A fourth grade teacher once told the whole class to circle white on a standardized test, then stopped to tell Kat Ling to circle Asian, and today Kat leads a Denver nonprofit and never wants anyone in it to feel that left out.

In this episode of The Stronger Podcast, Mike Montoya sits down with Kat, CEO of Moonshot edVentures, a Denver nonprofit that backs leaders of color and other historically marginalized leaders who are building solutions for young people, to talk about identity, loss, and the community that carried Kat into leadership.

Kat grew up in white suburbia in Connecticut, in one of a few families of color. Kat's mother, a special education teacher, was diagnosed with breast cancer when Kat was one and died seven years later, and Kat's grandparents moved in to help raise the three children. College brought a first feminism class and the words for what growing up queer and Asian American had felt like.

Kat joined Teach For America after college, checked the box that said send me anywhere, and taught fourth grade in the rural Mississippi Delta, then spent about eight years on staff in Arkansas and Mississippi. Starting to burn out, and in Denver for a conference, Kat agreed to meet Moonshot's founder, Christine DeLeon, at a coffee shop, then moved to a city with no connections to become chief of staff.

Mike and Kat get into how Moonshot grew from a school incubator into a fellowship for leaders who launch or redesign schools, programs and nonprofits, and why it opened a coworking space for youth serving nonprofits. Kat also explains how identities that never fit one box shape a habit of looking for a third way, and why deciding everything by consensus turned out to be a path to burnout.

Tune in to hear the advice Kat would give the Kat of twenty years ago, and why it still holds today.

• (01:15) - Mexico City, a board meeting, and a first niece
• (03:19) - Making travel feel like a ritual
• (06:26) - Growing up in white suburbia in Connecticut
• (06:53) - A mother's breast cancer, and grandparents who moved in
• (07:53) - Feminism 101 and finding the words in college
• (08:13) - Teach For America, and checking the box that said send me anywhere
• (08:41) - Teaching fourth grade in the Mississippi Delta
• (09:09) - Burning out, and a coffee with Moonshot's founder
• (10:18) - A fourth grade teacher tells the class to circle white
• (11:18) - Mental health outcomes for Asian American girls
• (12:13) - Growing up gay in the early eighties, without the language for it
• (13:09) - Knowing just one gay person growing up
• (14:14) - Boxes for race and gender, and nothing in between
• (14:45) - The queer community as a bigger box
• (15:31) - Affinity groups as a game changer
• (16:05) - Five first year teachers in a town of 3,000
• (16:43) - A national network, and queer community in the Deep South
• (18:24) - Living in a different Denver, and the LGBTQ Commission
• (19:24) - How Denver changed since Mike left Colorado
• (21:19) - A mutual friend, a conference, and not looking for a job
• (22:15) - Small worlds colliding at the Broad Center and Pahara
• (23:10) - EdLoC, Pahara, and a vast network of leaders of color
• (24:24) - Starting as a school incubator
• (25:38) - Recruit, sustain, and create the conditions to thrive
• (26:37) - A coworking space for youth serving nonprofits
• (28:25) - Taking the magic of the fellowship to the whole sector
• (29:30) - EdLoC, and not doing the work alone
• (32:04) - Identities outside of binaries, and looking for a third way
• (33:21) - Never wanting anyone to feel left out
• (33:46) - The teacher who said never forget what being left out feels like
• (34:49) - Two thirds of fellows come by word of mouth
• (36:03) - 200 leaders by 2030, and the social determinants of health
• (36:59) - Collective impact and the John Gardner Center
• (38:06) - Learning to lead in the rural South, where school is one piece
• (39:19) - One family, three programs, and leaders who talk to each other
• (40:39) - A special education teacher mom, and the gap after she died
• (41:36) - Care and outcomes, and the tension schools hold
• (42:35) - Home visits at 23, and why no one should carry the load alone
• (43:58) - Consensus on every decision is a path to burnout
• (44:52) - When making the call lifts the load for the team
• (46:07) - Perfectionism, and decisions that can change later
• (47:00) - You're not running the White House
• (48:02) - Saying yes to volunteer work, and the burnout that came with it
• (49:54) - Choosing where the joy is outside the full time job
• (51:27) - Everything you need is already within you
• (52:08) - Knowing more about what you don't know
• (53:09) - Build the village, don't be the village

Links

Kat Ling at Moonshot: https://www.moonshotedventures.org/team-and-board

More about Moonshot: https://www.moonshotedventures.org/

Moonshot on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/moonshot-edventures/

 

Connect with Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmsc/

 

Stronger Consulting: https://strongerconsulting.com

 

Start a podcast that matters: http://podcastsmatter.com

 

For more great podcasts like this one, visit https://podcaststhatmatter.org/

 

Stay strong.