Elena Blogs for a Change

Laura Pacchini has always been interested in art. As a college student at Denison, she studied both Art History and Painting. Later, she trained as a graphic designer, which led to a successful career in design, marketing and brand strategy at companies like Landor and Williams-Sonoma. Art was always her first love, however, and eventually she went back to school to become a fine artist. I reached out to Laura after hearing about her work with a group of artists during the current coronavirus pandemic. Together, they transformed a make-shift field hospital that was set up in San Francisco’s Presidio to handle the overflow of patients. How did you first get involved with the initiative to paint murals in this provisional covid hospital? San Francisco District 2 Supervisor Catherine Stefani reached out to me asking if I could organize a group of artists to paint the rooms of the field hospital, also known as the alternate care site. How did you recruit other artists? I am a part of an...

There are many ways in which I can relate to Heejae Lim. I, too, am the daughter of immigrants as were many of my classmates in the public schools I attended through eighth grade. Like Heejae, I benefited from having parents who spoke English and could advocate on my behalf (and on behalf of my classmates) with teachers and administrators. But Heejae took that experience and used it to create TalkingPoints, a multilingual platform that helps teachers communicate with immigrant parents in multiple languages. She understood that parent engagement was critical to education, even if she had no way of predicting just how important it would be during a pandemic that caused schools to shut down in-person learning. Below is my interview with Heejae, who earned recognition as one of Forbes’ “30 Under 30” leaders and entrepreneurs in 2016. What motivated you to start TalkingPoints? I didn’t know how to speak English when I first started school in the UK, but my mother did, and she was a wonderfu...

Cyd Harrell is a Yale-educated researcher, analyst, and leader focused on helping governments design technology for their staff and constituents that actually works. She is also the author of the definitive book on the subject, A Civic Technologist’s Practice Guide . As a Humanities person myself, I was eager to learn how this published poet, Yale linguistics grad, and non-coder ended up devoting her career to helping design technology that makes governments more responsive. On your website you describe yourself as a user researcher and as a civic technologist. How would you define those terms? A user researcher is someone who works to improve technology (or sometimes services) by observing real people trying to use it and understanding their needs. That one's easy. Part of why I wrote the book was to help define civic technologist - it's someone who works in tech in the public sector, but more specifically it's someone who participates with a particular goal of bringing th...

Shariful  Khan is a student at Yale Law School. He was raised in Queens, graduated from The City College of New York, and is a lifelong New York Giants fan.  Shariful  has been interested in socioeconomic mobility his entire life, a passion spurred on by his own life experiences and background. When and how did you first decide to attend law school and become an attorney? What do you hope to do with your law degree? What kind of law do you hope to practice? I don’t know if there was ever a ‘eureka’ moment for me. My dad is a city court clerk and so I grew up in a space adjacent to the courtroom. I was raised in a neighborhood and community where people were taken advantage of every day by predatory lawyers, and all I saw at my dad’s job were lawyers who were failing their clients. I was frustrated, but it was only when I started working at a South Asian women’s domestic violence nonprofit that I saw the tangible economic impact on people’s lives. The world looks a little ...

  Can storytelling change the world? Author Colum McCann is uniquely suited to answer that question. McCann is the co-founder of Narrative 4 , a non-profit organization that promotes empathy and peace through story exchanges. He is also the author of several novels and short-story collections, including the recently-released book, Apeirogon. His work has earned him several international awards and honors, including the National Book Award, the International Dublin IMPAC Prize, a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres from the French government, the 2010 Best Foreign Novel Award in China, an Oscar nomination, and more. When and how did you decide to become a writer? I was fascinated by writing at a fairly young age. My father was a journalist. I loved going to his newspaper offices with him. And I loved meeting writers. Our house was so full of books that you could not see the wallpaper. It was around the age of ten or eleven that I really began to think about stories. And I worked a...

I’ve gotten so much great advice from the change makers I’ve featured on Elena Blogs for a Change , from guidance based on my aspirations as a writer and storyteller to insights related to the specific issues I care about. I am grateful for their suggestions about how to make the most of life while finding ways to work for the greater good.  Below is some of the best advice from some of my favorite interview subjects: Steve Silberman, author of Neurotribes and the upcoming book, A Taste of Salt:   If you want to be a good writer, read as much good writing as possible. Follow your own natural interests in literature, but don't read only writers who are still alive. Go back into the past and hear what people who are already gone have left behind to help you understand your experience. And write, write, write, every chance you get. No one becomes a good writer by sitting around and thinking, "I would love to be a writer someday. That seems cool." Start acting like a...

"A correctional officer closes the main gate at San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, California, on July 9th."  (Eric Risberg/AP) The Washington Pos t San Quentin State Prison recently suffered a deadly outbreak of Covid-19 after a mass transfer of inmates from an infected prison in Southern California. As of July 27, 2,000 San Quentin inmates and prison workers have been infected and 15 people have died.  In 2017, I interviewed Yukari Iwatani Kane , co-founder of the Prison Journalism Project who was teaching journalism at San Quentin State Prison at the time. I also shared an essay about racism in prisons written by one of her students, Jesse Vasquez. This week, the Washington Post published an account by  inmate Joe Garcia, who is a staff member of the San Quentin News and editorial liaison for the Prison Journalism Project, in which he describes what it's like to be living in San Quentin during the Covid outbreak.  Read it here:  https://www.washingtonp...

Andrea Dew Steele is the founder of Emerge, an organization that arms aspiring women leaders with the tools and training they need to win elections. Since its founding in 2002, Emerge has trained more than 4,000 Democratic women to run for office. Earlier in her career, Andrea worked on Capitol Hill as a policy analyst and also helped raise money for Democratic candidates. How did you first get involved in politics? I started volunteering for a campaign while I was in high school and was bit by the political bug.  I decided that if I wanted to impact the world, working in politics would enable me to have the biggest impact.  I loved being involved in campaigns right from the beginning.  Making calls and knocking on doors may seem like low level work, but I enjoyed feeling like I was part of a team that was working to elect someone who could dramatically impact peoples lives. What inspired you to create Emerge? Why should gender matter when it comes to politics? ...

                                                          What would you do if you were having trouble finding a safe, accepting place where you felt free to be yourself? Sixteen-year-old Tabby Bellanor decided to create her own, @safebispace, which now has over 80,000 followers on Instagram.     When and why did you start your Instagram page? What was your original vision and mission? Has it evolved?   I started my page on June 10th, 2019, so about a year ago. I started it because I felt alone, to be honest. I was attending a high school that wasn't terribly accepting and I didn't know anyone else who was LGBTQ+ that I felt like I could talk to. I wanted a space where I was free to be me, and free to like who I liked without fear or shame.  I figured maybe other people could use a space li...