Season 1 Ep. 8 How Community-Engaged Advocacy Makes the Difference with Leah Davis

SK: Welcome, Leah.  [00:01:29][38.1]

Leah: [00:01:31] It's so good to be here! Awesome, thank you so much for having me!

SK: [00:01:36] Of course, so I like to start the podcast with how are you surviving this week and how are you thriving? 

So I'll just kick us off while you're thinking through that. Surviving. I took a week off last week, and if you know me, I haven't taken a real vacation in like four years. So that was a really big deal for me. To my surprise, I came back to a million and one emails and projects. It was so nice to get away but it also reminded me why it's so hard for me to take a break. However, it was definitely needed and was a really good mental break for me. And that's really how I was kind of surviving coming off of that trip. 

How am I thriving? This weekend was just so chill and just so nice to be with my husband and my sweet dog, Mayfair. We really enjoyed not having to be anywhere at a certain time, which may sound kind of lame for most listeners. But you know, when you go, go, go and you feel like you're always having to be somewhere at a specific time, it's nice just to kind of go with the flow and just enjoy your couch and watch a little Netflix and grill. What about you?  [00:02:45][69.3]

Leah: [00:02:47] Well, I feel you on that. I've been go, go, go for the past few weeks, so I'm excited to kind of chill out for the next few weeks ahead. Surviving, I just got a new manager, a new boss. And in between that time, since the beginning of the year and before he was hired, I was kind of in a transition and limbo period. So work has picked up a lot and so I'm trying to readjust how I'm going to be productive because we're getting into our busy season now. So I'm surviving that driving. I just had a birthday a few days ago and I turned twenty-three, so young, but I feel like it's my first year of womanhood. I've been really celebrating that and my friends have just been really awesome, whether they were near me or far away of really just making me feel loved and cherished and all the positive qualities that they think I have. So I'm just really riding that high of all the love that I felt this week.  

SK: [00:03:56] Well, happy belated birthday. That's exciting! 

Leah: [00:04:00] Thank you.  [00:04:00][0.4]

SK: [00:04:02] Yeah, it's crazy to think of a time when it's like, OK, this is like a new season in life, a new chapter. Welcome to stepping into this new chapter. 

Leah: [00:04:11] Thank you. Thank you. I'm excited. I'm excited.  [00:04:13][2.1]

SK: [00:04:15] All right, so Leah is from my hometown of Tupelo, Mississippi. Let's go wave! So give us a little background from then to now.  

Leah: [00:04:24] Wow. Tupelo seems like forever ago. 

Yeah, I was born and raised in Tupelo, Mississippi. I was born into a family of two ministers. So I grew up with a very family-centered, church-centered, religion-centered life. We were a really tight family unit, just my nuclear family. They taught me a lot of things like how to serve, how to love people, and how to really be intentional about what I do. 

So I credit my love of Mississippi to them. I don't necessarily feel a whole bunch of connection to Tupelo, but it's where my family's from. So I really try to credit that. But I love Mississippi in general, so I always start with saying that I am a Mississippi native, so I, no matter wherever I end up, white people know that that's where home is and that's where my roots are.  [00:05:28][58.1]

SK: [00:05:29] Explain to us, kind of, where are you at now?  

Leah: [00:05:31] Now I am in Birmingham, Alabama working a real adult job that eight to five life. So after Tupelo, I went to college, lived in Oxford, and went to The University of Mississippi and just loved it. There were so many great experiences, so much to learn about myself. I learned so much about the world around me and people, and I'm still growing and developing as a person. 

 I would say that just like a lot of people, college is a very defining four to five years of your life. For me, it was a very defining four years. So it prepared me for who I am today. It helped me to be the adult that I am today. I'm a product of a village. So growing up in Tupelo, I have my village there, I have my village in Oxford and other places in Mississippi, and now I'm starting to build my village in Birmingham.  [00:06:33][61.7]

SK: [00:06:34] I love that! You mentioned, about being community-engaged, right? So what is community-engaged advocacy and why are you so passionate about it?  

Leah: [00:06:46] Yeah, I attribute that to a lot of advocacy work and people being out front has become a little bit more mainstream. I like to say that I am passionate about community-engaged work and advocacy. 

Some people might describe it as another word for activism, but I don't like that word because it's very self-centered. To me, that's not a title that I don't like to bestow upon myself. So I have to say that I'm an advocate for people just in general because I am always trying to connect with others. 

If I know that someone needs something, I'm always trying to connect them to different resources. One is because we are all in a community, and I think God never put us on this Earth to be alone. We're supposed to be around people, we're supposed to be helping each other, we're supposed to live our lives interconnected to some extent.  

When you're trying to advocate for specific causes, issues, groups of people, or anything that you care about, if you don't do it to benefit the community that you're working in, then it doesn't matter. It doesn't benefit people, and that's not sustainable change. Everything I do, whether it's my job, or my personal life, I really am trying to re-center and focus on community. Whatever that looks like, whether that's specific communities or just the community as a whole, but making sure that I'm in line with other people.

SK: [00:08:23]  So you have a really interesting story. So tell us about your experience educating the community on diversity and inclusion efforts at the University of Mississippi. I know it was an interesting time in your life and a really defining experience.  

Leah: [00:08:48] Yeah, University of Mississippi, colloquially known as Ole Miss, I normally just call it university is a beautiful, interesting, and just very complex place. I think a lot of people know some of the history. It was one of the flagship public universities in Mississippi. It integrated in the early 60s, and its integration was very tumultuous. 

Since then, they've had historical issues with race and how they have treated black students, black faculty, and staff. When I came to the university in 2016, they were making new diversity inclusion efforts. These efforts had been going on for some time. People have always advocated for others to be more inclusive and for the university to kind of recognize the community as a whole.

In 2018 was when things just kind of reached a pinnacle. I think with the political landscape and things being seemingly polarized and the students really saying that at some point the university needed to take a radical stand. If you know anything about sustainable change, a lot of times it has to come from the bottom up and not from the top down. 

So at the center of campus, there was a Confederate statue. And just to give a little bit background, because some people don't necessarily know about the history of Confederate statues, most Confederate statues were erected about 50 to 60 years after the Civil War ended. They were erected by different groups like the Daughters of Confederacy, who were daughters and granddaughters of Confederate soldiers who fought in the Civil War. But they were erected around the time that black people were starting to gain voting rights. And we're having thriving businesses, so they were really erected as a fear tactic to enact Jim Crow laws, which enforced segregation, which forced black people to not vote and participate in civic processes and like own property and different things like that. So you can find historical documents. Normally, when the statues were erected and they had a dedication ceremony, the people who dedicate them would talk about how they dedicated these statues to preserve this view of the Old South, which is what the South was before the Civil War ended. 

So that statue was positioned at the heart of the University of Mississippi's campus back in the early nineteen hundreds. It was not erected by students. It was rejected by some random group. Lived in Oxford. They just wanted it on campus, but it was there for a specific reason. And since the university was integrated and it is the flagship university, it is just an eyesore. 

It's the first thing you see. It was the first thing you see when you drive onto campus right past the guard shack. It was this 30 foot tall looming stone statue that was vaulted. It was deep in the ground. It was meant to not be moved, and it was meant to uphold this view of the Old South. And I think that that's not where people want to be. In the Fall of 2018, I was in student leadership and student government. I was particularly focused on diversity and inclusion work. So working with minority students and administration and being a liaison. We had a series of town halls and students from every background, creed, color, Greek affiliation. They were saying, that's not what Ole Miss is, that's not what the university is. We don't need to glorify that. It doesn't need to be at the center of attention anymore. And so that's when several of us were like, we've just got to do it. I can't get a backhoe and like, actually move it, but it's got to go. It has to be moved. There have been several talks with the administration up until that point, and the administration was dragging its feet. They didn't want it to be moved because it would piss certain alumni groups off, and the university is controlled by a higher board. So there was a lot of bureaucracy and politics going on. However, there were a lot of students just as many students in opposition of the administration and this coalition of all different types of students who were like, this is not who we are and as students, and if we want to create a better future for people to come after us and if we want the university to survive and thrive, it's got to go!

 So state law in Mississippi and Alabama, a lot of southern states you cannot destroy Confederate monuments it is specifically written. They can only be relocated and they have to be relocated to an appropriate place. So I worked with on the institutional side, so working kind of through the democratic process, I guess you could say. In student government, we wrote a resolution and it passed unanimously by the Senate. Every vote was yay. And we said this needs to be moved to a different location and there's a Confederate cemetery towards the back of campus. We recommended that it should be moved there and we presented it to the chancellor at the time, and he agreed.

It was just a long process because of the politics and bureaucracy and the different arguments that people posed, but eventually, it was moved in the summer of 2020, which was about a month and a half after I graduated. I think it was just it needed to be done, and I think it's amazing how the university has moved forward. They recognize that that statue was holding the university back from progress symbolically and physically because it was physically embedded in the landscape, and now they've just moved forward.

 They're trying to make sustainable change, and know that this ugly symbol is not at the center of our campus, we can say like, Hey, OK, we are committed to doing certain steps and making progress towards racial reconciliation, diversity, and inclusion. So it was pretty powerful, and it was a long two years. I will say that just going back and forth with people's hurls and insults and everything like that made it along two years. However, it was a defining moment for me, a defining moment of my college career.  [00:16:10][442.1]

SK: [00:16:11] Wow. Well, you're being very gracious. I know that it took a lot to get that done. It's not always easy being someone who sees something that needs to be done speaks up on behalf of others and helps lead change. Sometimes it can be hard and take a lot of courage to be that person that stands up and says this is not okay and to do that for two years of your time. Especially to dedicate so much mental energy and time during your collegiate career to this cause and into this initiative is incredibly selfless. Talk about the ultimate graduation gift. 

What lessons did you learn throughout that experience? I mean, talking about hearing from people who may or may not have been saying the kindest words who were completely in opposition of your stance, like, what did you learn from that?  [00:17:25][74.4]

Leah: [00:17:27] Yeah, so I learned so much! One, I do want to make a point that I was a part of this in a broader sense. I think a couple of friends and I were kind of dedicated to it maybe a little bit more than others, but it was this broad student effort. 

There were just a couple of point people in it, and I can't even name all the point people because I would definitely leave someone out. It really gave me a sense of community when I was in that Senate room, and it was a big thing because the press had leaked that we had passed this resolution and there was media there and there were police there because they were scared of like counter-protesters showing up. There was just a lot going on.

 When I was in that Senate room and every single senator, even the ones who I thought were probably some of the most difficult and honestly racist people that I had to deal with in my college career, even when they stood up and their vote was yay and it was unanimous. It gave me chills. I'm a very religious person. I'm just very straightforward with the facts. I am hopeful, but my hope is grounded in the reality. How can we make sustainable change and not just performative change, but it was just in that moment and seeing how the community can come together and how it came from the students, a student body that most people would judge based on the perception that would not be wanting would not want that type of change. 

It taught me so much. It taught me so much about people and taught me so much about Mississippi. We had to dig a lot into research and state laws. I really had to educate myself. We as a group had to educate ourselves on just the politics of things. But I think a lot of people look at Mississippi as being this backward place, and that's not yes, it's true, but no, it's not. There are a small group of people of Mississippi, wealthy people who hold power in the state. But the majority, a lot of people in the state want change. They want progress. They don't want to be in this backward state. And so I think that was just so moving that 30 foot tall stone. It showed the world that the University of Mississippi, which has a very contentious and racist history and sometimes a racist presence, let's be honest if it can make a statement like that to the world to say this is just what we're going to do, even though it took a long time, but a statement was made that this will no longer be glorified on our campus.

 I think that signals to other schools that it can happen. Change can happen. So, I learned a lot. I learned a lot about myself. I'm very resilient. That resilience did come at a cost to my mental health and my physical health. I really had to learn how to take care of myself on the back end. I learned that I can do a lot more than I think I can, but also that I don't have to sacrifice my physical well-being to make change. 

It taught me a lot about the lessons of caring and now about work-life balance and self-care and who to surround yourself with and how to really see people for who they are. One of my favorite quotes is by Maya Angelou, "When people show you who they are, believe them." Through that process, there are a lot of people who I thought were for progress and this work and like anti-racism, but they really weren't. There are a lot of people who I was very surprised by, and I've seen them go on to try to create change in their little spaces. So overall, I learned so much. So much.  

SK: [00:21:50] Wow - very eye-opening. Hard lessons learned. I mean, that's a great explanation of what change can look like. Mental and physical health is so important and it's important to have that self-care. 

What do you do for your self-care and to ensure that you're mentally and physically well to continue to further change and to continue to spark courageous conversations?  [00:22:15][25.1]

Leah: [00:22:16] Yeah. So I always thought that self-care looked like going to the spa or getting a manicure all the time or living what we kind of think is luxury. But, for me, I think what I've learned is self-care, looks like just listening to your body. So when you're tired? Stop. If you need to eat, you need to eat. Drink plenty of water. Get sleep. So listening to your body and listening to like your gut feeling is if you feel that something is not right, you should probably listen to that and apply whatever you feel to that situation.

 So I really learned how to listen to myself. I also learned to just kind of like stop thinking about what other people think and some of that like, Yeah, you want to have a public image, you want to have a good perception in the community. But at the same time, like if I'm taking care of myself by going out to eat or by spending time with family and friends, I don't have to always be doing something to be myself. So I think part of my self-care is just kind of deconstructing what maybe society or the world is telling me to do and really kind of listening to myself into what my faith believes I should do and to just take this pressure off myself to always be performing. I think when you're caught up in like making change, it's like it's a lot of go, go, go, go, go. If anyone's ever organized, even like a community food drive or something, you can learn how like organizing things and being a part of something that is in service to others. Why there's a tendency to create an ego complex and then there's a tendency for you to feed off of that. Like, I always have to go, I always have to be doing something and be performing in some way. I think when I let go of that when I learned to take care of myself is to take care of and do things that correlate with my values and what I believe my calling is. You know, it was very freeing.  [00:24:23][127.0]

SK: [00:24:26] I'm an enneagram three, the achiever, which is a go-getter and cares about public image and you know, all of the shameless things, but it's really easier said than done to not let the opinions of others really weigh you down. Especially when you're advocating for bold change or doing something that's just completely out of the ordinary, like a podcast. You know, it's little things like that that can really kind of eat away at you if you let the opinions of others continue to define who you are, right? And that's where that's such a fine line between listening to feedback and hearing other people's opinions versus listening to your gut as you said. And so just while you're just wise beyond your years and I fully agree with what you're saying on just making sure you're checking in with yourself and doing the little things to just feed your soul, feed your mind and body, and in all of interconnects,  [00:25:26][60.4]

SK: [00:25:30] So, you work at United Way in fundraising, so tell us about how you got into fundraising in the nonprofit world. Was fundraising always something that you imagined or how did that happen?  [00:25:38][8.4]

Leah: [00:25:39] No, it really just kind of fell into my lap. What I didn't know was that fundraising was a profession and is a whole field of practice. People are dedicated to this. I had no idea whatsoever. I think when most people think of fundraising, they think of like, we're going to like a fancy gala that we're doing an auction for or like even when kids sell coupon cards for high school fundraisers, you know, and they fundraise for the band or the choir and the football team. I think that's what a lot of people think that fundraising is, but it is a business in the nonprofit world, is a business type world.

 It's just structured very differently and it's more social than the corporate world. So when I was at the university, my senior year, I worked for our development office, which is the office that fundraisers. If you've ever gotten a call from a student caller asking you to give money, that's their job. That's one tool that they use to raise money, and I love it. I worked on a couple of specific projects, particularly with our black donors and with black alumni of the university trying to give them a pipeline in a way for them to give back and point them to specific areas that maybe they were interested in and show them different missions and scholarships that needed funding so that they could give back.

 I worked on a Giving Day project. I did a lot of data and research and found opportunities and recognized patterns. I learned a lot about marketing, like how do we market social media? How do we use language and communication skills to show people that fundraising is very important and giving people an opportunity to give is very important.

After graduation, I had some connections and networked around, ultimately landing the job at United Way. It's been a wild ride. I'm still learning a lot about the field. I attend a lot of webinars and I'm always reading and trying to come up with different ways like how I can do my job better and what can I take back to my team. 

 I specifically manage the Jason Davis Leadership Society, which is our society for Black Changemakers at United Way. Speaking broadly, I get to connect existing donors to volunteer opportunities and different networks, and they get to network with each other. It is one of the largest nonprofits in Birmingham, so we're able to connect with people and be on the ground a little bit more than other nonprofits. We always really try to focus on the community, and we serve a large area. I get to work with all different types of people, all different types of networks, and just meet cool, interesting people who care about the community and maybe don't know how to get plugged in. It's fulfilling. I know that I'm making an impact. I don't necessarily always see the other side of those dollars, but I know that when I see different stories and videos of families and children and veterans and children being able to go to school and get quality pre-K education when I see stories like that and I'm able to meet people who are affected by the money that is raised.

SK: [00:29:47] Wow, that's really cool and just gives you chills whenever you feel like you're able to go to work every day and make positive changes in the lives of others. So just really appreciative of their efforts and got a lot of nonprofits, man. I've worked for a nonprofit and it's a wild ride. It's really fun, but I'm sure you know as well, everyone wears many hats. What is the best piece of advice that you've ever been given and how are you currently applying it to your life today?  [00:30:28][40.7]

Leah: [00:30:30] Hmm. I have so many, but I will say one of the ones that I follow, not to a tee, but that has always stuck with me. It was drilled to me as a child. My dad's a pastor. He always pointed back to God or religion and I still am a Christian and I'm very firm in my faith. He would always, whenever he or my mom would drop us off at school before we would get out of the car, they would say, "OK, say with me. Don't forget who you are, and don't forget who you are." Specifically as a child of God and as a young black girl growing up in Mississippi and navigating this, really white world and white space in a world that's stacked against you is just really powerful. 

 I remember that at work. I remember that when I'm navigating my personal life, never forget who you are. Never forget where you come from. Never forget who you are to your core and what your values are. Because when you know who you are, you can't be shaken. Now that I'm getting older and I'm interacting with a lot of adults, I'm finding people who are well into their life and they don't know who they are. You can tell when people don't have a sense of purpose when they're just following what goes on and they're just handling, they're just kind of taking life as it comes and not necessarily trying to have an active presence in their life, their dad, they've just always taken a backseat. I always strive to make plans. You can try to control your destiny, but I do know that my calling is to be there for people and to be an advocate and whatever role or form, shape, or form that shows up. I also know who I am, personally who I am when I go to sleep at night and I lay down, I wake up in the morning. I know who I am, but you don't forget who you are. I am. I firmly believe that I was chosen by God. I was. I was chosen by my family. I was. I was placed in different places at different times in my life and where I am now for a reason. So when you know those fundamental things, it makes life a little bit easier and it makes the storms of life a little bit easier. Not saying it's a cure-all, but it's easier to kind of have that firm foundation and to not be shaken.  [00:33:02][152.2]

SK: [00:33:03] Great words to live by. 

SK: [00:33:06]  Now it's time for the leading ladies we love the rapid-fire game. Get excited! Woo woo hoo. All right, I'm going to list a couple of adjectives. I want you to shout out the first female that comes to your mind. That's just killing it and doing their thing in their respective industries. This can be a friend, sister, sibling, coworker, whoever you want it to be to shout them out. We try to keep it quick. So are you ready for this? Mm-hmm. Yeah. All right. Let's do it. The first word is bold.  

Leah: [00:33:40] I would say my sister, Sydney. She speaks her mind and she has come into her own and she is very bold.  

SK: [00:33:51] All right. The next word is an advocate. 

Leah: [00:33:54] Advocate is my friend Hayley Williams. She's about to go into med school in the fall. She really wants to be a doctor and to be an advocate for other people, as she also wants to help other people be doctors as well. Because I think she really likes to advocate for people she loves to be in the community leader, 

SK: The next word is a leader. 

Leah: Stacey Abrams. She changed the political landscape in the past decade, especially in this last election cycle. So I think she leads by example.  [00:34:26][32.9]

SK: [00:34:27] Next word is encourager. 

Leah: [00:34:28] My mom, she is just my go-to and is my rock. She will give me constructive criticism, but also tell you things that you want to hear. I really go to my mom a lot for emotional support and encouragement.  [00:34:41][12.9]

SK: [00:34:43] The Last word is genuine.  

Leah: [00:34:45] My friend Ashley Williams. She is a professor and doctoral student at the University of Mississippi, and she's taught me a lot about how to really be genuine and how to get to know people and see them for who they are.  [00:34:59][13.7]

SK: [00:34:59] Well, that wraps up The Leading Ladies We Love Rapid Fire Game! You did great! Thank you for coming onto the podcast.