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Business as Usual: 2020 Award Recipient Dr. Angela Reynolds

Last week, the Pittsburgh Technology Council celebrated the 2020 ATHENA Awards Program of Greater Pittsburgh to recognize women who demonstrate excellence in their profession, contribute to their community and mentor other women and/or girls. Today, we will talk to ATHENA recipient Dr. Angela Reynolds, CEO of the YWCA Greater Pittsburgh. She has an amazing story (both personal and professional) of making a positive difference and impact across the community. Plus, she will detail her leadership at the YWCA during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a unique opportunity to learn from and be inspired by one the region's most prolific leaders.

 

 

Transcription: 

So good afternoon, everyone. It is Friday in September. And I'm Audrey Russo, President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Technology Council welcoming you here to business as usual, very excited about today's guest. And I'm joined by Jonathan cursing, he's Vice President at the tech Council of all things, media, and marketing. So before we get started, just a couple of things. First of all, we've muted your microphones. And the intent of that is just to make sure that we don't hear the noise in the background, because many of us do have that myself included. So hopefully my dogs won't make an appearance today. But I also want to give a shout out to Huntington bank. Huntington bank has been with us from the onset of this journey through COVID. Today, marks are 126 interview that we've done since co In a wide variety of people, a wide variety of discussions and today will be no different. So I'm very, very thrilled. While we have been honored at the tech council to take the work that was done prior at the Allegheny conference with the Athena awards, we actually are now sort of have we have a home with Athena now, and we're very excited about that. And we, of course, everything 2020 all things went wrong. And that included we weren't going to be able to do an in person event, but I have to tell you the event that we did have to honor the finalists and, and today we actually have the Athena award winner for 2020 Angela Reynolds, Dr. Angela Reynolds, she's the CEO of the YWCA. We are really in for a treat to have a conversation with the winner and the The Athena awards themselves why they're so profound because there's a couple of dimensions to those awards. One is lifting others lifting other women, being a civic servant, being active in the community, and being a leader of an organization that's doing amazing things. And Angela Reynolds has achieved all of that this is a very competitive process. There is almost there are almost 30 people who actually work through the vetting process to make sure that the finalist actually has those capabilities and represents what Athena is and Athena the Athena awards is also part of Athena International. So enough about setting the table and let's really just get down to having a conversation with Dr. Angela Reynolds. So welcome. Thank you so much for being here. Congratulations. And I am personally in awe of just getting to know you over these few weeks and peeling it back a little Little bit more today makes me very, very excited. So thank you for being here with us today. Well, thank you for having me. And you had mentioned earlier in terms of the the award ceremony, I just want to say publicly, it was fantastic. I'm still hearing people who are talking about what a wonderful job you did pulling it together, you and your team, because I know it was a team effort. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And so I you're getting congratulations comments already your chat. So just see that. So let's, let's just talk about the current let's talk about your current role as CEO, the YWCA of greater Pittsburgh and how and what that rule is, what the organization does, and how you have cultivated a safe and supportive workplace and that culture. So I'm going to sit back and I want you to tell us a little bit about the work you're doing.

So I'll start by talking mission and then move past mission to how we actually carry that out. So our mission is eliminating racism and empowering women. And I want to make it very clear that we've been around for over 150 years we as a as YWCA. And when you look back over the history of the organization and the impact that they've had locally in the community, also understanding we are part of a national national network. But also just like looking at what has happened with YWCA for Pittsburgh, there is a rich legacy of women who are committed to making sure that women had access to work that they had access to housing, commitment to children, that's going back over, like I said, 100 years. So eliminating racism has been a part of our mission for a while. And so when you see us out there now talking about racism harms everyone. That's something that has been said before I was even thought of, right, so I think it's important to first say, say that, and then when we talk about empowering women, there are so many aspects that I believe are important for us. To look at and so when you think about empowering women, we also have a commitment to children. And how do we develop young women so that when they are of age, that they're exercising their right to vote that they know when they're in the workplace, that they're valued and that they're supported, that they think about the careers that they want to go into. And they say, you know what, I actually can do this. So in terms of what we actually are doing now, I have a fantastic team. We have four main program areas, I'm going to start with our Center for race and gender equity. And I look at that as kind of like this foundation. So coming in as a new leader, I joined February 24, of 2020, right before a pandemic hit. Yes, but coming in as a new leader knew that eliminating racism was going to become prominent again in the work that we do and so it was taking our Center for race and gender equity, and now making that the foundational piece of all of our areas of work. So if you think about center, racing equity is a pillar but also look at it as a foundation underneath as well. And we have an Early Learning Center. So we currently have two properties. We have a location that's in downtown Pittsburgh, downtown Pittsburgh on Wall Street. But our Early Learning Center is located in Homewood on Frank's town. And our early learning center takes children zero to five. I will say one of the great things about my onboarding session was going over to our Homewood center and seeing the babies and you look in their eyes and you're like, yes, there's that one, there's a future and two, we have an opportunity to make an impact. So zero to five years old. We have a four star program. We have a quality pre k program, we had to shut down for a bit as other centers for Governor's orders. reopen June 1, we're doing it with social distancing. And so I have staff on the front lines, who are they're taking care of our children so precious, right, and making sure that they know how to read once they are getting to kindergarten, and that They're able to be supported. But then also supporting working parents. We have our resource center, our resource center is supporting basic needs right now we are ramping up. We never stopped. And I just want that to be clear. We never stopped work for the Resource Center. we pivoted and shifted. So we turned all of our operations virtual, we did home deliveries of emergency food. We took our application which you know, people used to come downtown, it's like okay, this thing has to go up so it's accessible on a smartphone. And so that's another area where I have frontline staff that again, you know, packing boxes in their hearts and going out, and right now, I'm dealing with some really pretty major issues as it relates to rent. People that are $3,000 $5,000 behind because they cut their hours right their hours were cut or else they lost their jobs due to COVID and we also have 10 single family homes that we rent out through y w homes and we oversee a fund that's called the Liz prime fund. And that's in dedication to a an advocate in the area, a woman also a great legacy in her own right. And that's what we call a but for fund, but for these funds, a woman would not have gotten the certification that she needed when she finished nursing school, but couldn't afford it in order to get a job in nursing, right. But for these funds, this person would not have been able to get their citizenship. Right, but for and then the fourth area is our youth and teens programs and our youth and teens programs has had a very heavy focus on STEM and how do we support girls who want to consider stem as a career. I was a math major. I'm there that's very near and dear to my heart. I spoke about this in my acceptance. I guess I call it an acceptance speech. But I'm Rhonda Hughes again, she was the chair of our math department and she would teach calculus every couple of years just to make sure that women even though it was a women's college, but To make sure women would major, but particularly black women would major and she also started a exchange partner with Spelman College. So that's why it's so important one to make sure that you're nurturing girls, so that they go on. And then, you know, I went on to be a professor teaching statistics. And there were many cases where I will have students who will come up and say, either you're my first black professor, or you're my first black female professor who's doing a stem deal. And so that having faces is so important. So when that our youth team services went virtual, they started these virtual career cafe. So you could see women in STEM, it's not just I can do it. It's like, I'm going to do this because I know that there are other women that I see before me that show that that women can do math. Yes, women not only can do it, we do it, we do science, we do all of it and and that we can succeed and be successful. So that's, you know, what we do as an organization And then there's a lot more that we're looking at in terms of where we're moving forward with our mission and really implementing our strategic direction going for.

So this but for these funds, is that a, is that is there a link or anything if people want to contribute?

So if you go to our website, YWCA pgh.org, and if someone could put that in the chat for me, yes, if you go to our website, you can access all of our programs. And so not only finding out information about it, but also being able to donate and we accept donations that at any time when I say that this fund is critical, actually, this week, I met with our resource center director, and I'll keep confidentiality and I won't say too much but it was a woman who received a terminal diagnosis and not much time to live and she just needed money to go get a second opinion. Right. That's a but for right so be able so you know, she had the transportation to like, What? Get the flight down there. But how will she she didn't have the money to get to the flight, she didn't have the money for food. And so the last thing you want with someone who has this type of diagnosis, to have to worry about food and how I'm going to make it once I'm there, but for these funds, so now she was she was able to go and we're just awaiting word of what happened with that. so critical. And the fact that we were able to tap into the list print fund and that her family saw fit to have it under the management of YWCA. We're honored.

Wow. And so we do have the link out there for the YWCA. And it's out there so if you're listening and think about it, and you want to contribute, please do so. You can see just a little sampling of the work that Angela is leading and our team. Thank you for giving us that example. I think that's that's very important and very powerful. It also shows the breath what you are working on. And who you were working with. So thank you for sharing that. Tell us a little bit just about your background. You've woven it in a little bit. So just tell us academically, you know how you prepared where you've been.

And you don't want the born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut. You can tell us your fastball right here about Connecticut.

Hear that?

already mentioned I went to Bryn Mawr College. So I went to it's a women's college on the main line of Philadelphia for those of you aren't familiar with this part of the Seven Sisters school. So when you think about my my mission in life as it relates to empowering women and mentoring women, it kind of started there, right? Um, it's interesting. I went to an all girls high school and vowed that was it for you know, one gender education. But then when I went to Bryn Mawr I fell in love with it. And so that's how I ended up there. And the reason I mentioned that is because there was a time when women weren't in the ivy League's and so that's Tell the Seven Sisters came about. And so that nurturing environment is so important. And then from there I went to Carnegie Mellon University for graduate school. And it's interesting because that wasn't planned. I mean, I I did map as a major kind of got interested in statistics thought I wanted a PhD in statistics and you know, found out that maybe I should take a few more stats courses at a liberal arts college weren't many options. There was one in the sociology department they said, Well, you can't take an unless you minor. So I looked at all my courses and so it senior year declared a minor in sociology Hmm. And then ended up applying and got into two schools and I was deciding between the two NC State and Carnegie Mellon University and when Carnegie Mellon flew me out, they said, you know, really great essay, but we want to put some more people on your agenda. And they told me then about this school of urban and Public Affairs, so yes, I'm dating myself. But you people have already seen in the paper my age. So, um, so School of urban and Public Affairs and they said, you know, you might be interested in public policy and going to a liberal arts college. I've never even heard of that. And so what they did was they did a dual visit for me. And yes, went over to sufa. And I was like, Yes, this is actually what I want. So I kind of happened into policy analysis, because my whole essay was, I want to use statistics to address social problems, infant mortality, housing disparities. So that was like the whole round with it and then to go to what's now Heinz college MBA and be able to be around these phenomenal professors. And so the other person that I thanked is Jackie Colin, because, again, when I started my plan was to work with with one professor who was focused on infant mortality. Unfortunately, she passed away and I wasn't able to work with her and so Jackie, who was a criminologist, you know, started in criminology was a very, very rough year in Pittsburgh around the time that I was getting my dissertation topic together since mid 90s. A lot of gang violence on the church I belong to at the time. And of course, a couple of weeks buried three young people. And I said, I need a break from this type of research to think I'm gonna do housing now. And Jackie said, Okay, let's do housing. She was a criminologist. But yet she wanted to support me in that direction. And so we transitioned into housing, I took a little bit of a break. To learn more about housing. I did an internship at Freddie Mac, down in McLean, Virginia, profit, mortgage market, work down there got a little taste of the corporate life and money. So then I have a decision. Do I go back and get a PhD or do I stay and deal you know, in this corporate environment? Then I looked at the people who were leaving the project and who were my supervisors, they had PhD after the name. So I actually, um, I came back after spending a little bit more time there than I was supposed to came back and finish my dissertation at at Heinz. And then when after that did a little bit at Fair Housing Partnership while I was finishing up my dissertation and then joined the faculty at Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. So,

so what did you do your dissertation on

racial disparities in homeownership? And so looking at these factors that contribute to those disparities, and it's interesting, you know, so I had my PhD for a while, in so got in 22,000. So I've had like right now, but to look at the disparities in terms of rental rates and ownership rates by race, particularly as you're looking at black and white and me being in Pittsburgh, that's where the focus was. We didn't have a large Latino population or population. But that being said, and to see that those disparities still persist in the gaps are still very similar. And you know, access to credit access to down payments. And it was great being at Freddie Mac because then we were looking at different products like how do you have these different products that can help support low income households and then have an impact on because of the intersection between race and income. And as many of you know, if you think about the timing that I talked about, there were people who unfortunately exploited many of the products that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac developed and you had the subprime market, which made things really bad and increases in foreclosures. So that that kind of like drove my, my, my career and my thinking in terms of, you know, I grew up in a home where my parents owned first black family on the block. And like, even just watching and seeing the transition of the neighborhood, as you know, you have these persistent prejudices that exist and then just basic systemic racism looked at redline maps. And so when you look at There's Yes, there's a historical factor. But there are also other pieces that come in that are important. Well, for example, so I mean, it's one of those topics that I could I could talk about. I love it. We love it at it. It's there. It's it's, it's buried in terms of the reasons why, but a lot of them are rooted in systemic racism.

Yeah, I mean, that's true. And you did this research two decades ago. Yeah. Where are we today?

Right. And right, we're still we're still having having challenges still having challenges of access. And to make it clear, it's for those who want to own right so it's not saying everyone needs to be homeowner like there are some people who are very happy and renting but if you want to own a home, you should be able to do it.

And and it's great. You're getting some questions, I think, Ingrid cook saying what can we do to help? And that's that's sort of the nature of these conversations that we've been having. It's a wrap up saying what what can we do, and how can we be helpful

And also, I mean, there there are really great conversations that are happening. These conversations are also turning to legislation and turning to action, but thinking about affordable housing and affordable housing, where it's located thinking about amenities? And how do we make sure that all communities are able to have the amenities that are needed. Thinking about this link to education and disparities in education? That's a factor. I mean, there are some people who say, Okay, I want to move to this particular area, because the educational system is better. How do we make sure that those supports are available in the communities where people live? And so it's so one of the things that you can do is one educate and then the educate yourself? Like it was surprising to me how people don't realize the Fair Housing Act was 1968 year before I was born. That's how recent it is. And so when my parents were discriminated against people could legally do it. So it's important to educate yourself but also how do you get connected to these places where these conversations and actions are being discussed right?

Now, I mean, it's, you know, we care about that we all care about that, even across the tech community here, it all matters. So just one

one quick note, and I want to say I, some people have heard me talk about my situation when I, you know, purchase the house that I'm currently like sitting in right now. And, and the neighbor who put our house up for sale and what that means in terms of volatility of the market. And and I won't go into that in terms of housing values and what that means. But I do want to say thank you to my neighbors who didn't move. Right. And so I wasn't the first black person to move into my neighborhood. I was the first black person who was on this particular side of the street. And there weren't and as I look at my neighborhood, now it is becoming more diverse and I have watched in terms of, you know, our people of color being replaced with, you know, people say what's happening, are whites being replaced with lights, like, are we transitioning or get out Tip my neighborhood, all of that to say, but I had neighbors who were walking me. I have neighbors who saw her put her house up for sale and came over to make sure that I felt welcome and supported in my community. So

that's that. That's remarkable. Let's let's, let's talk a look. Can we talk a little bit I asked if we could do this. And you said you were okay about that. You also as as the whole person, Angela, the whole person. You are a wife, a mother, a caregiver? Can you talk about that? Because I think your candor on that is really important for all who are listening about the complexities that particularly women have, in terms of having it all or trying to have it all or trying to be a leader and trying to contribute as the Athena awards of have noted you as being a huge giver and lifting others but you also have a very rich, whole life and that keeps you really busy. And I hopefully keeps you in good health and

well, yeah, well I have a so yes, I am a mother I have an 11 year old daughter I call her my second time around her so she she keeps me healthy and she keeps me young. I like walking around with her because it makes me seem younger than I am. So when you talk about that, you know, the sandwich generation, yes, on the sandwich. So I have four children. Three, as, as I mentioned, I have like 11 year old but three are adult children, one who's completely out of the house as in paying for her own car insurance living in her own apartment, completely out. One that's finishing up his senior year in college and then I have my younger son who's, you know, figuring out I think he wants to be a professional boxer. So dealing with the issues that come along with that. But um, so and I also have my eight year old mother living with me and that is it's it's one Wonderful and when I say that it's wonderful, I have an opportunity to see my mother in a different way. My mother is suffering from dementia. Beautiful Woman, powerful woman. And so she was a civil rights activist in Augusta, Georgia. And like, it's been really wonderful just like hearing like even her siblings talk about the meetings that they would have in their house like where they would plan to sit in like some of you may have seen these in movies but my mother Yeah, that's what she did. They would plan to sit ins and they would practice and being ready for like the ketchup to be poured into her. And she had it up a she was chief of test staff of cardiopulmonary technology at a hospital in New Haven face discrimination of her own and just even watching her, you know, fight through that. As you know, she was white males were brought in for her to train who then came up or basically promoted over her as a took her department away from her and even her staying with them. lawsuit and fighting and depleting a lot of funds in order to fight that battle and at the end winning but seeing what it did to her. And then also my mother is a breast cancer survivor. So I don't know if you can see it, but I wear my, my, my pink Roman in her honor. So a beautiful woman and right now, the her mid 20s are so vivid in her mind. And so I get to know my mother in a way that there would not be possible for me to have known her, right because I would not have met her in her mid 20s. But to be able to have those conversations and hear those stories and hear how she served as a nanny. And when she was in college and staying in people's homes and what she had to endure has been wonderful. And then also just looking at my own children and my my daughter, the my eldest daughter who's working now is you know, working as an activist and right now, her job is promoting the vote and making sure people are are accessing lbx information and that they're going to exercise their right to vote. So I say all of that. So that's part of of me. My biological father passed away when I was 20. So that was between my junior and senior year of college and Bryn Mawr was they were so supportive of me and in dealing with that I was actually doing an internship with at&t Bell Labs.

I'd been there less for a week, less than a week. He passed away on that Thursday, when I got there. I was supposed to be going home that Friday to pick up the car. And instead, you know, Friday morning 2am someone from my mother's job was knocking on the door to bring me home. And then my mother remarried a year after that to a man who was 15 years for seniors. So we lost him a couple of years ago, but he was in the Navy in the 40s. Right and so even just hearing those stories, and he was a business person, so I've had a very fortunate and blessed life in terms of the people that God is allowed to be around me and to surround me, but then also how it was nurtured and brought up. And that's what I carry into the work that I do. My my parents took in a family who had lost their home. So like we speak about why do I do what I do. That's the reason why. And I'm, as I've mentioned to others, my sister, I lost my sister July of last year. And actually it was I was finished, I just finished teaching my last class for the PPI a program over at Heinz and when I, you know, talk about students and one of those students was my daughter was her first black female professor, and to have that conversation with her on the last class that she was now going to consider a PhD, where she thought she wasn't smart enough before because she'd never seen people teach her that we're people of color, and like to hear that and I was so excited. I'm getting in my car. And then I get the call that my sister had gone into cardiac arrest and then getting the call Later that you know that she had passed away. So all of that and she was my rock, my only sibling love to hear a little bit lost my, my nephew, her son a few years prior to that, and so it's it's been an interesting life and it drives me even more like I look at my mother and that was also a lot of what she was going through help to frame United for women and the programming I looked at my sister and her struggles with poverty and, and the challenges that she had. Because my nephew before he passed, he had a heart transplant and so my sister had to quit her job so that she could move with him to New York to wait for a new heart. Right and so the challenges that she went through and you know, suffering through him, you know, being taken off of the off the transplant list because the Connecticut insurance wasn't going to port over to New York. So all of that and again, so how do you take that, you know, I put it on the inside. Okay, so how do I support women who are going through similar type of crisis, and maybe that's why the story that I mentioned earlier about the woman with the terminal diagnosis just hit so closely because I've been there with my own sister and seeing what what she has gone through. So,

Wow, I can't I was going to add one other thing. We only have a few minutes left but I was gonna thing to talk about is that you're an associate pastor at First Baptist Church in West Mifflin. On top of all this, how do you

so I head up our praise and worship ministry. I'm also some people don't know I sing. And so I head up my praise and worship ministry and my sister was a senior in the family. That's why I don't talk about it too much. And I'm our director for our board of Christian education. And I also work with our youth department. So I met that person who when they do the youth messages for church, we're talking about savings. So I do we don't want savings and we'll look stewardship and we and I'm the person that actually will put up an image and say here is how you write a check. Here's how you address an envelope. So I always make sure that in my messages I'm particularly to the young people, but to everyone that it has a practical focus.

Well, I you know, we also tomorrow we have on our tech five radio, we did an interview with both Angela and sharni tournay one young Athena, so if you want to also hear another dimension of the conversations, but you have really been candid in this conversation with all of us, one of our employees, Shelby is actually doing a walk tomorrow for dementia because she actually has people in her family. And there is a dementia walk that's geared all the money secured for research.

I'd love to hear more about that. I didn't speak about it for years. So it's not like my mom just woke up like this. I mean, it was gradual over time. And we basically were in denial about it. And there were some things that happened that we just could no longer deny. And so I just now started speaking publicly about it, because, you know, there might be other people like me that didn't want other people to know what was going on. But we needed help and we needed support. So

listen, you well deserved award you are going we are going to constantly be talking to you all year. Because I think we're gonna, you're new in your role at the YWCA, but we can already feel the impact that you've had. You've had to jump right in right in thanks to COVID but I'm sure you had to jump in, whether it was COVID or not. You are inspiring us. We it is at an inflection point, hopefully, in our society and in our communities to address some of the things that you have done research on and you've you've lifted my spirits today. I'm very, very proud to just now know you and honored to for us at the tech council to keep these Athena awards alive. As you can tell we take them very seriously. Thanks to Allison on our team to Herrick if you don't know her, you should know her because she was the woman behind the scenes doing all the coordination and 30 plus judges. He took this very, very seriously we will continue. And if you look at our tea tea magazine, we're also going to have some more information on there that we're sharing about and Angela, so I want to thank you. Take a look at the the greater Pittsburgh w YWCA. We put the link out but you can easily find it. I'm very thrilled about this. But for funds, we'll do what we can to share, share that and hopefully people can contribute. And we can continue to support Angela as she lifts others, women and men alike. So on that note, I'd like to thank everyone. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for all the comments in there. Most people were just saying thank you. Thank you, Angela. Well deserved. They were all comments Just cheers to you. So appreciate you, sharing who you are a little bit about who you are and the journey that you've been in. It's very inspiring, and very important, and we're lucky to have here in Pittsburgh, and thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Have a safe weekend. And we'll see you

on Monday.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai