0:00 Welcome to advance the dream our weekly community chat where we celebrate legacy makers and family heroes who are actively advancing the dream in the spirit of dr martin luther king jr we talk about health challenges highlights and heroes in an intergenerational fashion in hopes that his legacy of hope and equality continue to live on this weekly series powered by the force for health network is aired live on facebook youtube and linked in at eight a.m pacfic time eleven a.m eastern standard time then shared afterwards at advance the dream.com now let's meet our hosts force for health network co-founders dr robert gilio and lucy howell alongside our national director joshua williams jr as we dive into this week's topic Alrighty, how's it going?
0:50 Welcome to Advance the Dream, our weekly community chat where we talk about family heroes and legacy makers who are all continuing to advance the dream in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King. Health and access is at the forefront of what will drive most of our discussions. My name is Lucy Howell. I'm the co-founder of the Force for Health Network. I'm joined here by my co-founder, Dr. Robert Gillio, not Jillio, as the opening credit stated, and also with our national director for this initiative called Advance the Dream.
1:28 Joshua Williams Jr. I'm going to say Joshua Williams Jr. I'm based in Tucson, Arizona, and Rob is based in State College, Pennsylvania. And we've got Josh sometimes coming in from New Orleans, but I think you're based in Gadsden, Florida right now today, right? That is correct. Awesome. So we've got some special guests coming up, but before we bring them onto the stage, let's go ahead and you know, relevant current events. We're kicking off African American History Month, which I always have like a mixed feeling about highlighting days and months because it's something that we should really be aware of all year long.
2:14 But let's just go ahead and take advantage of the hyper focus on this. And it's also Heart Month, you know, Heart Healthy Month. And a big part of why we decided to put some focus in on this channel is really to put a spotlight on some of the disparities that exist in the African-American or brown skin bodies that just aren't in your average American white person, right? So this is a platform where we may have some conversations that might seem uncomfortable, You know, we're really trying to host the dialogue that will help fill the gaps so that we can just all be better, healthy, compassionate, culturally sensitive, force for health, global citizens of the world.
2:58 That's my kind of opening thought. Rob, you know, what's on your mind? This is Super Bowl weekend and Super Bowl is about people that have a dream. and work towards that dream and make it happen. And when they encounter adversity, they innovate. They call plays. They have leadership. And I can't wait to talk to Joseph Bird, kind of the current generation, Alejandro Bailey, future generation. These guys are playing in the real life, reality health, reality life Super Bowl every day. And it's not about winning the ring.
3:38 It's about showing up every day and doing your best. And they make a difference, as Josh has taught me, about what they've done in their lives and are planning to do going forward. So I can't wait to talk. It's Super Bowl time, and I can't wait to talk to some of the quarterbacks, coaches, and people that have been on the bench for a while. I totally forgot it was Super Bowl weekend. Isn't that so sad? I'm all excited about the gem show being in our backyard, but that's just me as your average person.
4:09 Mom here in Tucson. Josh, what's going on in your world as we kick off? I know it's cold and rainy here in Tucson. It's less than fifty degrees, which is crazy. But how are you doing in Florida? What's on top of mind for you this week? Beautiful day. And like we say in Baptist Church sometimes, it's a great day to know it's a great day. So we're just glad to be here. With all that in mind and caveat on what Dr. Rob said about Super Bowl weekend, we do have some MVP players that are coming up today on the show.
4:43 And we are so excited that we could have them, as Lucy stated earlier, the future generation, also the current generation. I think that everyone will enjoy what these two guys got to partake and bring to the table this morning. Yeah, you know, since this is a relatively, well, it is, this is a new series. This is only episode three in our very first official season. You know, we've been playing at this for a couple years as we've got some pilots on. You know, let's go around the table. Josh, why are we doing this as Advance the Dream?
5:22 What made you excited about starting this concept and this project with Dr. Rob and I? Well, I think anytime we're able to actually position ourselves to bring information to our community, I think we should do that. One of the great downfalls in which we deal with on a daily basis is communication. People not knowing the excellent part of this piece on the health side is that we get an opportunity to try to show people how they can actually maintain their own health. and how to provide for themselves in situations that they are not normally positioned with to do so.
6:00 So giving an opportunity to advance the health of our people, both young and old, will always pay a great tribute to what Dr. King stood for and what he's still standing for and he's still looking down on us to actually do. And that is to keep the drive or keep the dream alive. What about you, Rob? I love that, advance the health. You can't advance the health if you're not here to do it. And so we have the African-American community with maternal and infant mortality at two to three times others.
6:39 We have a ten to twenty year disparity of lifespan in certain areas, specifically Mississippi Delta being one, but also based on certain zip codes in urban areas. where if you're African-American, you don't make it to sixty or seventy without that heart attack, stroke or premature death. And there's disparity issues that involve health literacy and health access, both of which can be empowering for someone that wants to advance the dream of being able to influence and enjoy their own family and neighbors and friends.
7:19 You just mentioned something that was just shocking. And I know this, and that's why I'm so passionate about working with all types of people. This isn't a black thing. This isn't a white thing. This is a human being thing to just be aware and increase our health literacy together. You know, it's National Heart Health Month, Rob. And when you throw out a statistic like a ten to twenty year disparity in lifespan, Can you expand on that a little bit, just with regards to heart health and what maybe we should, what some of the reasons are behind that?
7:57 Misconceptions. Misconceptions are, I think, the main thing. Many people have been skeptical about trusting their doctors, especially if their doctors don't look like them. So advancing more people that are serving their own community back can increase trust. so can transparency about things. But one of the misconceptions is the biggest thing I see. People are used to saying they have a middle ear infection, they get a week of antibiotics, they get a sore throat, they get a week of antibiotics.
8:29 When you have blood pressure, a week of blood pressure medicine doesn't solve it. It controls it. And when you stop, the risks are just as high as they were before you were diagnosed. You have to treat the blood pressure. You have to continue to treat and be on top of the blood sugar and the weight. You have to be more active. And so the point I'm getting at is the misunderstanding or lack of understanding of how the disease works. Being able to visualize the form and function of something so that you can manage it is one.
9:04 And two, access is the other issue. You go to Mississippi Delta, it's a challenge to find a care practitioner. It's a challenge to do a telemedicine visit. Things have been left behind, and that's where a younger generation of health literate activists with technology, like a community health worker that can use technology to facilitate a telemedicine visit with this very expensive, very cheap telephone, can make a difference for that teenager, say a student at Xavier, with their peers, with their parents, with their neighbors, can dramatically impact life and longevity for them.
9:43 With regards to those things. Yep. I was just bringing up just one little graphic. I mean, it is on our advancedthedream.com site and it is one of the kind of foundational graphs to really set, you know, set the stage as to kind of why it is that we're doing this. So it's really not to say anything other than be cognizant that there are disparities. I, you know, I'm going to stop share there I think I want to comment on that one slide to think about. You want me to bring it back up? Well, there's the concept of pipelines of what kills you.
10:23 You don't have to bring it back up, but it said hypertension, diabetes, stroke. It basically comes down to blood vessels. If the blood vessel is narrowed and constricts and then eventually is blocked off, everything downstream will die. It's like putting a dam in the river and you can't grow crops downstream if no water is coming. And if you don't treat the blood pressure right, the blood vessels get hard. If you don't treat the diabetes right, you're more likely not only to have high blood pressure, but to have blockages in your vessel with these fatty deposits.
10:58 And the two of those combined are more likely to have that fragile, partially obstructed blood vessel snap and break. Like up north here, when you leave your hose out in the winter, it freezes. You can break the brittle plastic. those blood vessels turn fragile and they obstruct or they leak and you die of a stroke. It all comes down to that blood vessel being as healthy as possible. So that's where things, even like smoking is an issue. Behaviors that are starting as teenagers are issues. Trans fats are issues.
11:32 And that's where having a younger generation that can really understand these concepts to mentor an older generation like me and Josh really becomes powerful. And similarly, there's great leaders out there like some we're going to talk to on this call or on future calls that have wisdom that can be shared down to the younger people to give them the whys and the hows to do it and how to do it in a culturally appropriate manner to get rid of the stigma and to get rid of the fear of going to that doctor or that nurse or the healthcare system.
12:07 Yeah. And again, again, take this in the spirit that it's intended to be, which is really the force for health. We care about everybody equally and we want to address, we really truly believe that everybody can be a force for health for themselves. So they can be a better force for health for their families. That's a big deal here at the Force for Health is this whole fit family force concept. Josh has just been an incredible example of that concept, hosting these regular STEAM Saturday classes that has his you know, grandmas and aunties, along with his nieces and nephews.
12:48 I mean, there's a group of about thirty or forty Williamses, you know, that have just been participating. And it's just been a beautiful thing to see intergenerationally. But, you know, I'm also my husband's African-American and I care, you know, as a wife. If, you know, his father passed away at fifty eight, younger than my husband is now of a stroke. And so there's many reasons, like you said, social reasons, perhaps there's an anxiety or a discomfort or not a comfort level to go seek help. Maybe it is a straight access issue, but there's also toxic shock, toxic stress syndromes that are very real.
13:27 But anyways, it's nine twenty. I think that we want to go ahead and lean in. Rob, you're you're like I just died. The one thing you're not mentioning is that uncomfortable conversation. I think we should have a whole further episode. unimplicit bias in the healthcare system and the healthcare workers and in society. There is bias. I've had biases I didn't even realize I had until I got to know Josh and other people like Arthur James better and really learned about some of the decisions made.
14:02 Thinking you are wide open and understanding and kind and informed, bias is real. That's where, let's talk to our guests a little bit. And if they have comments on this or other things, one of the questions I want to throw out there, I can't wait, is, is there a role for an HBCU in current society? Does that make bias worse or does it make it better? I'm, you know, we got some leaders here that have come at this from a lifetime of leadership there. Right. I'm going to be quiet for a while and just sit back.
14:35 Josh, help us out here. Yeah, Josh, I'm going to go ahead and hand the baton to you as you introduce our next speaker here. And that is our young man for today, Alejandro Bailey out of New Orleans, who was actually a he was a seventh grade student when I started working with him in New Orleans. He had an opportunity to participate and learn some of the things that we were doing. He's also a Alpha Phi Alpha scholar that came through the program as well. He actually decided to attend Tulane University where he is currently a junior.
15:22 He's going to actually, he's majoring in micro or cellular biology. If I'm not my right, if I'm right, Alejandro, you correct me when you start, but micro and cellular biology. And he also, his future goal, his minor is Spanish and his future goal is to be an anesthesiologist. Alejandro, words cannot begin to explain how proud we are of him. He is a posse scholar at Tulane. He is currently a junior. He's studying for the MCAT now. I had him to take a break for a little while this morning so he can come and join with us and talk about some of the things in which he has been so eminently displaying in his life.
16:19 You know, he had an opportunity to speak for MLK Day a couple of years ago. And we played his speech last week. I think we played his speech that he made during the MLK celebration in Washington, D.C. I think we should play it. It's a one minute deal before we bring him on to set the stage. That'll be good. We'll see that and we'll bring him on. Go ahead. He also had the opportunity to actually visit. that monument when they did the groundbreaking ceremony, when they first unveiled it. I took a group of students, approximately forty seven students to D.C.
16:57 And we spent the weekend there doing that particular celebration. So he had a firsthand experience to see it, to feel it, and to know how Dr. King played an important role in the lives of a lot of people, not only just black or African-Americans, but a lot of people. So with that in mind, I would like to Lucy now actually just take an opportunity to see his video, which he presented. I think he was in high school at the time he did this. So now he's a second year, he's a junior year at Tulane University now.
17:30 So we're glad and proud of him. My name is Alejandro Bailey and I'm a graduating senior at Benjamin Franklin High School in New Orleans, Louisiana. Currently, I am committed to Tulane University. All of this was made possible by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the many other African Americans throughout history who stood up for our rights. Because of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I was given the same education as people of other skin colors. Because of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I was able to dream big and actually chase those dreams.
18:10 Because of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I found a community I can call a family. Because of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I am able to live like all human beings should. And lastly, because of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I am judged by the contents of my character instead of the color of my skin. just as he intended. Because of his sacrifices and contributions, I stand before you today a young, gifted, proud black scholar who dreams and aspirations are endless. Thank you and happy birthday, Dr.
18:45 Martin Luther King Jr. Alrighty, so we are bringing Alejandro to the stage. Alejandro, it's great to see you and can't believe already, what, three years ago? Yes. Yeah. Do me a favor, see if you could like just put, I want your face a little bit more part of the, there you go. I feel like we're like this. Sorry. So tell us, what are you up to right now? And you know, what does advance the dream mean in your life? So first and foremost, I am a junior at Tulane University currently. And since I am on a pre-med track studying cellular and molecular biology and a Spanish minor, I'm currently studying for the MCAT, which is going well, is going well.
19:41 So I'm planning to take it in two months from now. And yeah, that's what I have going on in my life now. What does advance the dream mean to me? Advance the dream means to live like how Dr. King envisioned for all of us. He envisioned a world where everyone is not just joint, but working together as a community. He envisioned a world where it's not for one's own, but for one's community. So I see Advance a Dream as work for others, not for yourself. Oh, I love that. I love that. Work for others, not for yourself.
20:30 One of the reasons why Josh is so proud of you is some of the early access programs that you were able to participate in with Josh, giving opportunity to open up steam, computer building, perhaps even meeting senior alpha men. I mean, for those watching, much of this program has been piloted and foundation with the Alpha Phi Alphas with Josh's lead out of Louisiana and just, and Joseph Burr who will be joining us a little bit later is also part of that kind of foundational group that was involved with actually doing the Martin Luther King foundation right the uh the memorial foundation um so what does that mean like how old were you when you first started um the you do matter um program with josh i believe i was in sixth grade yeah sixth grade fifth sixth grade seems about right yeah How do you kind of attribute where you are now setting for the MCAT to that, you know, early type of enrichment program?
21:48 This wasn't in school. This was like a club that you guys did on Saturdays, right? Yeah. So I remember waking up early Saturday mornings, my parents dropping me off and everything. And, um, I believe this program was my first introduction into the STEM field because, of course, in school you're taught about math, science, of course, but you never really see where that's all going towards. So from this program, I was given the exposure to see, oh, I can use my background in math and science to learn about computers.
22:25 I can use my background in math and science to learn how to code. So this was my introduction into STEM field. And I think because of this program, it's the reason that I'm in the STEM field today. I love hearing that. I'm curious. Listen, let me interrupt you a second. You know, I remember you in the earliest days. And part of the conversation with you encouraged Josh and I to create a program called Technology and Me. And just as you said, you got exposed to math and science, then the computer technology.
23:01 And some of your generation understands computers better than understand their bodies. So Josh and I did, because you guys were taking computers apart, putting them together, making your own computer and taking it home and teaching your family about it. downloading apps and operating systems on it, hooking up printers and all this stuff. And Josh and I kicked around and said, you know what? That computer is basically copied from the way the body works. Those engineers didn't pull that out of the air.
23:30 They pulled it out of a more divine creation plan. The hard drive, similar to the cerebellum. So as you're sitting there taking your MCATs, And you're visualizing how cells work and how the body works. Just visualize a little bit how that computer works. And it might help you find the right answer because it's the same logic that engineers have used based on how the body works. So that technology and me program Josh is doing right now is really cool because it has kids that were your age teaching their great grandmothers how to use technology.
24:03 And at the same time, how to understand why treating their blood pressure is important for their life as opposed to for a week. You really motivated us is what I'm trying to say. I'm saying thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. And I'm curious, you know, a big part of what we're trying to do here is have this intergenerational exchange. Do you know Joseph Byrd, our next guest? Or will you be meeting him for the first time? I'm sure that... You met him before. Yeah. You met him before. For a fact, yeah.
24:42 Again, it's wonderful to see you. I love seeing the trajectory that occurs post-COVID. this type of, and we've all experienced, right? Because anytime you mentor or help the younger generation, if you stay in the game, it's just a beautiful thing to see where they flourish. Before we bring in our executive reflections, I'll call this segment Collegiate Reflections with you and Tulane. kind of any, uh, I want, and I want you to stay on board. I don't know if you have to leave, but if you can stay and be part of the next segment, um, with Joseph, that would be wonderful.
25:24 But, um, do you have a message to like maybe your peers, um, that could maybe pull them in? Maybe they're, I don't know. How do you think your, your generation is in terms of the acknowledgement and the appreciation of, um, those who've walked fifty to eighty years? I mean, they're still alive and living. This isn't old ancient history, right? We're still new in regards to kind of seeking equality. Do you have any words of wisdom for your peers? Yes. So I feel like the main issue with my generation as far as in a connection with the previous generation is that we don't communicate enough.
26:06 We don't network enough for ourselves. We don't have that same drive to know that in order to get to where we need to be, we have to talk to these certain people. So I say go out there and talk to everyone in your field, everyone that has an career in a place that you're interested in, just put yourself out there because that's the only way you can succeed in life. You know, Lucy, I have and I'm going to ask this quick question about Alejandro. I hadn't talked to him about it, but back when he was in the sixth grade, we went off to D.C.
26:43 For the memorial dedication. I had each one of these young men, and we'll probably get a chance to play it on video, of what they wanted to be. You remember that? Tell us what you wanted to be. What was your goal at that time in the sixth grade? Become president of the United States of America. And I really believe this one can do it if he puts his mind to it. And it's interesting because we had last week on our show, Dr. Charles Teamer. He was, you know, ninety one years old, but, you know, veteran, retired business, retired, you know, former general president, I believe, of the Alphas twenty seven.
27:31 And he kept saying over and over and over when I asked him that same question. We have to communicate more. We have to communicate. And so interesting that you your generation, you said we have to communicate more. And what I'm hearing from you. is that your generation needs to communicate up, meaning find and seek mentors because there's so many people that would be willing to help you, right? And I think that that's a perfect segue into the introduction of Joseph Burt, right? So let me go ahead and bring this little deal up while Josh, I'm gonna take you off stage, Alejandro, but I'm gonna pull you back on, okay?
28:10 So don't go anywhere. But Josh, can you go ahead and introduce Joseph Bird, please. Yes. If I can. Our executive today will be a close friend of mine. I met him some thirty plus years ago when I was a student at Dillard University. He was a member of this organization called Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, in which I was inspiring to become a member of. At that point, he was the quote unquote, the big cheese, who everyone looked up to at that particular time because he was one of the advisors.
28:55 We have formed a relationship, like I said, that has expanded over the last thirty plus years. I mean, everything that I've done, everything that I've become introduced to, this man has played a very important part in it. as the immediate past vice president of Xavier University. I started my program while him and Dr. Francis, who was known as a dean of college presidents of Xavier University, actually took a liking to what I was doing. And they opened their university up where I was able to meet with these kids every Saturday morning on a university campus.
29:39 And from that, we just blossomed. We did our scholarship extravaganza at Xavier University, and they didn't seem to fit to charge us one thing because they knew the importance of trying to get our young Black African-American men involved and into college during that time. And they saw that as a seed that was being planted and they really watered and nurtured this seed. Joseph Byrd has been a alpha for, well before I have, so he's probably over forty years now, who have been an active alpha man.
30:17 I mean, he served as the Louisiana, the longest serving president of Alphas in the state of Louisiana. More than anyone else, he has been appointed to regional and national chairmanships of committees. He is just one of those individuals who Dr. King would have looked at and said, well done, my son. And now I'd like to introduce to you guys my mentor, my friend, and my brother, Brother Joseph K. Byrd. Good morning. Joseph, it's nice to meet you. I think we met peripherally when we had Harry Johnson on as one of our segments that we were playing with a couple of years ago.
31:01 So it's wonderful to meet you. Let's just set the stage here. Tell us, what are you doing with your life now and how do you reflect on the words, Advance the Dream? Okay. Thank you. First of all, thanks to Josh and you all for asking me to be a part of this segment. But I'm the retired vice president and dean of student services at Xavier University. So what I'm doing now is get up every morning trying to see what senior citizen or what person that's ill or is in need and see how I can help them.
31:40 First of all, Through prayer and through work and through phone calls and visits and running errands, that sort of thing. I do this with people within my church. I do it with people in my community. And I do this for people within my fraternity. I'm just going to kind of bring the whole group up here right now. And what's your kind of message right now? I mean, what's your message? opinion of how the state of the union is. Let's just start with that. Okay. Well, I think the state of the union is divided.
32:27 Unfortunately, we are divided. I grew up in Southwest Mississippi. I heard Dr. Rob talking about North Mississippi. Well, I grew up in Southwest Mississippi, and I was just about as poor as you could even imagine. But even during those times, I could see a light at the end of the tunnel. But where we are now, I am so gravely concerned about where we are as a people, as a nation, with our leadership. And when I saw what happened this week with the border, with Ukraine, with Israel, and And all of that, I'm just numb almost to where we are.
33:19 But I'm concerned, but I still have hope. And when I think about where my forebearers came from and I think about Martin Luther King, I know I can have hope. And it's just so ironic. Josh talked about my being an alpha. When I found out Martin Luther King was an alpha, that was that was enough for me. Nothing. I said, I need to want to be an alpha man simply because Martin Luther King was one. And one of the stories that I remember on our Harry Johnson episode was you guys recollecting walking on the mall and why more African-Americans might not come to the mall.
34:04 Walk us through that kind of like memory of coming up with the concept of a memorial and what it actually took to establish that. Well, I walked on the Mall long before the King Memorial was there simply because I'm a history buff. I love history, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I love history. So I can remember going down on the Tile Basin many, many, many, many years ago. When I received my master's degree in What I did for myself, I gave myself a trip to Washington, D.C., and I stopped off in Virginia with one of my friends who said he was the vice president at Norfolk State.
34:52 He said, if you get to Norfolk, I'll take you to Washington, D.C. And I remember just driving by the White House and driving by the Capitol and all of those things. It was things that I had read about and all of that. things that I've learned, I got a chance to see him. But when I go down and think about Martin Luther King and going down on the mall, it was something you thought would never happen. I can remember, you all would probably not believe this. We started off, and Josh will remember this, at the National Convention, about eight or ten brothers walking around with a cardboard box saying, give us some money for the Martin Luther King Memorial.
35:30 Everybody said, okay, I'll put ten dollars in a box or twenty dollars. This is going to get you on out of my way. And thinking, the This probably would never happen in their lifetime. And I think about the one hundred and twenty plus million dollars. But that started it started with the dream of some guys, Brother Ely and some more guys in D.C. But and then I'm not sure how many of them live to see that their dream become a reality. Because when people first start talking about, well, we'll give them a little corner here by a bridge and put a bus to Martin Luther King and maybe they'll just go away and leave us alone.
36:10 But it didn't happen like that. And to see what led by Alpha Phi Alpha and the Divine Nine, and Harry Johnson, and all of the other countless people who contributed to making that happen. It's almost unbelievable. I had some young college brothers over doing some community service the other day, and I have my Martin Luther King brick. My number is two-thirty-six. I said, what is this? I said, well, when we first thought about building a memorial, they asked all the alumni brothers to give is when Martin Luther King was initiated into the fraternity.
36:53 And we all, we gave our hundred and fifty-two dollars and they said that they gave us a brick. And then I looked at when I was there at the dedication of the King Memorial and it just seemed, oh God, this almost unbelievable. We've come full circle, but it all began with the dream It all began with hope. And something that Alejandro mentioned, another word his generation and all of us need to know, and that is the word of sacrifice. None of us get anything out of life that's worth having without some kind of sacrifice.
37:33 And when I hear Alejandro, and when I just remember years ago seeing him and then seeing where he is now, you know, and I can only imagine the sacrifice that he has made as a young man at Tulane University. And Alejandra, I brought you back onto the stage as you listen to Joseph, right? And as you yourself said, I really want to work on reaching up and establishing more network and peers and mentors. And that's what I think my friends should do. As you listen to Joseph, I mean, do you have questions that come to mind?
38:12 Would you like to go ahead and pose anything to him while we have him? Well, right now I'm thinking about the sacrifice that he mentioned. He said that I've sacrificed to get to where I am. And I'm thinking about some of those sacrifices. So mainly I'm reflecting right now rather than coming up with questions. And he left the podcast. Hopefully he will be back here. I'm just going to kind of pull up some quotes that we're hearing. Good. Okay, Joseph, you're back. I got the telemarketers whenever they call.
38:46 I know. Yeah, no worries. Alejandro was basically just saying he doesn't really have questions. He's just taking it all in and reflecting what you're saying, especially with this whole, you know, at some point in our lives we have to sacrifice and I want to share with Alejandro, and like I said, I introduced them to a whole plethora a businessman. You know, even Dr. Rob came and spoke at one of the regional conference where he saw all these black men. Exactly. Setting up all over the place. And Alejandro had an opportunity to see that as well, seventh or eighth grade, which you may not remember.
39:29 But anything that I've done, and Doc, you know this because you have seen Dr. Joseph Byrd there in support. And not only just me, but him. It's guys like him who have actually propelled me to do what I'm doing. It's because I had the opportunity to sit back and look at them. I had the opportunity to observe what they were doing. When I was coming up through college, we didn't have money, but wherever they went, Joseph Byrd and Bobby Pierce and Mary, wherever they went, we were somewhere in that crowd tagging along.
40:06 You know, I've got to tell you, though, you've mentored me, all of you have mentored me in some regards as well. And I guess I'm thinking the word communicate came through loud and clear in the last couple meetings. But I think a couple of thoughts here to share is there's not just communication needed where you're advocating for yourself and getting yourself mentored. It's advocating. Communicate, advocating, And then perseverating, continuing to persist and persist with that advocacy. And the message you got to hear three, four or five, maybe a thousand times and be convinced of things.
40:48 And so over twenty years here, Josh has taught me a great deal that one or two years into communicating and having him advocate with me about some programs we could do and me advocating with him the other way. It's taken twenty years to get to where advance the dream. is something that is ready right now with Josh's STEAM teams with the cross-generational things. How can we get a pathway into more colleges and universities? Regarding sacrifice, Alejandro, a word of advice from an old guy that has spent too much of my time studying for the damn tests.
41:25 It's not about getting great score in the MCATs. It's a barrier. You'll overcome it. If you don't succeed, you'll do it again. But you're at a time in your life where you can communicate and advocate with people that twenty, thirty, forty years later will be like the two senior people, like Josh and Joseph on this call. You are building those relationships, those things in the trenches right now. How is your generation advancing the dream as a student, not just trying to get into med school, but trying to have some of your fellow classmates at Tulane?
42:04 Teach you or you teach them about whole different worlds that you come from or that you might want to go to. Spend the time not just sacrificing, potentially sacrificing a better MCAT score will be worth it if you can advocate and convince someone's mind and change their life's path because you've educated. This is your one chance that suburban kid from suburban Philadelphia that went down to Tulane because they thought it'd be cool to be seeing Marty grow up close. And you're, you're the person that might help them get an advanced dream philosophy in their mind.
42:43 That's where you can make a difference, build that lifelong bond that like Josh and I have, I it's, it's one of the, it's an old white guy word of wisdom is I went down to save the world after Katrina and realize how freaking ignorant I was based on my exposures. and the exposure that I got through the press growing up. Just a thought. Sacrifice is great. Advocate for what you believe in, especially for those that are ignorant about your causes. You said a word, Rob, that I was like, wait, what did you say?
43:17 Persistent with something? Perseveration. Perseveration, got it. You push that pedal on the piano and that note just keeps vibrating. Got it. You got to keep persisting, persisting. You know, Joseph, you come from, I believe most of your experience was as the director of student services from Xavier University. And then, of course, all of the work that you've done philanthropically through your church and through your fraternity. I would love a message from you to community leaders. public sector leaders, private sector leaders, what would you like to say to them right now?
43:58 As you mentioned earlier that you've got this uneasiness about State of the Union right now. What do you feel like your Advance the Dream message could be to community leaders, public and private sector? I think one of the greatest things that we can do is to... Not just talk to talk, but walk the walk. And be a role model, be an example. We have a saying in another organization that I'm a part of that said, what they'll be is what they see. And too many of us, I think, are not on the front line anymore like they were in the early fifties and sixties and seventies.
44:51 So I think the thing is that we have to be, we have to be the role model. We have to go back to getting our hands dirty. That, As a people, as alpha men, and as leaders, I do public speaking. And I say quite often, we've gotten to the place now, if we can't write a check for it or put it on the credit card, it's not that. We don't think that it's important. But we have to get out there and get our hands dirty. We have to go back and be honest. viable and visible in our communities as leaders, as advocates, and the worst word everybody talks about when we start talking about servant leaders, I like the word better, sacrificial leaders.
45:44 Say that again? Sacrificial leaders. Sacrificial leaders. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Don't let me talk about I'm going to serve. Serving is one thing, but sacrifice is something else. There's a story about the, and I'm not going to go into the whole thing, about the pig and the chicken talking about making a contribution for a breakfast. and you know they're talking about you know they were they wanted they wanted the eggs and they wanted the bacon and so forth and and pig told the chicken yeah say you're gonna make a contribution but if they're gonna have bacon i have to make a sacrifice and that's like that's gonna end my life so that's yeah and we need to be be willing to be a sacrifice you know i i threw this up there also getting back in the game um the reason why i did is because one of the the interviews that I did with a gentleman here in Tucson, I'm very involved with many, many different things.
46:41 He's in his late seventies. And when I asked him these same questions that I'm asking you, You know, what's your two thousand twenty four advance a dream pledge? And he said, I've done what I've done. I've spent my whole life advocating for this cause. I continue to work for free volunteering in my community and I will continue doing that. You know, I just thought that that was interesting because that is really the tone of why we wanted to start this. is this fear and anxiety from the older generation that perhaps the younger generation truly, truly isn't absorbing and appreciating, you know, this recent history.
47:22 And so, and Dr. Teamer at twenty one, I mean, at ninety one, at ninety one years old, you know, he was like, I thought I was kind of done, but, you know, you've inspired me. I think I'm going to reactivate this conversation of, you know, health and wealth. That's my commitment to advancing the dream is making sure that my own family knows how important it is to have a strong wealth foundation so that they can have a strong health foundation. So I like to just notice some of these tones that come up week to week to week to week.
47:55 Well, another thing, when I just look back, I attended William Carey University, William Carey College, now William Carey University back in nineteen seventy one. There were very few people on the campus who looked like me. And after graduating, I'm only the second African-American to work at William Carey, other than in a menial position. And this was in the, if you can believe that. Only the second one. I did so many first at William Carey, and when I used to tell my Xavier students about it, they said, You think that's important?
48:41 I said, yes. Being the first resident hall president, being the first resident assistant, being the first African-American to direct a resident hall and only a second one to work in another staff position later on, that means a whole lot now. But back then, uh i knew another my other friend and fraternity brother eddie holloway we knew that every african-american who came after us would be judged by what we did and and william carey is a predominantly white southern baptist uh uh university in southwest mississippi and if i could tell you the horror stories of of Being on that campus and living in Hattiesburg and being involved in campus life, it was no easy task.
49:36 But I had a dream that we could do better and we have done better. Do you have a specific, I'm going to ask both of you guys as we kind of round out, you know, the end of the show that always goes way too fast, I think. So Alejandro, I'll go to you. What is your two thousand twenty four advance the dream pledge for yourself? I pledge to not solely focus on my studies and work on connections rather than only sacrifice. I love that. It's really seeking more of a balance for your life. Yeah, that's great.
50:21 And how do you feel like that reflects into advancing the dream? I feel like that plays hand in hand with advancing the dream, because like I said, advancing the dream is not working for yourself, but working for your community. And by me networking rather than only drowned in my studies. This will allow me to network and other people to network as well. And through our joint connections, we would help each other rather than going our separate ways. Yeah. And balance will make you a more healthful person.
50:59 We always say at Advance the Dream and Force for Health, you have to take care of your own health first so that you could be a more effective servant leader there. So Joseph, I'm going to put it on you. What is your two thousand twenty four pledge for advancing the dream? I know you've been living it your whole life, but. advancing the dream and seeing how I can do more for more people, how I can reach more people and sacrificial service to them. What's your favorite, favorite, what's one of your top memories in this realm of, you know, What comes to mind that you've done recently, maybe this past year, that just brings you warmth and joy?
52:02 Let me see. When I've had the opportunity to sit and listen to men like Charles Teamer, and Norman Francis, who's the longest serving college president in the nation and who was a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I was in a, they did a video of them and of course they asked me to be a part of it and to reflect on what they have done. And when I compare what they have done during their time to what I have done, i think i i i think i have not done as much as i should have done and i've done a lot but i think i probably should have could have and should have done uh better should have done more and so now i'm on that mission to fulfill that and that's and that's an amazing uh refreshing and reactivating statement, right?
53:02 You know, again, thank you so much, Alejandro and Joseph for joining us. The Force for Health, we're really trying to fill a gap in need here. We are not just a show and a broadcast and a video. We invite you to join the Force for Health, Advance the Dream. You can join for free. And just like a Facebook group, you can join like-minded peers. You know, Alejandro, I highly... Well, you guys are already in. Joseph, I don't believe that you joined already. But there's all sorts of tools to help increase health literacy.
53:39 There's videos. You can earn badges. And that's part of what we're trying to be is an interactive platform and a media company that can help address some of these issues and actually get into this spirit of competition. Right. This reality health games that you're going to see associated with us is really part of what we're trying to do. So can we have an advance the dream team in Louisiana go home? up against the Advance the Dream team in Pennsylvania by earning badges, right? Health heart badges or social determinants of health badges as you move, learn, serve, and earn your way towards being a better Force for Health global citizen.
54:21 You know, so we just want to remind everybody, just be a Force for Health every single day. And remember to... advance the dream. So those are kind of some of my closing thoughts here. Let's go around the table really quickly. Rob, closing thoughts. I'm inspired, but I have to beg to differ with Joseph Byrd's approach. I can't compare myself to all these wonderful people that have accomplished much more in their life than I have. And I would be so depressed. But what I can do is I can say, what can I do today?
55:00 Like Josh said, today's a great day to realize it's a great day or something along those lines, how the show started. What little thing can I do with my skills at this time and not be intimidated by what others have done well beyond me. I look what Taylor Swift has accomplished in her lifetime. And I'm thinking I can't touch it, but you know, it's Superbowl Sunday. I want to throw this out there. Here's someone I'm not a Swifty. I can't even name her songs, but it goes back a little bit to a lesson that it reminded me of as you're talking here.
55:34 She had people take her product and sell it to someone else and take away all of her royalty rights. You know what she said? She could either quit or rerecord all of her albums over the next decade and own all the rights. She reinvented herself. She communicated. She advocated, she created her own audience for her own thing. And now she's a billionaire influencing the world in the Super Bowl. But as I look at her, I'm thinking, what things can I do to advance the causes I believe in, even though bad things have happened to me in my lifetime along those lines?
56:11 I'm talking too long, Lucy, but I'm just fascinated by the motivation and Having a servant and sacrificial-minded leader online and having a servant leader in future, probably anesthesiologist, president and leader of the World Health Organization also there. Do what you can. You don't have to feel like a failure if you're not Charlie and Will Mayo at the Mayo Clinic. You can be little Dr. Rob. One last thing. My pledge, as I look at this, Dr. Byrd, is can we take the wisdom of people like you and Josh and Timur and others and put it in a way that it can be digestible and used immediately by the Alejandro Baileys or by my grandchildren coming up?
57:10 And can we give them the knowledge of all of health and social services and policy change and give them the tools that they can put in an hour online, advancing the dream with their tools. Ten minutes with their grandparents, preventing a stroke, laying out their medicines once a week. So my goal is giving the tools to help others advance the dreams in their life. But I love learning the wisdom. Every one of these leaders that Josh brings to me, I just sit back and I just, thank you. Thank you for being on today, you two guys.
57:46 Already i think we've got some incredible um and josh you know we've heard yours but that has has your twenty twenty four advances dream pledge changed uh no it it it's it's been the same for the last almost umpteen years because i could do better with whatever i'm doing and like dr rob just stated if i'm able to actually provide and get one person to change their way of living then the living that I share now is not in vain. And I believe that until the days in which I go on away from this place.
58:21 So I just want to thank once again, Alejandro, for everything that he's doing to continue to move forward in life. Dean Bird, who has been my mentor and friend and brother, the same thing, whenever I needed to do something or whenever I had, it took a long time to get where I am right now. And getting there was half the battle. It was because of men like Joseph Bird, and of course, Charles Timmer, of course, a bunch of alpha men, but enabled me to continue to impress Alejandro to get to where he is today.
59:04 And I do not want him to depart from that. So he knows that I have an open line. I am going to take a couple of them to the Alpha Phi Alpha Regional Conference, which is in New Orleans, if their schedule permits. I want to take them to lunch. when they get there in March to actually just show them off and see, and basically let them know that, hey, this can be done. This can be done. You know, we started at the age of sixth grade, and he's still with us. So it's not a one-time hit. It's something that I'll continue to promote.
59:41 Alexander, you have to reach out after this to me. We have an app that'll help you study for MCATs to make it kind of fun and engaging. That may be helpful to you. I'm glad to provide it to you at no cost. That was my other request, Doc. I thank you for plugging that plug in, but I told Alejandro we're going to get him through this MCAT. If I have to fly him out there to sit down with you. I'd love the opportunity to mention you call with any questions anytime you have my cell number. Well, once again, thank you.
1:00:11 Thank you. Thank you, Dean Byrd and Alejandro. It was wonderful to see you. Join us next week where we will be featuring Adrian Wallace in our Executive Reflections. And Adrian comes to us with a lifetime of experience, once serving as, of course, the past general president of the Alphas and then as him as a business leader and the many other accolades. So Adrian Wallace will be our guest next week. So until then, have a wonderful weekend, everybody. Be a force for health and remember to advance the dream.
1:00:45 Thank you all. Louis, I'm like,
Transcript is auto-generated from the broadcast captions and lightly cleaned; timestamps jump to the moment on YouTube.
Advance the Dream · Episode Recap ·