Reading Time: 4 minutes Picture it; Richmond, 2018. An unseasonably warm November Friday evening. I had been waiting for this day for two months. It had been years since I attended a concert and I was looking forward to a fun night with friends. Prior to winning the 2019 Grammy Awards for Best R&B Performance and Best R&B Album, […]
Leading, Teaching, and Parenting During a Pandemic
Reading Time: 2 minutes The novel coronavirus or COVID-19 is running rampant across the globe. In Virginia, non-essential businesses have closed, K-12 schools are closed for the rest of the school year, and higher education institutions have transitioned to remote or online learning. As of yesterday, Governor Northam signed Executive Order 55, our Temporary Stay at Home Order due […]
Reflections on Race, Leadership, and 1619
Reading Time: 4 minutes Nikole Hannah-Jones (2019) ends her 1619 essay with the following words: “We were told once, by virtue of our bondage, that we could never be American. But it was by virtue of our bondage that we became the most American of all” (para. 59).I read this essay when it was first released last summer. Reading […]
Five Semesters Down, Four to Go!
Reading Time: 2 minutes I have officially completed my fifth semester overall and have only four more semesters until I am Dr. Clark!!! Here are reminders of what I thought after I completed my first, second, third, and fourth semesters. This semester was challenging for me and not solely because of this doctoral program. This semester brought about the […]
Is Advising Student Groups Worth It?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Today the student group that I currently co-advise, the Association of Black Social Workers at VCU held their 4th annual Cultural Awareness Day. This event was the culmination of a year long planning process. I want to take this moment to reflect on the day before the intricacies of the day slip my mind. One […]
Self-Assessing Moral Disengagement
Reading Time: 2 minutes In my Frameworks for Decision-making: Ethical Perspectives course, we are reading Craig E. Johnson’s Meeting the Ethical Challenges of Leadership: Casting Light or Shadow.” The chapter I am currently reading focuses on “stepping out of the shadows” as a leader. Johnson (2018) calls ethical failures “shadow casters.” There are six shadow casters identified: insecurity, battleground, […]
Two Semesters Down…
Reading Time: 2 minutes The fall semester of my first year ended 27 days ago. Officially, I have completed two semester of doctoral work. Here is a reminder of what I thought after I completed my first semester. Exciting things I experienced this semester as a result of being a doctoral student in this program: Black Women in Academia […]
The Future of Social Work and Modern Communication: Technology and Field Education
Reading Time: < 1 minutes On Friday, November 30, I had the pleasure of presenting at the Virginia Society for Clinical Social Work for their annual symposium. The theme of the event was The Future of Social Work and Modern Technology. My talk focused primarily on technology and field education. As the final presenter of the day, I was very nervous. This […]
Reflections: Reframing Academic Leadership – Part 1
Reading Time: 2 minutes I had high hopes with this textbook due to how much I enjoyed Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice and Leadership by Bolman and Deal (2017). This first part of the text did not disappoint my expectations. Part I, titled, “Leadership Epistemology: When You Understand, You Know What to Do” gave great examples of opportunities and challenges […]
Race and Ethnicity Teach-In Week – Color Blind or Color Brave: A Reflection
Reading Time: 2 minutes I received the following prompt from one of my instructors: “This week is the VCU School of Education Race and Ethnicity Teach-In week. During this week, instructors are encouraged to center race and ethnicity within their courses to challenge how we, the SOE community, consider the intersections of race and ethnicity within our course materials.” […]