Katie Hong, Robin Martin and Abby Sarmac

Abby 

Sure, yeah, and just arrive like deep breath. To like the lip exercises, okay, um, yay. Okay, so why are we here? We are here. Welcome everyone. Welcome Robin. Katie, nice to see you.

Katie 

Hi Abby. Hi Robin. So good to see you both.

Abby 

Great to be in space with you both.

Robin 

Yeah, I know. I can't wait till we meet at the PNW conference in October. So I'm looking forward to that. Yay.

Abby 

Very excited to be in person, very excited to be in person, but at the very least in the meantime, we get to hang out right here, and preview season two of our podcast, which is very exciting,

Katie 

Exciting.

Abby 

Yes. And also to introduce ourselves, introduce ourselves as the hosts for season two. Yeah, so I'll just get us started. Then invite you both Robin and Katie. But so I'm Abigail Sarmac, also known as Abby. I am a Filipina American born in the United States, way too long ago, but also mother to two teenagers and a Senior Advisor for nearly two, nearly four years. I can't believe how long it's it's been, but because it feels like just yesterday, but I've been a Senior Advisor with The Giving Practice at Philanthropy Northwest, and am every day with our practice on the front lines working with philanthropy on equity work and on trust based work. So yeah, excited to explore this season with you all. How about you, Robin and Katie? Who are you?

Katie 

Well, I'm I'm happy to go next. My name is Katie. I'm calling in this morning from, from Seattle, Washington, the traditional lands of the coastal Salish peoples and what do I what do I want you all, or the audience, to know about me? I think a couple things. One is, I want the audience to know that in addition to being another Senior Advisor, along with you and Robin, that I've spent my professional career. So I can't believe I'm saying this. But now almost three decades, so 30 years of working in government, nonprofit, philanthropy, really trying to make the communities around me more just an equitable one where all people are supported, where all people are supported, period. And I think for me, that part of what's been animating and motivating my desire is very much my own personal lived experience of having immigrated to this country and growing up in an immigrant community and just seeing so many instances where people weren't supported or given the benefit of the doubt or seen or felt or nurtured and supported, and I definitely feel more of that now, especially as a mom, I'm also a mom like you. Abby, two boy, girl twins, who are adolescents, who are 15 and a half, and so what I most want for them, what I most want for my children, is for them to be seen and felt and supported by the adults and the different institutions that they touch by the society and community in which we live. And I want them to not only have their basic needs met, like safety, housing, food, but also supported to thrive in the world. And I want that for all, all their peers, not just for my own kids. So that's a little bit of why I'm so excited that I get to do the work that I do, which is as a TGP advisor, is to be a consultant and a coach to other people who share that same vision, and why I'm always thrilled to be in conversation with both of you, two of my most favorite people on the team.

Abby 

Careful, Katie. There are a lot of people who are going to hearing this so.

Katie 

Two among! Okay, but you two really. I really do love you both.

Robin 

Listen. Listen. My favorite people of the day. To say that, right? That's right, that's right, that's right. Hello, everyone. I am Dr. Robin Martin, I am so excited to be here today. Katie, I love the fact that you talked a little bit about your wants and desires for for your family, and not only your family, but the implications of all families. And that's what we're here like, right? That is the work that we're doing. That equity, in of itself, means that you create the best opportunities for all of us, right? Right? When one family is in need, we all are in need. When one family is successful, we're all successful. So thank you for just just really leveraging and telling a little bit more about personalizing this work, which I think is important to do in order to really strive for equity on a day to day basis. Again. Robin Martin, I've been in higher education specifically for 20 plus years in a number of different roles, from a tenure track faculty, Associate Provost. I was recently held from the Gates Foundation and worked on the post secondary success team, where we really thought about, how do you create greater equity and educational outcomes for for the masses. So I'm super, super excited to be here amongst my wonderful colleagues, the best colleagues of today, and to talk a little bit more about, you know, why are we here, and what we are hoping to accomplish, really, for season two, season two is is special, right? I'm going to say it's a little special because that's what we're working on today.

Abby 

The work in front of us.

Robin 

And in part because it is around operationalizing equity across diverse contexts. Right? Equity in a lot of different ways, depending on where you live, geographies, your experiences, context. It matters. It matters because, as we all know, that we're probably swimming in what I would call a lot of inequity that is, in part and partial, steeped in racial inequality, right in a racial based caste system that we are all trying to fight daily against. And we see that these challenges are more nuanced and more difficult by the day they are growing by the day. Some of it is because of our political landscape. Some of it is because of the rhetoric that we hear. And some of it is, you know, is because, you know, Kendi talks a little bit about this pendulum, like we make this progress in society, and then we take a big step back. So for every two steps forward, we take a step back. And so we get to, in season two, to really talk a little bit about how institutions and leaders are really advancing equity, as well as seeing some of the step backs or some of the retrenchment that they are facing. And then how are they navigating some of those entrenchments? Last thing I'll say, and I would love for my colleagues to jump in, is, you know, what do you see your role as both of our all of our roles as Senior Advisors at PNW and with The Giving Practice and just how are we living out the mission of Philanthropy Northwest?

Katie 

Yeah. Thank you so much for that, and also setting this podcast and the conversations we'll be having in the larger kind of context and time in which our country is in, and also putting it in the historical context. For me, I'm just I'm also really super excited about this season, because, as you know, season one of this podcast series was really focused on the topic of governance and boards, because of a lot of feedback we were hearing from our peers and in the philanthropic sector that they want to advance equity work, but sometimes the biggest barrier seems to be the boards and the governance. And how do you move and shift at that level, which I think is great. And we had some amazing conversations. And what I'm really curious about is, for people who are doing the work, who are advocating and trying to push the work from inside the organization, what are they learning? How are they navigating the current challenges? Where are they finding their courage and their inspiration? How are they needing to shift? Right? So this theme of like, we can't be externally what we're not internally, and so what is that journey about? And that's what I think is really cool about this season in particular, is that we're really talking to leaders who are actually doing the work in many different contexts, in many different types of communities, and really getting underneath the conversation or like, kind of what's seen on the external, kind of what's visible, and really understanding how they're navigating that, so that that's I feel excited about that. But Abby, what about you? What do you think?

Abby 

Yeah. I think that's a really interesting question, too, Robin, that you're putting out there in terms of our role, because, in a way, our everyday, like we as Senior Advisors, we're literally on the ground, you know? We're living equity on the ground in each of the projects that we have as consultants and advisors to philanthropy and being a consulting practice within Philanthropy Northwest that has this vision of equity and racial justice for all communities, no matter where you are, right and really not just. And the vision for that, the way we get there, is through advancing actual, equitable practices and outcomes. And as consultants, we work with a panoply of so many different kinds of philanthropists, from individuals to families to private foundations to big institutions like we literally are on the front lines of seeing all these kinds of different contexts and philanthropists and individuals that are trying to, you know, live and manage equity as people with specific identities on their teams. You know, whether that's with a board or with their program teams or with their finance teams or with their vendor teams for an event you know, or you know through systemic work in collaboratives. Anyway, that's, in part, what I am seeing as a really important role, and why this podcast even makes sense in that context, is because we're going to be able to be storytellers. We're going to be able to tell like, what we see and live and the times when we're like, what the heck just happened there, you know, and literally be able to kind of workshop it together with people who are having that same experience. I'm excited about that. I think that's going to be a cool approach and focus for this podcast.

Katie 

Robin, what are you excited about? What are you excited about?

Robin 

I'm excited to learn, you know? I mean, we talked a little bit about different contexts and the nuances of it right? I'm hoping that people get a deeper understanding of just how complex this work is. Place matters, leadership matters, community matters. And I hope that people see the difference yet the similarities that are happening across this work and how this work is interconnected. It's not just about geographies in one place, one place not being able to talk about race openly impacts other places that can talk about race openly. And so I'm hoping that people see the interconnection in in the difference and the similarities, and so super excited about that. And one of the episodes earlier, you can see it. You can see it.

Katie 

Yeah, yeah, I love that. I love that. I mean, I think at the end of the day, that's also my hope for the podcast, for the audience who are listening in, is that sometimes when you do this work, it could feel really lonely, and you could feel like sometimes you're just in the work by yourself. And I want people to feel like they're part of a virtual community of like minded people who really are. We're all trying to do this work together. The other thing that I want to just say, that I always appreciate every time the three of us talk is that equity is complex, and it is like complicated, and it's also really simple, you know, like at a practical level, it's really about, do we? Do we see the humanity in everybody is, are all people's right? Like, worthy by birthright, of being part of the community of concern. And so the other thing that you know, it's that Octavia Butler quote, like, "Everything you touch, you change, and then everything you change changes you" like that's what I love.

Robin 

I was just reading that too! It's on of my favorite quotes. One of my favorite quotes.

Katie 

You know but it's just that quote, of like, it gets to your point about interdependence, like, how so much of the conversations that I'm really looking forward to are by leaders who are doing this incredible work, who realize that the first change actually has to be with them and how they like, what do they need to shift in order to then shift what happens externally, and then, how does that continue to transform them? And so it's the stories of transformation that I think I'm the most excited about. Yeah. Yay. Awesome. Well, is there any more last comments that any of you have to before we leave and start the series?

Robin 

No, the only other thing I would say, Katie. Katie, you talked a little bit about storytelling, right? And we think that that real equity are. How do you operationalizing equity is a mindset, and one of the ways in which you shift mindsets is that you tell them through story. You tell stories, and then people see the interconnection between their stories and others, right? And that is what I think translates to courage of action like it gives people the will and the courage to really act, it shifts the mind first around that inequity is unacceptable, and that equity is really the only true solution for all of us, right and so and how do you get there? One medium to get their primary medium to get there is through storytelling. Yeah? And so the podcast gives leaders an opportunity to share those stories or individual narratives in order to shift minds.

Katie 

Yeah, yeah. I love that. So brilliant. I love podcasts. As you know, I'm a total podcast junkie. I'm always discovering podcasts. But it's exactly for the reason you say Robin, it's like, it's the how do you actually walk in someone else's shoes? How do you actually listen to somebody else's story? And you're like, oh my god, that so resonates with me. And in Abby, I really appreciate you invoke like talking about PNW's mission and vision to really spread effective practices, because that's what we're all here for, right? It's not just like the individual clients and the projects we work on, but how do we spread these types of practices within our own sector? And that podcast? What a brilliant idea. It's another way that we could spread what people are doing. So I really appreciate the two of you. The audience is going to be in for a treat, so make sure you listen to every episode. And yeah, no, and I think the three of us are getting back together again at the end of our season, so we could reflect on what we've learned and what's really sitting with us, but just such deep appreciation to the two of you same.

Abby 

Same.

Robin 

Thank you. Thank you.

Abby 

Looking forward to it. See you ladies.

Nancy (Host) 

Can we talk about is a podcast by Philanthropy Northwest, written and produced by Aya Tsuruta and Emily Daman, with audio engineering support from Jessie McCune at podfly, and graphic design by Asha Hossain. We'll be releasing season two episodes throughout the fall, so make sure you're following us on your favorite podcasting platform to stay up to date. A huge thank you to Katie Hong, Robin Martin and Abby Sarmac for hosting this season, and to the Ford Foundation for making this project possible. I'm Nancy Sanabria and we'll see you next time.