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Showcasing the Global Network of Kellogg Fellows

Additional Author 1: Esta G. Soler

Esta Soler (KNFP 11) Founder/President of the Family Violence Prevention Fund, San Francisco.

This article was originally published in the January 2009 issue of the KFLA Newsletter.

From its inception, Esta Soler has been at the forefront of the campaign to prevent violence against women and children. Her vision and leadership have resulted in better care and services for victims of violence, and changes in social norms to make such acts unacceptable, both nationally and internationally. Esta's involvement in the issue began in 1980. As part of a coalition to help battered women and children, she wrote a federal grant that provided $1 million to create services for victims of abuse in San Francisco, and to make associated reforms within the healthcare and justice systems.

"The grant led to my start in this work, and from that initial experience I built the Family Violence Prevention Fund. It was a confluence of luck, motivation, and activism," she reflects. "I wanted to reduce a problem that was keeping women from realizing their full potential. I landed in a place where I could build an organization that helped build a movement." Describing how the violence prevention movement evolved, Esta recounts, "For the first 10 years, we looked at building community-based programs and assistance efforts to help victims. As part of that effort, in 1983-'84, we worked with Senator Biden and wrote the Violence Against Women Act. It was a major reform of the criminal and justice system, so that when people called for help, they were given the help they needed."

With systems in place to help victims and to stop perpetrators, the movement began to branch into prevention efforts. "For the last 18 years, we've been trying to continuously improve the safety net, but also change the social norms so that society no longer tolerates violence against women and children," explains Esta.

The organization's public education campaigns, including "There's No Excuse for Domestic Violence," and "Coaching Boys into Men," in partnership with the Ad Council, the Ford Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, are among these prevention efforts. Esta reports, "Over the course of the last several years, we have begun to see a reduction in violence against adult women. We haven't seen as much progress against women ages 16 to 24. We're really focusing now on the younger population, as well as building programs for teachers, parents, and others who engage with youth."

Esta is vigilant in making certain the Family Violence Prevention Fund's activities are effective. She says she consciously pushes herself "beyond the place of comfort to look at the harsh reality in order to see if our initiatives are making a difference. We need to keep asking ourselves, 'Why are we doing this? Are we reducing the problem? Are we making life better for kids and families?'" She acknowledges that, "Ultimately, we have moved an issue from the back page to the front page," but emphasizes, "Whatever you do in your leadership capacity, you have to hold yourself to the high standards of making a difference."

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Additional Author 1: Elizabeth A. Kutza

Elizabeth Kutza (1945-2006), KNFP-01 Director, Institute on Aging, Portland State University.

This article was originally published in the February 2003 issue of the KFLA Newsletter.

Quick Fact: Author of The Benefits of Old Age: Social Welfare Policy for the Elderly (University of Chicago Press, 1981), and editor of Diversity in Aging: Challenges Facing Planners and Policymakers in the 1990's.

How have you, though your leadership, made a difference in one of your communities?

Often the connection of community to academia is a remote one. Sometimes, this "town & gown" remoteness breeds indifference, misunderstanding, or even hostility. From the time I assumed my academic leadership position as director of the Institute on Aging at Portland State University, I have worked to provide substantive expertise and to apply sound analytic thinking to issues of aging in my community. As a result, I've served on strategic planning bodies that looked at needs and services for older persons both at the state and county levels. I've been an expert witness in age discrimination cases. In addition, I've not only testified before the state legislature but wrote a paper that detailed the history and operation of our state's model long-term care system. State officials now use that document to explain the system to the many visitors from around the nation and across the world who want to learn from Oregon's experiences. I think that leadership in the community can come about by sharing academic expertise with the policy makers and program administrators facing difficult, practical issues.

How do you practice good self-care?

I practice good self care by: (a) trying to leave problems at the office when I go home; (b) keeping physically fit through exercise and sports; (c) getting regular massages to iron out the kinks of tense muscles; (d) following recommended practices for time management and task completion; and (e) knowing when to say "no" to new assignments.

How do you measure success?

Success for me is measured by the affection accorded me by the colleagues with whom I work regularly and by the respect accorded me by professional colleagues and community contacts with whom I interact less frequently.

If you had to give an aspiring leader one piece of  advice, what would it be?

Be quiet and listen before you speak.

How are you different or what do you do differently as a result of your experience as a Kellogg Fellow? Why?

Being a Kellogg National Fellow expanded my world. When selected, I was a junior professor with a very parochial professional orientation. The fellowship experience drew me into the national and international arena of affairs. I still remember and take lessons from the visits our class had with unemployed union workers in Detroit, with the rural outreach health workers in Tuskegee Alabama, and with the urban slum dwellers of Bogota, Colombia. While Americans don't think of themselves as living in a "class-based" society, our socioeconomic status determines the neighborhoods in which we live and the people with whom we interact. The fellowship exposed me to people I would never have met and places I would never have seen.

Can leadership be invisible? How and why have you practiced invisible leadership?

Leadership can be invisible if it involves modeling behavior. Within my organization, I place a high value on mutual respect, especially in relationship between those higher in the organization, e.g., faculty, and those lower, e.g., secretaries, research assistants, and students. When I treat everyone with respect, I provide "invisible" leadership about how I expect relationships to be carried out and the tone I want to set for the organization.

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Additional Author 1: Diana Chapman Walsh

Diana Chapman Walsh, KNFP-8, President, Wellesley College.

This article was originally published in the February 2003 issue of the KFLA Newsletter.

Diana Chapman Walsh Quick Fact: Diana has written, edited, and co-edited numerous articles and fourteen books, including Society and Health, which analyzes the social and cultural determinants of health and illness.

How have you, though your leadership, made a difference in one of your communities?
We have accomplished quite a lot over the past decade I've been at Wellesley College. We've reinvigorated the curriculum, developed new distribution requirements and a quantitative reasoning program, and implemented creative initiatives in experiential learning and global education. We've greatly extended our uses of technology in teaching and learning and initiated new academic programs in a number of areas, including environmental studies, neurosciences, cinema and media studies, and several others. We've provided national leadership through our program of religious and spiritual life and our learning and teaching center and through two annual conferences that bring our whole community together to celebrate our shared intellectual life and our students' stunning achievements, on and off the campus. We've renovated many buildings and revitalized the landscape, grown the endowment, strengthened our administrative practices across the college, and graduated roughly 5,000 impressive women, ready to do all they can to bring peace and Justice to their world, and some rationality, too, we hope We've raised hundreds of millions of dollars to support all of that energy and forward movement. I'm enormously proud of, and ever grateful to, the talented and committed leadership team that has done all of this with me. The most challenging and in some ways most invisible area in which we have made strides, and yet possibly the most consequential, is in the progressively Increasing sophistication we have been developing in the wrenchingly difficult work of engaging and learning from the many and profound differences that define and often divide our small, highly-diverse, and reactive learning community I think I've had an impact there, although it's hard to codify, except perhaps in the many stones of our struggles to stay in relationship through thick and thin. We've done that. 
What sustains you in your practice of leadership and your commitment to change?
Sustain' is really the wrong word for me; it connotes more constancy than, in truth, I'm able to muster day-in-and-day-out. It's hard to lead a process of change, unremittingly hard, and the barriers are overwhelming at times. The commitment flows in cycles and so does the momentum. Sometimes I'm inspired and on fire; sometimes disillusioned and isolated; often somewhere in between. The question, then, is what brings me back? For me, the grounding often comes from something I read or write, but a conversation with a colleague or friend can as easily turn the tide. What's important for a leader to discover, through trial and error, is where you can reliably go to reconnect to your inspiration when you're running out of steam, which inevitably you will do.
What do you consciously say to yourself or do that helps you stay on track with your goals?
I'm pretty systematic and disciplined about setting and reviewing goals -- weekly, monthly, annually...familiar disciplines. But your question is more interesting and more subtle, hinting as it does at whether one is self-conscious about the evaluative stories one tells oneself, whether one has techniques for rising above the constant chatter of the badgering monkey mind. One of my selves is often consciously telling another to lighten up, often in vain. But that's because my other selves are busy driving me on, keeping me on track, on time, on task, in harness, and in role. A trick I've learned that may be of use to other leaders is that when things get murky (and they do), it's often the case that the task has been lost and the simple expedient of stopping to round it up again can be surprisingly clarifying. 
What is your passion?
I love words and I love to write and to read (and to write) writing that moves me. Always have. It might be a persuasive piece of policy analysis or a heartbreaking poem, even, God forbid, a pungent memorandum. When I was a scholar and teacher, I was free to carve out large expanses of time to spend immersed in that engrossing craft of wrestling ideas into the curious and unforgiving linear form through which we humans communicate in writing. I miss that and will welcome it back when this leadership adventure comes to a dose To write well is to think well, I've always believed, although one thing I learned from my Kellogg colleagues is that others think well in other ways in conversations, through music, meditation, dancing, art so many other expressive forms. 
How do you practice good self-care?
I've always been physically active and I maintain a highly regular morning exercise routine that unclogs my arteries (I hope) and clears my head (I know). It also provides quality time with my husband when he joins me. And I guard my spirit (inspired by Parker Palmer) by staying connected to the people and ideas that I can rely on to slow me down, cheer me up, work me over, pull me out, push me beyond ... whatever I happen to need the most when I reach out to them -- the ones who seem instinctively to know precisely what that is.
How do you measure success?
Paradoxically, by trying hard to step out of the world of measurement (where I earned my academic spurs) and into the universe of possibility -- where you set the context and let life unfold. The quotes are from a lovely book, The Art of Possibility, by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander. I commend it to other leaders. 
How are you different or what do you do differently as a result of your experience as a Kellogg Fellow? Why?
At the end of the fellowship, I wrote a playful poem (an ode?) called Owed to Kellogg. The Kellogg Fellowship profoundly affected me, my sensibilities, my priorities, my insights, my ambitions. The experiences, insights, and friendships from those three years have stayed with me with a salience far beyond their allotment of time in my life's journey. They've grown in me and grown me into a deeper, more centered, more compassionate and wiser leader. I'm grateful to have had that extraordinary gift.
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Additional Author 1: Edward J. O'Neil

This article was originally published in the March 2006 issue of the KFLA Newsletter.

A Practical Guide to Global Health Service By Edward J. O'Neil, Jr.
Published by the American Medical Association
402 pages; $39.95

Awakening Hippocrates examines in depth the causes of global health disparities, states the need for increased volunteerism by health providers, and tells the inspiring stories of seven physicians who have dedicated their lives to serving those in poverty-stricken areas around the world, including Albert Schweitzer, Tom Dooley, Paul Farmer, and Jim Kim. Dr. Edward J. O'Neil, Jr. (KNFP 14) is confronting the injustice that allows quality health care to be accessible only to those who can afford it. His remedy: increase volunteerism within the medical profession to deliver health care services where they are needed most as a means to get a far larger slice of the U.S. medical profession engaged directly and politically.

Ed knows from personal experience that "health providers who engage in health service in other countries recognize the power for change from having worked on the ground in these countries." In 1987, Ed spent one month as a fourth-year medical student working in a hospital in Tanzania. There, he was exposed to the harsh realities faced by the poor. Often, he saw them succumb to easily treated illnesses that had become serious from going untreated because of no available health care. The experience was life-changing. Ed writes, "I learned valuable lessons about working with the poor, coming to see them as people first and not as objects of my benevolence or charity. I began to see their problems as our problems. The experience transformed me and redirected my life path."

After completing his residency and spending a few years working as an emergency physician to pay back medical school loans, Ed returned to Africa to run a medical ward in Nazareth Hospital on the outskirts of Nairobi. Under the tutelage of the hospital director, Father/Dr. Bill Fryda, he began to understand the larger forces at play that perpetuated poverty for so many, and how the larger global structures designed to help people were not working. Most relief efforts, for example, come in the form of donations from charitable organizations. "Charity," said Ed in a phone interview with KFLA, "allows for doing something that makes the giver feel good, but doesn't change why people are poor." He juxtaposes charitable efforts with the more effective approach of working for social justice. "To arrive at justice, we are required to take a far more arduous journey," he explains. 

"We need to understand the needs and desires of the poor, as well as the forces that constrain their hopes or very existence." While in Kenya, Ed learned he had been awarded his Kellogg Fellowship. The timing of the Fellowship meshed with his desire to better understand the complex issues of poverty and inequities in accessible quality health care. The Fellowship helped Ed determine how to combine his professional skills with his passion for addressing global health disparities. As a result, in 1998, he founded a non-governmental organization, Omni Med, to engage more health care providers to serve in developing countries.

"We need more people involved in this struggle," he implores. "To me, it's an ethical affront that life expectancy is 30 years less in sub-Saharan Africa than in the U.S. Addressing the enormous gaps in accessible, quality health care is the essential calling of the medical profession." Ed admits, "With Omni Med's design, I borrowed heavily from the Kellogg Fellowship program by replicating the small group activities it does so well. The emphasis in an Omni Med program is on immersion in the local culture and we often have the physicians stay with local families. In this way, everyone comes back feeling they experienced the country and culture, and understands the health programs and challenges of life in that developing country."

Ed points out the enormous support he has received both from Fellows and from the Kellogg Foundation. Omni Med's board is comprised entirely of Kellogg contacts. And Dr. Jim Kim (KNFP 14), co-founder of Partners In Health, provided guidance in the operations of a health service NGO. (Jim Kim is profiled in a chapter of Awakening Hippocrates). As well, several Fellows have lent expertise and advice in establishing Omni Med programs, in making connections with key personnel abroad, and in reviewing drafts of the books. To date, Omni Med, based in Boston, has sponsored more than 100 trips with volunteer physicians to Belize, Kenya, Thailand, and Guyana. Ultimately, Ed hopes, "What will come from getting more people involved in international health service is that people will become engaged politically and driven to leverage U.S. policy. When we can get a critical mass of people involved, we will make an impact on U.S. and global policies."

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Additional Author 1: Ceasar L. McDowell

Ceasar McDowell (KNFP 12), Director, The Center for Reflective Community Practice, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

This article was published in the October 2006 issue of the KFLA Newsletter.

"Ceasar McDowellCeasar McDowell is helping to make voices heard both at the community and the global level. Whether he is organizing in urban neighborhoods or creating a multi-national organization for global dialogue, Ceasar works to "ensure people can claim their voice and name their experience in the world." An Associate Professor of the Practice of Community Development, Ceasar is founding director of the Center for Reflective Community Practice at MIT. Through the center, Ceasar is involved in community building focused on growing social networks. For example, following Hurricane Katrina, he worked with community groups in New Orleans, helping support young emerging leaders.

Says Ceasar, "Young leaders were struggling to find their voice in the community process, while leaders from the older generation felt the young people didn‚'t know enough to have their voice heard. I became a mentor to the young people to help them manage their anger and find ways to share their ideas." He points out, "It brings up real issues about communities holding onto tradition and how new leaders emerge that may not go through the same processes. We need to learn how to make space for that." Ceasar's most recent undertaking is global in scope. He is one of two U.S. directors of Dropping Knowledge, a global initiative to support free and open sharing of knowledge among people of the world. As an initiator of strategies to link public dialogue with national broadcasts for public television in the 1990s, Ceasar is again furthering the use of communications technology through Dropping Knowledge, and "using a global dialogue platform to address some of the most pressing issues of our time."

Explains Ceasar, "The initiative involves how to share knowledge across the world and give people an opportunity to raise questions and support each other in seeking knowledge. We've been collecting questions from around the world for an event in Berlin, The Table of Free Voices, and people have selected the top 100 questions through online voting. During the event, 112 scholars will sit around the largest round table ever built to try to answer questions like: 'What is mankind's ultimate goal?' and 'What is the most important rule children should be taught?' Dropping Voices is meant to enable individuals and organizations to find each other and work together on issues of shared interest." The initiative presents Ceasar with leadership challenges in having to coordinate people from different countries and different disciplines. "The people involved are community leaders, writers, artists, scientists, and activists, and the organization is trying to cross a lot of boundaries," he says. Ceasar's commitment to his many diverse projects is sustained by his belief that "small things are important and every step matters." He states, "I believe in transition, growth, and development. I have a deep faith that people can really care for each other and do things to allow others to live full and healthy lives."

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Additional Author 1: Cathy D. Raines

Cathy Raines, KNFP-13, Director of Executive Support, National Public Radio

This article was originally published in the March 2003 issue of the KFLA Newsletter.

Cathy Raines Quick Fact: Cathy currently serves on the Washington Area Women's Foundation's Leadership Awards Committee, which each year gives grants to small nonprofits that exhibit vision and impact in serving the critical needs of women and girls in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

How have you, though your leadership, made a difference in one of your communities?


The work that I've done at NPR, bringing more diversity to the ranks of management in journalism, I think has made a difference in who works in public radio and who tells the stories on the air. Of course, I  haven't done it by myself.

What sustains you in your practice of leadership and your commitment to change?


Justice and fairness are big motivators for me...a sense that there is still a long way to go, but lots of possibilities for all the people who work in public radio to more completely contribute to the work of public radio. The most immediate thing is my connection to individual people who are working hard to deliver their best work to NPR's audience and to their colleagues. When I talk to someone who feels passionate and committed to making a difference, then I get reenergized to do my work. I make a point to seek out younger people who sometimes see more possibilities than the people who've been working here longer.

What do you consciously say to yourself, or do, that helps you stay on track with your goals?


I'm pretty disciplined about actually sitting down and thinking consciously about what I'm trying to achieve and what I need to do to get there. I have that conversation with myself all the time.

What is your passion?

Seeing people get excited and achieve things that make a difference in their lives.

How do you practice good self-care?

I meditate every day. I walk to and from work, which is 4.5 miles roundtrip. I do that for my physical and mental well-being. I make a big pot of vegetable soup on the weekends and bring it for lunch most days so I make sure I'm getting a lot of vegetables every day. I make a conscious effort to spend time with friends, I take yoga twice a week, and I take a three-week vacation every year. That's enough, right?

How do you measure success?


It's a hard question. I see how much more there is to do, rather than how far we've come. On the issue of diversity, we have so far to go.

If you had to give an aspiring leader one piece of advice, what would it be?


To the best of your ability, figure out what you're good at and figure out what you're not so good at. Don't try to get better at what you're not good at; instead find other people who complement you.

How are you different or what do you do differently as a result of your experience as a Kellogg Fellow? Why?


One of the main focuses of my fellowship was minority groups within a culture and how they maintain their cultural identity. I was interested in that topic, in part, because I've done diversity work at NPR for a long time. So I went to Australia to learn about the Aboriginal culture and people, who make up about 2 percent of the country's population.  One of the first conversations I had with an Aboriginal person was with a professor of Aboriginal culture, a woman who was also Aboriginal herself. I called her, explained my quest, and asked if she could find the time in the next few weeks to meet with me. She said no. I was taken aback, so I asked her if she could tell me why. "Over the years," she said, "I have developed a personal policy that I will not meet with anybody to talk about Aboriginal culture without advance contact, because we as a people have given our story away to too many people for too long, to people who mistell our stories or profit from them." That was a really big eye-opener for me and became such an important lesson for me about the assumptions I make about my inherent goodness and purity of purpose. I wanted to say to her, "If you only knew me'" But she didn't know me--she based her answer on completely legitimate experience. It taught me about the assumptions I made about myself as an individual instead of as a representative of a group. Sometimes, when you go to learn about others, when you go outside of your group, you have a mirror held up to reflect back on you.  That experience has been incredibly valuable as I continue to do the diversity work that I do at NPR.

Are you a better leader than you were five years ago? How do you know?


As a fellow, all I had to commit to was to be a better person. That wasn't hard! There's always room to get better. Yes, I definitely think that there are ways that I'm a better leader. I have realized the importance of persistence to leadership. I also understand now that persistence doesn't necessarily mean that I have to do it all myself. When I see that I'm not making strides toward something I want to achieve, then I think about who else needs to be involved in this. There are also ways that I'm so much more aware of the responsibility of leadership, so I also see where I fall short.

Can leadership be invisible? How and why have you practiced invisible leadership?


Not completely. People may not be aware of the person who's doing the leading, but something different is happening. That has to be a mark of leadership.

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Additional Author 1: Carolina A. Cardona

Carolina Cardona (KNFP 15), Sub-regional Program and Training Coordinator, Peace Corps, Benin, West Africa.

This article was originally published in the March 2015 issue of the KFLA Newsletter.

Traveling internationally and learning another language during her Kellogg Fellowship reinforced Carolina Cardona's desire to live permanently abroad. "Since 1997, I haven't lived in the United States for more than a few months," she says by phone from Cameroon, one of five countries in West Africa where she will be assisting Peace Corps staff and volunteers.

Carolina recently moved to Benin from Honduras, where she was deputy director of Peace Corps Hondorus. "I know Peace Corps from the staff side and the volunteer side," she says, referring to her time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras in 1985-1987, and to a stint as a staff member in Uzbekistan before her recent post in Honduras. Other positions outside of Peace Corps have taken her to Azerbaijan and El Salvador. A trained public health worker, Carolina describes her passion as "getting to know people from other cultures and learning other languages, and trying to figure out similarities and differences."

Her personal measure of success, she says, is "feeling I'm able to connect with someone and feel mutual respect, and to overcome language and cultural differences." She believes that the only way to go into a new culture and community is with an open mind: "You need to be patient, to listen, and to figure out what's working in the community and identify its strengths. You don't want to come in with any assumptions or an agenda and get too focused on results. Instead, it's about building relationships that connect you to the community. If Peace Corps volunteers learn the local language, listen, and build trust, everything else falls into place," she says. In her role as a program and training coordinator, Carolina works with staff "to look at ways to do programming that can have an impact.‚"

Much of the work of Peace Corps volunteers is rooted in healthcare, education, and agriculture, but she stresses that projects vary from country to country and have their own particular nuances. She is proud of the strong HIV/AIDS training she helped enhance in Honduras. "I like the role of coordinating people and integrating programs," she says. "Now, working with five countries, I am their cheerleader and will promote what people can do together." Helping the volunteers to adjust to a completely different part of the world and a new culture is another important challenge of her work. For example, in the Western African countries where she is working, she describes, "In terms of comforts, there's no fast-food; there may be internet and cell phones connections, but there's not always coverage or access on a daily basis."

Carolina's advice to aspiring leaders in her field is: "Define what makes you happiest. Stay centered because there are a lot of distractions, which will throw you off course." She continues, "Find out what you do best then go out and do it as often as you can."

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Kellogg Fellows' TED Talks

Check out this TED or TEDx talk by one of our fellows or view the full library.

Merle Lefkoff: Rethinking global success

Kellogg Fellows answer WDYDWYD?

I want it in my lifetime

I grew up a Cuban refugee in Chicago in a family of five kids. We lived in a run-down neighborhood with gangs and prostitutes parading nightly outside my bedroom window.

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