06/06/2026
This week, my flamenco shoes were resting and my social impact hat was on, with hundreds of fellow social responsibility professionals and nonprofits talking about how to better serve our communities.
A week of learning, exchanging, laughing and crying, ranting and hoping. And I can’t stop thinking about the passion, clarity, and no bs approach of Dr. John Brothers’, focused on listening to the communities and letting them lead. Time to leave the pretentiousness of titles and company status behind. He invited us to connect to people on a human level and not simply transactional, to deepen our work with our communities and create real impact beyond photo-ops and performative charity.
The way in which he passionately shared his experience and stated uncomfortable truths of our field was refreshing and so necessary, especially as political and legal frameworks change, and so many drank the AI kool aid without talking about its profound social and environmental impact.
He dared us to be human first, social impact professionals second. And I agree with him. That’s how we actually do generous and genuine work beyond numbers and cute reports. He was not talking about feel-good stuff, but real status quo challenges and the need to disrupt the systems that have been creating and maintaining inequality and oppression for far too long.
I am inspired and with renewed hope. I got some good Scottsdale sun (100F+ every single day omg), amazing connections, reconnections with colleagues I met at last year’s conference and other events in our field, and so many ideas and inspirations so I can be a better community partner (in my corporate social responsibility job and my Flamenco Rhode Island community).
Thank you to my students for accommodating my travel schedule and supporting me with kindness, curiosity, generosity, and genuine care.
Ole to my friends for one more amazing event, for the valuable panels and huddles, for the gorgeous venue, the opportunity to complain and celebrate together, and (of course) for the parties, after parties, after after parties, and after after after parties 😅 I am exhausted but my heart is so full ❤️
