employees bring their best to the table creatively and through good work ethic. We try to foster a work environment that is free from discrimination and that allows people to express themselves creatively, especially through nature.
My biggest challenge is finding people who want to work outside in nature, especially in the extremes of heat and cold in this area, but I love it out here.
What, if any, challenges do you feel you have had to overcome as a black owned business in the landscaping industry?
One of the challenges we have faced is hiring Black and Brown people interested in investing in careers in this industry. Maybe I am wrong but I think that because of our history here, it has been my observation that many Black and Brown people view careers such as this (farming, agriculture) as oppressive and exploitive so they are not running to work outside within the landscaping industry. Landscaping is a billion-dollar industry in which we may all take part, and we at Britt Landscaping are seeking to show Black and Brown people that this work is quite rewarding. In addition to the potential economic benefits, there are other tangible and intangible benefits. Your office is the outdoors and we work with nature! It can be a very humbling experience to see the beauty and even divinity in how nature looks and works. Moreover, having people skilled in growing and maintaining plants has the potential to stabilize communities, but finding people interested in investing in careers in this industry has proven to be quite the challenge at least in this geographic area. Finding large numbers of women is also difficult in this industry. We are looking to form Britt Landscaping Teams of women (of any race) because most of my clients are women, but it is difficult to get women out here too.
Some other challenges we have had to overcome as minorities in this business include finding effective contacts and getting contracts. I look at some of my non-minority peers who have been able to obtain very large contracts and clients by sometimes just walking into the room. Often non-minorities have contacts that I just don’t have, so it takes a lot more networking for me to meet the contacts that I need, and then I have to really convince them to give us a chance. Many of us minority business owners just don’t have the same circle of contacts that non-minorities have. Often times, my non-minority counterparts may have grown up with the people who are now the corporation owners or heads in government, so they have a leg up on obtaining contracts because of who they know, particularly in the private sector.
I have actually had an older white male who is an investor, who knew nothing about me, tell me that I have not worked hard enough and then proceed to tell me how he had to struggle and put himself through a particular community college (outside of this area), and how he had to work his way up and in a relatively short amount of time, built a large well-known corporation, and sold it for millions of dollars, etc. It was immediately apparent that he was not capable of understanding that his comments showed a lack of sensitivity to a core issue and problem for Black and Brown people. his perspective came from a point of privilege that allowed him to be able to walk into a room and receive a contract because of how he looked and who he knew. So, I certainly have had to deal with insensitive people who don’t care to understand that I have had to work 10 times harder to get a fraction of what they have obtained by simply walking into the room.
Part of the progress that must be had for minority businesses like mine to succeed is that people have to come to understand that extending the invitation into “the room” is needed, but being seriously considered and offered the opportunity is the next necessary step. We can get into the room all day, but if people still turn their back on us then we are no better off. People who see these steps, (the invitation and the offer), as a hand-out fail to understand that I and businesses like mine, still have to do excellent work to actually get the contract and keep it. Minority businesses are not asking for a hand-out but we sometimes need a hand-up. Think about it like this: If you have ever seen or run a race around a track, you know the starting points for the racers are staggered. That staggering is to put the racers on equal ground because some circles are inherently advantageous to run on than the others. The staggering makes the race equal. The racers can run the same race and no one has a starting advantage over another. Minority-owned companies are only asking for the chance to run an equal race.
This is what drives my commitment to creating a work environment of equality for men and women of any race, national origin, or sexual orientation within my company, because I know what it feels like to work hard and do what is required but still face discrimination because of peoples’ perceptions of me based on how I look.
Has anything else been unique in your business journey?
One of the things we try to do is give back to our community. Through donations we have supported various civic organizations that support children and the arts. We also have worked with Returning Citizens in Washington, D.C. and Maryland to provide jobs to people who are returning to society after being incarcerated. We strongly believe in arming people with skills that they can use to survive in this world regardless of their backgrounds or mistakes they might have made.
What do you think government or community leaders can do to support businesses like yours?
Montgomery County Government actually does a lot for minority-owned businesses and we are blessed to be in this county. They have programs that assist with hiring through the state’s Department of Labor and there are a plethora of non-profit organizations that assist with business startup. Even though they provide these services, there just are not a lot of people who are interested in investing in a career working in landscaping. Even with these resources, we still struggle with hiring qualified dependable people. But I do believe that Montgomery County and the state of Maryland make it fairly easy to start up a business and they do provide excellent resources to business owners, especially compared to other nearby jurisdictions.
What do you think educational institutions, trade organizations, or communities can do to encourage more minorities to become leaders and experts in the landscape industry?
Perhaps these institutions can host even more hiring forums like the federal government does where people interested in this industry can come and meet landscaping companies who will hire them. They can also hold sessions to educate people on today’s industry to get the stigma off of it that comes with the history of black and brown people working outside in nature. They can also go into schools and talk to juniors and seniors about the industry and really talk about how these skills are necessary to stabilize communities. Colleges can publicize more about their internship programs that they may have with landscaping companies so that the companies know they have them.
Tell us about how you incorporate environmentally friendly practices into your services and why that matters to you.
We recycle everything meaning we compost all yard waste and recycle anything else that we haul away. We educate our clientele on recycling as well. As much as possible, we try not to use chemicals. We are working towards getting solar powered equipment but that will take time. A part of our mission is also to be good stewards of the environment. Our habits and practices are certainly in alignment with the environmental policies of the state of Maryland and local Counties, and we are always committed to looking for additional ideas and ways to be gentle with our environment.
DEP would like to thank Al for this enlightening interview! We hope you have learned something and encourage you to get involved in the landscaping industry if you enjoy working with people, plants, landscape design, project management, being outdoors, and exploring a variety of properties.
We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!
Glenn LaRue Smith is a natural born artist. His medium, however, extends beyond a traditional canvas, encompassing whole landscapes in cities across America.
The 1974 landscape architecture alumnus has enjoyed an expansive career in both private and public practice. He’s also a well-respected academic and Harvard Fellow. Now as a principal of Washington, D.C.-based PUSH studio, Smith shapes urban landscapes in the Capital City and beyond, all while helping mentor the next generation of African American landscape architects.
The Vicksburg, Mississippi native is a first-generation college student along with his five siblings. He said early visits to big cities spurred his love of urban landscapes.
“My older sister was the first to attend college and later she practiced law in Detroit, Michigan. We would visit her during the summer. It was during these visits and also visits to St. Louis, Missouri to see my older brother that I grew to understand the city as a much more diverse landscape than my hometown,” he said.
While Smith was inclined toward art and architecture, he chose engineering at the behest of his parents since there wasn’t an architecture program yet available in Mississippi. After a year studying engineering, however, Smith realized the profession wasn’t a fit.
“I combed through the MSU program catalogue until I found landscape architecture, which I had never heard of before. It was the many art option courses and welcoming discussions with the program director and faculty that convinced me to join the program,” he said.
While he says that the work study jobs and 15-hour credits per semester to make up for the lost engineering semester were difficult, he pointed out that it was a welcoming environment where fellow students readily accepted and included him, despite the racial tensions prevalent at the time.
After graduation, Smith worked for the Vicksburg District of the United States Corps of Engineers before pursuing a Master of Landscape Architecture at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
It was there that he delved into the principles of urban design, writing a thesis about how pedestrians interact with an urban environment and how designers should design to accommodate physical movement and optical perception.
Smith, who has worked on projects across the country and in different parts of the world, said his experience as a minority greatly informed his vast and varied career.
“My diversity of work experience was not only based on my curiosity but also because as an African American, I always had to prove my skills and worth. Although over the past twenty years, my portfolio and confidence has diminished this need to ‘prove or be proven’ as a professional,” he said.
Internationally, Smith worked on such diverse projects as an amusement park in Seoul, Korea; cemetery in Chile; and hotel plaza and courtyards in Singapore. Stateside, he’s designed numerous parks and recreational master plans in California and championed environmental justice in New York, among many other endeavors. He notes his tenure as project manager for the Southbank Riverwalk in Jacksonville, Florida as a significant turning point in his career. He helmed the design and build of the iconic boardwalk while working for a New Orleans, Louisiana-based firm.
“It was a great confidence builder to be involved in the design of every space, nut, and bolt in collaboration with multiple allied professionals for a 1.1 mile boardwalk project completed in 1985,” he said.
In the public sector, Smith said his time as acting deputy director of the Prince George’s County Redevelopment Authority in Maryland taught him a lot.
“I managed a staff of thirteen planners on multi-million dollar development projects,” he said. “It taught me the value of team work, listening, support of staff needs, and honesty in all interactions.”
Smith also served in various academic positions throughout his career. He was chair of the landscape architecture department in the School of Architecture and Planning at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. He also served as the interim director of the landscape architecture graduate program in the School of Architecture at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida. He’s held visiting or adjunct professorships at Rutgers, Virginia Polytechnic University, and Columbia University, among others. While he began his career in academia at his graduate alma mater, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, he said his love of all things urban took him to New York City where he taught at the City College of New York.
“While teaching at City College, I worked on various community-based projects in Harlem with the City College Architectural Center, a non-profit within the school,” he said.
A Van Alen Institute Projects in Public Architecture Grant allowed a group of professors, including Smith, to work with students in a special seminar course centered on environmental justice. Their efforts culminated in a publication, “Environmental Justice Is,” and an exhibition at the Van Alen Institute.
“Environmental justice empowers underserved communities of color with the knowledge of good design alternatives for housing, open space, and play areas,” Smith explained. “By knowing the right questions to ask related to design, these communities can ask for the maximum in terms of upgrading their neighborhoods instead of the minimal investments.”
It was at City College that Smith learned about the Loeb Fellowship in Advanced Environmental Studies in the Harvard Graduate School of Design. His work in environmental justice became the topic of his application and he was selected as a 1996-1997 Loeb Fellow.
Smith said the fellowship provided a year of study and enrichment including opportunities to audit any Harvard course and participate in weekly seminars all while working on a project that culminated in a one-day symposium he organized titled “Environmental Justice Is.”
“My time was spent attending workshops and lectures at the Kennedy School, art and film theory courses, and African American history and literature courses under Cornell West and Henry Louis Gates,” he said.
One aspect of the fellowship Smith particularly enjoyed were the weekly dinners, part of a longstanding tradition of the program, in which the fellows hosted notable academics, professionals, and dignitaries as guests.
“My most memorable dinners included Michael Dukakis, Julia Child, and John Kenneth Galbraith,” Smith remembered. “Another highlight was receiving a letter of congratulations on the fellowship from then-Mississippi State University President Donald W. Zacharias during my first month at Harvard.”
Now, as principal of PUSH studio, Smith stays focused on various community and sustainability initiatives.
One of those community projects centers around memorials.
“We won a competition to design the Stafford County Armed Services Memorial located in Stafford County, Virginia, which required our team to incorporate elements of six preliminary designs done by local high school students. This requirement, while challenging, helped enrich the memorial with a local spirit,” he said.
PUSH studio also completed a centennial monument for the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity International founded at Howard University in 1914, which resulted in a current project to construct the Zeta Phi Beta International centennial monument, to be unveiled on the Howard University campus in June 2020.
On the sustainability front, Smith said the firm has been involved in competitions that marry passive energy sources and art installation through the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI).
“Our first competition entry in 2014 was a design for a site in Copenhagen, Denmark, which was one of fifty out of three hundred entries selected for publication in a competition book titled New Energies: LAGI Copenhagen. In 2017, PUSH studio was short listed as one of three teams to design an energy generating sculptural park project for Willimantic, Connecticut as part of the LAGI competition,” he said.
The firm also recently designed twelve roof terraces for small residential buildings and commercial projects as part of the Washington D.C. Green Area Ratio (GAR) program.
“The program requires developers to meet a GAR score based on zoning district designation with green infrastructure such as green roof, green screen, living vertical walls, and permeable paving. We are currently looking into how the firm can tract these various project green roof systems in terms of their impact on water sustainability and wildlife corridors,” he said.
In addition to a lustrous career as both a professional and an academic, Smith has made a point to serve as a mentor. He founded the Black Landscape Architects Network (BLAN), which is a LinkedIn Social platform for black landscape architecture students and professionals to communicate.
“Because the black population in landscape architecture remains less than one percent, it was important to organize a platform that allowed a way for black landscape architects to communicate,” Smith said. “The network has just over 110 members, which also includes international members based in Africa. We often work in conjunction with ASLA to share ideas regarding recruitment efforts within the academic and professional sectors.”
Smith currently mentors four African American students and young professionals. His major advice to students is to find their core passion, seek mentors early, and take chances.
“Often students hinder themselves because of doubts as to how they can achieve goals. Not taking chances can be a great loss in building a career. I try to instill in them the confidence to work toward attaining their ultimate goals,” he said.
We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!
In the West, there aren’t a lot of black woman geologists who specialize in uranium deposits and groundwater. Zelma Maine Jackson landed far from her home state of South Carolina, but drilled into life in the West.
Maine Jackson’s independent spirit carried her into science and the great wide West. And Hanford.
In her early career, she specialized in finding uranium for mining. She had to map the subsurface through core samples. That meant she spent a lot of time on drill rigs — with drilling guys. In the early 1980s that work brought her to Hanford.
Sometimes as the lone black woman on these teams she was targeted for hazing or dangerous pranks. When guys would get in trouble for it, they isolated her and called her the n-word.
This was her life. Living and working in remote areas on dangerous jobs with guys who, at best, would not talk to her.
‘We were bonded forever’
And some of them knew about her before she even got to their site. Jackson told a story about one of those guys named Buck.
“Buck was from Montana,” she said. “Big…almost seven-foot, huge, 300-pound guy; big guy. And his helper was Neil.”
Neil was a smaller, older man from Wallace, Idaho.
“I mean Buck had a very strong heavy voice, but Neil had this very squeaky, female-type voice,” Maine Jackson said. “He was an old guy, and he chawed tobacco.”
And in the early ‘80s the three of them worked together at Hanford. On the nuclear site she was studying the flow of groundwater toward the site for a possible deep storage repository for high-level radioactive waste. Guys like Buck and Neil would drill out core samples and she would analyze them.
One summer something on the drill rig went really wrong.
“We were drilling and we hit a pocket, a vacuum. It was like 60 feet of pipe, and the rig was shaking. It was going to blow, it was all going to blow out.”
Maine Jackson said about 30 feet of pipe came springing out of the hole.
Buck held the rest of the drill pipes together underground by keeping his hands on the shifter and pressing down with all his weight.
“Holding it meant that the pipes didn’t hit me and Neil, which would have killed us instantly,” Maine Jackson said.
Buck leaned on the shifter until water gushed out and the pressure equalized. They were safe. And Maine Jackson said it changed them.
“After that incident, Neil and Buck made sure to tell all the drillers and all tool pushers, everyone at work, ’if she’s going to be an N-girl, she’s our N-girl and no one else will ever call her a N-girl again,’” she said. “We were bonded forever.”
A seasoned pro nearing retirement
And that bond gave her cred on the worksite that helped her on every drill rig at Hanford and beyond. She was a seasoned pro.
Maine Jackson loves drilling core samples because she says it’s like reading a long-closed book.
“I’m touching the earth when it first comes back into this world again,” she said. “It’s hundreds and thousands and million years, it’s in my hand.”
Maine Jackson said she’s nearing her retirement now. But she’s hoping there might be some up-and-coming young geoscientist — black, with a spirit of adventure — to replace her here in the West.
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The stories and photos in our Daughters of Hanford series are in an exhibit open now at the REACH in Richland. It’s presented by Washington State University Tri-Cities and by Northwest Public Radio, a service of Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. Find more at daughtersofhanford.org.
The road one travels in life is often filled with sharp turns and scenic detours, and a rural teacher’s route into the education field can be just as meandering. Jamesha Keithley, a stellar rural teacher, shared her story with us about her journey to become a rural science teacher in Leland, Mississippi.
For Jamesha, the road into rural teaching began close to home. She now teaches in the school her mother grew up in, but that wasn’t always the plan. Although from the start Jamesha was determined to graduate high school and college as an example to those around her, she actually began her journey with the goal of becoming a doctor. But she adjusted her course of study into teaching, another in-demand and highly skilled profession, after reflecting on the liberating empowerment that education can provide as a career.
“I’m originally from Greenville, Mississippi, and I graduated from Greenville High School. I’m the youngest of five children, so I’m pretty much the baby, but also the one that they’re looking up to because most of my siblings did go to school but they didn’t graduate, and my mom never completed high school. So, of course education is my key to success. That’s why I’m so passionate about it and [why] I constantly push it on my kids. I knew I had to finish college because I have a niece and nephews. I’m currently not a mother, but I know I have people looking up to me, so I was like, ‘Okay, I don’t want to continue what others around me did.’ So I had to graduate college and high school.”
Coming from a rural area herself, Jamesha knew firsthand the challenges of being a teacher, but it was her determination to be an example for her niece and nephews that spurred her to explore the profession. Through teaching, Jamesha channels her passion for service and building community into the classroom:
“Teaching was pretty much my last [choice], because I was in a rural school and I was like, ‘I’m seeing what these teachers are going through, so I know this is not a profession for me.’ I realized I wanted to become a teacher because of my niece. She kind of forced it on me! She used to come home and say, ‘I need help with my homework,’ every day. So I kind of went into this profession for my niece, honestly. God led me here and I do not have any regrets in the world.”
“Of course education is my key to success. That’s why I’m so passionate about it and [why] I constantly push it on my kids.” – Jamesha Keithley
With her new direction set, Jamesha finished school and began teaching 8th grade science at Leland Middle School. Now going into her fourth year, she has tried to make sure her students receive the very best, and ensuring student autonomy, creativity, and innovation in the classroom is at the core of her approach to education:
“As a rural teacher, I don’t let my surroundings define me….We’re going to have fun even if we have to go outside and just go look at the grass. I’m not the kind of teacher that holds kids within four walls because I want them to get out and explore and feel independent and feel that they can explore and do things on their own without me because I won’t always be there around them.”
One place Jamesha opens the gates for more student engagement and leadership is in her plate tectonics lesson–her favorite to teach. She shares that students enjoy the opportunity to take charge of their own learning, especially using the environment as a tool:
“I love, love, love plate tectonics because it gives them a sense of creativity. They are able to move plates and pick up anything around the classroom to move it and show how plates underneath the earth move. During plate tectonics, we’ll go outside – it’s a lot of just soil back there – and we talk about landforms and how plates underneath the earth cause those major landforms, like subduction or mountains. I will get a group of kids and have them play as the teacher and show me some examples using soil or plants, building up those mountains or plates and how they move. They enjoy that a whole lot because it gives them that sense of independence.”
“I’m not the kind of teacher that holds kids within four walls because I want them to get out and explore and feel independent and feel that they can explore and do things on their own without me.” – Jamesha Keithley
Ms. Keithley’s emphasis on giving kids space in the classroom is a way for them to cultivate their own sense of identity, too:
“They’re seeing so much because of social media. It kind of tells them who they are before they find out who they are. Giving them that sense of freedom and independence would [help them] know who they are. This age group is so easy to influence, so I want them to just find themselves, find out what they like, what they don’t like, and just be okay with who they are.”
Jamesha is still in the early years of her career, but already she feels that focusing on students is what defines teacher leadership in her daily life:
“I still feel like I have some learning to do, but I am on the way there. I always put the students first. You have to understand the role of students first, and make sure that those kids feel comfortable and understand the mission and the goals and values of a school district. Yes, there’s some things that we may not agree with, but your mission is to make sure that you’re teaching those kids what they need to be taught.”
However, Ms. Keithley underscores that a teacher’s role in the classroom is only one part of the equation. Engaging parents, building relationships with them, and even sharing knowledge and learning with the community are key parts of her work as well:
“As we are learning to improve the community around us, we need to share that same information with parents. Building a relationship with my parents, that is number one for me and has been the roots of my success, and letting the parents know that they do have a say–letting them know that they do have a voice within the school community, asking them for their opinion and help, and letting them take that role in leadership as well–builds positivity in that community.”
Ms. Keithley is the embodiment of RSC’s mission to strengthen the bonds between rural schools and communities. Teachers like Jamesha who are vibrant community leaders, bring such joy and energy to their classrooms and beyond.
“I always put the students first. You have to understand the role of students first and make sure that those kids feel comfortable.” – Jamesha Keithley
“Whether it’s me or someone else, hats off because teaching it is a work of art. Sometimes you have good days, and you’re gonna have your bad days, but to me teaching does not feel like work. I just get up and I’m looking forward to getting up. Before teaching, I was not a morning person, but now I’m looking forward to work. It’s not even work, it’s just my passion.”
“My name is Jamesha Keithley and I am a rural teacher.”
We are grateful to Jamesha for sharing her story with us about cultivating student autonomy in her classroom. If you would like to share 30 minutes of your time for an interview, please reach out to us at info@ruralschoolscollaborative.org. The I Am A Rural Teacher campaign is a collaborative effort with the National Rural Education Association and made possible through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!
Glenn Harrell is the third owner of Say Cheese, a cheese shop in Los Angeles’s Silver Lake neighborhood that celebrates its 50th anniversary this month. The business has been in Harrell’s hands since 1999 and he likes to call himself the longest-running fool of its three owners, though this bit belies his deep love of the work.
Born into a family of chefs and cooks, Harrell knew he wanted to be in the food industry at a young age, but his route to cheese shop owner wound a circuitous path through department store restaurant management and the European railway system before landing him in dairy territory. Harrell got his start at Say Cheese as a monger, a role he occupied for three years before getting a chance to run it himself. Read on to learn how he came to own one of LA’s longest-running (and most-beloved) cheese shops.
This interview has been edited for length.
culture: I like to start by asking people how they got into the wild world of cheese.
glen harrell: I had gone to Europe and lived in London for three months. And I tried to find work in London and couldn’t, so I decided I’m going to explore Europe! I took the coach from Dover, England, to France and just traveled throughout Switzerland, I went to Italy, I went to Prague, I went to Germany, I went all over and was floored by all the amazing, beautiful cheeses that I had… I think my destiny was not to really so much to explore Europe and historical landmarks, I think it was more to discover food and cheeses.
I love that!
GH: It’s so funny, in all the interviews that I have given, I have never said what I just said to you!
So, when I had come back to the States, I was raised in Silver Lake, grew up in Silver Lake, and always knew of this famous cheese shop [Say Cheese] here in Silver Lake. And it was the first place that I had honestly come to, to look for work. And my first-love cheese, the one cheese that I fell in love with, was this Swiss cheese called Vacherin Fribourgeois, and I had asked if they carried that cheese and they said yes, and I thought, oh my god I want a job here! They carried my cheese! And she [then-owner, Julie] was floored by my resume, she didn’t want to hire me. I used to work for Nordstrom’s in senior restaurant management and I had a really good resume, and I made a lot of money for Nordstrom’s.
Did you go to culinary school before that?
GH: You know, I didn’t. I really, really wanted to go to CIA [The Culinary Institute of America] in New York, it was really my dream. I graduated from high school in 1986. But you know, New York wasn’t safe. You would read in the papers and hear in the news all the time how the crime in New York was just so bad. I was terrified! And all of my family is all here in Los Angeles. I come from a big family, and I just could not see myself moving to New York to do that, as much as I really wanted to. And at that time, the big school on the West Coast to go to was up in Napa, but it didn’t have the reputation, and I was raised to always have the best of the best. So I said, I’m not doing that. I had been offered this amazing job at Nordstrom’s through a friend and I was made manager within a matter of weeks. I worked for the company for seven years and just had done really well. But getting back to Julie and working for her, she did not want to hire me. She was like, you’re not gonna last here.
Did she want to bring you on as a monger or as a chef?
GH: Cheesemonger. I just was so interested in it. One of the things I learned being in France was that in France alone, back then, there were over 5,000 cheeses just in that country. There were so many different types and styles and, you know, I’ve always been this big guy. I’ve always enjoyed eating. I come from a family of chefs and foodies, and I love cheese, but I never knew that cheese could be as gourmet or different as it was. And the only reason why I had known that and had learned that was through traveling. So, my direction had completely changed. And Julie, I had told her, I live with my parents, I just need gas money, and I need to pay my phone bill. I had to beg her for this job, I did all the right things, I wrote her a thank-you letter. When I had come back in to see her in person, she pointed her finger in my face and she said, I will hire you based on one condition. I was hired on October 17, and that was 1996, and she said, I will hire you only if you stay until the beginning of the year. And I just thought that was the strangest thing! Like, until January and it’s October? You don’t think that I’ll last that long?
Q4!
GH: Well, Linni, let me tell you, after working here the first week, I understood why. It was a challenge for me! It was a challenging place to work because the volume was so intense and there was no other gourmet cheese shop in the city of Los Angeles. Everything was just hard, but it was so much fun because I was learning about cheese and flavors and taste and tasting things. I ended up working here for three years, and then I left to go work at Sweet Lady Jane’s. And then Julie was gonna be selling the business here [at Say Cheese], and she couldn’t give it away. She had asked me if I would come back and work until she sold, because she needed help managing. And so I said yes! I had planned on going to Europe that year and I needed the extra money. Needless to mention, I didn’t go to Europe that year! Because she had then offered the business to me.
I was working on catering for Arnold Schwarzenegger who was gonna be on the Jay Leno show, and I was putting together catering platters, and this gentleman who Julie had met with, she was excited because he was like the 30th person who was interested in her business, and he was very serious. I think she spoke to him for maybe 45 seconds on the floor. When she came back, she threw her pencil at the wall and she said, this business is yours. And I said what do you mean, it’s mine? And she said, you are talented, you’re gifted, and you deserve it. You have the drive and the energy for it, and I can’t sell this. And I would be willing to sell it to you at a price that’s affordable. And by golly, she did.
Wow.
GH: Wow is right. And I had put my thinking cap on and got some investors and was so excited to get people to believe in me and my concept and my bright ideas. And I paid out my first investor within maybe 30 days… and paid my second investor within 90 days. I had taken over Say Cheese, November 15, 1999. And I had the opportunity to go through a really successful holiday and, you know, Silver Lake being Silver Lake, really open-minded, it’s a really free-spirited community that was not of color or anything else back in the day. It used to be the armpit of Los Angeles, and it’s [now] one of the top neighborhoods to live in the US. People…didn’t have issues, but I also didn’t let it be known that it was Black owned either. I always just told people that I managed it because I didn’t want any problems out of anyone, and my business had done so well. My point is, was that I was able to pay out my second investor. And then I don’t remember the year, but when I turned 40, which was 13 years ago, I had done a Visa commercial and I was able to pay out my third and final investor and had become the sole owner-proprietor of Say Cheese 13 years ago. And you know, there was just this liberty and this freedom of like, oh my god, what an accomplishment, that this is mine now. You know?
Absolutely.
GH: But you know, ironically, as much as I wanted to go to CIA so that I could learn more about food… my food experience has been through my grandfather, who was a professionally trained chef in the Navy, and he taught my mom very well. I’ve been saying to my mom for years that she should have been a chef, I learned so much from her. People ask me all the time, you could go to Europe to learn how to cook. And I’m like, no, there was just a bar in my family where, you know, we didn’t eat like my good friends did, where they ate at McDonald’s half the nights of the week. My mother cooked, there was a meal on the table at least minimum five nights a week.
Yeah, I had planned to ask if you were from a foodie household, but it sounds like it’s a definite yes!
GH: Yes, for sure. My best critic is my mother, and I love my family because they’re not biased people. And so, they let me know when I’m right and they tell me when I’m wrong.
So, you learned from a combination of family and eating your way through Europe!
GH: Absolutely. I couldn’t agree with you more. And I feel that when I first worked here at Say Cheese, that first year was my training course, and I ate so much cheese. I must have gained 30 pounds that year, I kid you not. But you know what I learned the most? Was that certain cheeses taste differently certain times of the year. And that was my biggest question that I had asked people once I owned my own business, why does this taste so much better during the spring and the summer, or the fall in the winter? And they’re like, it’s better then because of what the animals are eating!
Your shop has the feel of an old-world cheese counter. Was it a choice to emphasize European classics? Do you also carry some of the newer American-made riffs on classic styles?
GH: So, we do, I don’t carry them all the time, but I love American cheeses. I haven’t been exposed to as many as I would like to… I sometimes have a little bit of a hard time with some of the American cheeses that are so expensive. I am the type of buyer that buys product that you feel like you’re getting a good bang for your buck. And I’m not knocking it at all, but you know—
You can only carry a few at a time, because you’re not going to be going through a $36-a-pound wheel that fast.
GH: Exactly. And it’s so interesting because there are so many European cheeses that we carry that are like, for instance, there’s the Stinking Bishop, that’s $35 a pound, and we do exceptionally well with that. There’s a gorgeous blue cheese that comes from, I believe it’s Oregon. And they only carry it during—
Rogue River?
GH: Yes, thank you! Yeah, so there’s those kinds, like that cheese? That’s a phenomenal cheese!
Yeah, that cheese is so special.
GH: But it’s, when I say expensive, I mean expensive in a good way, like it’s worth every penny of what you pay. But then like, we’re one of the top, if not the top cheese shop here in Los Angeles, and we have such a hard time getting that cheese! Like I was allocated one wheel last year. So, I’m not on the radar for being the go-to place to go and get an American cheese, people don’t go out of their way to send things to me. I do know that there are other cheese shops in town that specialize more in American cheeses and so I assume that people are going to those spots where they can get those items, where my name is more like 90 percent European and 10 percent American.
Your shop is in Silver Lake, which has changed pretty much completely over the past two decades or so. I’m curious how that’s affected the business.
GH: Oh, it’s affected the business tremendously. I mean, we were the place to go to for so many years. Say Cheese has been here since 1972, and we’re still standing. The community has grown so much, food has become more important to people. We really add value to this neighborhood.
I have to admit, I read your Yelp reviews, and it sounds like people just, they always say how much thought and care you put into every single personalized basket or platter, and that you’re just a pleasure to work with.
GH: Yes. And that’s what really sets us apart. I mean, we are literally, I am not lying, 30 feet away from the door of Trader Joe’s. We are about 120 feet away from Gelson’s. Both of those supermarkets have stepped their games up with ordering product that we have always carried. Obviously they’re doing their research and homework. And, you know, I’m constantly stepping my game up because I have to, and what really sets us aside from those places is the attention to detail, the sampling, for instance. We’re still in a pandemic, right? In business you have to be creative.
I want to ask you about the past few years. It’s been a weird time to own a brick-and-mortar storefront! How has your business changed in light of the pandemic?
GH: I have to be honest with you. And this is, it’s kind of almost embarrassing, because, COVID has been fantastic for me. Business has come to me where, I don’t wanna say I didn’t have to run after it, I have run after my business for years, this year will be 23 years. But business has finally come to me, because of Black Lives Matter, and being African American. I don’t like for people to support me because I’m Black. I like people to support me because of what we provide, because of the quality, that is what I stand behind… because the space is amazing, because the pricing is fair, and he happens to be African American, cool. But don’t support me because I’m Black. You know, people have sourced out this little business because they want to support a Black-owned business. It’s so sad that people had to be told to support a Black business. My business has thrived because people have sourced out during the pandemic to support Black-owned businesses so that they don’t go out of business. And so, my business went to another level because people did that. But I love the Silver Lake community, because there were so many people who have supported my business before they had to be told, because they haven’t looked at color. And because people have said to me, my regulars have said, oh my god, Glenn, we’re here to support you because we want Say Cheese to be around. And when these people have said that, they didn’t say it in a sense where we want you around because you’re Black owned. No, they want us around because they believe in what I provide to them.
We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!
Matthew Maxey hails from Decatur, Georgia and currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia. Born with a severely profound hearing loss, and outfitted with hearing aids at 2 years old, it became apparent at an early age that life would be anything but ordinary. Fast forward and Matthew attended the prestigious Gallaudet University in Washington, DC where he began to learn sign language in an attempt to balance the struggle of developing his identity as a double minority in terms of ability and race. In 2014, DEAFinitely Dope was founded as an idea based on providing support to those that felt marginalized and ignored by mainstream America. DEAFinitely Dope started as a brand, and slowly blossomed into a movement, attracting the likes of educational institutions nationwide, CNN, ESPN The Undefeated, GQ, Cole Haan, ABC news, Chance The Rapper, MTV Video Music Awards, and countless more! With both hearing and deaf partnerships in play, Matt strives to continue to break barriers and defy the norms with a fresh perspective on interaction, inclusion, accessibility and equality, as awareness continues to grow!
We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!
Violet Moses MSN APRN FNP-C PMHNP-BC is a Nurse Practitioner with dual Board Certification as a Family Nurse Practitioner and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner living in Massachusetts and practicing in the Springfield area. Currently, her focus is in psychiatry with specialties in addiction medicine and eating disorders. She has experience in treating adolescents and adults with dual diagnosis, anxiety, depression, ADHD, bipolar, substance use disorder, binge eating disorder, and many other common mental health conditions. She continues to teach as an adjunct professor. Her approach is holistic and includes the use of traditional and complementary medicine to diagnose, treat, and prescribe medication for children, adolescents, and adults. Complementary/alternative approaches include but is not limited to supplements, vitamins, and lifestyle modification. She believes in managing treatment for the whole person, not just a series of parts. Therapeutic communication and patient-centered care with shared decision-making are the foundations of her practice. She has the experience and appreciates working with clients in diverse clinical settings. She enjoys nature, pets and personal development.
We are highlighting examples of Black excellence throughout the year! Feel free to send us suggestions!
Cori “Coco” Gauff (born March 13, 2004) is an American professional tennis player. She is the youngest player ranked in the top 100 by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and has a career-high ranking of world No. 12 in singles achieved on 20 June 2022 and No. 5 in doubles achieved on 6 June 2022. Gauff won her first WTA Tour singles title at the 2019 Linz Open aged 15, making her the youngest singles title-holder on the Tour since 2004. She has won four WTA Tour doubles titles- three of them partnering with Caty McNally. Gauff rose to prominence with a win over Venus Williams in the opening round at Wimbledon 2019.
Born to parents with NCAA Division I collegiate backgrounds in basketball and track and field, Gauff experimented with a variety of sports as a child. She chose tennis, inspired by the Williams sisters and preferring an individual sport.
Gauff had success as a junior, earning a sponsorship to train at Patrick Mouratoglou‘s academy in France. She began playing on the ITF Junior Circuit at 13 and finished runner-up at the junior 2017 US Open in just her fourth ITF event, the youngest finalist in the tournament’s history. She became the No. 1 junior in the world after winning the junior 2018 French Open singles title over McNally. She also won a junior Grand Slam doubles title at the 2018 US Open, this time partnering McNally.
Gauff made her WTA Tour debut in March 2019 at the Miami Open and won her opening match. She received a wildcard into the qualifying draw at the 2019 Wimbledon Championships, where she became the youngest player in the tournament’s history to qualify for the main draw. There she reached the fourth round, and each of her matches was the most-watched of the day through the first week of television coverage in the United States. Later that summer, still aged 15, she reached the third round of the US Open. In 2021 she reached her first major final in women’s doubles at the US Open, and reached her first major singles final at the 2022 French Open, losing to No. 1 Iga Świątek.
