Episode 20: Slow down and celebrate
Amplify Good
English - June 15, 2021 08:29 - 53 minutes - 43.2 MB - ★★★★★ - 6 ratingsNon-Profit Business Society & Culture business community diversity society nonprofit personaljourney Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Aria is delighted to welcome LaShunda Leslie-Smith to the podcast. LaShunda is a role model, leader and mentor to Aria, and she offers transformational ways of being and knowing to her community.
From a mother at age 14 to a CEO by age 34, LaShunda is no stranger to adversity and hard work. When she was a little girl, she dreamed of becoming a pediatrician or entrepreneur. Instead, when LaShunda was little more than a baby herself, she gave birth to her first child, a son. At that point, LaShunda could have become nothing more than a statistic. However, LaShunda is a dreamer and a doer. She became the first in her family to graduate college, earn a master's degree, and she is currently pursuing a doctorate. She accomplished all this while raising her son — and later her daughter — with her husband of now 22 years.
Understanding the needs of teen parents, at age 24 LaShunda started her own nonprofit organization, Successful Pathways, to serve teens who are pregnant or who are on the path to becoming pregnant. She served that organization for nearly a decade before moving on to help found and implement several other nonprofit organizations, always supporting and advocating for underserved populations. LaShunda most recently served as the President and CEO of Young Women’s College Prep Foundation, Inc., and is now “doing her life’s work” as Executive Director of Connected Communities.
LaShunda is blessed to share her life’s journey with her husband Moses and their two adult children, Branden and Myanna.
Links:
Dr. Ashley Cross: https://www.ashleyrcross.com/
Beechwood Neighborhood: http://www.beechwood14609.com/
Connected Communities: https://www.connectedcommunitiesroc.org/
EPIC Woman: https://www.facebook.com/WeAreEPICWomen
Generational Cycles/Family Legacies: https://centerforparentingeducation.org/library-of-articles/focus-parents/power-family-legacies/
Seabreeze Amusement Park: https://seabreeze.com/
Keywords: entrepreneur, neighborhood, community engagement, urban redevelopment, pregnancy, young mothers, genogram, family legacy, generational cycle, hope, education